Tradition vs. Technology. Who Wins?

Photo shoot with fellow photographer Juan Job

Thanks to our lovely models Yao and Nana!

Yesterday I spent a lovely day of cooking madness, helping my dear friend Net out in her vegan/vegetarian restaurant Mae Loe Gyi in Mae Sariang. In the process she taught me some of her most delicious recipes. It was a wee crazy busy but super productive. I even came up with a new salad to add to the repertoire.  It was a lovely day and worth every bit of suffering that comes with not having the time to eat breakfast or lunch on account of all of the customers clamoring to eat Net’s delicious food. :)

After a hard days work in the kitchen, we finally got a chance to rest our tootsies and enjoy Net’s amazing Vegetarian Khao Soi and the new creation Salad. I included the salad recipe if you fancy trying it out.  But sorry, dear friends, the Khao Soi is Net’s recipe which I am shamelessly hoarding. You may only taste it if you come to visit me in Thailand. :) And please allow yourself the freedom to experiment with the salad. Strict recipes zap all the amazingness out of cooking.

The Salad of the Day Recipe…

1) Mix the following ingredients in a bowl.

1 Onion sliced very thinly

2 small chile peppers minced

2 green onions sliced

4 Tomatoes cut in 8ths

1/2 cucumber chopped

1 red bell pepper sliced

1/3 fresh cashews or favorite nut.

2) Add the following to your bowl of veggies

Dressing:

1-2 Juice of Lime

1 Tbs. White Sugar

1 Tbs. Soy Sauce

2-3 Tbs. Hot Water.

3) Then Mix in

3/4 c. Deep Fried Mushroom Meat-substitute. It’s delicious you find the right substitute brand or try your favorite meat in bite-sized pieces.

4) Then mix in –>

2 tsp toasted rice powder (optional) Look in a Asian grocery store

handful of mint leaves

5) Taste it to adjust your desired sweet/spicy/salty balance…

6) FINALLY…..

Prepare a bed of lettuce,

pour the salad on top of the bed and garnish with

2 boiled eggs quartered, a sm handful of mint leaves and a sprinkling of toasted rice powder

ENJOY! ^^

I just got back from a lovely weekend in Laos with my dear Canadian friend Dave. He treated me to the best fruit smoothies in all of the land and let me crash in his fancy guest bedroom and sleep in for hours and hours. My bus-weary body thanks him so very much! This picture was taken while exploring the Mekong Riverside one evening.

Part 2 of the Summer fashion shoot from Gyahaha’s summer clothing line designed by the brilliant clothing designer Hyeon-ja of Gyahaha and help from business partner Hyunmi. Doesn’t this just make you want to go on summer picnics, play dress-up, run barefoot, and eat so much watermelon that it dribbles down your chin and makes your hands impossibly sticky from the fruity goodness, or is that just me?

Do you remember a couple of months back or rather almost 11 months ago?  In April 2011, I had a 5-month challenge for myself ?

Remember challenges two and three?

2) Collaborate with another artist (fashion designer, make-up artist, etc.) on a Photography Shoot

3) Do a Fashion Shoot in Seoul

So I didn’t quite do a fashion shoot in Seoul, but rather in the most beautiful countryside of Gangwon-do in East Korea! Which was about a million times better than photographing in Seoul. And I got to do some serious collaboration too!

I paired with the brilliant clothing designer Hyeon-ja of Gyahaha and business partner Hyunmi for a crazy Saturday of pretty clothes, 3 am wake up calls, lots of hard work and the most tasty beef barbeque in all of Korea. We didn’t finish until the next day at 6 am! It was worth the sleeplessness. We produced this shoot for their summer clothing line which is absolutely stunning! I am finally posting Part 1 for the internet world to see. Part 2 to come! :) If you’re in Seoul, be sure to visit Gyahaha near Ewha and Hongdae University! It’s a girl’s clothes Heaven!

In honor of warm weather and good melodies, take a gander at my new favorite song from Avalanche City ~ Love, Love, Love .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWzzbuJJYQc&feature=BFa&list=PL7F6FD55BE8CCC5A5&lf=results_main

I have emails to write and things to do tonight. A busy, busy night, with a cup of home-brewed Starbucks cinnamon coffee to keep me energized, like the bunny! but I thought I’d procrastinate first by posting a little blog.

* caption: It’s a big ‘ole world out there, but our job is just to take one step at a time and enjoy every blessed moment. —  And on that note, I’m off to take another step!

~~~~~

 p.s. a large gecko just ran up the side of my wall, larger than usual. Good thing it wasn’t a rat. I might have screeched. But geckos they are just cool, so they have permission to run up and down my wall as they please.

It’s Monday here in Thailand, and Monday is always a good day to express Love right? It helps the Mondays go a wee bit better than if you had less love. And how do I choose to express my love on this lovely Monday? With a salad of course. I can’t think of much else in the whole wide world that I like to make and eat than a nice big amazing salad. Three times a day, if possible.

I am a little or perhaps a lot in love with salads. I am in fact twitterpated with salads. Yes, twitterpated is a word. Google it.

I love salads so much that eventually I’m plan on opening my own salad restaurant, but that shan’t be for years in the future, in a foreign land, with odd looking people surrounding me. For now I’m very happy with my picture taking ways. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to have you come along with me on my salad escapades. Perhaps you’ll even be a brave soul and try to make AND eat one of these creations? Gasp! Perhaps, but I shan’t get my hopes too high, it is only Monday, you know.

My first salad of choice? Well I opened up the refrigerator last night and the food started speaking, ::what? the food doesn’t normal speak to you too?:: Well this is what my food friends introduced me to.

Mr. Cashew, Watermelon*, Coconut Salad

* cultural note * My Thai brother says that Watermelon is a lady’s fruit, but I disagree. He is just jaded because he is Thai, and the only fruit he still likes is durian and rambutan.  Lames choices of fruit lovin’ if you ask me.

The recipe follows the pictures :)

Ingredients:

(change amounts to personal taste + experiment please! that’s what makes cooking so fun!)

1. 2 cups seedless or seed watermelon cubed

2. 1 cup fresh coconut meat sliced

3. 1 cup tomatoes sliced in eighths

 4. 2 cups sm. white radishes found an asian grocery store.

Amazing, amazing!

5. 1 small onion sliced thinly

6. 1/2 cup cashew nuts halves + 1/4 cup (saved for garnish)

7. olive oil + salt to taste

prepare and mix first the first 6 ingredients. Toss the salad with the olive oil and salt to taste.

Then make it all pretty like with a drizzle of oil and 1/4 cashew nuts to top it off!

Today after lunch the Thai brother comes into the room with his 3rd or 4th cup of coffee for the day. His mom mumbles something about how he drinks coffee just like it is water.

He defends himself:

“I drink 6 or 7 coffees a day so that I won’t fall asleep,” he said sincerely.

Sure that makes sense. 6 or 7 is a lot, but I lived through college. I understood him.

But then I ask him, ‘So then why do you always have to drink one cup of coffee just seconds before bedtime?’

“If I no drink coffee,’ he said ‘I sleep no good.”

I tell him that he’s nuts and then hand him a caffeine addict anonymous card.

Coffee logic. It’s amazingly delicious :)

Ok so have I ever told you that I have the most amazingly talented friends in the entire world? My friends are way more talented than other people’s friends. It’s just a life fact. Don’t be jealous :)

To prove my point… my dear friend Sarah Vied  made my Christmas so easy this year. Basically I emailed her and said I have X amount of friends in Thailand and can you crochet hats, headbands for them? I told her their sizes and said just to create exactly what she wanted: the color, the style. Because she’s that good.  And boom! Like that.. Maybe 3 days later all of my beautiful presents were finished, ready for the giving. I am blessed, am I not? Well here are the ridiculously beautiful presents that she made for me!

And if you want to be as lucky as me. Here is her website http://onlysarah.wordpress.com/ so you can get her to make you whatever you please, for yourself or maybe for someone you love too. That is if you can bare the thought of parting with your lovely new crocheted hat, scarf, or headband… :)