Some like it ho
If you can’t take the heat in Bangkok, head north to Chiang Mai where there are enough culinary delights to entice you back into the kitchen, finds Miles Fielder.
o escape the balmy bustle of
Bangkok. many travellers
head sotrth. to Thailand's islands and beaches and the hedonistic excesses of their full tnoon parties. Those with a more adventurous spirit and stouter constitution travel north. into the more temperate climate of the fertile region known as Lanna (‘land of a million rice lields‘ ). There. they trek up into the mountains to meet the colourful hilltribe peoples. or undertake the (100 kilometre loop westward towards the Burmese border and back. or venture yet further north to explore the fabled
Golden Triangle at the very top of
the country. Much of this activity begins and ends in Chiang Mai. Thailand's cooler. calmer second city and the capital of Lanna. where guides. boots and backpacks. motorbikes and jeeps can be hired. But while the city provides the majority ol~ its visitors with the means to move on. there's more
going on in Chiang Mai than meets the eye. There are alternative pleasures to be pursued beyond the wholly non-vicarious. often quite dangerous thrills of white water bamboo ral‘ting. elephant safaris and showering under a waterlall's raging torrent after a hard day‘s trek. Learning to cook. for example. Cooking might not seem like a particularly enticing alternative to the Indiana Jones/Lara Croft-style adventures on offer. but the Thai Chocolate Cookery Centre irt downtown Chiang Mai runs hands on culinary classes that are as stimulating as anything the surrounding countryside can offer. The one. two and three-day classes — during which you will learn to make six. II or 18 traditional Thai dishes — each begin at the morning food market. Somphet Market. located in the northeast corner of Chiang Mai's old quarter. just inside of the moat which delineates its two square
TRAVEL
Thai bites (clockwise from right): ingredients at Somphet Market; elephants ready for trekking; a roadside Buddhist shrine
kilometres. is at 7.30am a riot of colours. sounds. smells and movement. Here. you pick your way through the narrow. loot] trader-choked alleyways ol‘ the covered market. tracking your cookery teacher between stalls tilled with pungent meat and fish.
THE COOKING
CLASS IS IN ALL SENSES OF THE WORD A HANDS ON EXPERIENCE
stinking sauces and pastes. giant termite mounds of rice and noodles and vividly coloured vegetables and fruits. many of which look as alien as an extraterrestrial.
The first lessons of the day. if your teacher can be heard over the din ol. the frenzied local business dealings. include a checklist of Thai
cookery ingredients (l'rom holy to hoary basil and not l‘orgetting the phallic galangal and gin/a). an explanation ol the many dil‘l‘erent types of rice t'l'hailand grows more than its lair share ol the world's 3500 varieties) and the alchetnical art ol‘ making the green. red and yellow curry pastes. And. of course you get the low-down on that eponymous Thai cooking ingredient the chilli (known nationally as Thai chocolate because the Thais eat it in everything all of the time): from the prik chee lah t'large point to the sky‘) variety to the prik kee nttu t‘small bird's eye') type. which can be lethal to westerners.
L'p to speed on what one needs in order to cook and where one goes to get it. it‘s a shon hop through the dusty morning traffic jams in the back of an open trtrck to the Cookery Centre. ()pened as a cookery school in I995 by the food lover Tubtim lmpraphai. this traditional Thai teak wood house
'47 lav—1‘. Ma, 2006 THE LIST 101