I don't follow sports. I just have never really been that into them. There are a few exceptions to that, of course. I love White Sox games and Blackhawks games live. I used to love going to Illini hockey games and had season tickets in Block I for football games back in college. And I watch the Super Bowl every year…if only for the commercials and taco dip....
My entire trip around Asia has been designed to get me to Bangkok right at this moment. It was part of the reason I decided to switch my initial flight in from Bangkok to Singapore. It was part of the reason I decided against getting a longer visa my first time in Thailand. Way back in September I was checking the day's competitive eating news from my apartment in Barcelona when I saw this on Eatfeats: there was going to be an eating contest. In Bangkok. In February. And that fell right dab in the middle of when I was planning...
After a night train from Chiang Mai I settled into my Bangkok hostel in Siam Square. The area was more geared towards shopping malls than anything else. But there would be a big eating contest in the area a few days later and so I figured it might be good to stay close to there for a bit. ...
Lighting paper lanterns in Chiang Mai, Thailand....
On my last day in Chiang Mai, Jenny and I took a ride out to Tiger Kingdom. It's a little zoo of tigers that you can get up close and personal with. And by that I mean you pay a lot of money to get your picture taken with a lot of big cats who may or may not be drugged. ...
Soup has always been one of my go-to comfort foods. There's something about a big bowl of broth that just makes me feel at ease. Maybe it's that, often, a bowl of soup will fill me up without weighing me down. Maybe it's that, always, a bowl of soup will warm me through all over, inside and out. Maybe it's just that soup is just that good of a meal. But I think, what it really is, is that soup holds us to so many memories. Chicken soup reminds me of those sick days home from school as a child. Lobster bisque...
The first time I cooked a bowl of curry was the first time I had tasted a bowl of curry. When eating Thai food at home and, well, in Thailand, I had always avoided curries. I assumed they were too hot. I assumed they were too spicy. I assumed, I guess, that I wouldn't like the flavor. I'd instead opt, always, for a big plate of noodles or a stir fry. Give me pad thai. Give me pad see-ew. Give me cashew chicken. But never curry. My first time traveling in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I took a Thai cooking class. At...
I learned to make this pad thai recipe at a cooking class in Chiang Mai. When traveling in Thailand, I'd often get these Thai fried noodles from street stalls, night markets, and even hostel restaurants. At home, pad thai is a frequent favorite in my GrubHub delivery cart. Pad Thai is a popular street food in Thailand with soft noodles and chewy tofu (and sometimes chicken or shrimp) coated in a sweet palm sugar and tamarind-based sauce balanced out with the hit of acidity and tartness from a squeeze of lime. There's crunch from a sprinkling of peanuts and, traditionally, bean...
One of the things that I've kept wanting to do but, for some reason, haven't been doing is take cooking classes. I love to cook and at home am always whipping up something or another for dinner, so the thought of learning to cook the specialty dishes of a country while in that country really appealed to me. When I got to Chiang Mai one of the first things I did was look into cooking classes, because Thai food is pretty much my favorite food ever. I chose to do Sammy's Organic Thai Cooking School because the woman at my guesthouse...