Thailand: Good Food=Good Times

After we got back from snorkeling and Koh Phi Phi, we took a walk on the beach and then went to "Time for Lime" which is a popular restaurant near the hotel. The food was okay, nothing as good again as the food we had in Chiang Mai. On the other hand, the drinks were so fantastic, we kept coming back for more. Above is the lemongrass magarita. That's right, FRESH lemongrass and FRESH Lime with some good o' tequila. It was the most awesome drink ever. I think they are quite dangerous. I highly recommend one. Below is the chili margarita and to the right, Mark's boring regular one. So so good though. It's really hard to get a good one back in the states, as they are very rarely real lime and usually full of cornsyrup. The lemongrass mixture was unimaginably good though. I wish I knew how to make it!!! We enjoyed these while overlooking the sea at night. We did this twice more during the trip I think. SOOOO GOOD!!!

The next day we were too sunburnt to go out again, so we opted for a cooking class instead on the island at Lana Thai Cooking School. They came and picked us up from our hotel and drove us about ten minutes down the road to the next beach. There were chickens everywhere! I hope we didn't eat their friends...
Above is the cooking studio. It was open air which was really nice. First we voted on what dishes we would make from the daily menu and then we cut up all our ingredients. Below is the ingredients for the coconut milk soup. It's one of my favorites, but this one didn't have enough kick I though. It was dumbed down for westerners.

Above: Fresh chilis, but I didn't use enough. I used more than most, but I should have used more closer to a Thai amount. Below are the ingredients to make chicken with holy basil leaves.

Above: Our table
Below: The ingredients for ginger chicken.

I was armed with a deadly weapon and I was wearing a stupid hat, so I shouldn't be messed with!
Below that is chopped FRESH tumeric, which was so so so orange it amazing me. I've only ever seen in powdered and dried. We used it to make the Massamun curry paste. That curry is the muslim one from the south and it was one of the best things I had in Thailand.

Ingredients for the paste are chopping and then put into the mortar and pestle for grinding.


It took forever to grind it down. Our teacher worked on it while we ate our soup.


The turmeric stained my fingers!

Thai coconut soup with chicken! I made it!

Thai Chicken with Holy Basil

Ginger Chicken Thai style
And last, but not least, the massamun curry which I miss so much!
Oh and this is a strange plant at the cooking school. We had fun and glad we planned to go only the night before!