The Sweet Life

There's no better way to travel than to stay with locals. My college roommate May is Thai and most of her family lives together in a beautiful complex in Bangkok. They opened up their home to us while we stayed in the city. We planned on staying there for a weekend, but they convinced us that we should stay for a week. May's cousin Ji, her Aunts Pa Dang and Na Tui and her Uncle Long Nit made sure we saw all of Bangkok's essentials; seeing Avatar at a 3-D Imax theater, eating shrimp the size of lobsters and going out in style at a skyscraper bar that overlooks the whole city.

Sure we did all the major tourist sites too, like Ayutthaya and the Grand Palace, but it was so much easier to be driven to our first destination of the day with a fabulous Thai breakfast in our stomachs. We came "home" in the evenings talked about the day's happenings over some of the best food we've eaten in Thailand and a fun game of Russian poker.

May's Aunts have traveled to more places than anyone we know. They flew to India the day after we left and are heading to Morocco next month. I hope I'm half as cool as them when I retire.

Thanks again for adopting us into your awesome family! Hope we can show you a good time in Denver soon!

-Jenn : )

Taste of Thai

We search everyday for somewhere to eat our favorite Thai dish - som tam, also known as spicy papaya salad. We are addicted to it's delicious spicy, sweet, sour and salty flavor.

One of the things I've missed while traveling is a kitchen to work in. To help with the withdrawals and to learn how to whip up our favorite dish, we took a cooking class at Thai Farm Cooking school. The fabulous class was held at their organic farm outside of Chiang Mai. We even took a little video for those of you interested in bringing a taste of the orient into your kitchen.

For those of you who don't have 8 minutes of your life to waste on this video - here's the recipe:

How to Make Som Tom

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shredded green papaya (Peel the papaya and rinse under running water. Remove the seeds and shred the flesh with a grater).
• 3-4 Thai hot chilis
• 2-3 peeled cloves of garlic
• 1/2 lime
• 2 tsp sugar (we used palm syrup in class)
• 1/3 cup of fresh chopped green beans
• 1 tomato cut in 6 pieces
• 2 tbsp peanuts
• 1 tbsp fish sauce (can sub soy sauce)
• 1/4 tsp salt

Green papaya can be replaced with cucumber, cabbage, carrot or granny smith apple.

Put garlic and chillies into a mortar and mash with a pestle until crushed (or you can use a food processor). Add lime, sugar, peanuts, fish sauce, tomato, green beans and salt - mix together. Finally add shredded papaya and mix together well with pestle and spoon. Serve cold with fresh cabbage, lettuce or morning glory. Eat with sticky rice.

If you'd like more recipes - send me an email or leave a comment and I'll send them your way. I was really happy to find out making pad thai and curries are a snap!

Enjoy!!
-Jenn : )

Thai Talk With Chai

Our white water rafting guide gives us a few tips on speaking Thai. Join in our frustrations...

These shots were filmed on the Pai River between Pai and Mae Hong Son, Thailand. If you're in the area and want an adventure alternative to traveling by bus - check out Thai Adventure Rafting.

Adventures in Fruit: Durian

We've been trying lots of new fruits in Thailand... thought we'd share the experience.

Our Indonesian friend Z has been telling us about durian for years. We finally got the chance to check it out.