This post has been a little while coming! Most of you will have forgotten that there was a part two to come about Friday in Chiang Mai, but for the sake of a complete record here it is, completely out of order.

Once we were back at the guesthouse and the children were resting up in front of cartoons on the laptop (the free wifi comes in handy when the kids need to absolutely chill out) Gaye and I settled down to plenty of water and a couple of Chang and Leo beers while Dan flipped through a Thai recipe book.

He was taking a cooking class with Orn in the afternoon, and had been told to select four recipes for dinner. He chose fried Chinese water spinach, red curry with roast duck, roast duck salad, and stir fried curry catfish.

A vendor had arrived at Baan Boo LOo in the morning selling a massive fish, and Orn had already bought a large chunk in anticipation of the afternoon’s cooking class. Then she and Dan jumped into a tuk tuk and headed off to the local food market to purchase the remaining ingredients.

Dan also bought a few “snacks” for us to nibble on while he was preparing the food. I can’t say that I was keen on the fried caterpillars, although I did at least try one. Neither of our daughters was interested, although the twelve year old daughter of our friends was brave enough to give them a go. Apparently they are cane grubs.

Then it was onto the cooking, under Orn’s tutelage and the assistance of other staff. If only there were always people around to chop things up and clean up after you!  Apparently Orn told Dan that he knew his herbs and spices much better than most of her pupils. Dan does often cook Indian dishes at home, so his experience there had paid off.

There were twelve of us at dinner that night; two Australian families and one American. It was a superb meal, with great company. Dan stayed up late solving the problems of the world with the American dad over a couple of glasses of wine. What an amazing day for everyone.  Ah, I am SO nostalgic for Baan Boo LOo.