December 21st - Cooking Class at Mama Noi

Breakfast at the hotel cafe

All the Thai food you could want for breakfast. 

Breakfast room with more Christmas decor than we’ve seen here in Thailand. 

It looks like it would have been a beautiful sunrise with all the clouds but we couldn’t see it due to all the buildings. 

While waiting on our pickup for Mama Noi’s Cookery School, we decided to walk over to Zhong cafe and get Juniper another coffee. I’ve been wanting to try the chai tea over here and since it’s early morning, maybe I can handle a little caffeine with oat milk. It is so very good!

Ten years ago, Mama Noi had a simple dream – run a cozy hostel in Chiang Mai and make travelers feel at home. But something magical happened in her little kitchen.

Every morning, she’d cook for her guests. Simple Thai dishes made with love. And every time someone tasted her food, their faces would light up. That smile, that moment of pure joy – it became her addiction. “When people eat my food and smile, I feel so proud,” Mama Noi says. “Food is not just food. Food is happiness you can share.”

She realized something beautiful: when her guests learned her recipes, they didn’t just take home cooking skills. They took home pieces of Thai happiness. They’d cook for their families, their friends, spreading those same smiles across the world. That’s when Mama Noi knew her calling wasn’t just feeding people – it was teaching the world to spread happiness, one delicious dish at a time.

What started as a small hostel kitchen has grown into Chiang Mai’s most beloved cooking school. For 10 years now, Mama Noi has watched thousands of students discover not just how to cook pad kra pao or khao soi, but how food connects hearts across cultures. Today, somewhere in the world, someone is making Mama Noi’s tom kha gai recipe for their family. Someone is sharing her mango sticky rice at a dinner party. Someone is spreading a little Thai happiness, just like she dreamed.

“This is why I do this,” she smiles. “Not just for the people who come here, but for all the people they will cook for. The love multiplies.”

The first thing we did was go to the local market where our chef (Pam) showed us all the produce we will use in our class as well as many other things. There are many photos of the market, the organic garden at Mama Noi’s and the dishes we cooked. I wanted to document the class so just skim through as you wish. 

Baby eels

Frogs

Dried fish

Jellies 

Fried rice cakes with caramel drizzle. 

Bitter melon

Two different types of Eggplant

Spicy basil

Sweet basil

Chinese kale

Morning glory or water soinach

Bergamot - not used for cooking but for oils

These “sweets” are not edible but created for offerings to Buddha. 

Sprouting poinsettias 

Walkway into the cooking school

There were 11 in our class and another class of eleven in the same room. 

Each person picked one item from each group to cook. 

Our aprons, not to keep 

Once everyone picked their items, we walked out to the organic garden to give the sous chefs time to prep all the ingredients. 

Colleen, I always think about you when I see the butterfly pea

Dried butterfly pea flowers for tea 

Thai guava

Holy basil

White aubergine

Cucumber

Pandan 

Bergamot leaves 

Turmeric ginger - can rub it on bites to stop the itching. I tried it and it worked on my midge bites, which have not stopped itching for 10 days. 

Corn

Culantro (cilantro)

Garlic chives

More eggplant

Ready to cook

George the turtle

Sarah the other turtle 

We’re back in class and ready to start cooking. 

We had to pound our herbs and spices really hard for 5 minutes. 

Tbe curry paste is done

Ingredients for my khao soi

Juniper’s ingredients for her massaman curry

Ingredients for my cashew chicken

Ingredients all sliced and diced. 

Ingredients for Juniper’s Tom Yung Kung

And all sliced and diced 

Ingredients all prepared 

Ingredients for chicken in coconut milk soup 

My cashew chicken

Juniper’s stir fried chicken with hot basil 

These are my three dishes with toppings for the khao soi

These are Juniper’s three dishes 

We all made the mango sticky rice with butterfly pea tea for color 

And we all made Thai tea 

Cheers! We’ve completed the course. 

This is the brand of tea for the best Thai tea 

We left Mama Noi’s cooking school and they dropped us off at a supermarket, where we bought a few things cheaper than in the tourist markets.

Beautiful produce which of course we can’t take home 

Coconuts ready for drinking and eating 

Yellow bells

After the supermarket it was on to 7-Eleven. Apparently, 7-Eleven in Thailand is known for its very cheap, but excellent, hair care and cosmetic products. Juniper has been reading all about it and had a list of things to buy on our last day here. She had a basket full of things and spent less than $15. I’m talking about keratin hair care packets for 3 to 5 cents. It’s mind-boggling how inexpensive things are. For example, some of the best coffee in the world is less than $1/cup and fancy drinks were from $1-$1.35. A bottle of sparkling water is 30 cents. Shirts and pants were from $3-$9. Most of the meals we ate were between $1-$2. It’s difficult to even comprehend.

Butterfly pea tea and lime soda

We ended our remaining time going to the Sunday night market. Again, it was so crowded that you couldn’t stir them with a stick (as my mom would say).

We arrived back at the hotel at 7:30 pm and repacked bags while waiting on our taxi to the airport. It was suggested that we get to the airport three hours early for an international flight. Our flight left at 12:15 am, so we got there at 9 pm. The line was shockingly long and took us two hours to get checked in and then we still had to go through security. But we made it and the flight left on time for the incredibly long journey home. 

Over 800 miles in a Tuk Tuk
108.8 miles walked
100’s of markets
Way too many buddhas and temples

Loads and loads of laughter
22 delightful mother/daughter days
12 inns with very hard beds
11 new friends
7 river trips in boats/rafts
6 flights
6 countries (Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Burma (Myanmar)
4 caves
3 trains
2 cooking classes

1 bike ride
1 sky tram
Coffee, coffee, coffee and more coffee

and last but certainly not least - 2,901 photos

I can see why Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles. We filmed them, filming us as we rode by in the Tuk Tuks. They smiled and waved and the children giggled and ran alongside. 

The people are very kind, effusive with their thanks for every little thing, and always greet you with prayer hands, a bow of the head and the greeting: sawasdee ka (if female) and sawasdee krap if it’s a male speaking, even when you walk up to the checker at the supermarket. It’s a sign of respect and the deeper the bow, the more respect is shown. Older people get a deeper bow so you can imagine how deep the bows were that I received 🤣. What a grand sojourn this has been! If you ever want to see a part of Thailand that is off the beaten path, interact with the locals, and experience beauty unimaginable, I highly recommend a Tuk Tuk Club adventure.

Wrapped in Humility, our shepherd King

When we look into the night sky along with the shepherds, we see a host of angels. The shepherds are going through their normal duties of keeping sheep when suddenly the sky is filled with splendor and magnificence and song. Can you imagine their surprise?

But in light of where this child came from, the real surprise is not in the presence of an angelic throng; the real surprise would be the absence of an angelic throng. What would be surprising is if God could come in a moment in time, and do so in a way that wasn't accompanied by some measure of the splendor that was due Him.

In eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit shared coequally in all God is. The Son who was about to become incarnate was possessed of the glory of God, the likeness of God, the image of God, the splendor of God, indeed, everything that makes God God. Everything that caused the angels to adore God was there in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we begin there, the impact of what follows is staggering.

The hymn writer of the Christmas carol captures it in two lines:

"Thus to come from highest bliss, Down to such a world as this!"

The Holy Spirit wants us to understand where Christ came from. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5-7, "Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."

Wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger... wrapped in a towel and wiping his disciples' feet. Taking the form of a servant.

Jesus did not approach the incarnation asking, "What's in it for me, what do I get out of it?"

In coming to earth, he said, "I don't matter." This is what it means. He "made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."

God’s Word has the power to transform our hearts, renew our minds, and anchor our lives in His truth. My advent journal was designed to give me space to slow down, write Scripture with intention, and respond to the Lord in prayer. When we copy God’s Word onto the page, or attempt to illustrate it in some way, something beautiful happens. It lingers longer in our thoughts, and the Spirit often highlights words or phrases that speak directly to where we are. Pairing Scripture writing with prayer turns reading into a conversation with God. As you reflect and respond, my hope is that the pages from my journal that I shared with you become a meeting place between your heart and His. I pray this journal is a blessing and an encouragement to you. May it draw you closer to Jesus, give you fresh joy in His Word, and remind you of His presence in every season, not just this Advent. Until we meet again...Merry Christmas!