THE ADVENTURES OF A WAYWARD CHEF

Alone at last, I wander the Soi’s of Bangkok, carefree, sucking on a bag of Thai iced tea, nibbling on a stick of sai grog isan (a sour pork sausage that I’ve become completely addicted to). A thought scratches persistently at my mind. There have been too few moments on this trip where I could [...]

Ok, not really… I did, however, break my fast after a mere two days of clay shakes and espresso colonics. Call me crazy, but I prefer to take my food orally.
Princess is still fasting but fortunately for me I could wait it out at The Sanctuary’s fantastic avo-dairy-fish-vegetarian restaurant. The restaurant makes it quite convenient [...]

My stomach is gurgling. I dreamt of thin crust, brick oven pizza (with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes) all night long and woke up this morning to a shake of bentonite clay and psylium husk. Utterly revolting and totally unsatisfying…
It was little more than a week ago that I was roaming through a dizzying array of [...]

Pat’s Pad Thai(reprinted with her permission)
10 oz. narrow rice noodles5 shelled prawns3 eggs2 tablespoons **white radish pickle, minced3 bunches chinese leeks or scallions, cut into 1 inch sprigs1 teaspoon ground, dried chillies1 tablespoon chopped shallots1 tablespoon chopped garlic2 tablespoons sugar2 tablespoons **fish sauce1/2 tablespoon tamarind Juice (tamarind paste, thinned with water)
*White radish pickle is available [...]

Pat’s Outdoor Teaching Kitchen

One thing that really stands out the most about Southern Thai food is that in every dish there is a play between contrasting tastes such as sweet and salty – like the sweet sticky rice stuffed with ground, dried shrimps, black pepper and rolled in sugar and salt that we had for [...]

Our day started early with a trip to Baan Ting Koa market, near Phuket Town.

A CURRY PASTE VENDORThis is what the Union Square Farmers Market is missing!

3 DIFFERENT SHRIMP PASTESEach paste is of a different quality. Pat explains that you can tell the better quality shrimp paste because it has lots of little black dots [...]

This is how winter should be… 80 degrees and balmy, my shirt sticking to my back, hair frizzed out from the humidity, 3 showers a day to keep cool and swatting away blood sucking mosquitoes the size of golf balls.
Princess and I arrive in Phuket Wednesday afternoon. Lots and lots of farang around – “hippie” [...]

Speaking fast and in her thick Spanish accent, Princess is wagging her finger and warning me sternly, “Cristina, you can get Hepatitis A and Avian Bird Flu from eating the wrong thing here”.
“No drinks with ice in them, no salad because it could be washed with bad water”.
“No fruit unless you peel it yourself”.
“You can’t [...]