One of my favorite things to do (since childhood, mind you) is go to the grocery store. Second only to doing laundry. I know...I was born a 1950's housewife. I love every aspect of it. The list making, all the shiny new things, bringing home ingredients that will be turned into something nourishing and delicious, and the best part of it all, organizing the cupboards and the fridge to fit in all the new goods - with all the shiny new labels facing out and organized by type of course!
Singapore has stolen this joy from me. The store's are chock full of stuff - too much stuff strewn about in the most counter intuitive way and too little of the stuff you'd think are pretty basic. They carry 18 flavors of Pringles and they have an entire aisle devoted to sugar - white, raw, palm, Indian - but they don't carry brown sugar. ANYWHERE. When I asked a clerk if they carried it, he just looked at me like, "of course we don't". All this while stocking shelf after shelf with Doritos. How foolish of me to assume you'd carry such an outlandish product as I direct my line of sight to the bakery, where they sell all sorts of gooey, brown sugar-y confections.
This is not to say that I don't blame my own ignorance. My new geography is not lost on me and it's certainly not Singapore's fault that I can't locate a good that may or may not be used here. I appreciate that I can still get most of my comfort products just about anywhere even though I'm so far from home. I even kind of understand why all those products are 60% more expensive than if I bought them in the U.S. ($17 for one pound of sandwich turkey, people). And I'm sure that I'll learn to really enjoy all those prickly, misshapen, even stinky fruits and vegetables I've never seen before but right now, it's Thanksgiving darn it and all I want to do is make this brown sugar and pecan topped pumpkin pie.
But I digress; the cooking class. First up, Vietnamese. The class was held at a restaurant/cooking school that can seat about 10 students. It wasn't one of those hand's on classes, more like a live demo of several courses while you nosh away on each serving. Then the main's and dessert are served up at a big communal table and you can yak it up with the fellow student's and teacher - who happens to be somewhat of a local celebrity who has her own cookbook. Our agenda for the day began with prawn and jicama spring rolls with peanut dipping sauce, calamari and fennel salad, curried chicken and coconut noodle soup, shaking beef and mushroom and asparagus stir fry, and creme caramel for dessert. Each course was delectable and I truly learned a lot. Who knew coriander and cilantro were basically the same thing? Not me! One less puzzle next time I visit cold storage. Success! I've been here long enough to know it's the little things.
I was so inspired after the class, I made the curried chicken and coconut soup for dinner. I even added my own flair - sliced red onions I soaked in lime juice to get rid of some of their royal onion-ness. It added color and another dimension of flavor, which I learned was the essence of Vietnamese cooking. I think Chef Samia would have been proud. Next up, a hands-on course on petite cakes!
See my own version of Curried Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup below.
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