Thai Cooking Class

About 1.5 years late but better late than never. Was going through my old photos and realized I never blogged about this!

Last last winter break, some girlfriends and I traveled to Southeast Asia and for part of our trip, we went to Bangkok for a few days (which I might add was nothing like what was depicted in The Hangover 2). One of the items on our to-do list was to take a Thai cooking class and we found an adorable place called Silom Thai Cooking School which was owned by an equally adorable man who had traveled the globe and then retired to open up this cooking school (gave me some ideas for retirement). We made 3 "real" courses and 2 mini courses which in total spanned about 3-4 hours. Everything, from all of the fresh produce to amazing spices to anthropolgy-like dishwear made it such a memorable experience (the 150+ photos I took also helped).

Having authentic Tom Yum Soup in Thailand was a dream. Cooked with the right ingredients, its light, savory, spicy and so satisfying.  

Part 1 of Tom Yum Soup involved making fresh coconut milk (ahh so exciting). Who knew it was so easy, all you actually need is just fresh coconut meat from the market...nbd.Oh well, everything else international has already become part of the foodie lexicon (and part of trader joes), hopefully this will soon too!

Ingredients for Tom Yum Soup, too bad I can't just stroll into FroGro or even Whole Foods and get some kaffir leaves and lemon grass whenever the mood strikes.

Never made soup in a wok before but it actually worked quite well. 

Mmmm Pad Thai, who doesn't love pad thai??

I wish I could remember all of the spices and sauces we used for everything...fortunately we did get a cookbook to go, I think it might still be in my suitcase in the attic..
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A light chicken salad that involve a lot of lime and herbs.

Never realized you made curry from pounding peppers into a pulp, this dish sure was hardwork, not even sure if we got it right...

Mashing the curry in a GIANT motar and pestle was also quite fun.

A giant basket of goods from the open air market.

My mom has been wanting to go to Thailand ever since I went (I've also been bugging her and my dad to go ever since I went). Hopefully, they'll be able to get some of their own pictures soon!

The "Modern" Viennese Coffee House

The plush and sleek interior of Cafe Museum featuring Julius Meinel coffee. 

Considered a "modern" cafe at the time of its inception (in 1899), Cafe Museum, was frequented by the likes of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and a plethora other artists and authors who I do not recognize...well at least I managed to pick up two people through my classes in Prague :) We made a quick stop here on our way to the famous Viennese "Naschmarkt" Saturday morning. Plush red booths, marble tables and waiters dressed in black vests and bow ties. Most of the patrons's faces were completely obscured by the massive newspapers they were reading supplied by the cafe. Too bad we can't read German otherwise it would have been the ultimate authentic cafe experience.

An overflowing cup of hot chocolate. 

And then there was the Sachertorte, a famous chocolate cake founded by the 16-year old baker apprentice, Franz Sacher.  Not too shabby getting an internationally acclaimed cake named after yourself at that age. [According to Wikipedia], an authentic Sachertorte is only made in Vienna (the city of its founding) and Salsburg. Obviously, we were going to have ourselves some sachertorte.

Travels

A rather belated post on some traveling from the past two weeks. Mostly belated because I thought I hadn't taken any decent pictures but then I looked through my phone and what do you know? Quite a few pictures to share! Besides the pictures though, I also thought it'd be kind of fun to share some stories, adventures and rants from the cities of Charleston, Chicago and Milwaukee.

Charleston, South Carolina
The land of Southern charm, Lily Pulitzer, and a lot of sweet tea. 
I still don't understand the appeal of Lily Pulitzer. The clothing kind of reminds me of those tropical patterns you always see on lawn chairs and the wall paper of a condo in Hawaii. Why would you want to match the chair you're sitting on? (The neon colored sun dresses are kind of fun though) There were a bunch of other clothing-related things I supposedly learned but they have all escaped me.  Oh well, at least I do remember the food :)

Poe's Tavern, located in a quiet neighborhood on Sullivan's Island, Poe's is an ode to the famed poet as well as the island which inspired his short story, "The Gold Bug".  All of the items on the menu are named after his various stories and poems and the bathroom walls are laminated with pages of his works. We went for a lunch on a Tuesday (maybe it was Wednesday or Thursday...) and the place was completely packed!

Snapshots: Kaminsky's Desert, the famed Poe's Tavern, Sweet Tea, looking like a "Southern Belle", burgers, banana splits & the water front.

Kaminsky's
From the swanky Harbor Club to the touristy market place full of vendors selling trinkets and souvenirs,I got the full experience of downtown Charleston. The most exciting part of the day though was probably when we stopped by Kaminsky's, a famous dessert cafe, and my friend ordered a coffee drink where the caffeine and sugar content was probably illegal. Redbull should find the recipe of this drink and start selling it by the liter. College students (me included) would have quite a field day.

Scenes from Kaminsky's. Iced coffee, Chocolate mousse and a rasberry drink with about 5 shots of espressso.

Jestine's Kitchen
Featured on the Food Network, 10 Best Restaurants of South Carolina, Post & Courier and every other local and national food website/newspaper in existence (oh and Oprah), this is apparently the place to go for Southern cooking. Probably should have tried something a little more adventurous then a grilled cheese.

Southern classics: Mac and cheese, green beans, fried chicken, grilled chicken and grilled cheese.

Anyways, after a week of nonstop Southern cooking, I realized my body was getting kind of angry with me so I decided to eat some vegetables...and then got yelled at for wanting broccoli. Oops, sorry! I'll know better next time to detox after I go home :o.

Chicago
I absolutely LOVE Chicago. Yes it was freezing, rainy and windy for most of the time we were there but it was still quite an adventure. The first time I was in the city of Chicago, I was 15 and there for debate nationals. There was no one else  I knew except for my debate coach so I spent most of my time wandering and exploring. I even attempted to walk to the Navy Pier from our hotel which turned out to be  really really far. Much farther than the map led me to believe. I did this in my newly purchased $2.50 Old Navy flip flops. Yea those shoes lasted me a grand total of 24 hours. 

Little Italy

Not so much a section of the city as a random collection of streets on the periphery of  Chi-town. You know you have arrived when the street signs turn into red, white and green (and there are Italian flags waving everywhere).

It was quite a bit of a hike to get to Little Italy but the food was definitely worth it. A brief lunch turned into a 3 hour affair including a bottle of wine, various courses and a lot of chatting. By the time we were finished it was 4:00pm. By the time we got back to the hostel, it was 5:00pm. By the time we met up with our other friends, it was 5:30pm and time for dinner.No dad, I did not eat like this this everyday :p

[Fried Ravioli] Perfect little pieces of heaven.

[Roast Beef Sandwich, left] [Sword fish & Risotto, upper right] [Scallops & something under the scallops :p, lower right]

Chinatown
The last time I was in Chicago Chinatown, I was twelve (maybe 13 or 14....one of those nebulous tween years) and the Chinatown was tiny comprised of just a smatterings of restaurants with very ghetto looking tables. The place has had a complete makeover (sort of like those house rendtions on ABC) with a massive collection of authentic Asian cuisine and the typical hair salons.

[Mongolian Lamb, upper left] [Sour Cabbage and Fish Soup, upper right] [Baby Sprouts, lower left] [Chives Dumplings, lower right]

The cuisine literally reminded me of all of numerous times we ate out with the family while in China. I was telling my mom about our eating adventures and I could tell the next destination in her mind is now Chicago. Haha, I should totally work as a restaurant promoter...if those things exist. I guess, they're called food critics. Oh well. That can be my backup plan.