Tag: Thailand

Thailand

Thai Cooking Lesson: Green Curry Chicken

We were big fans of America style Thai food before we traveled to Thailand, but now that we have been here for a couple of months, we have grown to appreciate the subtly of flavors that fresh ingredients and a skilled hand in the kitchen can make. In this article will explore the ingredients and walk through the preparation of one of the stapes of any Thai menu, Green Curry Chicken.

First about the ingredients:

  • Coconut Cream and Coconut Milk: while we were at the open market this morning we watched a lady preparing coconut cream.
    • Large chucks of fresh coconut were fed into a machine that looked like a miniature wood chipper. Chunks of coconut in the top, shredded coconut into a collection pan at the bottom.
    • The shredded coconut was then spooned into a cloth bag and placed into a press. The resulting thick liquid, rich coconut crème, was collected in a bucket under the press.
    • This was then bagged up and presented to us to take home. 400 mls of coconut crème (about 13 ounces) costs us $0.60 USD

      • Some notes:
        • To get coconut milk, just add some water to the shredded coconut and run it through the press again.
        • You can get about the same results at home by running fresh coconut through the food processor and then squeezing the results through a clean dish towel or cheesecloth.
        • Don’t try to use store bought products such as Crème de Coco as this has added sweetners and will throw off the taste of your curry. Save the Coco Lopez for making Pina Coladas.
  • Chicken: breast meat, the fresher the better! The chicken we buy at the outdoor markets today was probably running around the yard this morning.
  • Green Curry Paste: given the extremely limited kitchen and the availability of so many fresh curry paste options, we have opted to purchase our curry paste.
      • At home we would probably have made it from scratch using dry
        ingredients (coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, salt) and fresh ingredients (garlic, Thai ginger, turmeric, kaffir lime peel, lemongrass, shallots, coriander root, sweet basil leaves and green “birds eye” chilis).
  • Eggplant: unlike many ingredients that are just used for flavor while cooking and then discarded, eggplant adds not just flavor but also texture and substance to the curry. There are many different kinds of Thai eggplant, some look like small cucumbers, while others are the size of large marbles and still others are about the size of large green peas. Mix them up and have fun.
  • Kaffir Lime Leaves: the kaffir fruit is from the citrus family, but unlike lemons or limes it has a tough bumpy skin which is used in making curry paste. The leaves are used for flavor (the hard center stalk is removed the edges of the leaves are added). Much like bay leaves in Italian cooking, the leaves are removed after cooking. The inside fruit has a very bitter orange taste and is not commonly used for cooking.
  • Red Chili: in the case of green curry, sliced red chilis are used mainly as garnish. The green curry paste has several small green “birds eye” chilis added during its preparation, the more chilis the spicier the paste.
    • Since we’ve been here we have learned that chilis are used to compliment the flavor of Thai food. Food that is too spicy is not properly balanced. The addition of chili should not be used as a test of manhood or as a punishment for eating Thai food.
  • Palm Sugar: we were actually a bit surprised to learn how often sugar is used in Thai cooking. Thick creamy Palm Sugar (called coconut sugar locally) is almost the consistency of peanut butter and is used to sweeten curry, salads and desserts. If you cannot get palm sugar you can substitute brown sugar or raw honey.
  • Sweet Basil Leaves: basil leaves come in any different forms such as honey basil, lemon basil or even Holy Basil “Holy Basil batman!”.
  • Green Beans: these are optional, but we like them in our curry. Thai green beans tend to be much longer than American style green beans, but either kind will work.
  • Fish Sauce: fish sauce is a staple of much of Thai cooking and can easily be found in grocery stores around the world. Fish sauce is best when fresh and unlike wines, it does not get better with age. If you have a open jar of fish sauce that has been in your cabinet for years, get rid of it and buy a fresh one!

The Recipe: (serves two):
• ½ cup coconut cream
• ½ cup coconut milk
• 1/3 to ½ cup chicken breast chopped into small cubes
• 1 tablespoon green curry paste
• Eggplant (1 large and 3 or 4 small, stemmed and cut up)
(If you have them you can throw in a small handful of the pea sized as well)
• 1 Kaffir Lime Leaf: fold in half and strip out the hard center stem
• ½ tablespoon of palm sugar
• 2 or 3 green beans cut into 2 inch sections
• 1 large red chili, cut into thin strips
• 1 tablespoon full of fish sauce
• 1 cup of jasmine rice, cooked.

Preparation is shown in the video below.

Serving suggestion: place half of the cooked rice into a plate and half of the curry into a small bowl for each person. Garnish the curry with the strips of red pepper. Service with an icy cold Thai beer such as Leo or Singha. Enjoy!

Thailand

American Touristers

It did not seem right to spend two months on the island of Koh Samui without hitting at least a few of the more popular tourist destinations.

A bit of background, the island has a ring road that is 51 kilometers (about 31 miles) around. The most common mode of transportation is a little motor scooter which rents for about $2.50 USD per day. You can easily ride two per scooter, we have seen families of 5 all on the same scooter. Without traffic and on decent road surfaces, you can average about 40km per hour on the scooter. So if your rear end can last that long on the bumpy roads, you could ride all the way around the Island in about an hour and a half. So, if you are brave (or crazy) enough, the scooter is your low cost ticket to almost all of the tourist attractions around the island.

Chewang Beach
Chewang beach is the most famous of the many beaches on the Island. It also the home to the most active nightlife, beach clubs and the party scene. There is a large Muay Thai fighting arena in the area, so on a regular basis you see panels vans with giant speakers blasting advertisements for the fights “TOMORROW NIGHT, TOMORRRROW NIGHT! The best Muay Thai fighters on the island compete….”

Fisherman’s Village
A much more laid back area. You can read more about this area in our post about it 

The Big Buddha
It is hard to go anywhere in the primarily Buddhist country without seeing alters to and images of the scared Buddha. As it’s name suggests, the one we went to see was big, we mean really big. It is located at the center of a Buddhist temple and it is quite amazing to see.

A note about the temples and the people of Thailand in general, unlike Rio or Miami, this is not the place to wander around the markets in short shorts and skimpy little bikinis. When you visit a temple you need to make sure you wear long pants (or a long skirt) and a top that covers your shoulders and chest. If you arrive at a temple like the Big Buddha without dressing respectfully you will be turned away, sometimes as with this one you can borrow a robe or wrap that is provided for you at no charge. Not sure how often these get washed and Thailand is quite warm, so you are wearing the same old sweaty clothes at the last several tourist before you wore….

Na Mueng Falls 1 & 2
There are actually two sets of waterfalls in Na Mueng, creatively named 1 and 2. Both sets of falls were actually really pretty but number 2 is much more interesting to get to. Regardless of how you get up the hill (either a 20 minute walk up some pretty steep hills or a paid 4 wheel drive truck ride), everyone has to hike to the top of the falls and that includes a really interesting (scary) Indiana Jones style suspended bridge that was made from scrap lumber and old rope.

 

 

The Reefs of Koh Tal
No trip to Samui would be complete without a boat trip out to snorkel or scuba dive the reefs off of the many surrounding small islands. You can read all about our scuba adventure to Koh Tao in a previous post.

The two things we have not done are:
• The Sacred Gardens:
o From what we have seen on the web, this actually looks like a pretty cool place, alas everyone says that you simply cannot get up the steep mountain roads on a scooter. Based on some of the places where we have been that were “scooter approved” we are inclined to follow their advice. So unless we want to pay a tour operator to drive us to the far side of the island and up the mountain we will not be seeing this….

• Hin Ta Hin Yai:
o A giant rock garden that features a big rock that looks like a penis.
 Ummmmm, yeah…. pass

Thailand

Home Away From Home

Let us say right up front, we love Chiang Mai, the people are so friendly and helpful, the food is wonderful and the cost of living is crazy low. But there is also another side to most of this town, it needs work. The sidewalks are cracked, most of the buildings are crying out for a paint job and the electrical and telecommunications above ground cabling is enough to send an old phone company guy like George into hiding.

In the midst of all this deferred maintenance there is an oasis called the Wualai Sabaidee Boutique Hotel which is located very close to the Saturday walking street. At just 1,200 BHT per night (about USD $38) we were treated like family and shown to a large beautiful room that would have made any luxury chain in America proud.

 

The check list of things we loved about this hotel included:
• Fast, Free WiFi
• Plenty of hot water and excellent pressure in a large tiled shower
• Safe, refrigerator and cable TV in room
• Bottled water at no charge
• High thread count luxury sheets on excellent bedding with comfy pillows
• Well kept gardens with plenty of shady seating areas
• A laundry service right across the street – 1 weeks worth of  laundry washed, dried and folded for BHT 75 (about USD $2.40)

The hotel is managed by two delightful gentlemen one named Thep and the other his cousin Poo (along with a myriad of other cousins). Together they great guest, help with baggage and keep the hotel polished and shining. We were really surprised to hear that the place has been open for 5 years, because everyting looks so brand new.

“Where will you go today?” cousin Poo asked us each day of our one week stay, and each day Poo or Thep would suggest a festival a market or some other interesting activity. We followed their advice and had a wonderful time.

We never got a chance to take the bicycles offered to use at no charge out, but every morning we enjoyed the fresh juice, fresh ground coffee fruit and toast offered just off the lobby while worked away chronicling our adventures for the travel blog. 

To be sure if we ever get back to Chiang Mai the Wualai Sabaidee Boutique Hotel will be the our home away from home.

Thailand

Thai Food: 101

We are starting to get the hang of this half day tour thing. Yesterday we headed out for Thai cooking classes. Again there were a LOT of options, so after some web research we chose The Best Thai Cooking School. The price was well worth the 850 BHT (about USD $30) we paid.

As with the elephants, we were picked up at our hotel (this time about 7:30am). After a few stops for more students, we arrived at an open air market for a very informative talk on fresh ingredients. After the talk, we were given 15 minutes to wander around the markets and then it was back into the van for ride to the farm and school.

Our first stop at the farm was to a rice paddy and large set of gardens. Who knew there was so much to learn about rice? Suffice to to say if we ever get stuck in the wild we can now harvest, separate and cook our own. We also know how to identify several different types and which rice of best for dinner versus dessert.

After a tour of the garden we were led into the main school where we were each assigned our own cooking station compete with utensils, a burner, chopping block and several different types of pans and woks.

The first demonstration was on making curry paste, pounding a variety of chilis, spices and seeds into the consistency of ice cream. Throughout the class the instructors (both men) kept up an informative and surprisingly funny banter. We were advised that we would get cookbooks with the ingredients and instructions spelled out “if” we passed the class. On several occasions the instructors would see us doing something incorrectly and joking yell out “you fail, come back tomorrow”. The Gordon Ramsey of Chiang Mai.

We were invited to select from several dishes to make up each course of five course meal:
• Soup – George made coconut milk soup; Bonnie made rice soup
• Salad – made with green unripened mangos
• Curry – George made red and Bonnie made green
• Stir Fry –  George made Chicken and Cashew Nuts; Bonnie made holy basil with pork
• Pad Thai – made in a work, and cleverly served in a thin omelette
• Mango Sticky Rice – unlike the salad the dessert is made with yellow ripened fruit.

With our courses selected and technique demonstrations complete we set to work preparing our dishes. Everyone chopped, fried and stirred happily away, with only the occasional shout of “You fail, come back tomorrow!”. Both of the chefs and their support team were extremely friendly and genuinely seemed to enjoy what they do.

As each dish was completed it went under our bench while we worked on the next. During our first snack break we got to enjoy our soup. At one point in the prep, we were shown how to inject a bit of flair with a flaming presentation of the stir fry.

After the cooking was done we took our finished dishes out to the dining area and enjoyed them with ice cold beer and some great conversation. So good, so fresh and so much food.

I am sure that it will not surprise anyone who knows us to hear that that ride back to your hotel was followed by a nice long nap…

Thailand

An Elephant We’ll Never Forget

Any itinerary in Chiang Mai must include a visit to one of the many elephant sanctuaries on the outskirts of the city.

Nothing can prepare you for the experience of spending time with these gentle giants, but we will endeavor to provide some detail about the experience. As a tourist you must be aware that there are two types of elephant experiences available, one involves riding the elephants on a jungle trek of sorts and the other is visiting a sanctuary to interact with them in a more caring way. We will not lecture on either path, but suffice it to say we chose to visit a sanctuary.

With that decision made, the next big question was which one, there are so many. After quite a bit of web research and review we chose the Kanta Elephant Sanctuary. and we were extremely happy with our choice. There are several full or half day options available – we chose the Kanta tour that cost us 1,500 BHT each (about $48 USD) We both agreed afterwards, we could have paid three times that much and still feel like we got value for our money!

A van picked us up at our hotel around 6:30am (we chose the morning excursion as opposed to the afternoon). The ride to the sanctuary in a newer air conditioned van took about an hour and it was our first chance to experience the mountains outside the walls of the city. We chatted with people on the bus from Brazil, Canada, Russia, China and New Zealand during the ride.

Upon arrival, we were given very colorful clothes to change into and provided lockers to secure our stuff. Once outfitted the group of about 15 of us looked like rodeo clowns ready to hit the circuit. Our guide then spent some time explaining to us that the elephants we were going to be interacting with were domesticated and were used to being around humans. They also advised that they were very curious and nimble with their trunks, so we needed to hang on to our phones lest the elephants grabbed them from us to take a selfie. Other simple rules: don’t run away from the elephants because they may see you running and chase you. Stay out from under their feet, and try and stay in their field of vision so they can be aware of you and where you are.

With that, we were each provided with a sack full of sugar cane sections about a foot long each and we walked down into a large field to meet our new friends. The elephants were very friendly and approached us right away, of course the sugar cane treats helped to cement the bond. Before you know it we were feeding them, rubbing their trunks, faces and baggy cheeks and in general just having fun with these playful and very hungry pachyderms. They ate sugar cane and grass and every thing else we fed them….

After our “getting to know you” period in the fields, we retired to a small pagoda for a lesson on elephant eating habits and differences between wild and domesticated diets. We learned that domesticated elephants do not get the robust diet that wild elephants do and as such require supplements. We then where taught how to create large meatball sized lumps of supplements that included bananas, tamarind, vitamins and more. With our tray full of “meatballs” we headed out again to feed the elephants, but unlike before when they took the snacks from us with their trunk, we placed the vitamin balls directly into their mouths. You have never lived until you have stuck your hand into an elephants mouth and placed a meatball near the back of her tongue. A shout of “Bom-Bom” would cause the elephant to open wide to accept the sticky treats….

With their bellies full it was time for a bath so we all headed down to the lagoon where the elephants plopped down and rolled over and gleefully lounged as we poured buckets full of water over them and scrubbed their hides with soft bristle brushes. Occasionally one of them would trumpet and shoot a spray of water through their trunks giving everyone in the area a nice cool shower.

After about three hours it was time to say goodbye to our new friends and head up to the camp again. There we were provided with showers and a place to change back into our street clothes. After that we had a snack of fresh fruit, coffee and tea and a chance to exchange photos with the people in our group.

We were driven back to the city and dropped off at our hotels with a phone full of photos and memories that will be with us forever…

Thailand

The Number 9 Train To Chiang Mai…

If you haven’t seen the 1959 black and white classic “Some Like It Hot”, then it you need to check out this clip that takes place aboard the sleeper car of a train. In the film, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon dress as women and hop onboard a train full of girls headed for Florida to escape mafia bad guys. Tony Curtis does his best to pick up Marilyn Monroe, but his plans are foiled when an impromptu cocktail party breaks out in their berth.

Fast forward to the colorized version in 2019, as Bonnie and George make their way from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on the famous Number 9 overnight train, 13 hours in total leaving at 6:10 in the evening.

We booked our tickets (USD $41 each) via 12GoAsia and could not have been happier with the service. Fluent in English, they were very helpful, even when we had to change our dates. We picked up our tickets (they ask that you pick them up 1 hour before your train boards), at their offices across the street from Hua Lamphong station. From the station, go down into the subway via exit number 2 and walk back out on the other side of the busy road via exit number 1. Walk straight out of the exit and down two buildings and you will see the clearly marked office.

The waiting area at the train station was huge. People from all over the world were seated, mostly on the clean floor, in groups waiting to board trains. Once your train shows up on the big board, you drag your bags down the platform until you find your car number as indicated on your ticket. From there it is up and into the train to look for your assigned seats. Couples traveling together should try and book upper and lower berths. In our case it was car 5 seats 13 (lower) and 14 (upper). Every berth is equipped with a power outlet to let you charge your phones, tablets etc. The plugs are the same in Thailand as they are in the USA, and also have European slots built in.

Once you get onto the train and stow your bags, you sit on comfortable facing seats on the lower berth. Almost as soon as you sit down a lady will approach you to try and sell you meals (dinner and breakfast) to be served on the train. The food is good, but relatively expensive. We paid a total of USD $18 for dinner and breakfast. They sell food on commission but are not overly pushy about it. Many people brought their own food. No alcohol is allowed on the train, so unlike the movie, George had to leave his cocktail shaker in his bag.

Dinner is served a half hour into the ride and after about 1 hour a steward comes around to open up the berths and and make up the beds. By 9:30 most everyone is snuggled down with drapes drawn and the train takes on a completely different appearance. Just be warned, for security reasons they never turn the bright lights in the corridors off. If you need dark to sleep, bring along an eye shade.

So many songs, such as “City of New Orleans” and “Wagon Wheel” talk about being rocked to sleep by a train, and that is exactly what happens. Before you know it, they are turning the beds back into seats and bringing around coffee and fresh fruit as you get ready to pull into Chaing Mai promptly at 7:10 am.

Rock me momma like the wind and the rain, rock me like a south bound train, oh momma rock me….

Thailand

Hello Thailand!

Wow, what a whirlwind the last week has been! We left on a red eye out of Australia Monday evening. After our learning experience on bargain airlines on our Jetstar flight into Oz, we were better prepared for Air Asia. We purchased extra kgs for our luggage, upgraded our seats and decided, since we were planning on sleeping through both flights, to forego ordering any meals in flight. We chose to spend a little extra to upgrade our seats to the “quiet zone” and it was worth EVERY PENNY! Since most people choose either not to spend the money or just don’t realize it’s available, we each ended up with a row of 3 seats to ourselves. After a short layover in Kuala Lumpur we arrived in Bangkok around 8am. As we suspected, our hotel room wasn’t ready so we left our bags at the hotel (The Dream Hotel) and set out for our first foray onto the city.

Luckily, our hotel is in the neighborhood that our friend Tom used to live in and he gave us a list of places to look up. After the flight our first stop was for mani/pedi’s and massages. What a great way to recover from a long flight! Tom’s next recommendation was a little dive of a “restaurant” that serves the best crispy duck. As usual he was spot on – the duck was fabulous!  Back at the hotel the room was ready for us and we were ready for a nap.

Around 6pm we hopped on the subway to Bangkok’s famous Chinatown. It was a bustling swirl of color, and smells and crowds. We wandered the streets for about an hour and decided it was finally time to eat… no we did not try the bugs!

 

 

Finally, after roaming the streets for a few hours we decided it was time to head back. Since we we more than a little turned around and weren’t sure we could find the subway we hired a tuk-tuk for the ride home.

The next morning we headed out to see the  Grand Palace. We hopped onto the Skytrain, connected to the subway and finally boarded a riverboat ferry to the Old City. As we started across the street towards the palace we we stopped by the inevitable tuk tuk driver offering to take us to all the sights and sit and wait while we wandered around and took photos for a mere 500 baht. We decided it seemed worth it, so we climbed in.

First stop was the sitting Buddha followed by the Grand Bhudda followed by a “short stop” at a jeweler in between…it seems that shop owners offer the tuk tuk drivers fuel vouchers to bring potential customers to them. Since we were just touring the city with no real schedule, we decided to go along for the ride. After the Grand Bhudda we stopped at the tailor to have some clothes made – cause that’s what you do in Thailand, right?? All the while James, our driver, sat and waited…

Geo & our tuk tuk driver, James

After our busy day, we decided to have a simple dinner. We walked down to the grocery store (again recommended by Tom) along the same route we had taken the following morning, but at night the scene is completely different. After dark, the city street transforms into a night market. Every available wall space is converted into an open air stall selling every tchotchke and food you could ever imagine (and some you never even knew existed). We finally arrived at the store and ate at the “lunch” counter. The food was inexpensive but DELICIOUS!

FYI – Besides the fact that it is a crowed, bustling city,with insane traffic, one of the things I wish I’d been better 
prepared for before arriving was the intense amount of smog. It is so bad that a majority of the population wear surgical masks while walking or working outside and the week we were there tay actually closed the schools to keep people off the roads and reduce the amount of smog in the air!