Home Cookin'!

I actually did some cooking at home recently. In my NEW home, that is. Just moved into a new apartment on the campus where I'll be working as an English professor starting in June. Since the campus is a little outside the city of Chiang Mai, there isn't as much easy access to restaurants and street food. I will definitely miss the back gate of Chiang Mai University, with the nightly street vendors and plethora of restaurants, but I am happy to have the chance to cook at home again. On my first night in the new place, my flatmate took me to the nearby market to buy some vegetables and rice.

She also let me use all her utensils and cooking stuff, which is great because I don't have much! But what much do you need? A pan, some oil and soy sauce, fresh veggies, rice....  I actually bought the rice at this little shop down a dark alley behind the market that had huge barrels of rice for sale by the "leet." I got one leet (I think it's a take on the word "liter") of brown rice for about $1. Don't worry, it wasn't as scary as most dark alleys would make you assume, but the convenience store only sold big bags of white rice so I really didn't have a choice! Not having a rice cooker, we used this pot, with water in the bottom and a lid on top, to steam the rice.

While the rice was cooking, I prepared the veggies. I don't know the English name of this green vegetable.

And in Thai, I only know the name of its relative: phak sayotay. This particular one I'd never tried before, but my roommate said it's similar, just a little more bitter.  Hmm... bitter, who likes bitter? I decided to give it a try. I'm pretty sure it comes from the greens of a pumpkin plant; the little curly-q's are the giveaway. Chopped straw mushrooms and Chinese cabbage were the other two main ingredients. First, I sauteed some garlic in oil, then added the mushrooms, then the cabbage and greens.

I added some water to help steam and soften the vegetables. That also helped to make a bit of a sauce. Then I added some soy sauce. And to balance the bitter a little bit, I added a teaspoon or so of raw sugar. Here's my roomie, Ajaan Aoy, giving me a hand.

The brown rice was taking over an hour to cook, so I eventually abandoned that plan and just ate the veggies with some leftover white rice, because it was getting so late.

I like the vegetables to be just a little crisp; definitely not mushy. It's a pretty simple meal: rice and veggies. A nice inaugural cooking experience in my new home. Were the greens bitter? Yes. But I loved it! Ajaan Aoy told me that, biologically speaking, eating something bitter enhances your appetite. This could very well be true... or else I was very hungry! Either way, each bit I took of the bitter greens tasted better than the previous. Having the sweet sugar and the salty soy sauce made for a really nice flavor medley. I could try making this again with the added component of spicy. Maybe saute some chilis with the garlic... mmm...

I was quite satisfied with the dish as it was. And the next day, I definitely ate the leftovers with the brown rice that eventually cooked!