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Our morning started out in the outdoor courtyard of our hotel sipping on coffee and eating breakfast. Our cooking school guide picked us up, threw our luggage in the car and took us to our cooking school.
We pulled up to a big house in a nice neighborhood (a gated community) and were shown to our room. It was a very spacious room with private bathroom. He told us we had about 20 minutes to unpack and then would be leaving for market shopping.
Back in the car with another couple who told us we were going to love this place, our car pulled up after a few minutes to the local market. It was a big open space with many vendors each selling various types of food from fresh frogs to cilantro. Our cooking instructor opened his hand and had each of us pick 2 pieces of folded up paper. On each piece of paper was an ingredient and quantity.
The instructor took us through the market showing us what various foods were…he walked into the coconut stall and explained the process of how they get all the coconut meat out of its shell…he had us feel the products as we moved from stall to stall. He explained how there are multiple types of tofu…hard, soft and medium used for different recipes. He had us smell the various herbs like lemon grass and a type of ginger not found at home. He also pointed out the kaffir lime which comes with 2 leaves attached…one for aroma and the other for decoration. We not only looked and felt our way through the market, but we of course tasted. The sticky rice for example which was being steamed in a bamboo shoot and was mixed with black beans was given to us to munch on. We tasted the ripeness of the orange and the sweetness of the Thai pancake which is made with coconut cream and chives mixed within the dough. We also saw some things we would really never cook in the US… like hardened chicken blood and live frogs waiting to be boiled.
We really had a great time learning about the market…it really is a different experience walking through with a local rather than on our own. Once we had purchased the things on our list, we piled back in the car to get to our first cooking class.
Back at cooking school, he led us next door which was a completely open air structure…there was only a roof and underneath were individual cooking stations. Each station had a burner with a metal wok sitting on it and a counter space for prep work. Giff and I found a station, washed our hands and put on our cooking aprons.
Our instructor introduced himself, his staff and explained how class would run…some students were only there for a day and others will be back tomorrow. The cooking school is organized into 5 courses for beginners…one course is taught per day and consists of 6 dishes. Before the course begins…everyone participates in a morning activity, today it was shopping at the market, tomorrow will be vegetable carving. Once the cooking portion of the day begins, the instructor has us sit in the classroom and cooks each dish first. He shows the ingredients, demonstrates short-cuts for chopping and of course makes the dish from start to finish including presentation. After each of 4 dishes are demonstrated by the instructor, students go to their own cooking station and re-create the dish from technique to presentation…the instructor comes around dipping his spoon in our woks to taste or corrects us if something should be done a different way. After 4 dishes…the class sits down together and we all eat what we just cooked, of course impressed with our selves! After lunch, we go back into the classroom to learn the last 2 dishes and then cook them ourselves before the class comes to an end.
Today we cooked yellow curry with chicken, steamed fish in banana leaves, chicken with cashew nuts, fried big noodles with sweet soy sauce, spicy prawn salad and bananas in coconut milk! We had so much fun firing up our woks, learning how to use some of the spices for decoration and trying to remember how to re-create what we just watched in the classroom (it’s amazing how quickly one can forget what was literally just seen). We ate so much food and had so much fun learning the basics today…we are looking forward to tomorrows lessons!
Part of the home-stay package at this cooking school included accommodations, cooking classes as well as a Thai massage and meal prepared by the chef. Once class ended, we were driven into the town of Chiang Mai and dropped off at a massage parlor. These are not the same types of massages as in the US…there is no private room with soft mellow music and dim lighting. These massages however are MUCH cheaper, as in $10 for an hour. You do lay on a long cushion on the floor with a curtain separating you from the next person so it’s not the most private experience but they really do work your muscles. In fact, a Thai massage is more like the massage therapist moves your body in yoga type positions and uses pressure points to restore energy and release stress.
After our massages, we were back at our place at the cooking school…and for dinner, sat in the chef’s dining room where they served us a multi-course meal cooked by the instructor. We are definitely not going to lose weight while we are here! Dinner was great, and the instructor introduced each course and how to eat it while pouring us wine. We had eaten so much food while cooking today but somehow managed to find room for the 4-5 courses we were eating.
Dinner was good and the conversation with the instructor was nice. We walked outside for a bit after dinner and then went upstairs full to the rim. I hope our clothes still fit us by the end of the week!
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Published by Brandey Kabat
What I like: Dark chocolate, yoga, fresh squeezed juice, laughing, hiking, wine, travel, food, lush products, being warm, having long hair, the ritual of drinking something hot first thing in the morning…
What I don’t like: When people smell their fingers, pushing elevator buttons, confrontational situations, not being able to fall asleep quickly at bedtime…
Most random job ever: Plastic surgery consultant
As for my love life: I met my husband mid way through my junior year in college, as soon as I laid my eyes on him I was attracted to him. In fact, I made the first move which was a bit out of character but there was something about him…probably the fact that he was smokin’ hot!!
Where from and where to: I grew up in NY, went to college at The Ohio State University and then headed to CA after graduation. My boyfriend (Giff) and I had a map, a borrowed van and used stuff from his mom’s basement aka a vacuum, silverware, old Christmas ornaments etc., and about $1000 each. We thought it would be a good idea to head straight to CA since neither of us had been. Being we didn’t know anyone there nor did we have a job or job interviews set up or a place to live…I would say we did it the hard way! However with a bit of help from Giff’s mom who flew out to put us up in a hotel, bought me a suit for interviewing and co-signed a lease to get us a place to live we eventually found jobs and an apartment and have been in CA for 10 years.
Our story: After moving out to CA and living together for about 3 years we got engaged. He popped the question while down on one knee on the beach at sunset after we finished our picnic he had packed of bread, cheese, shrimp cocktail and wine. He even had the ring in a box that had a light shining down on it when opened so as it was getting dark, this amazing man was asking me to be his wife as he handed me a huge rock…Yes! Yes! Yes!
In 2005 we were married (I am biased but our wedding was absolutely amazing). By the end of 2005 we were new home owners. 2006-2009- we were both happily married, attached to our 3 cats and were focused on building our careers.
Giff and I got pregnant mid year 2009 with our first baby but what should have been one of the highlights of our life was soon distracted by the news I received at the doctor’s office.
The lump in my breast that had been dismissed the year before as nothing was now being diagnosed by a different doctor as breast cancer. Thankfully Giff is a persistent person and when we went in for our ultrasound (to hear our baby’s heartbeat) he brought up the request for testing to be done on the lump rather than dismissing it based on feeling it.
The going gets rough: Things began to move so quickly at that point, it was hard to breathe. I was 30, pregnant with my first child and going into surgery to remove breast cancer. I was about to go through what would be the worst year of my life. The plan had been discussed, we were going with the most aggressive regimen possible- double mastectomy, port surgically placed in my chest, chemotherapy, drug therapy and radiation. We also had to terminate the pregnancy. This cancer was estrogen positive and the hormones were actually feeding the cancer. That little angel whom was the cause of our going into the doctor saved my life.
Giff was my rock through every step…interviewing a team of the best doctors, memorizing which medicines I needed to take and when, driving me to chemotherapy and sitting next to me while I was so scared, telling me I was beautiful when I was bald, and so many other things…words cannot express. When you say your vows, in sickness and in health…you would never guess sickness of this magnitude at this age would be in the near future. In addition to this hardship, Giff’s dad died of a complicated prostate cancer the day we came home from my surgery. I could not hold my husband as he mourned for his dad because of the pain I was in from the mastectomy. How did Giff handle all of this pain at one time? How was he so strong for me? He is amazing. Giff’s dad was one of those people whom you naturally wanted to be around…his smile was contagious, his love for life was invigorating and he listened so intently when you talked in a conversation with him. He made you feel special. We think about him often and will miss him so much.
My family and friends were also by my side…my mom flying out from NY several times to help us with cooking and cleaning and holding my hand. It must be one of the most awful things in the world to watch your baby girl be diagnosed with breast cancer. My girlfriends also flew out to take care of me and help with anything they could. Other friends living closer would come by just to sit and talk or watch movies. There were so many cards, letters, flowers, cookies, and other gifts that came from all over the country. It’s amazing to have such great people in my life. In addition to my amazing circle of friends and family, there were the strangers with whom crossed our path. Whether it was a letter in the mail from a breast cancer survivor, the anesthesiologist who called Giff during my surgery crying happy tears that the cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes, or our fertility doctor who promised to watch over our frozen embryos as if they were her own. There were so many small gestures that made such a big impact on our lives.
Looking at the bright side: Thankfully this was caught in stage 1, had it been caught a year prior by the first doctor I had gone into about the lump, it may have been caught at stage 0. Please learn from my lesson…insist the lump be tested – a lump cannot be diagnosed by touch. They were able to cut all the cancer out and after I finish the entire regimen including a pill I take over the next 5 years, they said there is a 95% chance the cancer will never come back.
Our exciting future: We’ve decided to re-prioritize, we are taking 400 days starting February 7th of 2011 to travel the world! We will travel to new places, eat new foods, taste new wines and meet new people. We will focus on healing ourselves both physically and mentally. This will be one of the best years of our lives.
View all posts by Brandey Kabat
Spinning Around The World 
I hope your cooking instructor used a new spoon every time! What was it that you did at the end of the video? Looked like you were sending a lit ballon into the night sky.