Tag Archives: Thai food

Cooking Class

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Hello Friends,

On Saturday we woke up bright and early and took a uber to our cooking class at Maliwan. It was truly a hidden gem in an alleyway, and to this day I have no idea how Annie found it a few years back all by herself. We had a great menu planned: pork phad see ew, yellow chicken curry, cucumber relish, emerald chicken with a sauce, and mango with sticky rice. We started by taking tuk-tuks a few miles down the street to yet a different market. We picked up a variety of different things as our Chef Mae explained about various Thai foods.

Mae described a green plant called morning glory, which is often pan friend in oil and eaten as a common Thai side dish.

We saw a banana flower, which as 10-15 mini banana seedling hiding behind each leaf. They are often eaten as a palate cleanser after greasy food, although Annie tried them and didn’t care for them. We also saw baby watermelon, which has a thick skin of multiple inches and is often cooked and used in curry’s similar to potatoes.

After picking up our groceries we headed back to the cooking school. Chef Mae had prepared a majority of the spices for us, but we were able to watch her explain a few steps of the recipe and then make our own exactly how we liked it.

We started with chopping up some onions and garlic and mixing it with some spices to add to our chopped chicken. We mixed it, wrapped them all up in leaves and left them in a bowl to marinate while we worked on other things. We came back later and cooked our chicken in oil for just a few minutes until browned.

Next we worked on our yellow curry. We diced onions and garlic, cut up a chili (you can add more if you want more spice). We sauteed our spices first, then added oil, chicken, coconut cream and coconut milk. I added sugar to make mine a little sweeter and salt for flavor. Yum.

Next we worked on the various sides: emerald chicken sauce, cucumber relish and the sticky rice. The emerald chicken sauce was pretty easy, as was the cucumber relish (mix up vinegar, sugar and salt with diced cucumbers, peppers and onions. We started the rice cooking in a double boiler as we worked on the creamy sweet sauce in a different pan. Chef Mae had already pre-rinsed and soaked the rice for us, so cooking of all the sides went quickly.

Our last dish we made was the phad see ew with pork.

We started with chopping up everything, and from there it all went into the pan with a little bit of oil. We had to keep stirring it in order to prevent it from sticking to the sides of the wok.

From there we put it all together and sat down to eat! There wasn’t much talking as we were all quietly eating! I really liked being able to personalize my curry to be milder, sweeter and creamier. It was interesting seeing the different colors of curry everyone had as they had added 1,2, or 4 chilies to their curry’s.  Yum.

Have you ever made any of these dishes before? Or tasted any of them? So good!

Love,

-S

Asiatique, Poolside and Nahm

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Hello Friends,

After our canal tour, we rested for a bit at our hotel. We ended up walking down along the river to a small touristy attraction called Asiatique, where there was a ferris wheel, shopping and food.

We were so hungry at this point, we basically were getting cranky. We stopped at this place called the Dishes and the parents said it sounded good. In we went. We ordered a soup and pineapple fried rice.

We walked around the outdoor and indoor stalls and explored what they had to offer. We wanted something sweet to finish off our dinner, so we stopped by a dessert place, where I got a coconut popsicle and Annie got the mango dipped in chocolate with almonds. The parents got a strawberry toast.

On our way walking back out to the street, we saw this amazing wall of locks, very similar to ones hanging on the Pont des Arms in Paris. We walked all the way around and it was very charming.

Our second official day in Thailand dawned bright and early thanks again to jetlag. I was up at 4:30 and really really needed a cup of coffee. I got dressed and Annie and I went downstairs to check out this buffet that we heard about from one of Annie’s friends. It was pretty tasty. So tasty in fact that we ate there again today. But after eating the buffet and feeling very full, we decided to lounge by the pool for a little bit.

Armed with sunglasses and sunscreen we made our way to the 6th floor, where there’s a lovely view of the river as you sit poolside (see below photo from our balcony). Both Annie and I blogged and then popped into the pool to cool down. It’s been around 85 with full humidity and only an occasional wind, which was stronger by the pool, less so in the city.

From there we stopped by the hotel cafe to fuel up on quiches and tea before walking to a Thai massage place. Despite the unique name, it was a good place.

Annie and I walked back to our hotel where we freshened up for an evening out. We called an Uber for all four of us and off we went to Nahm, which is in the Como Metropolitan Hotel a few miles from our hotel. Nahm had recently been named the 5th out of the 50 best restaurants in all of Asia by the S. Pelligrino.

Annie and I ordered six dishes for the table, and man was it good! The flavors were great, and there was only one dish that was on the spicier side. We all agreed that the pumpkin curry was the best dish there.

We ordered dessert, one I was familiar with (mango and sticky rice!) and one new one with corn, rice, mangosteen and coconut cream. Our service was great, and the whole restaurant was very modern and elegant.

As we arrived and still as we left it was raining hard. We were lucky enough to have covered entrances or else we would have been soaked! We all were pretty tired at this point so we called it a night and went to bed.

Love,

-S

 

 

Subbing, Singlebarrell,and a New Job

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The last few days have been crazy busy, so thus the radio silence.

It all started Monday with a job interview. The interview went well, and Tuesday night they offered me a teaching contract. They had a vacancy and I had to jump to get everything settled. I had already agreed to sub for Los Gatos for a few days, so I had to sub and then run around after a full day of school trying to get all the details worked out. I took a TB test, fingerprinted, printed and signed my contract (it was like 30 pages!) and scouted out things at the school.

Last night the family, Roomie and I went over to Singlebarrell, this epic Prohibition era style bar in San Jose. We got there early and enjoyed a nice cocktail (or two!) before grabbing Thai food for dinner. We saw this yarnbombed tree, and it made me laugh.

A yarnbombed tree in San Jose.

A yarnbombed tree in San Jose.

I got my keys to my classroom today!  I start Monday. I will teach intro to art for two periods and then I am the Site Testing Coordinator for the rest of the day. I will be giving tests like MAPS, CAHSEE and CELDT. Sounds like fun eh? But the best part is that it’s at Roomie’s school so we can hang out together at work, just like last year!

Now I am off to my mother’s birthday dinner. Tomorrow, my best friend Robert will pick up his swanky new car.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Do you have any weekend plans? Was your week exhausting like mine was?

-Love,

S