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The Joy of Cooking Exotic Food with Congenial Companions in My Own Cozy Kitchen

5/17/2021

8 Comments

 
Cuiline / Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
"The person who gives food," the Buddha once said to his monks, "gives longevity, pleasant complexion, happiness, stamina, and intelligence." Amen to that!

​There are few things that make me feel more at home than chaos in the kitchen. Having grown up in a large, boisterous family and hosted countless pot-luck dinners, I love the hubbub, companionship, and delicious meals that somehow miraculously result from the combined efforts of an excessive number of cooks working feverishly in a confined space. It’s one of the things I’ve missed most during the pandemic and was overjoyed to experience again on Friday.
 
My friend Kathryn organized the whole thing, and emails flew back and forth for weeks. My last to her said, “Rich is sharpening the knives!” It was only after hitting “send” that it struck me as sounding a bit ominous — the sort of sentence traditionally followed by, “We’re going to the mattresses!”
 
Luckily we were prepping for a very different kind of occasion: a Zoom course in making Pad Thai, the stir-fry noodle dish that’s a beloved staple of Thai cuisine. Kathryn, her husband Pete, Rich, and I were cooking at our house, while six other friends plus a handful of strangers around the country were joining in via Zoom, letting us all chat with each other as well as the chef.

Cuiline / Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
Chef Rachel seemed astonishingly perky for someone giving a class at 4 am Bangkok time. We asked about pandemic conditions there. She told us they were on lockdown at night, and somehow managed to make it sound like she was grateful to us for alleviating the boredom.

Although there were only four of us physically present in my kitchen, we managed to make as much fuss and noise as a small army. I kept glancing down, vaguely surprised no dogs or small children had materialized underfoot. The chatter from our online classmates created a nice background buzz as we chopped and stirred and called out, “Where’s the fish sauce?” and “Who has my pandan leaves?”

Cuiline / Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
These pandan leaves were folded, tied in a knot, then floated in the coconut milk to add extra flavor to the dessert: Kluai Buat Chi, Bananas in Coconut Milk.

​The truly brilliant part of the Cuiline cooking courses is that they mail you all the hard-to find components, such as proper rice noodles, dried shrimp, and palm sugar, which are all pre-measured and shipped from a supplier here in the US. You then go to your local market for the ordinary ingredients, like fresh shrimp and bananas, and follow detailed written instructions with onscreen guidance from a professional chef in whatever country the dish hails from. (See link to Chef Rachel's recipes below.)

Cuiline / Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
Part of the fun was unpacking the exotic ingredients shipped to us in advance of the course.

​As I decanted the fish sauce into a mixing bowl, I wrinkled my nose at the fermented anchovy smell (the subject of many revolting comparisons such as wet dog, stinky feet, and zombies). Yes, truly a smell only its mother could love, but a dash does add a piquant depth to the dish, as do the crunchy, salty dried shrimp. I carefully refrained from describing to Kathryn and Pete how I’d once seen villagers drying that kind of shrimp in Vietnam. It was shortly after the rainy season, and dry land was in short supply, so each family threw down a tarp on the main street and spread out the catch of the day. You could just about maneuver a small car down the middle, but if you met an oncoming vehicle, somebody would have to swerve over and drive on the shrimp; I watched it happen, with something akin to horror. To this day, I can’t help feeling the crunchy chewiness of dried shrimp owes something to road grit and rubber tires.  

Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
I took this photo of a Vietnam village filled with drying shrimp in 1996. Possibly the shrimp-drying regulations are a bit stricter now.

This was not, I felt, a memory to share with Kathryn and Pete just before we all sat down to a dish laced with dried shrimp. Nor was it the moment for Rich’s “that time I ate bad shrimp in rural Mexico” story, which I felt sure he was working up to as Pete trimmed the tails off a pile of glistening raw crustaceans. I shot Rich that “don’t you dare” look all married couples perfect over the years.
 
Actually the story does have a happy ending. I’ll pass over the four days of active torment in the tiny rural hotel, during which Rich subsisted on Coca-Cola and crackers, and I reread the same paperback three times. Finally a concerned neighbor gave me the name of the doctor serving this remote, rural district and suggested it was time for Rich to get professional help. When I broached the subject, Rich sat bolt upright in bed, saying, with more animation than he’d shown in days, “NO! Absolutely not. I’m feeling lots better.” In minutes he was dressed, within hours he was walking around, and the next day we resumed our journey. Sometimes, a good scare is the best miracle cure.

Even without the bad-shrimp story, we had plenty to talk about. Rich and I had visited Thailand several times, most notably in 1992 when we took a long trek into the hinterlands. We began the trip at a modest Bangkok hotel full of cheap wood paneling and scruffy backpackers sprawled on sofas, then headed north. There we hiked through hill tribe villages, sleeping rough, if at all. One memorable night we laid out our sleeping bags on a bamboo porch, unaware that the village pigs and dogs would spend the next five hours waging an epic battle just underneath, vying for the privilege of bedding down a few inches below our bodies in what was apparently a particularly choice patch of dust.

Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
Rich and I spent time getting to know the local kids on what would become our sleeping porch. Or rather, the porch where we spent the night; there wasn't much sleeping going on thanks to the barking and squealling war cries of the pigs and dogs.

​Pretty soon our state of scruffiness made the hotel backpackers look as if they were spiffed up for the Ascot opening race. We spent long, hot, days hiking and only marginally cooler evenings in villages where, this being the dry season, water was scarce and little of it could be wasted on washing.

Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
We could never figure out the elaborate rotation system at the village's single water source. Eventually Rich (yes, that's him at left) just leapt in and lathered up. Everyone was perfectly nice about it, realizing that we were mannerless dweebs and probably nuts, so it was best to humor us.

​Eventually we wound up on a river in a rice barge, where we were invited to make use of the onboard shower.

Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
Our guide, showing us how to use the shower

​When the propeller fell off our boat, we limped into a tiny, riverside village. As repairs proceeded at a leisurely pace, I treated myself to the luxury of having my hair washed and combed dry at the local salon.

Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com

​Eventually we returned to Bangkok, entering our lodgings by a back door. “Wow, will you look at how fancy this place is?” I said to Rich, admiring the glossy paneling and roomy sofas. Then my perspective shifted, and I realized with a shock that it was the same downscale hotel we’d stayed in a week earlier. Only now it no longer seemed frumpy but luxurious, with clean sheets, hot showers, and no squabbling livestock within earshot. 
 
It’s been some years since I traveled that rough, and I certainly don't miss the discomfort. But I do look forward, one day, to getting back on the road and discovering more of the world. Last Friday was a wonderful reminder that even if I can’t journey far and wide right now, I can join convivial companions in smaller, more domestic adventures. One of my favorite sayings is that life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful. Or, as the Thai people put it, อย่ายึดวันเพียงแค่จี้ท้อง meaning “Don’t seize the day, just tickle its belly.” I’m still pondering the profound significance of that saying, which is no doubt wise advice, especially when dealing with village dogs and pigs.

Cuiline / Online Cooking Class: Pad Thai / Karen McCann / Enjoylivingabroad.com
It's amazing how many memories can be triggered while preparing a meal with friends. The Pad Thai turned out to be absolutely delicious, much better than any version I've had in a restaurant.

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​​LET'S KEEP IN TOUCH! 
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https://www.enjoylivingabroad.com/my-blog/the-joy-of-cooking-exotic-food-with-congenial-companions-in-my-own-cozy-kitchen​
8 Comments
Kate
5/19/2021 05:31:45 pm

I LOVE this post! Cuiline cooking classes...what a great concept!

Reply
Karen McCann
5/19/2021 05:38:33 pm

It is a brilliant concept, Kate. I don't know if I'd have had the courage to try Pad Thai on my own, but with everything so organized, and a top chef standing by to lend advice, to say nothing of friends to help with the chopping and stir-frying, the whole process felt easy!

Reply
Kitty
5/19/2021 07:28:51 pm

What a flashback! I bought a book, Thai Cooking in American Kitchens back in the mid-80s. There was the Bangkok Grocery in SF where I bought all my ingredients and made my own curry pastes. Now I can buy everything premade at TJs. I feel no guilt about that because now you can more easily find a Starbucks in Bangkok than you can a good Pad Thai.
The pigs are an insane memory and that is all that I need to say.

Reply
Karen McCann
5/20/2021 12:48:10 am

It's amazing how the world has changed, isn't it, Kitty? It seems smaller all the time. We have the good fortune to find Thai spices right at our local Trader Joe's, and they get MacDonald's and Starbucks in Bangkok. I'm not sure it's a fair trade, but no doubt Big Macs and vanilla lattes seem delightfully exotic to them. Enjoy your Thai cooking, amiga!

Reply
Paul Guerin
5/19/2021 10:03:20 pm

MY! Weren't you two an attractive couple..!

Reply
Karen McCann
5/20/2021 12:52:42 am

Hey, I like to think we've still got it going on, Paul! But thanks. I can't believe how young we look in that photo — and pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed considering we'd barely slept or washed in days.

Reply
Faye
5/19/2021 10:53:15 pm

A fun post, Karen! That Pad Thai dish looks delicious! As I read your post, I could not help thinking back. When we are young, we can tolerate many things we would not necessarily want to tolerate today. I am all about cleanliness, comfort, and food that doesn’t nauseate with its smell at this point in my life. And a good nights sleep.

Crawfish here is a delicacy for most...not for me. I still remember my mother coaxing me to try crawfish étouffe as a small child. Five minutes later the few bites I ate to please her was all over the kitchen floor.

And then there was that horrible smell from salmon or dried shrimp and egg gumbo we had on fridays when, as “good Catholics,” we were not allowed to eat meat.

Reply
Karen McCann
5/20/2021 12:56:52 am

Boy, do I remember those meatless Fridays from my Catholic girlhood, Faye, My mother wasn't a fan of smelly fish, so I was spared the crawfish and dried shrimp you had to endure. We just had endless rounds of vegetarian spaghetti and overcooked swordfish. Like traveling rough, those days sure do make you appreciate growing up and being able to make your own sensible decisions about food, sleep, and other blessed comforts.

Reply



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