Chiang Mai

Nestled in a valley among the forested hills of northern Thailand, Chiang Mai is a city you either love or hate, and for probably the same reason: it's bursting with tourists. A good base for exploring northern Thailand, the city is overrun with farangs, or Westerners, and practically every street caters to some form of trekking excursion, Thai massage, or cooking class. Not that there's anything wrong with these experiences. In fact, we would seek out all three. For those seeking an authentic northern Thai town, however, Chiang Mai is not it.
Northern Thai cuisine is a unique blend of Burmese curries, Chinese stir-fry, and Thai flavors. So it was only fitting that, while in Chiang Mai, we should try our hand in making the dishes we have come to love. On a recommendation from a friend, we signed up for Gap's cooking class, a 6 hour food extravaganza which included a trip to the local market to source our ingredients. Our instruction began with an introduction to the four main Thai flavors: salty, sweet, sour, and spicy. A good, authentic Thai meal will incorporate all of these flavors and finding the right balance is a matter of taste, experience, and in our case, a little luck. We were given cookbooks with detailed recipes, but our instructor, Joe (probably not his real name), emphasized that real balance comes from constantly tasting your food and adjusting appropriately. As he told us time and again: "Too sweet, add more fish (or soy) sauce. Too sour or salty, add more sugar. Too spicy, too bad." Our first task was to make the backbone of many Thai dishes: curry paste. With a mortar and pestle, we dug right in, literally. After we completed our base, we moved onto a green curry dish, each of the 6 of us in our group cooking on a separate stove, while Joe moved among us shouting instructions and encouragement. In the next few hours, we would also successfully complete a fish souffle, stir-fried chicken with cashew nut (our favorite!), fish cakes, and tom yum soup, each to our specific tastes and spice level. Starving, of course, we sat down and enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Full and proud of ourselves, we let the food digest while Joe showed us some neat culinary tricks of turning shallots and tomatoes into lotus flowers. Ready for more, we learned to make a pumpkin coconut custard, roll our own spring rolls, and stir up our own pad thai, taking these dishes home for dinner. Our experience at the cooking school left us full, proud, and excited to bring our new skills home to share with others.

Picking out our ingredients for the day.

Fortunately, eel was not on the menu.

Grinding the curry paste.

Some good looking fish souffles.

Laura inspecting the ingredients for stir-fried chicken with cashew nut.

Not bad for our first time.

Mmm..spring rolls.

Laura making her very first pad thai.

In Chiang Mai, it is impossible to throw a rock without hitting some parlor offering Thai massage, foot massage, oil massage, head massage, and yes, even that massage. Seeking something a little more authentic and special, we sought out the Thai Massage Conservation Club, which employs only blind masseuses. With their heightened sense of touch, hearing, and memory, we each received an hour-long alternation of pain and pleasure for the price of a beer back home. A benefit to the masseuses being blind is that they couldn't see our wincing and gasps, though Oliver's masseuse had to ask if he was okay at one point. Nonetheless, the experience left us feeling renewed and relaxed and gave us one more thing to check off our bucket list. We spent the next two days at Baan-Chang Elephant Camp (next post!) before returning to Chiang Mai to wander the night market, indulge in the cuisine, and watch the interesting mix of farangs and Thais. In the end, we didn't really love or hate Chiang Mai, but rather recognized it for what it is: a good place to start.

Yet another wat.

108 bowls, a sacred number in Buddhism. Dropping coins into each bowl is a form of merit-making in Thai Buddhism.

At the old city gate of Chiang Mai. Not much of this ancient wall remains.