Thailand: Day 5

Our first full day in Chiang Mai ... We learned yummy breakfast was the perfect start to vacation in general.  It happens to be Gabe's absolute favorite meal of the day, and neither of us actually have breakfast during the week at home.  We know we should, but often a cup of coffee or two does the trick for us.  

So, we enjoyed every bite at our darling boutique hotel, Baan U Sabai

Deciding how to spend the day as it was our "free day"

AKA one of the few days I didn't pack it full of activities ...

Our done-up selves *before* stepping out into the humidity

Truck-ride through Chiang Mai

AND, we took another recommendation from TripAdvisor (shocking, ha!) to do one of the most popular activities, Thai cooking class.  We chose the Siam Rice Thai Cookery School as it was the #1 rated cooking school and #3 of #171 activities in Chiang Mai.  We couldn't have been more thrilled with our choice.  

This was something I was pushing and Gabe agreed to do for me ... and he ended up enjoying it just as much, YAY!  It really was SUCH a highlight.

I would have never imagined cooking a Thai meal completely on our own just with verbal direction from the owner himself.  For each meal, we had four choices to pick from, and Gabe and I went with different ones so we could try a variety of menu items.  We had read to come hungry!!

The fixings for Cashew Nut Chicken

Making magic happen!

Gabe's lighting things on fire :)

Enjoying every bite of our first (of THREE) meal

His face says it all ...

Taking a quick break with our friends before curry time,

and who knew we would need it as making curry paste was exhausting.

Sculpting carrots

Prepping us with our ingredients for our different curry meals

The fixings to make the curry paste for Penang Curry

Following his verbal direction

I have a new appreciation for curry paste as it was seriously the hardest thing ever to make.  It is normally made fresh daily at Thai restaurants and my goodness using the pestle and mortar almost wiped me out.  I still couldn't get it fine enough to Thai standards (oopsies), so Siam had to help me a little as his hands could just go go go!

Siam Cooking School - Making the curry paste from Kelsey Smith on Vimeo.

Everything is officially prepped for my meal, now off to cook it!

Such an amazing day together

Nom nom nom!!!!

My scrumptious Penang Curry

and Gabe's Massaman Curry

What fun, I forgot to document our dessert.  Just trust me, it was amazing.

And then we were off back to the Old City 

with our friends from London, Belgium, and Cayman Islands

*Did you love the video, I rarely post them but have a ton!