These days, when I'm not trying to sell people things they don't want or need, I'm planning an upcoming trip to Thailand.
My BFF and I have been planning this trip for awhile. We started talking about it a couple of years ago, and we booked our seats easily eight months ago in order to take advantage of reward mile redemption.
It's a landmark trip for us. A celebration of sorts.
But somewhere toward the beginning of September, there was a shake-up in the first democratically elected Government in Thailand since the military coup in 2006. Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravey was forced to step down.
The reason: he appeared as a celebrity chef on a cooking show.
The court decided that the PM's appearance on the show breached a conflict of interest law that forbids moonlighting.
The ongoing political crisis has seen a state of emergency imposed and then lifted, key airports shut down for short periods, and some half-hearted demonstrations that have been reported as "carnival-like".
It's hit the economy, and the tourist industry in particular, quite hard.
My BFF and I are so far undeterred.
Our friends in Bangkok assure us that it's business as usual in the capitol, and our own experience living and travelling in Africa (both through the Somali and Rwandan refugee crises) has refined our Spidey senses for danger.
We tend to avoid huge crowds of demonstrators anywhere.
I think everything's going to be okay. Maybe it's just denial.
Anyway, in case you're wondering what the Prime Minister made on the cooking show, here's one of his recipes:
Pigs' legs in Coca-Cola
Ingredients (serves five):
Five pig legs
Four bottles of Coca-Cola
Three tablespoons salt
Fish sauce
Garlic, chopped
See-uan (a sweet, dark sauce)
Four to five cinnamon sticks
Coriander root
Ground pepper
Five tablespoons "pongpalo" powder
Shitake mushrooms
Method:
Place the pig legs in a large pot. Pour over the Coca-Cola and bring to the boil. Add the coriander root, garlic, pepper, salt, fish sauce, "pongpalo" and cinnamon sticks.
Add sufficient water to cover. Cut the stalks off the Shitake mushrooms and add hot water to soften. Then add to the main pot. Bring to boil and simmer or at least three hours. Make sweet sauce with see-uan. Serve chilli and vinegar sauce.
3 comments:
If you haven't already read them, perhaps skimming through copies of Alex garland's "The Beach" and/or Michel Houlebecq's "Platform" might be in order.
Then again, both stories - while all about travels to Thailand - are real bummers...so on second thought, perhaps not.
Pigs' legs in Coca Cola... but that's my specialty! Damn. Now my secret's out there.
Ok, so this is my new favourite blog entry.
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