Day 7 - Luang Prabang

Cooking class started this morning at 8:30 a.m.  We met a few other folks at the Tum Tum Cheng Restaurant and got our cook books.  The woman who ran the class, Linda, told us a bit about traditional Lao cooking and about the cuisines in Laos and Thailand.  She also explained that galangal, lemongrass and kafir lime leaves were the three absolute staples of Lao cooking.  Aside from that, they use coriander (cilantro), ginger, shallots, basil, long beans, and many types of chiles.  They also have two kinds of rice - sticky and steamed - and there are different varieties of each.  Sticky rice is the common type that Lao people eat at most meals.

Our recipe book

 After the introduction, we met the other folks in our group, a nice couple traveling the world from the UK and an older couple and their daughter from New Zealand.  Linda instructed us all to pick five dishes we wanted to cook out of our books and we chose green papaya salad, lemongrass chicken, fried chicken with red curry paste, tamarind beef stew and chicken larb salad.  From there, one of the other crooking school instructors took us on a tour of the local market for ingredients.  There was quite a bit to see at the market - more foodstuffs, clothing and knickknacks.

Chili sauce

Baguettes

Fermented fish

Market scene

Linda's spread when we got back from the market

Our chopping stations

 When we returned to the cooking school Linda taught us how to make a tomato rose with cucumber leaves:

Her example looked way better.  I didn't take a photo purposely so you couldn't compare :).

We chopped lemongrass, kafir limes leaves and galangal for a few minutes to get the feel for the right way to mince, slice and pound the ingredients.  Then we moved to the kitchen to start cooking.  We each got to help make various dishes:

Sylvie making fried chicken with red curry sauce

Henry making green papaya salad

Me making tamarind beef stew

It was so interesting to see how the ingredients came together to make the rich flavors of the dishes, even though we only cooked each dish for ten minutes or so.  The depth of flavor was impressive.

Finally we sat and enjoyed the fruits of our labor!  The meal was spectacular.  One gentleman put it aptly, "This is the best meal I've had here and it was cooked by a bunch of foreigners!"  

Our meal!

Class ended around 1:30 p.m. and we each received certificates of completion.  We passed!  We were pretty tired, so headed back to the hotel for a short rest before deciding what to do next.  Around 4 we grabbed a tuk tuk to the bank of the Mekong and jumped on a long boat for a river cruise during sunset.  Our boat driver took us up river for about 30 minutes and then we drifted back down as we snapped photos of the gorgeous scenery:

Common long boats along the river bank

Of course, thirsty for a drink, we found a small bar on the river and had a cocktail and watched the moon rise.  The town is so peaceful that it's easy to forget you're surrounded by tourists.

The moon shining off the water 

We had reservations at an Indian restaurant at 7, so we walked over and grabbed our seats.  The food was alright, but not quite as flavorful as we're used to.  I forgot to take pictures again, oops.  

Andrew was still feeling under the weather, so we got in bed early, with our thoughts on what to do on our last day in Luang Prabang.  It feels like our vacation is going by so quickly.  How has it been 7 days already???