Blue Is The Loneliest Color - A Culinary Experience.

After shaking off my brush with certain death, Diễm and I sat at our regular table in the Inn while I licked my wounds. Our hosts for the evening would be coming to pick us up shortly and I know we both just wanted a subject change.

Our host for the evening, Nok, would be arriving at the Inn soon. Just before 4 he texted to let me know he had arrived. We were sitting at the entrance to the Inn and I didn’t see anyone. I have a terrible time with names here, all over Southeast Asia for that matter, so I was a bit concerned that I had sent him to China.

Luckily he was just next door and we walked over and hoped in the back of his Songthaew. A Songthaew is a small pickup with a camper roof and a bench seat on both sides. Chiang Mai doesn’t have a public transportation system. So Tuk Turks, a three wheeled open motorbike carriage, and Songthaews are the only way to get around.

A couple was already in the back, they would join us on this culinary excursion and we struck up a conversation. A young very friendly couple from Utah. She was getting ready to enter law school and he still had a couple of years left after having spent a few years doing mission work in Hong Kong.

The Market

We headed out to the market first and Nok showed us around and explained the items around we would be purchasing. I was familiar with most of the items, though he was able to educate me on a vegetable or two.

The thing that really caught my attention however, was the meat section of the market. I’ve walked through markets in Latin America and in other parts of Southeast Asia, but it was here I saw absolute genius at work.

Flies are a part of life in tropical places, hell there a part of life back in the states. But in open aired markets in the humid and hot tropical zones there almost unbearable. They tend to land on food and swarm around so much people often just become oblivious to them.

Here, in the mountains of Thailand a very simple solution was devised. A very small fan motor was hung by a chain or string just above the meat. Plastic bags were frayed and then threaded through holes in the housing of were the blade once were. Only a few inches above the meat the plastic broom like appendages swirled around keeping the flies at bay. It reminded me of a horse or cow who used their tale to keep bugs off. Pure genius.

After collecting our ingredients we headed to Noks home for a little cooking lesson. The home was welcoming and open. Clean and well put together. A beautiful setup with enough ranges and work stations for ten, though here we would only have four. A very intimate evening.

Time To Cook

Nok and his wife Aek were awesome and very welcoming. It took no time before we were all joking and laughing. We cut and carved, pounded and sauteed. Pad Thai, papaya salad, coconut chicken soup, hot and sour prawn soup, spring rolls and fried bananas. We cooked so many courses and ate in between each. I thought at some point I was going to explode.

Two things made my night from a culinary perspective. One was the curry. We made red, green and yellow curry from scratch. It was truly the highlight for me. Curry is like mole in Mexico or from a technical aspect hollandaise. Often difficult to master and as with mole ingredient heavy. To grind, chop and fry every ingredient for the curries and then cook them into plump chicken and pork was divine.

The second thing was the Kha Neaw Ma Moung or sticky rice with mango. What made this dish stick out to me was the rice. Made with the Butterfly pea flower, the rice was a vibrant blue. Not purple like orchids but smurf blue. In culinary school you learn that blue is not typically a color used in cooking. Birthday cakes and children’s candy are in fact the only acceptable culinary applications.

The reason given is food must mimic life. There is not a food product on earth that is naturally that bright blue smurf color. Therefore you should never use it for food on a dinner plate or on a buffet. Think about your time eating out. Ever seen anything blue? Real blue, not purple or violet, but blue. So it was very surprising to my eyes to see Diễm making blue sticky rice while I fried my bananas. Things can be naturally blue, eat that culinary school.

As we continued to eat our delicious creations we sat at the table and had a great conversation. I was interested to hear Our new friends story. His time in Hong Kong and about life at BYU and Utah. We talked about the powder keg in Hong Long and the rapid growth of Vietnam. It was an amazing Thanksgiving meal. Unconventional yes, but it was very enjoyable to spend it with a couple of fellow Americans.

At one point Nok asked us about our Thanksgiving back home as he was unfamiliar. We told of our grandmothers creations, each other’s classic dishes that family fought over and how the uncle that has to say things to spark controversy was apparently a universal American phenomenon. Thank you to Nok and Aek our wonderful hosts and to our new friends from Utah. It turned into a sweet and wonderful day. But now it’s time to rest. Tomorrow we have a jungle to explore.