A Taste of Thai (and Vietnam)

It's been a wild end to spring and start to summer.

3-week trip to Peru?          Check!

Andy graduation?               Check!

Buy a condo?                      Check!

Andy work crazy hours?     Check!

Now it's back to blogging! Peru photos and stories coming after this!

In April (yes, APRIL, I am that behind), A's sister S and her husband D came to visit. The highlight of the extended weekend was a food tour/cooking class combo. It took place in the Argyle Street area of northern Chicago, which is where you can find delicious Thai and Vietnamese foods. And all the stores to get the appropriate ingredients in for their recipes.

We start the class out by following our instructor up and down Argyle Street. She told us about when the immigrants had come to this area and took us to some great places where we tried delicious food. First stop - bakery.

These were some sort of bun with a paste in the middle.

Next stop: Ba Le, a very contemporary Vietnamese cafe. They serve delicious Banh Mi and a very strong Vietnamese coffee.

We decided to try this aloe vera drink... it was interesting, but not something I'll buy anytime soon.

My favorite part of the tour was when we went to a grocery store. Our instructor took the time to point out the staples of Vietnamese and Thai cooking and her favorite brands. We had her recommend a good fish sauce.

Look at all the curries!

Apparently if we want really fresh fish we have to go here.

These were still alive and trying to escape. Run! Run for your lives!

Really awesome (and huge!) produce.

We trooped back to the kitchen to try our hand at some dishes. On the menu:
- Green Papaya Salad
- Panang Curry with Beef and Jasmine Rice
- Black Sticky Rice Pudding with Coconut Cream
- Thai Iced Tea

Our foursome was assigned to the main dish - Panang Curry. We quickly set the men to cutting the meat.

These are Thai chilies. They're small, very thin, and very hot! The group making the papaya salad was careful to wear latex gloves while they worked with them. They only put about 8 total in a salad for 14 people and it was extremely spicy!

Curry and coconut cream... where can you go wrong?

Yes, we used all of it!

A tried the papaya salad as they were making it... he agreed it was spicy enough! No more peppers!

Green papaya salad.

Thai iced tea. They serve it with cream or half-n-half. It's very thick and on the sweet side.

Dessert - black sticky rice topped with... can you guess... coconut cream! Super delicious.

The full meal. Super delicious. A little too spicy for me (I couldn't eat much), but good all the same. I just couldn't taste any other food for a day or so.

It was a really great cooking class (our favorite so far!) and a really fun thing to do with S & D. Glad you guys could visit!

March Food Adventures

Some of our March culinary adventures...

First up, a Chocolate Bailey's Cheesecake with green mint frosting and candied mint leaves. We took this to a St. Patrick's Day party. It also had a chocolate graham cracker crust. Yum!

The other big adventure for March was the making of our own pita bread. The recipe didn't sound too difficult. People mentioned they had issues getting it to "puff up" in the oven. Ours ended up puffing perfectly, even without any extra tricks!

The best part... it was super easy to make! You mix the dough the night before and let it rise in the fridge. The longer the better. Then you form it into balls, let rise on the counter, roll out, let rise a few minutes more, then bake!

I doubt we'll ever buy pita bread again!

Green Dogs & Sheet Metal Workers

This year we missed the dyeing of the Chicago River (overslept after a late Match Day celebration), but we did make it to the St. Patrick's Day parade. We met up with some friends for a very sunny and unseasonably warm parade. There were tons of people (mostly tourists) there in as many green clothing items as possible. 

The parade started off slowly. One of the first floats was BCBS - can't escape work!

There were multiple bagpipe groups.

Roller-skating leprechauns were popular.

Apparently we're missing out by having a black dog... there's no way to dye her green!

There were many people (mostly kids) wearing these body suits. If it were 30 degrees like it usually is, that makes sense. But it was closer to 80. They had to be hot!

This guy was standing behind us... he seemed like he'd be a cool grandpa.

There were many marching bands. A ton from Alabama. Guess they didn't make it into the Macy's Thanksgiving parade or the Rose Bowl parade.

Yeah, I can't figure out this one either.

This was one of the strangest parades I've ever seen... there were not many floats. The floats that were there weren't very decorated (think flatbed + people). No many beads were thrown. Mostly it was just a ton of people walking. Without much enthusiasm. We stayed a while, thinking it would get better. But it didn't.

Groups like this were the most interesting... apparently all the local unions walk in the St. Patrick's Day parade. I never knew there was a Pipefitters' Union. Or Sheet Metal Workers' Union.

Of course there were trolleys.

More tortured dogs. Well, these dogs looked like they were enjoying it. Ours would consider it cruel and unusual punishment.

All in all, it was amusing. But I think we'll stick to the Pride Parade to really get our kicks. :)