Thursday 29 th of January 2015 and I was still in shock when I woke up. My friend died yesterday. I was talking with him and we were going to the Thai language evening class. I was just arriving to
the sky train station at Sukhumvit Road Soi 99 to renew my driving license when he called. We chatted away and we were going to meet at school in a few hours.I had taken the sky train from my Thai school in Soi 11 and as they wanted me to take a 4 hour training video.
My license expired some time ago and I didn't wanted to take the training video and I was soon on the train back home. My friend was not in school at Time Square and the Teacher asked where he was. I told her that he had most likely got drunk. I went to Tops Market to buy fruit and when I was back home I saw the missed calls from my friend. All within a few minutes and the time was when we finished class. So I suspected that he had called to get me to some place where he would be sitting and drink beer.
I called, and as soon as there was an answer I shouted:
- Way to go, skipping class getting drunk
- Aladdin, it is Mark...
- Are you the one getting him drunk so he miss classes....
- There had been an accident
- What accident?
My friend had been in an accident and he was dead, I could not grasp. I had just been drinking tea in his sofa and we had been talking about the future. And we were going to meet at the school, he didn't showed up and it was strange, because he is always calling if he is not coming to school. Now he had an accident on the way to school.
Our friend told me he was at the hospital with our friend's girlfriend and I asked how our friend was. Hoping that there was still hope as they were at the hospital.
- Aladdin, it was a terrible accident and he didn't made it
I could not believe this, a very good friend and a very nice guy was gone. 3 hours later and I was crying like a baby. He will be missed very much. Always very social and he was always up to things. He will leave a hole behind and I was very sad. We were going to take cooking classes, and he was going to join me in Bangkok Photographers and the Thai boxing.
And waking up today was not much better, but my friend saved me when he came at 10 o'clock for our boxing exercise. I was going to be at the Dunkin Donut at Asok sky train station at 1 o'clock to meet my cooking Teacher. We were going to the market before starting the cooking. So I had time to read Bangkok Post online.
Now we expect the very same (too stupid) people to have an opinion about other countries understanding of Thai politics” but they never published my comment.
I took my camera and I walked to the Asok sky train station and I was there waiting for my Teacher. I guy walked pass and he asked if I was Aladdin. Turned out it was a guy from Sweden and he knew me and some of my friends. We had a chat and my Teacher was soon coming.
At the market
At the market
Taking a taxi to the school on Sukhumvit Soi 23
We're at the cooking academy
I was already a wee bit disappointed that they had bought the chilli paste, in Laos we did the paste and this is what I wanted to do. Chop onion and to fry chicken, well, this I have done more times
than I care for.And when I did my own chilli paste in Laos it was easy to skip the chilli.
The chilli just burn and the taste is in the different leafs we're using in the paste. Everything was prepared and I just had to cut the eggplant and to chop some vegetables.
There were some big chillies, the biggest chillies I had ever seen. The Teacher told me that it was like bell pepper when I told her that I
didn't wanted any chilli.OK, bell pepper is good, I chopped the big chillies and I didn't washed my hands as I use to do when I handle chilli. Suddenly my face was burning so I had to have a cold towel over the face. Darn, it was painful. I was quite upset, how the foock can she tell me it is like bell pepper. Bell pepper is for sure not burning like this.
As soon as the burning decreased we went outside to start the cooking. We started with the Khao Soy
Preparing to do the Khao Soy
Frying the noodles and boiling the chicken
Khao Soy, only the noodles missing
Time to boil the egg noodles
Ready and topped with the fried noodles
Starting by frying the chilli paste and the coconut cream
Starting by frying the chilli paste and the coconut cream
The Kaeng Kheao Wan is ready
Starting with the Gaeng Phet Gai
Gaeng Phet Gai is the same as Kaeng Kheao Wan but it is red
I have added the eggfruit
I have added the eggfruit
Adding coconut cream
The food is ready
Staring with the Gai Pad Med Mamuang
The Gai Pad Med Mamuang is ready
The Gai Pad Med Mamuang is ready
hope the other food turns out better. All the food was ready, just remaining to eat. But first I had to prepare the sticky rice for the mango.I made the coconut milk sauce and when the sauce was ready, a few minutes in the wok and I mixed the sauce with the rice. This is a sweet sauce and they mix it in the rice here, in Laos we pour the sauce over the rice.
Well, I see that they do like this in some places in Thailand as well, but what I like with the Lao style sticky rice is that they serve it hot with the mango.
Making the sauce
Mixing the sauce and rice
I mixed the sauce and sticky rice and then this had to soak for 10 minutes and I was eating while waiting for the sticky rice to soak. And the food was good, very good. OK, the Kaeng Kheao Wan
was a wee bit too spicy, but it was OK. I blame it on the bought chilli
paste, if we had made our own chilli paste I would have skipped the chilli.And it would have been interesting to do the chilli paste for the Green curry chicken (Gaeng Kheao Wan Gai) and the Red curry with chicken (Gaeng Phet Gai) It is the same dish but with the difference in colour, red and green.
But it was not bad, not as spicy as I had expected, of course, I didn't take as much chilli paste as was required according to the receipt.
And my Gai Pad Med Mamuang was as good as the one we had in Khao Yai. It was good and I was very full when we were ready. But I had to eat the mango with sticky rice as well. So I was very full when I walked back home. And I will for sure make the Gai Pad Med Mamuang one of these days. Maybe invite the girl from Khao Yai? So how was the cooking class?
How to kill a day in Bangkok #2
Review: Cooking Thai Food
Review: Cooking Thai Food
Yes, I was back home after 2 and a half hour. It had been OK, but I was disappointed. We never make the mix that put the flavour to the food. They had bought Chilli paste, red and green. And as they said at the cooking school in Vientiane: They cheat in Thailand and buy the curry paste. We make it our self.
So the visit to the market was a waste of time, as I wanted to buy the different leafs and stuff for the food. Now it was chopping onions and heating the food, something I already know as I eat chopped onion and tuna every day. And I wanted to do the colouring stuff/ spice (chilli paste) by myself and this is what I had expected after my previous cooking classes.
Rated:
The food was OK and the whole cooking class experience turned out to be OK. I paid 2800 Baht for a private lesson. If you choose to cook at Bangkok Thai Cooking Academy I suggest that you join a group and pay 1200 Baht.
I choose my own meals to cook and I made the:
• Khao soy (Nam Prik Gaeng Khao Soy)
• Green curry chicken (Gaeng Kheao Wan Gai)
• Stir fried chicken with cashews (Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang)
• Red curry with chicken (Gaeng Phet Gai)
• Mango with coconut sticky rice
So I could as well have paid 1200 Baht and I would have been doing some cooking in a group and I could have had the above food at a restaurant as I didn't get to do the chilli paste.
Better than drinking and party? Yes, and cheaper, but 2800 for 2 and a half hours was very expensive and you would have spent less money during 2 and a half hour in a pub. Check internet for different cooking classes in Bangkok. And www.bangkok.com is an excellent page to start at. And REMEMBER, cheapest doesn’t mean the best!
Review Man
We will visit the Royal Thai Air Force Museum tomorrow. I'm not giving up my search for something fun to do when I'm too old for party and the series “How to kill a day in Bangkok” continues. You just have to click HERE to find yourself in the middle of that adventure.
OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizen visiting my web page. How hard can it
be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page. Jiffy (also jiff)
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
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E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.
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