Many (many) moons ago, I worked on the very first book that
Travelers’ Tales ever published, a travel anthology on Thailand.
And while I’ve worked on over 100 books since that time, it remains my
favorite. It was the first book to take me to a faraway exotic locale in a
magical way that only really good writing can accomplish.
To celebrate the publication of that first book, and many
more to come, I learned to cook Thai food. Inspired by a story by Kemp Miles
Minifie about the cooking school at the famed Bangkok Oriental hotel, I went
out and bought a wonderful cookbook by Vatcharin Bhumichitr and taught myself
about galangal and nam pla, red and green curry, long beans and satay. This was
back in 1992, before Thai food became mainstream, so I had nothing to compare
it to.
Ten years later, the publishers wanted to update the book,
and I found myself on a plane going halfway across the world to replicated
Kemp’s experience. For ten days, my friend Jen Leo and I ate our way through
Thailand. First at the Bangkok Oriental, where we had some supreme digs and I
had 3 days of intensive cooking classes. (We floated on the Chao Phraya,
wandered the streets, and had the opportunity to eat thai food at both street
carts and fancy restaurants.) Then we went south to Phuket, to Mom Tri’s
Boathouse, where we lounged on the beach, went sea kayaking, visited Koh Phi
Phi (don’t you love these names?) and had another 2 days of cooking classes. I
came away fat and happy.
Since that time, Thai cooking has been a part of my
repertoire. And recently I had to privilege of sharing that with a friend. Jan
retired two years ago, and as a gift I offered her a cooking lesson. Yes, she
is of retirement age, and yes she can cook, but I was thinking of a fun
activity we could share and bringing something new into her kitchen. So this
week, we set to work and I was the teacher instead of the student.