I don't know if it is because I am a tourist, staying in a hotel or if this feeling is just a result of experiencing the beauty of Thai culture, but I feel like a royal. I am being treated like a king.
Every morning I go down to my fabulous breakfast buffet and am greeted by warm smiles, a warm greeting, and the beautiful "wai" - the Thai way of greeting. It is a prayer-like gesture, hands pressed together and raised to about nose level. I feel as if a red carpet has been thrown down every time I pass through the lobby. What a difference from the "diga" in Spain!
And then there is the food! It is everywhere. Every little space on the sidewalks, every alley, is filled with people cooking up something. Most of it is not terribly tempting to me - a lot of fried stuff, hot dogs, fish balls, etc., but it is everywhere and I have never paid as much attention to it as I am on this trip.
But of course, my favorite dishes have been the ones I've been making in school. Yesterday we had the head chef, the founder of the Blue Elephant. I think her name is Noon. When I first took classes there in April 2008, I met her daughter, I think her name was Sandra. She was a lovely woman who was half Thai and half Belgian. She told us about her mother starting this cooking school, which specializes in Royal Thai Cooking. She has actually cooked for the Royal Family.
There was also a Belgian film crew there yesterday interviewing Noon and filming our class. I guess I will appear on Belgian TV some time in the future!
We made four delicious dishes yesterday. We started with Massaman Curry with chicken. Noon explained where Massaman Curry came from, but like most of the teachers, it was hard to decipher a lot of her English, and it was complicated by the fact that she was pounding the spices in a mortar while she was talking.
Massaman means Muslim, but I didn't get the connection, since it seems the curry was introduced to Thailand by some king in the past. Perhaps it was imported from some other place? Maybe Malaysia. Noon said it is one of the most difficult curries to make, and our curry was delicious, well, mine was anyway. She showed us how to make the paste, but for our own curry we used packaged curry paste (Blue Elephant brand) and added some extra spices - cinnamon, cardamom and bay leaf. The spices were really wonderful in the curry and if it had cooked even longer, I'm sure it would have been even better. I can't wait to try it at home.
Next we made a steamed fish with lime dressing. The fish was steamed in a steamer with herbs - lemon grass, galangal and lime leaves, and then we made a yummy dressing with lime, chili, garlic and coriander root. How can anything with those ingredients not be totally yummy? It was one of my favorite dishes so far. It felt like it was healthy and was so fresh and delicious. I'm glad I am learning some ways to cook fish, since I am so intimidated by it.
Next we made pork with black pepper and lemon grass. Noon showed us how to fry lemon grass and then we stir fried the pork and put the fried lemon grass on top. It was okay. I think I cooked mine too much, but I was afraid to eat raw pork.
And our final dish was a delicious soup with asparagus and chopped prawns in coconut milk. This was an old traditional recipe that Noon updated with asparagus for foreign cooks. It is normally made with lotus root, but since it is not available in most Western countries, she makes it with asparagus. The combination of prawns, asparagus and coconut milk was delicious.
We ate our lunch in the restaurant. The class was fairly large, and it was a nice group of people. There were students from Australia, the UK, a few Americans, Japanese and Taiwanese, and one guy who I guessed might have been Belgian or French. We were a really happy crowd.
After lunch, I came home stuffed and had to rest a little. It was kind of warm, so it was a good time to take a nap.
Later, I went out for a walk, and stopped to get a massage. I had a one-hour massage and the pressure was perfect. My body felt so tight and it was so good to have it stretched. They tried talking me into a "combination" massage. I am not sure what that is, but they said it is more deep pressure and not so much stretching, but I told them I really needed the stretching. I guess Thais are learning that foreigners do not appreciate the Thai style of massage - well I do, and it was just what I needed. They had a sauna in the massage place but it wasn't too hot so I didn't stay long. I showered and left.
By then I was getting hungry, but I was so full earlier, I didn't want to eat a full meal. It was evening and the vendors on the street had changed to the night-time crew. Silom Road was buzzing as the night market geared up and Patpong prepared itself for a night of revelry and gawking tourists. I passed several options for food - chicken and rice, noodle soup, fried chicken, and finally stopped for some satay - well, I thought it was satay. I got two chicken and two pork skewers, but instead of satay sauce, they put chili sauce. Fine by me. I ate them as I walked back to my hotel, totally satisfied with my day.
I slept really well and had to drag myself out of bed at 6:30 so that I could use the treadmill in the gym and get to breakfast in time to make it to the cooking school by ten. I guess there was no need to rush, but it was nice to wake up feeling refreshed and satisfied (and hungry). The morning was deliciously fresh and cool and I opened the windows in the exercise room while I tried to burn off some of the extra poundage I've picked up in the past few months. I am so glad I am able to be in Bangkok during the "cool" season. It's 68 degrees now according to my computer (Thais are probably walking around with winter coats on) and will go up to a chilly 84 today. I'm used to it being so hot and humid here that walking feels like you are moving through hot water rather than air.
I'm almost sorry I am going to leave here, even though I am looking forward to Bali. I think in the years I've been coming to Bangkok, I have had a range of feelings about the place. Mostly I like it, but I reach a point where the traffic, the heat and the noise eventually start to wear on me. This time however, I have found a new sweetness about the place. Is it because I am getting older and able to appreciate the subtle charms beyond the surface, or is it because Bangkok somehow is becoming more charming?
All I know is that right now I am feeling like a king, and it's a nice feeling.
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