Thai farm cooking school

Chiang Mai, Thailand. Comercial and cultural hotspot of northern Thailand. We took it upon ourselves to a bit of cultural enhancement for our own lives - so we signed up to do a day learning Thai cooking and a day learning Batik.

Of the hundreds of cooking schools now available in Chiang Mai, we settled on the Thai Farm Cooking School. This was the only option we found that took us out of the city limits, to a quieter, greener environment.
I was amazed at the clean, calm atmosphere of the food market we stopped at. In every respect it resembled all the other market's i've seen in SE Asia, except
it was tidy, clean and relaxed. The instructor, a small Thai woman, not more than 30 years old, gave us a brief tour o the market, explaining a little about curry ingredients, the many types of rices, and a bit about how to find our way around the market. Then she asked us which dishes (from a selection of about 18) we would each like to prepare. It took her only a short time - maybe ten minutes - to collect ingredients for all seven of us. Meanwhile, I paced off the dimensions of the market and sketched some details for later use this fall in my design studio. Brooke quickly found the closest Cha Yin cart and we both partook of some delicious Thai iced tea. It's going to be hard when I have to pay more than 50 cents for a big bag of Cha Yin.
When we arrived at the "farm" we got a short tour of the various plants that we would be using to spice our dishes, as well as some of the major ingredients. The farm was more like a big garden, which appeared to function solely as a learning environment, not as a food producing business.
The food was fabulous - while it may not compare to Thailand's finest, I'm pretty sure I was on par with the best Eugene has to offer. If only I could repeat that performance at home.

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The following day we joined another couple for a day long Batik class. The four of us were taught by a very friendly thai woman (Anne) who has a studio in her home. She lives with her husband, daughter and mother. While we spent the morning drinking tea and learning the basics of Batik, Anne's mother prepared lunch for us. By the end of the day we had two complete projects to take home. If I learned a bit more about preparing the wax, getting the temperature right and so forth - I just might try to incorporate Batik into my Architectural work... where there's a will there's a way