Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice
By: Kayla Wilson and Sophie Brown

This weekend was absolutely unbelievable. After a Saturday that was jam packed with several tourist attractions, we woke up early Sunday morning and were greeted to the wonderful Thai Farm Cooking School Instructor, Gift. Gift was so bubbly and full of life as we hopped in the van and headed off to the market. 

We started our experience with the Thai Farm Cooking School at a local food market. Gift taught us all about several different foods in order to introduce us to the food that we would be cooking with. These foods included chili paste, sweet and sour sauce, coconut milk, and of course different types of rice. After our lesson, we headed off to the farm and we were beyond excited. When we arrived, Gift gave us a short tour around the organic farm. The farm had dozens upon dozens of different fruits, vegetables, herbs, and even their own rice field. It was so fun to learn and get to try new fruits and compare some Thai herbs to the herbs we are accustom to back in America. Following the tour, it was finally time to cook, yay!


We first began to prepare our Thai Curry Paste. We were given the option of making green, yellow, or red curry. Green and red curry is made with eggplant and yellow curry it made with potatoes. In order to make this curry paste, we took the ingredients given to us by Gift and mashed them up into one thick paste using a Mortar Bowl. After we finished the curry paste, we all moved to our indoor preparation station to begin making our first course. The first course was called Tom Yam Kung and it was an amazing soup that could be prepared with either shrimp, chicken, or tofu depending on preference. The soup included several delicious ingredients including bird eye's chili peppers, tamarind chili paste, coriander stem, and galangal. The finished soup tasted exquisite - it was light, tasty, and had flavors that were salty, spicy, and sour all at the same time. 

 Following the completion of this soup, we transitioned into the appetizer course - we made our very own spring rolls. We first made sweet and sour sauce as a group. Then, we made the stuffing for the inside of the spring rolls. The spring rolls stuffing consisted of several vegetables, tofu, and glass noodles. After preparing the stuffing, we learned how to roll and fry our spring rolls. The finished product was amazing, my mom would be so proud. I cannot wait to try to make them at home. 


After we ate our delicious spring rolls, we were already feeling pretty stuffed, but we had to dig deep because the main dish still lied before us. The main dish was fried chicken with cashews and curry. We first prepared our curry dish using the curry paste that we made at the beginning of the day. We then added sliced chicken, coconut milk, water, vegetables, and herbs. After we finished the curry, we set it aside and prepared our cashew chicken stir fry. The chicken consisted of chicken, cashews, carrots, chili peppers, oyster sauce,  and garlic. We've had our fair share of cashew chicken during our weeks here thus far, but let me tell you, this was the BEST. After we ate this amazing dish, I truly thought as if I could not eat another bite for the rest of my life. 











Staying true to myself, of course I managed to make room for dessert. The dessert was mango with blue sticky rice. The rice was colored blue by using a flower called butterfly pea flower. It was sweet, sticky, and the perfect compliment for fresh mango. My favorite part was the fact that we got to decorate the dish however we pleased. I decided to decorate mine like a palm tree :-)

Still a little stuffed from Sunday’s marvelous cooking class, we set out bright and early Monday morning. 

Our first stop was to a traditional Thai medicine clinic. In Thailand, traditional medicine is becoming increasingly scarce, and few people know how to practice it. In response to this loss of cultural heritage, the Thai government has initiated a program to add a clinic that practices traditional medical procedures to each Health Promotion hospital. These Health Promotion hospitals operate within each tambon (sub-district), and can serve anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 people as a primary care center. 

The addition of traditional medicine to the centers is primarily for use in rehabilitation from surgery, and physical therapy. These therapies can include Thai massage and herbal therapy. Some of the members of our group even got to sample some medical massage, which is a lot more intense than the massages we got last week. According to the public health workers at the center, about 25% of potential patients choose to supplement their care with traditional methods. These therapies are fully funded by the Thai government, in order to revive the traditional industry. 

The second stop we made was to Chiangmai University’s OneHealth Center for their PODD program. This is a relatively new idea, born from the OneHealth center, that uses modern technology to make public health, environmental health, and animal health more seamlessly connected. 

The central idea of PODD, which when pronounced in Thai translates to “look closely”, was the development of an app that allows PODD volunteers to report issues in any of the aforementioned categories. These reports go directly to the OneHealth department, the Ministry of Public Health, the Department of Agriculture, or any of the associated departments. The data collected by these reports are immediately available to any of the PODD volunteers, so they can track issues in their specific area, and be able to look out for anything similar, and report it themselves. 

This program, unique to Chiangmai Province, is honestly brilliant. Using modern technology to improve the health of everyone, including animals, and the non-animal, and non-living environment, is vital to moving forward with the goals of each nation, and the 2020 goals set by the United Nations. 

Hi guys, it's Kayla again. I had so much fun at this Thai Cooking Farm on Sunday. Coming from someone who burnt mac-n-cheese once, it was really awesome to learn how to make Thai food step by step. I got to try so many new ingredients that I typically wouldn't eat at all, and it was really fun to completely immerse myself in the culture. I also didn't burn anything and it all tasted amazing. Are you proud of me mom? ;-) This trip has been a dream and I really, really don't want it to end. 

Hi guys, it's Sophie. I’m loving my Thailand experience. It breaks my heart that I’ll have to go home in a little over a week. I’ll forever be thankful for this trip, and the incredible opportunity that I’ve had to meet, live with, and learn from the Thai people.