You Get to Eat What You Cook

OR better yet, given that it was just me and Mickey in attendance at cooking class today, "You reap what you sow"?
We did great, however, and we wont forget what we cooked, at least until we do our laundry, because Mickey proudly wore each ingredient on his t-shirt when we left the class.
In preparation for the class today, we "crammed" last night by having dinner at the Tamarind restuarant in Luang Prabang. Dare I say, it was the best food we have had thus far in Laos, and one of the top so far? So what that it was also one of most extravagant meals we have had, at 240,000 Kip (that's 30 US dollars)
But, I digress. I mean to give menu...
Last night's set menu was appropriately entitled "A Taste of Laos". It included, for 120,000 Kip a piece, a glass of wine or large beer (Beerlao)each; chunky bamboo and vegetable soup (with young pumpkin); then came a platter of Lao "specialties" with sticky rice and sweet chili paste on the side. It included LP sausage, dried Buffalo (a delicacy here), leafy green vegetables, smoky eggplant dip, mild tomato salsa, and dried river vegetable chips with tomoato, garlic and sesame seeds (WOW); the main courses were herbed fish steamed in banana leaf served with this amazing sauce of stir fried young pumkin and kaffer lime and ginger; lemon grass stuffed with chicken (really yummy too). Dessert was purple sticky rice with tamarind sauce and sticky rice cookies.

So, the program today at the Tamnak Loa Restaurant's cooking school (school, restuarant, adjacent bookstore and inn owned by a Brit with Lao family-she is a whole other story) went like this:
Mickey and I showed up at the designated time of 10:00 a.m. We were swooped away by the chef, Leng, and the driver of a tuk tuk who took us to the local market. I cannot even fairly begin to describe the markets all over Southeast Asia. You can get everything there and that is where everyone shops, every day!
Fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, flowers, seeds, herbs and spices, clothing, housewares...(but I digress again!)
Leng chose many of the vegetables, spices and herbs we would be using throughout the day. After about an hour, we got back into the tuk tuk and went to school.
There Leng prepared the first two dishes that Mickey and I would eventually have to attempt on our own. Leng was organized and methodical in his technique. He was neat and efficent in his cutting and preparation. He (and then we) prepared Luang Prabang Salad with a special mayonaisse dressing made from scratch, and the "Feu Khua"-Sticky rice noddles with chicken and vegetables.
We were as messy and disorganized as Leng was otherwise, but it was fun and we had some great laughs and photo ops. We had dishes strewn everywhere and had to keep looking up what and how we were supposed to cut ingedients and the order of things. The wok was pretty easy to cook in, even though we just about incinerated it roasting garlic, apparently not using the right amounnt of oil. We then ate the "first course" at around lunch time. We were exhausted!

After lunch, with three hours to go (what! no nap?), Leng made five dishes of which we were to choose 3 that we would make ourselves.
They included, "Hicken Larp" (chicken salad); Kheu Sen Lon (Vermicelli noodles with pork, vegetables and woodear fungus); Geng Phet (Chilli Casserole); "Oh Paedak" (Lao Pork Casserole); Khua Maak Kheua moo (Fried Eggplant with Pork) and chilli paste "Luang Prabang Jeowbong". For those of you who know how I love eggplant, we had to make one of the eggplant dishes; Mick loves the Larb so chose that one, and then we mutually decided on the dish made with coconut milk.
We had a serious cnversation during lunch and decided a better gameplan for the afternoon of cooking was to get organized BEFORE we launched into the cooking thing, both of us being pretty impulsive. We also were intent on making a good and lasting impression on our teacher (which I am sure we did)
The results were pretty impressive if we do say so ourselves and WE GOT TO EAT IT ALL, with some to "take away", as they say here.
We also were given a cookbook with all the recipes and explanations; one recipe is for one of the best lime pies I have ever had! ( we got one of those to go too!)
It is no wonder these folks dont weigh 300 kilograms! But, they don't. All healthy foods- no preservatives, tons of fresh veggies, fruit and other ingredients.
We will practice the recipes on our family first and then maybe open a restaurant when we get back to the states....
We are also willing to cater for private events, but book well in ADVANCE as I am sure we will be in demand.