Beautifully drunken noodles

Continuing with the theme of food from the last post, I attended a Thai cooking class today. I owe my cousin Julie big time for suggesting this, because it was absolutely amazing, and worth every Baht (and it must have been so much better since I wasn't hungover).

Transportation was provided as part of the course, so each participant was picked up, and then driven down to the local market. Once we were all amassed there, we were each told to select what we wanted to make today - one each from the categories of curries, stir fries, noodles, soups, salads, and desserts. There were at least ten options in each category. After each of us picked our array of dishes, we wandered through the market, being shown exactly which ingredients were needed, and buying it all fresh.

After that, we drove to the course location, and begun our lesson. A couple hours and a very full stomach later, I had made six different delicious dishes - and to top it off, I only rubbed my eyes once immediately after handling chilli peppers! The following picture shows some of my creations. From top to bottom; Thai-Burmese curry, a glass-noodle stir fry, "Drunken Noodles" (the Thai name for this dish apparently litterally translates to 'too much whiskey', and is a favorite hang-over dish. Maybe you should have made that Jules!), and coconut soup. The other two dishes I made, although not pictured, were som-tum (spicy papaya salad), and the dessert - pumpkin balls in a coconut sauce. The food was absolutely delicious, and at the end of the class we each received a cookbook with all of the options listed, so once I return to Canada I can prepare delicious Thai feasts!

In other news, I have also finished my Thai language lessons. Although it wasn't as hard as I expected, I still have only one thing to say: I am totally screwed! I'm apparently as tone-deaf as my Grandma (just kidding, but still, none of you better show her this! haha), so speaking a tonal language is interesting to say the least. Perhaps I shall demonstrate. We will begin by examining the word klay (pronounced glie). If it is spoken with a flat tone, it means 'far'. However, if you say it in high tone, it ironically means 'near'. My personal favorite though, is suey. Spoken in one tone, it means 'beautiful', yet if you speak it in another, it means 'unfortunate'. I have a feeling that this language is going to provide for innumerable adventures...

Oh, my apartment was also recently broken into. Heres a picture of the culprit: