Chiang Mai #2

23rd June 2014

We packed our bags and headed to Varada Place! If you are planning a trip to Chiang Mai I strongly recommend staying in this guest house, Varada is wonderful. Our tuk-tuk driver however had no idea where it was so had to stop and ask for directions ha. 

The rain began so we headed into a posh'ish restaurant where I ate pineapple rice with cashews and raisins, never thought a bowl of rice could taste so good! We then visited some temples, our favourite being Wat Chedi Luang in the center of the historic Old Town. 

This evening we ate at Lemon Grass which is the top on Trip Advisor and I can certainly understand why! I had a beef  stir fry with cashews nuts as well as chicken satay with homemade peanut butter sauce. It was absolutely amazing, I just wanted to eat everything off the menu and the staff were just the friendly individuals!

24th June

After our picnic breakfast - Frosties from the trusty 7 Eleven, we got picked up for our Thai Farm Cooking School! We hopped in the front and taken to the local market to shop for some ingredients along with descriptions on all the different sauces i.e. soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce... and some amazing palm sugar! 

When we arrived at the farm our teacher named Ning gave us some sombreros to wear along with an apron and took us around to pick some chilies and other ingredients for our curry pastes!  

I choose to make the Green Thai Curry. Using a pestle and mortar we ground the ingredients together to form a paste like peanut butter texture. 

Next was the coconut soup! Soo goood, can't really remember how I made that but was the best soup I have ever tried. Time for the green curry and apparently mine was the best ;). Much easier than it looks and so tasty, along with some amazing sticky and jasmine rice. 

After a little walk around the farm we got back to make a stir fry. I chose sweet and sour but mine didn't turn out great but Alice's chicken with cashews nut was delicious! We put the meals together along with rice and papaya salad and ate with the group.

Spring roll time! So simple yet so tasty. Ning wasn't feeling great but cheered up when she noticed our group had left the spring rolls steaming for a lot longer than they should have been.. oopsie. Last but not least.. Mango with sticky rice. Omg, if you ever go to Thailand you must try this. It was like rice pudding but  much tastier in my opinion. Whilst we ate and drank lemon grass tea, Ning wrapped up our spring rolls in a leaf parcel with soya sauce ready for the drive back. 

Luke for the Thai Farm messaged me so we went to Zoe's bar - the main tourist bar, and also happened to bumped into my friend Alex who works at the bar with me ha! It's a shame you only get to meet these people once or twice but was still a great evening and a suberb day. Highlyyyy recommend a cooking course in Chiang Mai especially Thai Farm!