‘Now You See It, Now You Don’t ,or, Chasing the Elusive Chef Permpoon Nabnian’’

First off, an apology to the reader.  I reread my last post after I put it up on the blog.  Ugh!  Where is my editor when I need her?  Although I am not renowned for my patience in editing I will endeavor to do a better job in the future.  Sometimes I think my life’s motto is ‘if you can’t fix it with a hammer, then just break it’.

Also, a note about the pearls in coconut milk recipe mentioned yesterday.  The pearls are made with tapioca flour.

Now, on to today and the cooking class that wasn’t.  This is another example, actually a double example, of why it is better not to have expectations.  Several days ago I booked three days with ‘The First Cooking School in Chiang Mai’ run by the renowned chef Permpoon Nabnian.  I booked on line and got an automatic email back that the booking was made.  However, I never received any further communication from them.  So, I sent a follow-up email yesterday asking them to confirm that they would pick me up this morning, the first of the three days, and did not get a reply.

I asked the desk clerk to call the school this morning and the phone went unanswered.  I think either it’s closed for Chinese New Year (no notice to that effect on their web site) or the celebrated chef has been abducted by aliens.  But, I did not want to give up because the school offers several unusual dishes. 

I tried in vain to book a class at other schools early this morning when it was apparent that Nabnian was a no show, but they were either closed on Monday, or perhaps not open due to the Chinese New Year.

Then, later this morning, among the 100 plus brochures at the hotel  I saw another brochure listing Nabnian as the chef but with a different school name.  I make an online reservation for the next two days.  The brochure also had Nabnian’s personal email address so I sent him an email explaining all of the above.  Voila, he answered and said I would be picked up in the morning and have two days of classes

. 

Not so fast pilgrim.  I get an email this evening saying ‘sorry but I can’t attend a class tomorrow but I can the day after.  So at 7pm this evening, working with the clerk at the hotel we try six other cooking schools for tomorrow.  All booked.  Maybe I should have made the heading for this blog ‘screwed out of two days of cooking classes by chef Permpoon Nabnian’.

 

I class all this as a mild frustration.  My goal this trip is to attend between 20-25 day long cooking classes.  Assuming 12 of my 37 days will be taken up in transit between one point and another, the chef is eating into my goal. (is that a pun or what?)

So, no cooking today.  But eating, yes.  Since the hotel restaurant was still closed (Chinese New Year again) I went in search of another restaurant for breakfast.  About a quarter mile from the hotel I found one that serves an English Breakfast.  So after grilled tomato, beans, toast, sausages and eggs I sat in the restaurant happily tapping away on my netbook’s keys.  I think I may have found my favorite breakfast restaurant for the rest of my stay in Chiang Mai. 

However back to Nabnian in a round about way.  I ate dinner at the ‘Hot Chili’.  The restaurant gets reviews all over the map.  There was certainly nothing wrong with my large Singha beer and everything right with the succulent duck breast that had been lightly grilled and sliced thinly.  The meat had that rich color that only duck can have done medium rare, verging on rare.  It was served with steamed veggies.  This was hands down some of the most tender flavorful duck I have ever eaten.  The light savory sauce it was served in was sublime.

But what has this to do with Nabnian you ask.  I am very interested in meeting him and asking about the future of Thai cuisine, and in particular his take on fusion cooking.  There was a large article in the Bangkok Airways magazine about naming the top 50 chefs in SE Asia and how Thai cuisine is evolving.  I’d like to get his view of things given his international credentials.

 

It was my dinner that brought this thought to mind.  The steamed veggies that accompanied the duck included cauliflower, carrot, potato and an oriental veggie I normally use in stir fry.  It’s leaves were dark green and had an almost sensuous flowing design the way they lay on the plate.  Its slightly pungent flavor was a nice accompaniment to the dish.  My dinner could have easily been served in a US restaurant and we would have thought ‘aha, what a great idea to include an oriental veggie’.  

Although the dinner experience can be classed as a relatively benign example of fusion cooking, it was enough to make me think about searching out other fusion cooking experiences during the next month.