Asia Scenic Cooking School - Chiang Mai

Our Class (that is Mam on the left).

I am supposed to be starting Culinary Training at George Brown this January, although it looks like I might have to defer for a semester while I try to organize funding. Anyway, I came to Asia with the plan of attending a few different cooking schools to pick up a few tricks.
I spent a day checking the different options out before finally deciding on Asia Scenic Cooking School. Walking into the school I received a friendly greeting, from Mam the main teacher, and a break down of what we would be learning.
The other schools, which seem to be more popular, like Baan Thai and others, were more like factories than schools. All the prep work was done for you, and in some cases you had little choice in which dishes you learned to make. Not so for Asia Scenic, every step was hands on, to the point of making your own pastes, and tasting and smell herbs from their backyard organic garden. If different students chose different dishes you also got to watch them prepare their food, essentially learning them too.
All the photos from this post are the property of Asia Scenic and are reproduced with permission (Thanks Mam)
Making noodle dishes,
Pad Thai for me, just to see what if anything I was missing

Learning to properly wrap spring rolls,
for some reason I have always found it harder
than hand rolling Vietnamese fresh rolls.

The class proudly showing off their spring rolls.

Making deep fried bananas, made before the mains
as they are often eaten cold from little plastic bags from street vendors.

Prep work...chopping garlic

That's me cooking up some Cashew Nut Chicken

Our class relaxing after gorging
ourselves on all the food we made.

Chiang Mai BBQ

I couldn't tell you where this place is, or what it is call, other than by it is close to the shell station outside the moat. It is all you can eat for 139B/person (or just over $4/person Canadian), however you pay 30B for not cleaning your plate. For somebody like me this means a long slow meal, but one you can relish in.

I had been recently suffering from "slow digestion" but the Thai chemist/pharmacist totally sorted me out so this was the first real full-on meal I had eaten in days.

Old friends we met here 2 years ago, Greg and Janine, brought us here with their friend Eve who had recently made the move from Koh Lanta to Chiang Mai. These all-you-can-eat BBQ joints are common in Chiang Mai, and are quite popular with locals. Apart from us, the only falang there was with his local girlfriend. I had a rather long and interesting conversation with a man who spoke no English, and I of course speak no Thai.

The Table Is Set.


You toss a big chunk of fat on the top
so that meats don't stick. The juices run
down the grill and flavour the broth where you cook veg & prawns

Eve Working The Q

Janine teaching me the art of cleaning
a cooked prawn. And yes, I did suck out the head bits!


Greg starting his own prawn genocide.


The mid-meal prawn body count.
These are just Greg's. Ours paled in comparison.

Prawn corpses and Chang beer.

Greg's final prawn body count.

Lub'd - Pt II

So just had breakfast downstairs in the Lub*d.
Croissant was the best I have had yet in Asia, light and flaky like they should be. There is nowhere near the amount of butter that there should be, but it is understandable.
The coffee that came included? Just as bad as the first cup, thankfully they provided Abby with milk for her tea which she didn't use, so 2 shot glasses of UHT milk made it un-coffee-like substance at least potable.

No Name Part II

Mama's In The Kitchen
Makin' Up NoName

I got Mama to show me how to make it at home.
Here was a bit of a language barrier but I think I got it.
Veg. NoName
Shredded flesh of coconut (1 whole coconut seems to be enough for one large order)
1 - 2 Tbsp of palm sugar
1 - 2 Tbsp of Naam Po (not quite sure what it is but I think it is the water used to rehydrate dried shrimp; there was a pink sludge at the bottom but clear water on top, they said it is like fish sauce but different)
1/4 - 1/2 c of white flour, enough to form a very loose dough)
add desired veg (corn, cut up green beans, peas, et.al.)
Form into rough patties.
Deep fry.
NB Mama's had more of a shredded coconut texture, others have had more of a pakora/pancake feel, I imagine you could use coconut powder and adjust wet as needed.

Lub'd

Worst. Coffee. Ever.
It tasted like dish water and used coffee grounds accidentally brushed against one another in a subway.
It was like if a malicious man (not evil like Hitler or Stalin) were reborn as a cup of joe. It actually made me miss the instant crap with non-dairy creamer and too much sugar.