Since winter is coming and melbourne is famous for it’s sudden weather changes, i need to keep warm. Sure, i have my cute hot water bottle almost every where i go. It’s too cute to keep at it home.

I needed drink ideas that will keep me warm and it has to be something else other than coffee, tea or hot chocolate. First, because i can’t sleep if i drink caffeinated drinks (well, to be honest i become super energetic and started to clean the entire house if i do drink coffee). Secondly, i always put condensed milk to go with the coffee or hot chocolate (KAMU GENDUT!!!!)

So, you get the idea. Thus, the barley drink. I love love love barley drink, i only discovered them when i went to singapore recently, i know..it’s way too late…plus, we have plenty in indo eniwai..

I don’t know how to make ‘em so i googled it and found this recipe from Curious Foodie. Since hubby is not interested with the barley drink, i am only doing a single serve, a little bit modified from Curious Foodie’s recipe.

Ingredients

1/2 cup uncooked barley

3 tablespoon rock sugar (rock sugar is very mild, at least in my opinion… do adjust accordingly)

5 cups of water

Method

wash barley in a couple of change of water, I soaked them for 5 minutes because i like my drinks to be a bit cloudy and starchy. Bring the water and barley to boil in medium heat then i spoon out the bubbles. Lower the heat, add the rock sugar and bring to boil. Remove from heat, let it cool and serve.

Note: to check whether the barley is done or not, it should be slightly translucent and chubby looking barleys!

=]

So, here we go. We managed to arrive in Chiang Mai on sunday afternoon, just in time to see the famous Sunday Market held in old city of Chiang Mai. It also helps to stay in a hotel that is smack bang right in the middle of the sunday market.

We love our hotel, 3sis bed and breakfast, a family run b&b, mostly by the girls. Clean, spacious, strategic, very very gentle people, soft linen, do i need to say more? and oh, not expensive at all. Photos of the hotel can be viewed from my flickr on my thailand set.

Chiang Mai is a very nice town with great food. It is generally a quiet town but during the festivals like Loy Kratong, it can be a tourist destination from all over the world. This is the sunday just before the Loy Kratong week, so i’m assuming it is busier than normal sunday market.

Temples and streets are decorated with colourful lantern. Stalls are preparing for hopefully a busier and profitable sunday from the people who are coming to see the festivals.

Unfortunately there’s only so much room to taste the food. We had a hard time deciding which few ones we are going to try. One bad thing with culinary trip is that I almost feel guilty if you are eating the same food more than once on a trip, because, what if the other dish is the dish that you will love for the rest of your life?

This Khai Pham is omelette with three different fillings and you can choose, mushroom, seafood or crab. On the left of the image you can see the eggs are still being cooked. Taste wise is mediocre.

Next, we have the Thai fish cake, small pieces dipped in Thai sweet chili sauce.

Hubby loves this thai salad/fried rice kinda thing, it’s called Nem Kuk and it is with young papaya salad, mixed with balls of fried rice like this. It is so fresh and yummy. Hubby asked the lady to make it spicy, he said he can eat spicy food, but it was so hot that i got angry eating it (i know, i’m weird, i got angry if i eat food that is beyond hot… hehehe).

So far, we had good luck with the dishes we tried and we love the mini portions, that means more sampling with less food. I had my eyes fixed on the thai desserts, oh yeah, i don’t mind not trying the savoury ones as long as i have my sugar fix.

This is called Thai Kheb, it’s crepes with soft meringue filling and choice between carrot shavings or coconut shavings. 10 baht for 4 pieces.

Most of these street vendors have motorcycles attached to the cooking area, that way, they can set it up almost anywhere. Plus, they have a place to sit while waiting to sell their food.

Some of you probably have seen this in indonesia. It is called Look Chop in Thai, they are made with mashed green bean paste mixed with sugar and have gelatin coating with some colouring. It is then shaped to mini versions of vegetables and fruits, most often is the chilli, carrot, tomatoes, capsicum and others. I didn’t try this because i already know what it tasted like. My grandma made this few times years ago.

As you have guessed it, we are not there for the shopping, even tho they have some unique stuff that is NOT made in china, for a change.

They also have few entertainers singing and dancing. This group that we saw was all performed by the visually impaired. Their music is modern, fresh, good rhythm and they use the simplest music instruments. Watch out, they might be the next big thing, just wait till some producer discovered them.

You would’ve taught that having all that music is going to be really loud and you can hear it from a kilometer away, but Thais are so polite, they have enough sound just to be heard by their surroundings, so they are not fighting for attention with other singers nearby. How considerate.

We stayed for few days in chiang mai, taking our time to actually rest, it is a holiday after all. Where is the resting if everyday is a full day tour and sight seeing (or eating) annnnddd… we found out that chiang mai morning is absolutely to die for. Their gentle breeze and cool mornings (like the one when u wake up at 5.30 in the morning) lasted till about 10.30. It was so fresh i felt i woke up at 5.30 every day. When you say chiang mai, it would be the mornings that i would remember.

Next post should be very interesting, about my cooking lesson in chiang mai. Watch this space!