I'm On A Boat

Go ahead, sing it.  You know you want to… “I’m on a boat!  I’m on a mighty large boat!”  Okay, so those aren’t the actual words, but I don’t know who’s reading this blog so that's my edited version.

I received a phone call from a friend asking if I wanted a cooking lesson.  You see, I’m good at many things but when it comes to the kitchen, well, my skills are lacking.  I’m learning, but many-a-things still manage to get burnt or end up tasting a bit off if I cook them without supervision.  And cooking here is a bit different for me as well. First of all, I don’t have the internet at home so consulting the all knowing Google is not an option when I’m in a crunch.  Secondly, to get to the market I’d have to ride my bike about 4 miles each way to get any ingredients I don’t have at the house.  And, last of all, I’m not sure what the markets do and don’t have yet so I’d hate to make that trek only to find out what I need is not on the shelves.  Oh and appliances are a bit different too.  The temperature is in Celsius and you have to click a switch to turn on the outlet before turning on the appliance.  This is something I’d forgotten the first time I went to use the stove.  After 15 minutes of trying desperately to turn on the stove and failing I decided to scratch the pumpkin soup I was attempting and just make rice in a rice cooker for dinner.  I’m a pro at making rice… put rice in cooker, add water, flip switch, and presto about 15 minutes later you have rice. 

Back to the original story.  I received a call from a friend asking if I wanted a cooking lesson.  She knows cooking is not one of my strengths.  I eagerly accepted because she’s a phenomenal cook and I’ll love to learn a couple of her tricks.  Then she admitted she was hosting a dinner that evening on her boat and needed help preparing it.  It was a win-win for both of us.  She got an extra hand in the kitchen and I learned how to make a couple new dishes… and then eat them.  I like food.  I like food a lot.

On the way to her house I asked what we were to be making only to hear her stress-FREE reply of “Oh, I’m not quite sure yet.”  Even when I know exactly what I’m cooking I’m a basket case.  I envy people who can throw things together last minute to make a beautiful meal without much thought.  I hope to be that kind of person one day, but am not counting on it.

We started with chopping an unripe paw paw (papaya) to make Green Paw Paw Salad.  You have to Julienne and entire paw paw, a couple tomatoes, a couple red peppers, and green onions.  Then for the sauce it’s honey, lime juice, olive oil, and fish sauce.  You toss it all together then add roasted peanuts on top.  This was delicious!!!  I’ve made it again at home since and got rave reviews.  If ever paw paw were the ingredient to use on Iron Chef I’d certainly win with this salad.  Yes, it is that delicious!

In addition to this Green Paw Paw Salad I also helped with a Thai Beef Salad. It was nice to have Thai Beef Salad and to learn how to make it.  I love, love, love, Thai food and after only a month here I miss it already.  We also made crab cakes.  That was basically all I helped with.  It doesn’t sound like much but all of that chopping took about 3 hours.  As for the rest of the dinner, we had lobster tails, fresh Mackerel that was caught that afternoon by a couple other guests who attended the dinner, the best oysters I’ve ever had, brown rice with green beans, chick peas, and corn, a vegetable medley with roast potatoes, carrots, some kind of greens, onions, and whole mini garlic pods (I’m not sure what a bundle of garlic cloves is called), homemade pizza, some kind of chicken dish, and sashimi Mackerel, I believe.

Dinner on the boat was delicious.  There was good food, good company, and dolphins swimming round the boat with a beautiful moonrise as the backdrop.  It was a lovely evening, a lovely evening indeed.

The whole table

Crab cakes, Thai Beef Salad, and Sashimi

Pizza and Chicken

Veggies and Green Paw Paw Salad

Rice dish and Thai Beef Salad... again :)