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We spent our first afternoon at Joy’s House in Chiang Mai learning Thai Cooking.  Our meal included green curry chicken, stir fried vegetables in oyster sauce, and spring rolls. Before we could get busy in the kitchen we rode bikes to the local farmer’s market with our guide Lek.

 We were treated to the sights and smells of fresh fruit, vegetables and meats.  Of course there was a wide selection of chilies.  We gathered Thai eggplant, Thai basil, green chili, cauliflower, broccoli, bean sprouts, carrots, and chicken.  Lek treated us to fried sweet potato and fried bananas.

 

 

 

 

 

We rode back to the guesthouse, spread out and washed the ingredients, and started chopping.  We made the chili paste from scratch, using a mortar and pestle. The secret ingredients are coriander, lemongrass, a tuber similar to ginger root, garlic, shallots, and green chili.  We were whipy and used seven chilies, but Thai spicy uses twenty!  Lek told us that in a traditional Thai village, a young man would walk by a home and listen to the sound of the pestle.  A loud sound indicated vigorous crushing and meant that the girl was a good potential spouse.  Everybody agreed that I was good spouse material.  After what seemed like an hour of crushing we roasted the paste in oil and added coconut milk  and chicken.  After the chicken was cooked we added the Thai eggplant and then the basil.

 

Ginger, Jenna and , Nok, and Lek prepared the vegetables for the stir fry and spring rolls.

Here’s the final product.  Everybody agreed that all of the dishes tasted great.