From street-side indulgences that rival fine restaurants to spectacular curries and pastries, Thailand has a robust and adventurous culinary scene — especially in Chiang Mai, where we learned to make drunken noodles.
Story by Lena Desmond | Photos by Outpost/John Price/Michael Fraiman
We pummelled pestle against mortar, grinding chilies to a paste, flexing our forearms and spinning our wrists, winding and grinding our hips too, which, according to Chef Nancy of the Siam Rice Thai Cookery School, is the secret ingredient to good curry paste.
The ever-exuberant Nancy slides a glance at Sue and I with a twinkle in her eye. “This is how we find out if you will make a good wife!”
She winked, jigging her wrist up and down even faster. “I make lots of curry paste and I have four children.” (Today men are also doing the wiggle in the kitchen to ensure their partnering status.)
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- Team Outpost doing kitchen prep with Chef Nancy at the Siam Rice Thai Cookery School, where we learned how to made drunken noodles, among other things. (Outpost/John Price)
Thailand has a culinary scene that is as robust and diversified as French, Italian or Chinese cuisine. The pork lollipops we devoured outside the Black House in Chiang Rai for less than a dollar each could have easily found a spot as an appetizer on a Michelin Star menu; the barbecued-squid-on-a-skewer found in a Bangkok back alley were steeped in a sauce that made a chorus of carollers start singing in my mouth; the green curry delivered in banana leaves on the train from Kanchanaburi put Western fast food to shame.
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- Scenes from Thailand’s spectacular cuisine scene: Here, trying out durian fruit, street side. (Outpost/John Price)
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- Speaking of durian, Asia’s legendary stinky fruit, Team Outpost opts for a durian-filled pastry, and it was delicious. (Outpost/Michael Fraiman)
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- Learning to try, and maybe even like, new, maybe even unfamiliar food sources, is definitely a big part of the adventure. (Outpost-John Price)
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- The well-grilled scorpion-on-a-skewer was crunchy and delectable! (Outpost/John Price)
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- If you ever get to the Black House in Chiang Rai (known locally as Baan Dam) be sure to look for street vendors selling pork lollipops, and eat till your heart’s content! (Outpost/John Price)
Even the smallest roadside indulgences could rival the taste sensations from the finest restaurants back home, especially in Chiang Mai, which some call the culinary capital of Thailand. Upon arriving in Chiang Mai after a four-hour bus ride from Chiang Rai, we were famished and about ready to devour the rubber off our shoes. So we immediately booked ourselves into the first cooking class we could find.
Nancy took our crew in with open arms, promising a visit to the local food market and an evening at her home, where she would impart her culinary wisdom on our clumsy Western tastebuds. We agreed we’d try not to burn her house down.
In the comfort of her home, we learned how to make a soup, a noodle, a curry, and a dessert, gaining a greater understanding of the fine art of Thai taste balance. We learned that each dish is a yin and yang of sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and bitter.
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- At the Dreamer café in Lampang, we had one of the best burgers we’ve ever had! (Outpost/John Price)
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- We also indulged in some scrumptious breaded shrimp, with a side dish of curried rice, of course. (Outpost/Michael Fraiman)
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- Speaking of curry: a display of Thailand’s famed curry pastes at a local market. (Outpost/Michael Fraiman)
Delicious! From a large menu of choices, I chose to learn how to make my favourites: tom yum soup, pad Thai, pumpkin curry, and mango sticky rice. Sue chose her favourite—coconut chicken soup—and something that promised to be a little out there.
“I chose Thai drunken noodles!” she said enthusiastically, her dreads cracking like whips as she bounced up and down.
“Sue!” I laughed, “that’s ironic given your oath to remain sober for a year.”
“I’m not in it for the booze, the heat burns it off anyways. I’m in it for the spectacle! I get to set the noodles on fire! ON FIRE!”
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- Scrumptious fish at a local institution, the Riverside Bar and Restaurant, right along the Mae Ping river in Chiang Mai. (Outpost/Michael Fraiman)
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- Along with the fish, we indulged in some delicious flat rice noodles, coconut curries, and ice cold locally-brewed beer. All in a day’s eats in Chiang Mai. (Outpost/Michael Fraiman)
I then became slightly petrified remembering a piece of information she disclosed in passing earlier in the evening.
“I once set eggs on fire.” Dear reader, think about that for a second: Eggs. On fire. “How is that even possible, Sue?”
“No idea. But I did it.” So when I lost points on Nancy’s rating scale for cutting my peppers incorrectly, Sue got a little smug, flashing her perfectly chopped peppers in my face. Things quickly turned around when we got to our burners, and she couldn’t figure out “how to turn this damn thing on!”
“I know how to turn it on,” said Nancy, with another wink. “You know I have four children.” While we’d yet to burn down the place, when it came to setting fire to the drunken noodles, neither Sue nor I had proven ourselves worthy of lighting the concoction ablaze.
With a touch of cackling laughter, Nancy doused Sue’s pan with hard liquor, and we watched the sauce erupt into a mushroom cloud of sweet, sour, spice, salt, and lightly singed eyebrows, pushing us back to the outskirts of the kitchen, as Nancy laughed at us, maintaining control of the pan.
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- To make the drunken noodles, Chef Nancy douses the pan with more than a dab of hard liquor. (Outpost/John Price)
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- And as the sauce erupts in flames, Team Outpost looks in awe as she adeptly controls the burn. (Outpost/John Price)
Her house remained intact.
The secret to Nancy’s teaching approach? “When you teach Thai cooking, you teach from your heart. If you cook from your heart, your food will turn good. If you cook from your happiness your food will turn good.”
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- Lena and Sue, now master Thai chefs: Lena with her pad Thai, pumpkin curry and mango sticky rice; Sue with her drunken noodle dish. How yummy can it get?! (Outpost/John Price)
It’s true. As we sat around the table, sampling our hard-earned wares, happy and hearty, our food was better than good. If you ever find yourself in Chiang Mai, visit Chef Nancy. If our undomesticated, egg-burning selves can pass her course while producing something delicious to eat and having many a laugh along the way, so can you.
Hey, this is what can happen in Thailand if you stay a while!
