Three Weeks at Three Trees Part II
Day 4-5
It was nice to be back in the kitchen after our two day break.
Like clockwork, after discussing the days’ dishes Thip and I worked on pounding out the curry pastes for the day. We worked on some Royal Thai dishes along with dishes that farmers used to have during the hot summer months. We began making dishes I was more familiar with like gaaeng phanaaeng or phanaeng curry! (Which shows how little I knew about Thai dishes since that was on day five and we were almost 30 dishes into cooking.)
Being in the kitchen was fun but could also be difficult at times. Thip and Hanuman spoke a lot in Thai. Which was great! They seemed to really connect and I love hearing different languages. I just couldn’t help but think that they were discussing food and recipe-related topics that I could have benefited from. On the other hand, Hanuman was impressed at how much I was progressing and seemed to think I had some natural talents in the kitchen. I appreciated this greatly. I was becoming more familiar with his methodology and the process of seasoning dishes.
Cooking freehand started off as a struggle as I am accustomed to following recipes to the gram. After repeating techniques and methods that Hanuman taught us, things began to click. I started to enjoy this method of cooking. Because Hanuman has spent decades perfecting both his cooking and teaching skills, Thip and I were learning an incredible amount of material in only 12 days. It is obvious how much he cares and has worked to get to where he is with his cooking, knowledge, and skills today.
Day 6-8
Thip and her mom were having issues with their hotel and decided to come join me at my hotel, Brick Box. I liked this plan because now we could get picked up and dropped off together as well as maybe hang out in the evenings. We sometimes reviewed recipes in the mornings before getting picked up.
At times it can be the simplest of dishes that blow my mind. For example, we made moo waan (or sweet pork) which only involves a few ingredients. It was so rich and sweet. I immediately imagined myself owning a food truck that focused just on selling different kinds of moo waan from across Thailand with rice. You don't need to eat a lot because of its high sugar and fat content, but damn is it tasty!
We also began making nam prik (chili relish) which I didn’t have any experience with before this. Some people would look at it and say they are dips but they are so much more than that. A little goes a long way because of their concentrated taste. And there is a wide variety of types with various textures and ingredients. The possibilities are endless and so many of them are tasty.
By this point in the class, I had tried many new ingredients that I have never used or tasted before. I tried many types of seafood like snakehead, catfish, and mackerel. We used several kinds of mushrooms including oyster, straw, and shitake. Ingredients like roselle flower, banana blossom, bitter orange, sour bilimbi fruit, various eggplants, pomelo, madan, makwen, and several fermented foods were all new to me. And by no means is this an exhaustive list.
One thing in particular that even Hanuman was shocked that I liked was dtai bplaa or fermented fish innards. I know it sounds rather off putting; however, the technique we used to get rid of the odor involved more aromatics and time than is typically done. (In fact, the method we used to get rid of the smell was a technique Hanuman created and now Michelin chefs use it in their kitchens.) I didn’t mind the taste at all which was great because we continued to use it as we explored Southern Thai cuisine which uses a lot of dtai bplaa.
Another new food I tried in these few days was oysters. This was not a part of the class but was just something that was gifted to Hanuman from a friend during my time at the farm and he offered to share with us. The oysters were from Normandy where some of the best oysters in the world apparently come from. What I did not realize is that you eat them while they are still alive and that they taste like the ocean. Overall it wasn’t bad. I am sure with more practice I will acquire its taste.
Another tidbit to mention was my experience with the spiciest item in Hanuman’s kitchen. It is what he offers guests who tell him his food isn’t spicy enough. When some jackass pulls this card on Hanuman, he laughs, asks them if they are sure they want to try the spiciest thing he owns, and then starts digging. By this I mean he starts moving bottles of ingredients over and reaches for the farthest part of his kitchen corner he can. Deep, deep back there is a small jar of the deepest red colored liquid I had ever seen. He says that all one needs is the very tip of a toothpick’s worth, the tiniest of drops, to make your mouth burn for an hour. He asked if we wanted to try it and got out a toothpick.
I am not lying when I say it was only the very tip of the toothpick. He put it on my tongue and while it took maybe half a second to kick in, it nestled far into the back of my throat and grew. It continued to build rapidly. Since Thip and I have a tolerance for spice, it did not make us cry but it definitely was intense. We felt the heat an hour later even after drinking plenty of water.
Hanuman explained that he got this extract from a Hungarian (or maybe Turkish) grandpa he met years ago. Hanuman was young and thought he could eat all levels of spice. The grandpa told him to just take a drop, but Hanuman put somewhere between a teaspoon and tablespoon in his mouth at once and spent the next few hours practically hallucinating and thinking he was dead. He bought an entire bottle of it which he still has today. He only brings it out for people who think they can handle spice or when the inquiry of how spicy something can get comes up. I was honored to have tried it and don’t ever need to experience it again.
Three days off:
After working five straight days. It was nice to get a few days off. Especially since in the states it would be Thanksgiving. Thip offered to drop me off at Steph’s apartment in Chiang Mai before she would drive down south to visit some temples. We ate breakfast at Jae Nong. It was here that I began recognizing more Thai dishes just based on the look. This felt amazing.
She dropped me off afterwards and I settled in. Steph told me she had a foodie, rock climber friend by the name of Andy who has traveled to several countries around the world and he happens to be staying in Chiang Mai at the moment. I met up with him at Tong Tem Toh (Hanuman’s recommendation) to try some Northern Thai cuisine. Andy and I immediately clicked and began exchanging restaurants to try.
Later for dinner, Steph and I met up with some of her co-workers and tried a pizza place called By Hand Pizza Café that we both wanted to try. This place was decent. I have found it pretty difficult to find good pizza in Thailand because it doesn’t seem to be a dish that local people crave. This restaurant did have a really cool pizza oven, the ambience was nice, and they had cheap wine!
The next morning was Thanksgiving. I decided to check out a Japanese curry restaurant that Thip recommended to me called Papa Curry. This place was amazing. It had a chef’s table vibe to it since it only had 12 seats around the bar. People waited in chairs behind the people who were eating. They only served Japanese curry. I would strongly recommend this place. However, I would not recommend it before eating a buffet-style Thanksgiving feast later that day.
I returned to Old Town and visited some places like Love70s and Baan Bakery. I then caught a ride near Steph’s place and walked through the Maya Mall for a while to cool off.
I waited for Steph to come home before heading to Chiang Mai Smokehouse which was serving a Thanksgiving style buffet for 600 baht. I wasn’t even hungry because of the curry I ate earlier. It felt sacrilegious but I wasn’t blown away by the food so it was fine. Although, I still ended up eating a big ol’ plate of food with a few slices of pumpkin pie.
After dinner, Thip texted me telling me that things didn’t work with her hotel (again) down south so she was back in Chiang Mai and asked if I wanted to hang out. She was with an old friend of hers, Pam, so I decided to invite Andy to join too. We hung out at Thapae East and listened to live jazz music for the rest of the evening.
For the last day of our break, I spent the day with Thip and her mom. We ate breakfast at The Larder Café & Bar which I would not recommend and then headed to Pha Lat Temple. It was in nature and had lots of small trails which were nice to explore. We all ended up all wearing purple that day which was funny and had already happened two other times with me and Thip. We ate lunch at one of Thip’s favorite khanohm jeen (fermented noodles) places called บ้านน้ำเงี้ยวเวียงเก่า (ยายแอ๋ว). It was very delicious!
We headed back to Doi Saket and prepared ourselves for the last four days of cooking with Hanuman.
Day 9-12
The last four days were set up regionally. We had an Issan (Northeast Thailand), Northern, Muslim and Central Thai day. With this plan I knew I would run into more dishes that I recognized. That is not to say that I wasn’t enjoying learning new dishes, in fact that was my favorite part! I just hoped to learn how to make some dishes that I recognized as well.
We made a few different types of laap (not pronounced “larb”) that included proteins like duck, catfish, and chicken blood. We made my favorite kind of sausage, sai uaa (“Chiang Mai sausage”). We made the best Massaman beef curry I have ever had. The Thai beef biryani was incredible. The process and historical significance that comes from making a gaaeng khiaao waan gai (green curry) was something I will always remember. But the most anticipated dish of the entire 12 days was (if you haven’t guessed it by now, you haven’t been paying attention)... khao soi!
When we got to class on the day we made khao soi, something was different. Our sheet for the day had “Classified Document” written on it. Hanuman’s demeanor was a bit more serious and we began class that day with a discussion. Hanuman told us that the khao soi spice mix as well as the northern laap mix recipes are never to be posted publicly. It was not to be shared since these were his personal recipes that held significant importance to him. After looking at the recipes for each, I could tell why. These recipes were quite detailed and lengthy. It made perfect sense why khao soi was my favorite dish. The complexity and length of the recipe was by far the longest in this course.
It’s funny because before our Thanksgiving break I asked Hanuman for a khao soi recommendation while I was in the city. He didn’t really give me one because he just pointed to his kitchen and said that the best khao soi I will eat will be here. I believed him because up until now, with all the dishes I recognized, they were the best versions I’ve ever had. I had no reason to not believe him. Boy was he right. The khao soi we made was the best I have ever had bar none, and probably the best I will ever have in my life. No amount of written description could ever truly bring justice to how good this khao soi was. So I will just leave you with pictures and hope that you will trust me.
The rest of the last days were great. We were more comfortable with each other and enjoyed chatting more in depth about Thai food. We took a look at the historical significance of certain dishes and analyzed the spices of others to find where its influences came from.
On the last day of class I realized how accustomed I’d become to the routine of class. It has been awhile since I’ve had a job and these few weeks gave me glimpses of what that felt like again. It felt good to have routine and expectations.
While I will miss sharing my meals with Byte and learning from Hanuman, I hope to use this as a launching point that propels me to get more serious about cooking. I hope things go well for Thip as she prepares for her chef’s table endeavor and I hope to eat there soon. Overall, I am very thankful for this opportunity to learn and share an experience with others who care deeply about Thai food.
Hanuman mentioned early on that he usually gets professional chefs and foodie enthusiasts who take his intensive courses. His kitchen has had some of the greatest chefs in the world in it. He said that he has never really had someone like me who has been in the country for such a short amount of time and not be familiar with Thai dishes take this kind of course. If you know me well enough, you are aware I have dabbled in many professions and like to dive right in. This experience was no exception.
I hope to use this experience and make something of it. Whether it is just practicing these recipes at home and making them my own or as far as working professionally with food in some capacity some day. I hope to make both Hanuman’s and my time at Three Trees worth it. I can already tell that the way I approach a Thai menu, a new recipe, seasoning, or just talking about Thai food has changed for the better. I feel more confident with my Thai food knowledge and I hope to continue growing it.
This experience was one I will never forget and I hope this is just the beginning.
Last day in Chiang Mai:
After class Thip and her mom drove us back to Chiang Mai. They were going to stay for a few more days. My flight was the next morning. We invited some friends (Pam and Steph) and ate at a seafood restaurant near the khlong called เลิศรสใต้ร่มมะเฟือง . I tried both clams and lobster for the first time! We then headed to a brand new jazz bar called The Sax Music House. Steph and I left early because she had to work the next day. We stopped by a late night outdoor shopping mall called Nimman One before heading out.
The next day I was on a plane to Bangkok.
Even though Emily and I had video-chatted several nights while I was away, I missed her a lot and it was so lovely to come home to her usual welcome-home greetings which included things like a welcome home banner, a croissant, some ice-cold Singha, a lovely letter and many more things. I am so thankful for her. We spent the next few days catching up and celebrating my return and completion of the course.
What’s next on our agenda? Our Thai teacher, Sunny, and I discussed visiting her family in Korat and making food over a long weekend. So after two days of rest from Doi Saket, Emily and I packed our bags and headed to Korat. More on that experience in our next blog post.
