chiang mai girl (say it out loud. catch the play on words. sing it if necessary.)
yo yo yo from chiang mai.
so, pai, they say, is a place people end up staying longer than they planned to. we did stay an extra day after my last blog, but the day after that, we did indeed take the ordinary bus (which was full of men in army getup and one really adorable baby with very expressive eyebrows and an unnatural interest in our Rough Guide) to chiang mai, over the green hills to the city. this city's not so bustly and noisy and crowded as bangkok, but there are still lots of alleys (sois) to get lost in and tons of guest houses at every turn. we spent our first day trekking around the northeast corner of the old (moated-in) city, looking at guest houses and meeting the proprieters, who ranged from an older australian gentleman to a couple of young thai girls who adopted a baby named bam-bam. in the end, we landed at a lovely "boutique hotel" costing us only 300 baht per night (that's under $8) including a good fan, our own little balcony, and cable tv (WITH some english channels. important point. otherwise you're stuck with thai cartoons and karaoke stations. although scooby doo in thai is pretty funny.).
yesterday we wat-hopped, visiting maybe 6 or 7 wats throughout the day. there are over 300 in the city, or something like that. ridiculous number, really. every soi you look down has a big ornate sparkly building at the end of it, just past gateposts of these white dragon things. and every wat has something interesting about it. some have elephant sculptures or particularly rarely posed buddhas. some have huge half-toppled 60-meter high chedi (pagodas) or old teak viharna (main buildings for prayer). it was cool. one of the wats (Wat Chedi Luang) has a thing called Monk Chat every day. you can go and sit down in a shady spot with a monk who speaks at least some english and just chat. you can ask questions about a monk's life, about buddhism, or just shoot the breeze. our monk was actually from Laos (the s is silent, by the way. so if you want to sound cool like us, leave it off) and was very friendly. At 24, Bin [sp?] has already been a monk for over 10 years and his mom really wants him to leave the monkhood and come home, but his father wants him to stay. he hasn't quite conquered the whole "only 2 meals a day at 8am and 11:30am" thing, but he's working on it. he does like the whole "time to study" aspect of Buddhism, and he likes to learn about other religions and of course about Buddhism too. he teaches english and buddhism at a secondary school nearby. he probably is going to leave monkhood pretty soon. he was also very cute. unfortunately, our conversation was cut slightly short by my stomach grumbling while he was talking about the two meals a day thing... so we had to go.
emerge - to respond to the colors thing - bin reiterated that the different colors of the robes don't hold significance. it's an interesting concept about Buddhism. as i understand it, it's that people should live the Middle Way - not to excess, not to asceticism (is that right?) - and by doing so will gain merit and be reincarnated as something higher the next time around (like hinduism - there's dhamma). so cockroaches are low and monks are high. nirvana's of course the ultimate destination, but it's achieved by mindfulness and the letting go of everything. so while you are supposed to appreciate the world as it is and all the beauty, you are also supposed to realize that this life and everything in it is temporary and fleeting. nothing is real and lasting. interesting contrast. not sure what to do with it yet. i'll keep you updated if i have any epiphanies.
last night we went to the much-hyped chiang mai night bazaar and were a bit underwhelmed. don't get me wrong, lots of cool stuff there, but not as bustly and exciting as we'd hoped. i DID however find some sorely-needed shirts. at least 2 of mine are ready for the trash can and i wince when i have to put them on due to the rank-ness of any other viable options. so i found 3 shirts. all of which i was excited about. when about to do a fashion show last night after we returned to our room via bright red songtiaw (that's the truck with benches), one of the shirts had gone missing. so we are questing to retrieve it tonight, but with little hope of success. i guess, at worst, i got two nice shirts last night, and they each cost me about $10 instead of $7. bummer.
today! today! cooking class number one. it was possibly to be the only day, but after today, i think we will be cooking again on monday. it was great. we were joined in the class by Dutch Jessica, who was quite personable and a fun cooking companion. first was a trip to the market. we saw mangos of several varieties, thai ginger (galangal), kaffir lime and its leaves, lemongrass, lots of cool fruits (mangosteen, dragonfruit, rose apple, rambutan, jackfruit.. the list continues), not to mention the requisite baskets of brightly colored chilis and onions and garlic and everything else i can't even remember now... then back to the kitchen, which was a nice open air wood spot on the second floor near the guesthouse that hosts it. we cooked on freestanding little counters with a single gas range next to each of us. the ingredients were already chopped and bowled for us, and after a demonstration of each dish, we got to give it a go ourselves. we donned our little white cooking hats and red frilly aprons and set about to our first task: bashing the heck out of some ingredients in a stone mortar and pestle. fun times. sore arms. the goo (credit: alec) we ended up with was green curry paste, which we used to make.... green curry! then we learned how to make sticky rice and the coconut cream topping that goes with it. then we made some sweet and sour vegetables with chicken or tofu. some restaurants put KETCHUP in there, which makes it saltier and grosser, but we didn't, so it's nice and tasty. then we ate. a lot. and plastic baggied the leftovers. which were also a lot and which i'm going to be eating for dinner in just a few moments.
after lunch and resting time (necessary with the amount of food we'd all ingested), we cooked pad thai (tamarind juice.), spring rolls (deep fry!), tom yam kung (hot and spicy soup with prawns - or tofu & mushrooms for me) then we got to chow down again.
all in all it was a delicious day and i think we'll be choosing 7 more items from their recipe book to learn on monday. i look forward to sharing all these yummies with you on my return. i just hope the supermarkets of new york city don't fail me in my search for fresh kaffir lime, galangal, and tamarind. but i have substitutes if they do. i just hope they don't.
ok. i have to go meet jessica for dinnertime leftovers from our little baggies. then off to night market to search for escaped shirt. then off to other night market for buying some more goodies, maybe.
love and sticky rice,
amy
ps hey, the surge, aren't you supposed to NOT read my blog until the 20th? cheater. go back to work. and ha about the roy thing. ha. ha.
pps ara - thanks for the translation - that's fabulous. it came on my iRiver on a bus ride once somewhere in malaysia i think, and i just chair-danced my heart out.
email me
so, pai, they say, is a place people end up staying longer than they planned to. we did stay an extra day after my last blog, but the day after that, we did indeed take the ordinary bus (which was full of men in army getup and one really adorable baby with very expressive eyebrows and an unnatural interest in our Rough Guide) to chiang mai, over the green hills to the city. this city's not so bustly and noisy and crowded as bangkok, but there are still lots of alleys (sois) to get lost in and tons of guest houses at every turn. we spent our first day trekking around the northeast corner of the old (moated-in) city, looking at guest houses and meeting the proprieters, who ranged from an older australian gentleman to a couple of young thai girls who adopted a baby named bam-bam. in the end, we landed at a lovely "boutique hotel" costing us only 300 baht per night (that's under $8) including a good fan, our own little balcony, and cable tv (WITH some english channels. important point. otherwise you're stuck with thai cartoons and karaoke stations. although scooby doo in thai is pretty funny.).
yesterday we wat-hopped, visiting maybe 6 or 7 wats throughout the day. there are over 300 in the city, or something like that. ridiculous number, really. every soi you look down has a big ornate sparkly building at the end of it, just past gateposts of these white dragon things. and every wat has something interesting about it. some have elephant sculptures or particularly rarely posed buddhas. some have huge half-toppled 60-meter high chedi (pagodas) or old teak viharna (main buildings for prayer). it was cool. one of the wats (Wat Chedi Luang) has a thing called Monk Chat every day. you can go and sit down in a shady spot with a monk who speaks at least some english and just chat. you can ask questions about a monk's life, about buddhism, or just shoot the breeze. our monk was actually from Laos (the s is silent, by the way. so if you want to sound cool like us, leave it off) and was very friendly. At 24, Bin [sp?] has already been a monk for over 10 years and his mom really wants him to leave the monkhood and come home, but his father wants him to stay. he hasn't quite conquered the whole "only 2 meals a day at 8am and 11:30am" thing, but he's working on it. he does like the whole "time to study" aspect of Buddhism, and he likes to learn about other religions and of course about Buddhism too. he teaches english and buddhism at a secondary school nearby. he probably is going to leave monkhood pretty soon. he was also very cute. unfortunately, our conversation was cut slightly short by my stomach grumbling while he was talking about the two meals a day thing... so we had to go.
emerge - to respond to the colors thing - bin reiterated that the different colors of the robes don't hold significance. it's an interesting concept about Buddhism. as i understand it, it's that people should live the Middle Way - not to excess, not to asceticism (is that right?) - and by doing so will gain merit and be reincarnated as something higher the next time around (like hinduism - there's dhamma). so cockroaches are low and monks are high. nirvana's of course the ultimate destination, but it's achieved by mindfulness and the letting go of everything. so while you are supposed to appreciate the world as it is and all the beauty, you are also supposed to realize that this life and everything in it is temporary and fleeting. nothing is real and lasting. interesting contrast. not sure what to do with it yet. i'll keep you updated if i have any epiphanies.
last night we went to the much-hyped chiang mai night bazaar and were a bit underwhelmed. don't get me wrong, lots of cool stuff there, but not as bustly and exciting as we'd hoped. i DID however find some sorely-needed shirts. at least 2 of mine are ready for the trash can and i wince when i have to put them on due to the rank-ness of any other viable options. so i found 3 shirts. all of which i was excited about. when about to do a fashion show last night after we returned to our room via bright red songtiaw (that's the truck with benches), one of the shirts had gone missing. so we are questing to retrieve it tonight, but with little hope of success. i guess, at worst, i got two nice shirts last night, and they each cost me about $10 instead of $7. bummer.
today! today! cooking class number one. it was possibly to be the only day, but after today, i think we will be cooking again on monday. it was great. we were joined in the class by Dutch Jessica, who was quite personable and a fun cooking companion. first was a trip to the market. we saw mangos of several varieties, thai ginger (galangal), kaffir lime and its leaves, lemongrass, lots of cool fruits (mangosteen, dragonfruit, rose apple, rambutan, jackfruit.. the list continues), not to mention the requisite baskets of brightly colored chilis and onions and garlic and everything else i can't even remember now... then back to the kitchen, which was a nice open air wood spot on the second floor near the guesthouse that hosts it. we cooked on freestanding little counters with a single gas range next to each of us. the ingredients were already chopped and bowled for us, and after a demonstration of each dish, we got to give it a go ourselves. we donned our little white cooking hats and red frilly aprons and set about to our first task: bashing the heck out of some ingredients in a stone mortar and pestle. fun times. sore arms. the goo (credit: alec) we ended up with was green curry paste, which we used to make.... green curry! then we learned how to make sticky rice and the coconut cream topping that goes with it. then we made some sweet and sour vegetables with chicken or tofu. some restaurants put KETCHUP in there, which makes it saltier and grosser, but we didn't, so it's nice and tasty. then we ate. a lot. and plastic baggied the leftovers. which were also a lot and which i'm going to be eating for dinner in just a few moments.
after lunch and resting time (necessary with the amount of food we'd all ingested), we cooked pad thai (tamarind juice.), spring rolls (deep fry!), tom yam kung (hot and spicy soup with prawns - or tofu & mushrooms for me) then we got to chow down again.
all in all it was a delicious day and i think we'll be choosing 7 more items from their recipe book to learn on monday. i look forward to sharing all these yummies with you on my return. i just hope the supermarkets of new york city don't fail me in my search for fresh kaffir lime, galangal, and tamarind. but i have substitutes if they do. i just hope they don't.
ok. i have to go meet jessica for dinnertime leftovers from our little baggies. then off to night market to search for escaped shirt. then off to other night market for buying some more goodies, maybe.
love and sticky rice,
amy
ps hey, the surge, aren't you supposed to NOT read my blog until the 20th? cheater. go back to work. and ha about the roy thing. ha. ha.
pps ara - thanks for the translation - that's fabulous. it came on my iRiver on a bus ride once somewhere in malaysia i think, and i just chair-danced my heart out.
email me
posted by theonetheycallamy at 5/14/2005 07:21:00 AM
3 Comments:
Keep on learning abou that food. Sounds Amaxing. Love and hugs, Babara
PS we had a lovely time with your folks this weekend.
All I can say is WOW!!!I already just absorbed more information about Thailand than I could imagine. Absolutely fantastic. And that food- you're eating and cooking things WAY beyond anything I'd ever dreamed of!!!I am so proud of all you're learning and soaking up....is there really still room in that brain of yours???
I hope you found the shirt- or at least just bought another one, at THAT price!
One question, what is a wat? Sorry about that alliteration thing, but I'm not sure- is it a temple? And a
very cute 24 year old monk...hmmm...interesting.
I love your entries, thank you for making me smile and giggle yet again.
Love, mom
I so want to take your cooking classes with you. Promise to teach me all you learn. I went to a crazy out of the way Thai restaurant with the F&W folks in Woodside, Queens. It was sooooo amazing, and I ate everything you just learned how to make. We had coconut juice and tamarind candy too! I thought of you cooking the stuff the whole time I was eating it.
Wishing you would come home soon,
Emily
Post a Comment
<< Home