on sunday

the most fragrant soup base

Today was all about food - cooking it, to be exact.

The original plan was to take a cooking class in each city on my itinerary; however, due to various reasons, this didn't happen in Hanoi, Siem Reap, or Bangkok.  So I'm making up for it by taking a five-hour course, making five dishes along the day.

On the menu today:  pad thai, coconut seafood soup, spring rolls, green curry chicken, and mango with sticky rice.

that's right, the next iron chef

Here are some of the important things I learned today.  The pad thai I made was every bit as good as any I had tasted so far in Thailand.  I guess that means I really am that good of a cook.  Chili peppers come in numerous sizes - smaller equals hotter.  The number of chili peppers to put in a Thai dish:  one for mild, five for medium, ten for very spicy, and at least fifteen for Thai spicy.  Thai curry contains no "curry" - the kind that you buy in a packet.  I always envisioned any curry to contain some sort of curry powder, not so with Thai curry.  I made green curry (with one chili pepper) from scratch, its ingredients including all sorts of fresh herbs, pounded in a mortar, but no curry powder.  I suppose I'll have to invite you over for a sample after I return from my trip.  You can expect an invitation six to twelve months later, after a welcome back gift of mortar and pestle.

seafood coconut soup

spring rolls

pad thai

making green curry

green curry chicken

mango with sticky rice

Since it is Sunday, Tony and I visited the Sunday night walking market in the old city of Chiang Mai.  Roads are blocked along approximately 2-3 kilometers of road for individual vendors to display their goods (I estimate over 1,000 vendors present).  Walking on the seemingly never-ending street, I thought the entire population of Chiang Mai was present to take advantage of the cheap affair.  However, despite the huge number of vendors, there were truly only about 20 or so different sets of products, as most were the same touristic souvenirs.  You really couldn't expect anything more when it comes to cheat tourist shopping; it's the same in every city I have ever visited.  And why is it that even in European cities, such vendors tend to be Asian?

In the midst of hunting for unique items, licking the grease off the chicken skewer so it wouldn't drip onto my shirt, and staying on alert for cute guys, I suddenly noticed "I will always love you" playing from a nearby speaker.  I turned to Tony and gave him a I-know-that-song look.  "Whitney's dead," he said.  Of course, everyone knows that with all the drug abuse, her career is as good as dead.  Thinking no more of it but adding humming to the song to the already impossibly busy list of things I was doing, I walked on.

A few minutes later, another speaker played the same song.  What's with everyone playing the same piece of music?  "She died," Tony replied to my look.  What?  Whitney died, as in she stopped breathing; her heart couldn't go on like Celine's?  "Don't you ever listen?  I just told you two minutes ago!"  This is a typical conversation between my brother and me, by the way:  I react to things late, only to be reprimanded seconds later.

After returning to the hotel, I did a quick search to confirm what I already knew:  Whitney Houston died on February 11, 2012.  My reaction was simple shock (again, late), no sadness, since we weren't Facebook friends.

Given the circumstance, "I will always love you" seems to be as good a tribute as any.