In the picture, the buckets in the front row have sticky rice, while the buckets in the second row have jasmine rice (each of different qualities, that explains the price differences). The prices per kilo are between 50 and 70 euro cents, with the highest quality jasmine rice (not in the picture) going to almost one euro. If you look closely, you can really see the difference between the two types of rice: sticky rice is very white, while jasmine is more cream colored. But the differences go deeper than just the visual: in the field, sticky rice doesn't need much water, while jasmine rice is grown in rice paddies that are constantly covered in water. In cooking, sticky rice must be steamed, while jasmine rice can be cooked in a pot or rice cooker. In usage, sticky rice can be used for desert (the high starch content makes it almost sweet), and it is eaten with the fingers (make a ball and dip it), while jasmine rice is eaten with a spoon, and only as a side dish for savory food.
The second stall that I found fascinating was the nut shop. They had many different kinds of nuts and snacks which looked really amazing on display:
I bought a bag of peanuts that had a unique mix of spices that I'd never seen on peanuts before: chili, sugar and kaffir lime leaves. SO GOOD! Especially the kaffir lime leaves were amazingly aromatic and added a great flavor to the peanuts.
After we were finished in the market, we got in a van and drove out of Chiang Mai to the farm. There we were greeted by a Thai welcome snack:
To eat the snack, you take the green betel leaf and fold it twice, then open up one of the folds as a pocket and add one cube each of ginger, shallots and lime, a little bit of fresh chili, three roasted peanuts and a pinch of roasted and grated coconut meat. On top of that you put a teaspoon of sweet syrup (which has fish sauce and sugar, and I'm not sure what else). Then the entire creation goes into the mouth - and chewing, you are greeted by an explosion of flavors. Yum!
Since the school was located on an organic farm in the countryside, there were all kinds of animals around. For example, these pigeons who were parading around with their beautiful tail feathers constantly on display.
After the welcome snack, we went to work on the first two dishes, a stir fry and spring rolls. These satiated our initial hunger and gave us strength to work on the remaining dishes - especially the hand-made curry paste turned out to be a good piece of work. These are the ingredients for three types of curry paste (top left: red; top right: green; bottom: massaman). To make the curry paste, all the ingredients had to be chopped up finely and then ground using a mortar and pestle. I already knew how to work a mortar and pestle efficiently (from grinding chocolate in Guatemala), and so my green curry paste turned out very nicely.
Having made the paste, cooking the curry itself was a breeze: add coconut milk, curry paste and chicken to the wok, stir for a bit, add vegetables, let boil for a bit, add seasonings (the standard Thai seasonings that are used for most dishes are sugar, fish sauce and oyster sauce), and finally add kaffir lime leaves and basil leaves - done!
The curry I made is in the lower right of this picture (it is eaten with rice, of course, which is not in the picture):
The other dish is a Tom Yum soup, also delicious but not quite as good as the curry. I think that being in Thailand may make me a major curry addict, it's that awesome!
