Friday, January 26, 2024

Life Is A Movable Feast

That's the title of what is still my favorite Ernest Hemingway book, quite possibly because I read it as a 21 year old on my first trip overseas (motorcycling to Canada a couple of times isn't exactly "overseas").  I was in Paris, and it fit my trip perfectly.

After the market, we went to Vannee's Classic Home Cooking to make four meals.  I was quite nervous, given my epic fail at the Myanmar Cooking school all the way back in 2017, but everything went well.  Becky from Michigan, also nervous about cooking, jokingly assigned herself washing the dishes, while, in the same spirit, I volunteered to set and clear the table.  Turns out we were both happy with the way our food turned out, much to our surprise.

We made four dishes for our lunch -- way more food than I could eat.  We made Nam Prig Gaeng Kiaw Wan (yes I had to look up the spelling, and no, I can't pronounce it -- but neither can you).  It's a Green Curry Paste, that I believe went on the Gaeng Kiaw Wan Gai/Nua, which was a green chicken curry.

We also made Pad Krapao Gai, which is stir fried chicken with hot basil leaves and chilies, followed by Pad Thai (easy to spell, easy to pronounce, easy to eat!).

Those were followed by a dessert of Khao Niew Mamuang, which translates as sticky rice with yellow mango. 

Vannee's approach made it easy -- there were 12 cooking stations set up, so everyone had plenty of room.  She had enough helpers that all pots and pans were washed afterwards.  We had to chop multiple ingredients, but others were pre-measured out (such as the amount of chicken).  She and helpers would come through frequently to add oils and other liquids.  

The fact that I didn't have to figure out how much "stuff" to add all but guaranteed success.  We all happily slurped down our meals.

Success in the kitchen is much better than failure!  (By the way, grilling IS my thing, but that takes less work than actually kitchen cooking.)

The pictures below aren't in order.  Some were taken by me, some by Carol, and some by Bun.

Becky showing off her
mad knife skillz.

Vannee shows us how to
use a mortar and pestle.

Stuff I ground up!

Carol's finished lunch.

Well, the sun unfortunately wreaked havoc
with this photo, but the Allens were
a happy cooking couple.

About to enjoy the result of my cooking.

Group photo.

Yet another group photo.

One of the two rows
of cooking stations.

Early in the process, hoping for the best.

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