TRAVELING AROUND THE WORLD: Our Tales of Delights and Disasters by Shelley Row Read Free Book Online Page A

a silver dollar, were actually fabulous coconut pancakes. And my favorite, coconut ice cream, was served inside a freshly cracked coconut and on a bed of the coconut meat scraped from the sides. All was prepared while we watched. Yummy! An old man made soup on his boat, heating it on the spot with a small burner.
     
    On our way back, our driver took us the scenic route through fields and orchards. We saw mango and papaya trees, coconut groves and guava trees. There was even a grove of dragon fruit that looked like yucca plants gone astray. Fruits of all sorts are sold in carts all over Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Fruit drinks, made fresh, were on every corner. Coconuts seemed to be the workhorse. We stopped at a coconut facility where they showed us how coconuts are used. The long, thin coconut blooms (they look like overgrown ears of corn) are whacked at the bottom so the juice drains. The bloom is left on the tree to develop into the coconut. Meanwhile the juice is cooked for ninety minutes in a large vat until it caramelizes into coconut sugar. It tasted like… caramelized sugar. It’s used in Thai cooking as we experienced later. The coconuts are harvested, cracked and drained, and the meat is scraped using a small bench with sharp teeth on the end.
     
    While fruits are a star in Thailand, the flowers are not far behind. Shrubs of hibiscus and bougainvillea grow in the highway median. Tree-sized dracena line country roads, as do shrubs of croton in many varieties. Lotus flowers float in decorative bowls placed around temples, hotels and more.
     
    We literally walked past cart after cart of prepared foods, dried fish, and fruits on every street and alley. And much of it goes into the traditional Thai dishes which we love. It was only natural that, with no plans for the weekend, we took a Thai cooking class at Silom Thai Cooking School with Sanusi Mareh. The class included only me, Mike, and a young, newly married couple from Sweden. We met Sanusi on the street and he took us to the market to do our shopping. It was great fun to finally learn about the unknown vegetables and the essential Thai spices (for example, they have three types of basil and four types of ginger). After our shopping spree – vegetables and herbs for four cost about $3.50 – Sanusi led us to the cooking school down a long alley.
     
    A quick side note. One of the delightful things I’ve come to love about Thailand is the custom of removing your shoes before going inside. It’s primarily a cleanliness thing. In the temples, people kneel and bow to the Buddha so a clean floor is essential. In a traditional Thai home, meals are eaten while sitting on mats on the floor. Keeping the floor clean is a priority – so shoes are removed and left at the entrance. But I love the sensual feel of it. There’s something about walking around in bare feet on a smooth, cool surface that feels great. At the cooking school, our shoes were left outside and we padded around prepping food, cooking and eating in bare feet. How great is that?
     
    In the span of three hours, we prepared five Thai dishes – tom yum soup, pad thai, chicken salad with sticky rice, green curry paste for chicken curry, and a dessert of rubies in coconut milk (the “rubies” were actually turnips – that’s right, turnips – soaked in flavored syrups). We prepped the veggies, sliced and diced the herbs, and even pounded out green curry paste from scratch (we’ll use a food processor at home, even though they insist it isn’t as good). We stood outside on a narrow terrace with a row of woks in front and sautéed, boiled or stir-fried each dish. The instruction was great and everything tasted fabulous. Mike’s favorite was the tom yum soup and I can’t decide between the pad thai and chicken curry. The chicken salad with sticky rice was a delightful and yummy surprise. We have the cookbook and are ready to try it all again from our indoor kitchen in Annapolis. And – maybe, just