Mrs. Balbir's Cooking Class

Mrs. Balbir, or Vinder, came to Bangkok 31 years ago, when she was 16, to get married. Shortly thereafter she opened Mrs. Balbir's Indian Restaurant and Bangkok has not been the same since. She is now a television host, is the consultant for Thai airways for the food on their flights to and from India and still manages to run what I believe is the best Indian restaurant in Bangkok. So when the AWC offered a cooking class led by Mrs. Balbir herself I jumped at the chance!

We gathered at Vinder's apartment on Friday afternoon. Our first attempt at Indian cooking was samosas with a tamarind chutney. Vinder showed us how to make them and made it look so easy! Our results were not as beautiful, however, as you can see in the pictures. We did realize that misshapen samosas taste just as good as perfectly formed ones. We fried the samosas and took a break to enjoy the fruit of our labor along with some wine- that's what I call cooking!

We learned how to make Alu Gobi, a dry curry traditionally with potatoes and cauliflower and Chicken Korma. Mrs. Balbir's restaurant is famous for another dish, Butter Chicken, which we were not allowed to learn how to make! Nor were we privvy to Mrs. Balbir's recipe for Garam Masala- a necessary ingredient in many Indian Dishes. It's a mixture of spices- as few as five and as many as 21- and each cook will have their own secret recipe. Many take them to the grave!

We were allowed to invite a guest to come for wine and dinner at 6:30. Vinder supplemented what we made with other dishes from the restaurant (including perfectly formed samosas and, yes, Butter Chicken). However, I think everyone there would have been hard pressed to say which curries were made by the group and which were made by the "pros."

All in all, it was a fantastic evening. I'm looking forward to trying out my new skills soon.

Ewart's Visit

My friend Ewart Jones came to visit me all the way from Houston, Texas!

He was here for a quick trip- came in on a Tuesday night and left on Monday morning, but we filled it with lots of stuff. Wednesday I had to go to work, so I sent him off with a map and a sky train pass to the Grand Palace and Wat Po, and he seemed to navigate the Thai public transport system quite well- and even managed to avoid the scam artists that surround those 2 places looking for gullible tourists. Wenesday night I took him to Raja's Tailors where he was fitted for two suits (a must-do when you're here).

Thursday I went to work and he took advantage of being on vacation and, apparantley, just hung around the apartment all day long! (We should all be so lucky, right?). We headed down to the beach in Pattaya on Thursday night, and literally hung out by the pool all day long on Friday. We only left our chairs to eat lunch and order drinks- notice my frilly drink that came served in a pineapple. Paradise!

Saturday brought us back to Bangkok where we met up with a friend for drinks at Sirocco on the 64th floor of the State Tower for a view of the city and the river (which is best seen at night from 64 floors up). Then we had dinner at the Oriental Hotel and went dancing.

Sunday we went to church then braved the heat and wandered through Chatuchak Weekend Market. After the market we took the klong (canal) taxi to the famed "weiner wat" and then walked from there to the Erawan Shrine- which I've written about several times in this blog (it's my favorite place in Bangkok). We capped off the day, and his visit, with an hour-long foot massage- much needed after a long day of walking in the hot sun.

Just think, if you came out, you could be featured in the blog with your own entry as well! Happy Belated St. Patrick's day to one and all.

The Emperor's New Clothes

As I said in my last post, I have been cast in the Bangkok Community Theater's children's production of The Emperor's New Clothes. The performances will be the first two weekends in May. Here's our initial cast photo for early publicity (we'll take another one in costume in a few weeks for the papers and such). As our director said, we either look like a group of traveling actors....or serial killers.

We start our rehearsals this week and I think it's going to be a lot of fun working with this group. This experience has already shown me that theater people are the same cooky type wherever you live!

Paul (the man in the middle) is the Emperor, Belinda (upper right) is Marco the tailor, Stephanie (bottom left) is Rosa, the Emperor's neice who hatches the "invisible clothes" scheme, Orlando (bottom right) is Kiko the mime (because every children's play needs a mime, I guess) and I play both Marco's mother and the Empress. When our director told us who she was looking to cast, she mentioned that the Emperor and Empress should be close in age. After being cast, I told her that I didn't know if it was supposed to be an insult to me or a compliment to Paul.

She told me that I was his second wife!

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. My life has become quite busy as of late.

For those of you who do not know, I have recently accepted a job here in BKK as the Communications Director for a non-profit organization. I started work last week, so my opportunities to run around Bangkok and take pictures of interesting sights has diminished somewhat.

I've also recently been cast in the Bangkok Community Theater's production of "The Emperor's New Clothes" which will be performed the first two weekends in May. I've been wanting to do community theater for a while, and finally just bit the bullet and auditioned. I didn't think I would be cast, given as how there are only 5 roles and I'm new to the BCT. Rehearsals begin next week- 2 nights a week and once on the weekend. Giving me even LESS time to run around and take pictures for you, my faithful audience.

However, I promise I will not forget you. I will continue to regale you all with stories and pictures from Bangkok and beyond, they just might be a little slower in coming. Monday is a holiday, so maybe I can get out and find something interesting to report on then. In the meantime, have a great weekend!