Branching Out, Staying In

Tuesday night Mike got us tickets from work to go see Prince of Persia. (Yay perks!) I had extremely low expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, although apparently in Hollywood, white man plus eye liner equals Persian. Poor Iranians, but I think I'd still take Jake Gyllenhaal in make-up over the weirdly voiced drag queen from 300 to represent my people. We sneaked in some candy, forgetting that everyone brings food into the theaters here, but it added an element of intrigue. After the movie, we ran into one of Mike's co-workers and his girlfriend and went to get a drink at a food stand around the corner. I had to use one the outdoor bathrooms by a 7-11, which was one of the more terrifying experiences of my life. Everything was dripping wet, since the preferred method of cleaning here is to just hose everything down. I don't know whether it was the combination of beer and candy, or just that we don't drink as much as we used to, but man did I feel like crap the next day. No more Toblerone for me, thanks.

So tonight is our first attempt at making Thai food at home. Mike has made it before, so he's going to show me how. Up till now, we've mostly stuck with easy things, like pasta or pizza, since our kitchen isn't as fully equipped as one back home. We're planning on making green curry chicken, which we both really like. Sure, we could just go to a hawker stand and get some for cheap, but that's not the point. The point is for me to figure out how to make it at home, so I can impress people when we move back and be obnoxious about how worldly we are. "Oh, well, when we lived in SINGAPORE, we used to get this all the time. It's a very common SINGAPOREAN dish. It might be too spicy for you, since we like to make it the way they do in SINGAPORE. Would you like some chopsticks?" Man, people are going to hate me.

So first things first, we went to Tampines to stock up on ingredients. All the Asian spices that are so hard to find back home are in abundance here. And super cheap, too, which seems amazing considering how much cinnamon is. We got kaffir lime leaves, bird's eye chillies, coconut milk, lemongrass, and curry paste. Then we got a bunch of vegetables and chicken, forgetting that eggplant is heavy and we had to walk home.

One thing that sucks about our kitchen: no air conditioning. While this does make it feel more authentic when cooking Thai food, it's also really freaking hot in there. It's like being in a delicious smelling sauna. I took some pictures to document our progress, and we look drenched in all of them. At least my heat rash has gone away....for NOW.

I have to say, the curry turned out so unbelievably good. It was sweet and spicy, and the chicken just fell apart as soon as I bit into it. I'm very impressed with Mike's Thai cooking skills, which he probably should have hid better. Now I'm going to make him make this all the time. Live and learn.