Thai Food, Anyone?

I've talked about it for so long. I wanted to learn how to cook Thai food.

YH had helped me to approach the Thai restaurant (known as J-Pen) located at the opposite of the house of Khun Pae (one of the divers). We frequently go to this restaurant for lunch or dinner (if there's any occasion like farewell or birthday). The food at this restaurant taste nice. I thought it will be a good place to learn how to cook Thai food. Unfortunately, due to my incompetency in conversing in Thai, the Thai chef is not willing to take me in as her disciple cos she can't speak English. Haiz.... I should buck up on my Thai so that I can do more things here.

Last evening, I got a chance to learn 2 Thai dishes from Khun B'en. B'en is a young Thai Chinese lady and was recently married with Khun Nop, a staff at UWP in charge of the gift shop. She has been very helpful and warm since I met her; and she speaks good English. As she's not working currently, she spends most of her time in UWP walking around, just like me. And so, we just “click” together. She had taught me some Thai and I teach her some English. And yesterday, we were talking about learning Thai food and she said she can teach me. Then the next moment, I heard the other staff talking about going over to her new house for dinner. And off we go, to her place to learn Thai food and cook dinner for some of the staff..... Emmm..... Isn't that a bit too fast? I thought we are starting the cooking class next week? Hahaha.

I'd learned 2 dishes: “Minced Pork with Basil” (known as Pad Gulp Poa Mu in Thai) and “Tomyum soup”.

Tips for dish #1:
- There are 2 types of basil leaves. The stem could be red or green in colour. To cook this dish, we need to use the one with green stem.
- More basil leaves will give better smell. So, up to you how much you want to add when frying.

Tips for dish #2:
- 3 must-have ingredient: Lemon grass, mint leaves & a kind of root…. (dunno the name but can be found in the market)
- Never cover the lid of the pot when cooking the soup. It’s said that the soup will not smell nice if we cover it.
- Never stir the soup while cooking too. Reason unknown. Just follow.
- Never squeeze the lime too much until the last drop cos the juice nearer to the skin of the lime is bitter.

Hee hee.... maybe I should start noting down all recipes and the hot tips and compile them into a cook book. Emmm.... not a bad idea.

Watch this space for more tips on cooking.....