Thai foodie

Our recent trip to Thailand was a real treat to the foodie in me. Our host, Dr. Maria Laosunthara and the staff of the International Relations Department of Srinakharinwirot University saw that we get a sampling of Thai food by taking us to some of the best restaurants around the Sukhumvit area, where the university is, like Baan Kanitha and Wanakarm, and international franchise S&P, that has a branch along Chao Phraya river. In photo are the shrimp cakes in sweet-sour sauce by Wanakarm (right), and S&P's version of the famous pad Thai noodles.

We also had lunch in a riverside restaurant at Ratchaburi province. The food there was more local and inexpensive compared to those in Bangkok. Our best bet was the crisp fried fish that was bigger than the plate and deep fried squid rings.

But the best food experience was at Chang Mai, when we enrolled in a cooking course at Baan Thai, a homestyle cooking school featured in Lonely Planet. There were six of us in that afternoon class, a couple from UK, a swimwear model on vacation from the US, a college graduate from the Netherlands, and the Philippines was represented by UP graduate and beauty queen Marnelli Sales and myself. Our teacher was a young chef named Boom, which according to her is Thai for "dimples."

World's best tom yam by me, of course

We agreed to cook tom yam, fried cashew with chicken, Panaeng curry with pork, and green curry with chicken. To save on time, we skipped the marketing part of the class and agreed instead to prepare our own green curry paste. Preparing the curry is an experience with herbs and spices, not to mention the laborious method of pounding the ingredients into paste.

From left, my version of Panaeng curry with pork, green curry with chicken, and fried cashew with chicken and young corn

We voted our official most popular food in Chang Mai the Kao ob saparod or pineapple fried rice with shrimp served at our hotel's restaurant. The Kao pad thai with crabs is generously topped with thumb-sized crab meat.

Pineapple fried rice by Huen Luang Prabang restaurant at Chang Mai