Three Weeks at Three Trees Part I
Backstory:
Before coming to Thailand, it was always in the cards that I would continue working on my cooking skills and try to learn Thai cuisine. I have taken cooking more seriously in the last few years, so I really want to make sure that I find the right people to surround myself with here in Thailand.
After being in Thailand for a few months now, it has been difficult to continue my journey through cooking for a variety of reasons. One being that getting food made for you at a restaurant, food stall, or anything like that is too easy and cheap. I can easily walk two blocks from where I live and get some of the best fried rice, fried chicken, soups, and much more for just 60 cents to $2-3 per plate.
When preparing and cooking Thai food one usually needs an array of ingredients as well as various kitchen tools just for one recipe. Many homes do not have the space or money to accommodate this so many eat from local stalls. This cuisine lends itself to food stalls and restaurants specializing in one or two dishes because of the amount of ingredients and work necessary to prepare each dish. It seems to me that it doesn’t lend itself to cooking a wide variety of foods, unless you have a farm, or huge kitchen, and a lot of time on your hands. That is why many food stalls or restaurants have the name of their specialty dish in the name of their establishment. It will be the primary dish they make.
It has also been challenging to cook because many of the grocery stores' products are unfamiliar, and it simply costs a lot more to buy the necessary ingredients. Not only that, but with a small electric stovetop and mediocre kitchen tools, cooking has been more of a hassle for me. Since being here I have been in a bit of a rut, but I don’t want these challenges to get in the way of me continuing to cook. That said, I became motivated to seek out a more formal method of learning Thai cooking.
Getting There:
In Seattle, our friend May (who is from Thailand) prepared us for our future move to Bangkok by sharing a long list of restaurants she wants to try in Bangkok. She also shared a few Thai food Instagram accounts to follow and so far, nothing has disappointed. There was one account on Instagram in particular that I kept a very close eye on. The owner of this account was a man by the name of Hanuman Aspler. I have now learned that he is a French-Israeli trained doctor who decided to move to Thailand more than thirty years ago. Hanuman fell in love with the culture and the food and has been here ever since. While he started in Bangkok, he eventually made his way up north to a remote neighborhood in the Doi Saket District in the Chiang Mai Province. He started collecting old Thai cookbooks dating back hundreds of years. He cooked the recipes and found out how certain dishes were prepared back then. Through his studies of Thai history and cuisine he became especially interested in the food made for the aristocracy.
This is one of many old cookbooks Hanuman showed us from his collection for us to take a look at.
You rarely see things on his Instagram that you would consider “modern day” Thai cuisine. Each picture almost always has a date from the 1940s and earlier. I became fascinated by what this man was doing. He would advertise that he teaches private cooking classes and to contact him for details. Once I was settled in Bangkok, I decided to send him an email inquiring about what he offered and how he was different from other “cooking classes” or even culinary school. His response was this,
Dear Eric
Thank you for writing back. Culinary schools will teach you skills and recipes but will not offer you any shortcuts to freehand cooking gained by experience.
Intensive course at Three Trees will give you the tools for freehand cooking of Thai curries, relishes and salads, and also the time to work on regional cuisine.
Freehand cooking means that you will be able to understand the ratios of the ingredients, the anatomy of the dish, calculate correct seasoning and all from scratch without a written recipe.
My teachings are based on a unique teaching technique that I designed with a solid reputation and results. And the best thing is that it's suitable for both the beginner cook or a professional chef.
Hope it clarifies what you are looking for,
Hanuman
We continued a dialogue for a while and I ended up committing to take part in a 12-day intensive course learning Siamese Culinary Cuisine. I warned him that I am a home cook with no professional training but he assured me that it would be fine. He told me that there would be one other student with me. She was Thai and her name was Thip (pronounced “tip”). The lessons would be in English. Phew!
So I packed my bags and headed to Doi Saket. It is an hour outside of the city of Chiang Mai in a quiet rural neighborhood named Mae Pong that didn’t seem to attract much tourism. I spent most of my stay at my hotel when I wasn’t working at Three Trees. Luckily, the hotel I booked was in the same neighborhood as Three Trees. This was convenient because Hanuman had a driver who would pick me up and drop me off each day.
I did not know exactly what to expect. I had only been in Thailand for a few months and only knew a few Thai dishes. Was I in over my head? Would I be able to keep up? Do people like me opt into these intensive classes?
Day 1:
On the first day, Hanuman picked me up himself. I couldn’t believe it! After watching several videos and interviews of him, it was like meeting a celebrity. Which to be honest, he kind of is. He is well-respected within the Thai and international culinary communities and he knows many Michelin chefs. Seeing his property in real life as well as some of his staff that I recognized from videos was really cool. The whole property leading up to his house was a massive garden that most of his ingredients come from. Behind his house was a large pond and a beautiful view of the surrounding mountain range.
I met Thip and her mom, Nok. Thip was the other student I would be spending the next several weeks with. She is a 33 year old who has already owned a restaurant, started a cooking school and was taking this intensive course to begin a chef’s table in Bangkok. For those who do not know what a chef’s table is (I didn’t at the time) it is a dining experience where there is usually one large table, or bar style seating, where anywhere from 2-10 guests eat whatever the chef prepares for the evening at a set price. The kitchen is usually in sight and there is often only one seating a night. It can also be in a restaurant kitchen for guests of the chef. Chef’s tables are fairly common here in Bangkok.
Upon hearing about her background, I was beginning to think I made a mistake. That I indeed was in over my head and wasn’t going to be able to keep up at all. Hanuman assured me that it would be fine.
We began our first day of class by talking about Thai food history and what we understood Thai food to be. In this initial conversation I was shocked to learn that the only actual food completely native to Thailand is nam prik, or chili relish. All other Thai food throughout its history had influences from other areas of the world. Fascinating. We discussed how color decisions are made and we talked about recipes by visualizing it as a home with a solid foundation, and how it needs walls, floors, and a roof. If you are a visual learner, Hanuman is the guy for you. His methods of going about a dish were unfamiliar to me but soon became clear. Through the decades, he has developed a system that works and gives a well-rounded foundation for attempting, creating, and defining Thai dishes.
Yes, this looks confusing but it was these sorts of diagrams that we made that helped us visualize what was going on in certain dishes. This diagram happened to be of a salad.
At this point, what I knew about Thai cuisine amounted to very little. It became clear to me that I was more familiar with Thai-Chinese cuisine rather than “true” Thai cuisine. And even saying “Thai cuisine” now sounds naïve to me because Thailand is a large country with four distinct geographical areas. These areas lend themselves to four major regions of different styles of Thai cuisine. But even still! Within these regions there are cuisines that have been influenced by spice and trade routes that connected Thailand to China, India, Muslims, and more! It’s a lot, I know, trust me. Anyways, the point is, the history and dishes of Thai cuisine are rich, deep, and extensive. For the next several weeks, we focused on curries, soups, salads, relishes, and one plate meals. These types of dishes, when served together, make up the vast majority of Thai cuisine.
This first day had a little bit of everything. My first task was to deshell and devein prawns. I’m from the midwest and have practically zero experience with fish. This is true when it comes to both eating and working with it. I asked for a quick one-prawn demonstration and then I was off. After separating the head from its body, we squeezed out its brains (or tomalley) and saved it for extra umami for the dish. This was all new to me and I knew right then that the days to come were going to be magical.
We learned the universal ratios for curry pastes which would allow us to make curry pastes freehand moving forward. We made a clear soup that completely changed the way I viewed flavor. We made sure that every dish had elements of umami, smoke, and fat while also making sure that most dishes had a balance of salty, sweet, and sour. I gave my forearms a workout by making pastes from scratch using a mortar and pestle. It was an exhausting first day but I could tell I was going to learn a lot and that I had a lot to learn.
After class, Hanuman’s driver, Joy (a man), got ready to take us back to our hotels after class. Because I was travelling alone, Thip kindly offered an evening of drinks with her and her mom. We figured we would be seeing a lot of each other and we should get to know one another. I was very thankful for this gesture and it was great getting to know Thip and Nok. Thip knows a fair amount of English, although sometimes things were lost in translation. I could immediately tell she was someone who was very smart and an incredible chef. I was intimated while also feeling thankful for having someone like her with me on this journey.
During these few hours getting to know each other a life changing event occurred. I finally found the first non-sour beer I actually like and can drink more than a sip of! It is a local Thai beer called Singha (pronounced “sing”). I couldn’t believe it. I honestly never thought this day would come. I drank five or six that night and many more in the nights to come.
Day 2-3
Over the next two days, we discussed the science behind taste vs. flavor. We made visual charts and diagrams to help us understand a range of topics. Triangles (of flavor) are your friend! We got a tour around various parts of Hanuman’s garden and saw many of the plants within it. We got to see his grill/smoker area. We made friends with several of his dogs. We grilled fermented shrimp paste (which we later would make time and time again). We got to see many of Hanuman’s staff including Ploy, a woman who has been with Hanuman for many years. She frequently would come in while we were cooking to wash dishes and help prepare some of the meats.
After day 1, each morning worked like clockwork. It would start with reviewing any questions we had from the previous day. Then we would get a history lesson or learn the context for the various techniques we would learn and dishes we would cook that day. We would be given a packet of recipes for the dishes we would be making and discuss them. Almost every day began by reviewing the curry pastes for the curries we would be making and spending the next hour or so pounding the ingredients for the pastes. By the end of these 12 days, Thip and my right arms would be jacked.
Two Days Off:
Working twelve straight days would be a lot for anyone. That's why Hanuman gave us a few days off throughout our stay to break up the twelve work days. I was unable to find a ride to Chiang Mai so I could visit my friend Steph (remember her from our Chiang Mai post?). Instead, I decided to stay in the neighborhood and explore the surrounding area by bike.
The first hour was great. I got to see the small little shops around and I even found a hot spring! I was most impressed with the nature and rolling hills I was in the middle of. Cows roaming the streams of water and land. Rice farmers were out working the land. However, I soon realized that the bike I was riding was not a very sturdy bike and the hills were getting rather steep. Since I did not know where the roads led or how steep the hills would get, I decided to turn around and try and find a place that rented scooters. Unfortunately all the shops with scooters were repair shops, not rentals.
I decided to turn around and head back to my hotel. I am not an athlete and with a not-so-great bike, riding in the heat was going to be impossible. I was also tired of all the bugs and butterflies that kept flying into my face as I was riding. It made for some dangerous dodging and jolting. I decided I would just hang around my hotel. After a bit of exploring, I quickly learned that our hotel owned some land off to the side of the main café where there was a little fenced in Bunny House full of 30 or so bunnies for guests to play with. This made my day and I stayed to play with them for a while.
Besides relaxing, I finished my two day break by watching What We Do in the Shadows for the first time. So good. By this point, I had made friends with the kitchen and café staff. In particular, a guy named Byte. He was one of the few who spoke English and was interested in why a farang (foreigner) was staying in Mae Pong for so long.
Most nights during my stay I would show him the dishes we made and he would taste test my leftovers from that day’s class. This became a daily routine. It was great to have someone to talk to and discuss Thai food with after work.
To be continued...
Check back soon for the second half of my adventure!
