Laosing About

We made it! A two-day slow boat adventure down the Mekong river from the border town of Houxai to Louang Prabang, via the notorious Pak Beng.

After all that worry I had nothing to fear from Pak Beng. Yes, it was lawless - and there were men with guns (more for the tourist protection, I would like to think. But hey, imagine you're in a small town in the middle of a jungle, where the electricity in the entire town is switched off at 10.30pm and there is nothing to do.

You can't read, you can't listen to music, you can't watch telly. You can't stay up late with an enforced curfew, the entire town is in darkness and it's hot.

The thought of going to bed at the same time every night would send me nuts and I think the locals definitely get restless - that's why I understand their need to get absolutely drunk.

One of my rules of travelling is, of course, always do what the locals do - so we did... we got absolutely legless. Adam, David (our newly acquired Aussie travelling companion) and I sat outside on the balcony of our hotel with the hotel's assistant and drank Beer Lao (Fantastic beer by the way).

We listened to all the Laos women singing their traditional songs and then watched them all stumble home up the one-street town, past our building and shouting 'sabaideeeeeeeee' with smiles.

Then the lights went out.

We awoke the next morning to the sound of cock-a-doodle-doos and all the mountains clouded in mist. All the villagers were arriving from the mountains to visit the morning market with machetes in hand (presumably to cut there way through the thick jungle).

We set off for Louang Prabang in our slow boat, an eight-hour journey ahead of us. Adam has described our journey along the Mekong beautifully. If you would like to read it follow the link 'Adam's blog' on the right side of my blog.

Grub's Up

There was a little surprise in store for us today as we toured The Golden Triangle. We stopped off at Mae Salong, a 1300m mountain, home to the Koumintang (The Nationalists), who were the ruling party of China for 21 years. The Koumintang settled here after fleeing the Communist Revolution of 1949.

Since 1949 they have been cultivating opium, however, in the last 20 years or so the Thai government has been actively working with them to introduce crop programmes to replace opium. Driving through this area today, we could see lush mountains with crops of corn and tea plantations, and no sign of any popppy fields.

We stopped off at The 101 Tea Plantation and had a wander around, starting with a walk amongst the shrubs of oolong tea and then the factory where all the leaves are dryed, sorted and processed.

Next stop, one of the many tea shops. An old Chinese lady is waiting to perform a tea ritual and, of course, sell us some tea. After we tasted each tea the old lady offered a selection of sun-dried candied fruits to cleanse our palate, there was ginger, palm, longan, prunes and my favourite - bursting with flavour - cherry tomato. We tried green tea, oolong, ginseng, jasmine and sticky rice tea.

The tea is served in in a tiny bowl with a tall cup inside. The tall cup inside has a dual purpose. It holds the tea, keeping it hot until you are ready to start the process - when its time, you release the tea by lifting the tall cup, the tea fills the bowl, then you sniff the aroma that remains in the tall cup and then roll the cup in your hands to warm them (great in winter, not so great in summer) and drink your tea.

Our tea lady decided the fruit wasn't enough to cleanse our palates and perhaps we needed something a little more - savoury, like......grubs... yes you read it - bamboo grubs. So right in front of us the old lady lights the stove, heats a small frying pan and dry-roasts some bamboo grubs with a little salt and pepper.



I have been promising that Adam would be my taster for the more adventurous foods and here was an golden oppurtunity. So I dared him. Kudos to him, he popped one straight in his mouth, crunched away and then another and another with a big smile on his face. It looked so easy I decided to have a taste and it was easy. They were crunchy and salty with no distinct flavour and in fact the texture reminded me of the dregs at the bottom of your popcorn that get stuck between your teeth.



Our guide explained they are enjoyed here as a tasty snack that compliments the tea and that Bamboo grubs are also used in a special version of Nam Prik.

Nam Prik is a northern chilli sauce/dip that can be made solely with vegetables like aubergine, or with the addition of meat, ground pork or bamboo grubs. Nam Prik is usually served with a plate of raw, crisp vegetables and pork crackling to dip.

In the grub version, the bamboo grubs are boiled first and then pounded in a mortar and pestle with the chillies to make a paste.

Well, I'm all grubbed out today but if I come across some Bamboo Grub Nam Prik I will be wriggling to try some.

Coconut Whatsits!

It's my last night in Chiang Mai for awhile and I couldn't leave without mentioning these.





The photos don't do them justice . I don't know the Thai name so I just call them Coconut Whatsits. They are extremely good.

Bite-size coconut milk custards filled with either pumpkin, sweetcorn or chives. They are oh-so sweet, crispy on the outside and gooey-goopey in the middle. The perfect comfort/snack food.



P.S Just found out the Thai name - Kanom Krop - but I think I will stick with the name Coconut Whatsits.

Farewell Chiang Mai

We are leaving for Chiangrai tomorrow and I'm really sad we are leaving because we have met so many great people here. It feels like home away from home.

I have thoroughly enjoyed studying Ancient Thai Massage at ITM. The teachers kept me laughing throughout and were surprisingly patient with me.

It was hard work trying to squeeze so much information in 2 weeks but I feel confident that after I return for another 2 weeks that I will have the core teachings to take home with me and from there it will be up to me to practice, practice and practice some more.

So all my friends in Oz who will allow me to practice on them , please click on some of mine or Adam's ads and they just might help pay for some of the courses. Cheers!!

Back in a bit...

Just to let you know that I have just started a Thai Yoga Masssage course and it is quite intense, so my writing will be limited for a couple of weeks. The good news is that you will all benefit eventually - because I need practice. So all those Oz friends - I will need plenty of bodies to practice on.

Adam will still be writing his blog if you're interested. I am never going to catch up to him at this rate. Have you seen how many hits he has?

Has anyone tried out the recipe below?

We went to the Sunday night market at Tha Phae Gate and had a great time exploring. We tried some delicous food. The black bean ice-cream was pretty good. So here are some photos to keep you salivating until the next blog entry. See you soon...

Northern Food

Chiang Mai, Capital of the North, has it's own style of food but not without Burmese and Laos influences. A Northern Thai meal is quite informal, dishes are placed on the table in no set order, to share and to eat as you prefer.

Glutinous rice – Khao Niaow (sticky rice) - is at the centre of each meal with the addition of various side dishes. A soup, a curry (gaeng), a spiced salad (yaam) or stir-fry (padh), spicy chopped meat (laab) or chilli sauces (nam prik).

In one hand you roll some sticky rice into a ball and then dip into your selected dish to soak up the sauce. A selection of chillies and condiments to enhance the flavours. Plates of fresh herbs and fresh or steamed vegetables complete your meal. Dessert is usually fresh fruit.

Adam & I are keen to try some Northern dishes after tasting the khao soy and we find a restaurant that specialises in Northern food. We try to emulate the full Thai dinner experience but because its just the two of us we are limited on the number of dishes we can order. So we choose one curry – A Chiang Mai Pork - as well as a vegetable dish – Stir-Fried Morning Glory - to share, and a sticky rice each.

Chiang Mai Pork Curry (Kaeng hangleh muu), is a Northern-style spicy thick soup without the addition of coconut cream. Kaeng translates as 'with spicy gravy'. This curry is made with pork belly, very tender and spicy but with an Indian curry flavour.




The pork is cut into large chunks with slivers of ginger and chopped garlic. This dish originated in Burma where they serve it with bananas (kai), but other recipes add santol (wild mangosteen) or pineapple squares. Our curry came without the addition of sweet fruit, thankfully. I only really like fruit in savoury dishes where it is a little too spicy and the sweetness cuts through this. It was spicy but not that spicy.




Stir-fried Morning Glory (Paad Pak Boong) comes in a gravy style sauce. All the Stir-fried vegetables here always seem to arrive in an oyster sauce with whole crushed cloves of garlic. If you think the garlic may be overpowering, it's not - the garlic (kra-tiaw) here is smaller, milder and sweeter. I have also found out that Morning glory is also known as Gai Laan in Chinese.









The Khao Niaow – sticky rice - comes in gorgeous individual bamboo woven baskets with a lid to keep it steaming hot. Sticky rice is the perfect accompaniment to anything spicy and juicy, it soaks up the juices and with a spicy salad like laab or tom sum it softens the punch of chilli. It goes well with our pork curry, the meat is so tender it falls apart. In fact, it is so good I have included a recipe.

RECIPE

Kaeng Hangleh Muu – Chiang Mai Pork Curry

Ingredients for curry paste

1 tbsn coriander seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 dried long red chillies (about 13cm long)
½ teaspoon salt
1 lemongrass stalk, white part only, finely chopped
2 Asian shallots (tiny red shallots), chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon grated turmeric or a pinch of ground turmeric
1 tsp of shrimp paste
½ teaspoon ground cassia or cinnamon

To make the curry paste

Dry-roast coriander seeds in a small frying pan for 1 minute until fragrant, then remove from pan.
Repeat with cumin seeds.
Grind them both to a powder with a mortar and pestle.
Remove the stems from the chillies and slit the chillies lengthways with a sharp knife. Discard seeds.
Soak chillies in hot water for 1-2 minutes or until soft. Drain and roughly chop.
Using a mortar and pestle, pound the chillies salt, galangal, lemongrass, shallots, garlic and turmeric to a smooth paste.
Add shrimp paste, ground coriander, cumin, cassia and mix until the mixture forms a smooth paste.
Alternatively use a small food processor, blend all ingredients into a smooth paste. Add a little cooking oil as needed to ease the grinding.

Curry Ingredients

500g pork belly cut into cubes - or a healthier option would be stewing pork (cooking time will be longer)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons curry paste
4 Asian shallots, smashed with the blade of a cleaver or rolling pin
4 cm piece of ginger, peeled and shredded
4 tablespoons roasted unsalted peanuts
3 tablespoons tamarind puree
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tbsp palm sugar

To make Curry

Blanch pork cubes in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain well.
Heat oil in a wok or saucepan and fry garlic for 1 minute.
Add curry paste and stir-fry until fragrant.
Add the pork, shallots, ginger and peanuts. Sir briefly.
Add 500ml (2 cups) water and the tamarind puree and bring to a boil.
Add fish sauce and sugar, stir, put lid on, turn heat down and let simmer for 1.5 hours or until the pork is tender. (less fatty cuts of meat will take longer to tenderise)

This recipe serves 4 . Serve with sticky rice or steamed rice and stir-fried greens.

If you try the recipe at home, leave a comment to let me know how it turned out for you!

In Search of Khao Soy

A friend who had recently visited Chiang Mai suggested we try her favourite dish – Khao soy. So here we are on our first evening in Chiang Mai at the local Sunday food and craft market near Tha Phae Gate inside the old town.

It's chaotic, the market street stretches for miles, stalls lining each side of the street and there are hordes of people here. Every 100 metres or so there is an entrance to a temple's courtyard where all the food vendors have set up shop with group tables and child-size step seats to squat on and have a quick bite. A sort of open-air food court, really.

But there is not just one - there are dozens, each courtyard has at least 10 kitchens, each serving up their speciality, some of the dishes are obvious to identify, other dishes not-so. I am overwhelmed by the choice of food here, a sensory overload.

We pause at at a stall watching 2 women shouting orders at each other (in Thai of course), one scooping handfuls of soft noodles into a styrofoam bowl which is then passed to the next woman who ladles steaming soup from one of three enormous earthenware pots, then a handful of deep-fried noodles are placed on top with a wedge of lime. People are queuing at this stall , so I order a soup with chicken to share with Adam. We squat on the tiny chairs at the group table and watch the man sitting opposite. There are various condiments he chooses from the table to add to his soup – 2 heaped teaspoons of dried crushed chillies, 2 heaped teaspoons of sugar, lime juice, fresh herbs, beansprouts and pickles.




Now it's our turn. I always taste first before seasoning. It's rich and creamy, thin slices of chicken breast are cooked-through and tender, the soup is yellow from the turmeric and mildly spicy. The contrasting textures of the soft egg noodles and the crunch of the deep-fried noodles makes this a really satisfying dish. Adam squeezes some lime, we taste again and its almost quite perfect, the acid from the lime juice cuts through the heaviness of the coconut cream and balances out all the flavours. We add a few sprigs of Thai basil and mint, a handful of fresh beansprouts, some pickled cabbage and a sprinkle of dried chilli, to make it extra special.

The man sitting opposite winks and smiles and says 'Khao soy good!?'

Khao soy so great!

The Dreaded Lurgy

Apologies to everyone who is reading this on a regular basis. Adam caught the dreaded lurgy and then I caught it, so for the past week we have had no smell, no appetite and no get-up-and-go to do anything but watch commercials in Thai and bad movies. They have two movie channels here and the programmer prefers to choose really bad horror films, some of them in English, some of them in German or French with English subtitles. So yeah, we have both been in boredam-land for a week but are now recovering and getting ready to explore and write some more, see you soon......