Pad Thai

I dabble in the kitchen, and I know what Kaffir limes are and actually have leaves in my fridge.  I know where the lemon grass hides in the grocery store, but fear the fish sauce.  In short, I’m ok, but not great when it comes to cooking Thai food, and when a class popped up, I jumped at the chance to learn a little something something and hopefully get better.  I signed up for my class at the local community adult education program and am looking forward to class number two.

Pad Thai was on the docket for Class #1, along with papaya salad with spicy lime sauce (Som Tam).  I have to say, I was mildly apprehensive sitting there looking at the menu for the evening and wondered what I had gotten myself into.  I’m not a huge fan of Pad Thai and I don’t like papayas.  As it turns out, the papaya salad was made with a shredded green papaya that was complemented with palm sugar, lime juice, and hot chili peppers.   It… was… delicious.  The Pad Thai was probably the best Pad Thai I have ever had.  We didn’t eat until the end, though, so all along the way, I paid very close attention, but had serious doubts.

   

As I absorbed it all, our teacher who is originally from Thailand and who is a retired restaurateur cooked in the massive gas-fired stand-alone wok on the floor in front of the classroom.  He chatted and answered questions and kept pouring from the dribbly spout of the fish sauce container…. he kept adding fish sauce and fish sauce and all the ingredients and then more fish sauce....    finally the peanuts came and it actually started smelling pretty good after all that direct fish sauce over heat smell.....      Anyway, end of class comes and we all get our plates and there is tons of food in this crazy wok that will feed over 20 of us, and so I get a little bit of the salad and they scoop me a scoop of the pad thai and I settle in wondering if there is some way to discretely get rid of it if I don't like it.    

Well, I shouldn’t have worried.  It was awesome.  I went back for seconds.  Couldn’t stop eating it.   Best Pad Thai ever.  Seriously.

   

  This recipe has been shared already on the internet and so I am happy to spread the wealth with a few of my own observations included….

Pad Thai

10 oz. dried rice noodles – the thin ones, not the thick ones…   soak in cool water for at least 3 hours or over night (not hot – don’t cook them!!) drained

1/3 C oil – any kind, but corn/veggie won’t smoke as much as say, Olive oil….

4 smashed and chopped garlic cloves

4 eggs

8 oz. fried tofu chopped into bite sized nuggets (buy it already fried and you’ll save some time and it will probably taste better if you’re like me with tofu)

4 Tbs fish sauce (Squid Brand fish sauce is apparently the BEST)

2 Tbs tomato paste

2 Tbs sugar

2 Tbs Tamarind juice – you can buy tamarind in block form and use about a fifth of the block.  Soak it in about a cup/cup and a half of water for a couple of hours and squeeze out the solids.   Use the extraction.  Will keep in fridge for quite some time….

2 C bean sprouts

6 scallions coarsely chopped

2 Tbs ground/chopped roasted peanuts

You can substitute meat for the tofu if you would like…   and add hot pepper….sprinkle with paprika if you want a little color….

Prepare noodles and Tamarind juice ahead of time.  Heat oil very hot in wok.  Add garlic and then eggs one at a time.  When eggs begin to look mostly cooked and scrambled, add the tofu (or meat here).  Add noodles and toss until hot.  Add tomato paste and fish sauce.  Mix well.  Add Tamarind juice.  Add Sugar all the while mixing, tossing, mixing.  Add scallions and continue to toss.   Bean sprouts are next until nice and hot and then peanuts at the very end.   Taste and make sure the salt of the fish sauce compliments the sweet of the sugar and the tang of the Tamarind and tomato paste….  Adjust where needed.   Garnish with lime wedges and more chopped peanuts.

   

Delish.

Looking forward to Lemon grass soup and Stir fried chicken and basil in house spicy sauce next week.  

Lanius excubitor

I found myself, on my last trip, reading my favorite Mary Oliver poem where she speaks of 'green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny'.  Yes! No! is one of my many favorites, and she inspired me that day to write of Northern Shrikes (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Shrike/id).  These are birds I'm comfortable with wandering the boreal bogs and their visits are always magical experiences. They make an impression.  Both my apologies and thanks to Mary Oliver for the inspiration.

Shrikes

Evergreen sentinels stoic as

Mosses crowd and gape

Absorbing sound, swallowing light

Their world undiminished

Except for the buzz

The hum the roar of

Tiny winged tyrants

Feasting, taunting, tasting

A moment, a movement, a surprise

Low swoop to spruce followed

In a breath by a second

Dark gray masses flank

A squawk, a lilt, a hello

Curious and bold

Eyes meet flummoxed and sizing

Me up from their virtuous stem-stoop

Why am I here?  Queried

Questions I cannot answer

I stand silent and blinking and away

They flap together in the green

Vibrant world

No Blues Here

 Row 4.  Dead Center.  Ponchos Provided.   The Blue Man Group (http://www.blueman.com/) did not disappoint.  I've been listening to the PVC percussionists for years in the comfort of my own home, and finally got the opportunity to see them live.  This is performance art at its best, and these guys are creative, spontaneous, think on their feet, and the production of the show was outstanding.  

They played drums cascading with paint, glowing airpoles, the drumbone, the tubes all in a row glowing first white and then with color.  The music was fantastic and they are inspirational.  They had a backup group of 4 rocking it out with them up above discretely tucked behind screens. The show was surprisingly funny and full of art and humor. I want to put together some pvc pipes and break it down with some foam paddles.   Strobes, black lights, marshmallows, vortexes, statues that dance with dizzying speed and light, reams of tissue paper, gallons of paint, gumballs, video art, audience participation.  This show was a blast. Two thumbs way up.   If you get a chance, take it. 

Life, Liberty....

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rebellion in Egypt.  We, as a nation, have gone from using their government for our own black ops,  to encouraging their people to overthrow the establishment.  The fall of the Tunisian government through protest was a spark, and our government is now forced, like it or not, to encourage democracy.  It has been a long time coming.  I’ve listened to not just David Gregory ask the question:  Should we be afraid of democracy in Egypt?   I’m not a pundit, but that would be seriously insular.  I get the fear behind that question, but there is more than just fear, and the mass rebellion is bigger than a brotherhood.  Why are we so afraid of people voting for what they want?  I am guessing it is because we understand what it is to be a nation subjected to falsities and fear-based manipulations.  Some people will never trust anything the government may have to say, but giving up on the ideal of democracy as a whole is not a solution. 

We, the people, have gone through uprisings and rebellions of our own.  The Revolutionary War.  A Civil War that threatened our nation to the core.  Years of death and destruction.   Wounded Knee.  Bonus Armies turned away with gas and guns.  Kent State.  The Promised Land.  We are not strangers to rebellion and expecting change to come from assembly.  It is easy to take freedom of speech for granted and forget that some people do not have that right.  

To quote from my portable Constitution from the U.S. Capital’s  gift shop, the First Amendment says this:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”   We are not perfect; sometimes our rebellions are not peaceable.  Some of our governments’ responses are not peaceable.   Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrased Voltaire:  “I disapprove of what you say, but will fight to the death for your right to say it.”  My hope is that violence in Egypt does not dominate, and that the transition is smoother than was ours.

In 1865 these words concluded the second inaugural speech of President Abraham Lincoln:  “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right… let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”  Assembling the masses.  Speaking for peace and justice.          It is time.