My alarm went off as usual at 6am .... the sun just showed up, with all the signs of a good day as I opened the window. What a view! Thanks to the generosity of Uncle Kalid Razack, my friend of 34 years and Andrea's Godfather, I was able to spend 4 whole weeks exactly to this date, in his quaint studio on Silom Road.I did not know what to do with the time since I no longer have school. No walk to Chong Nonsi, no 'satanee dau bai Saphan Khwai', no street side breakfast, no corn on the cob, and no wi-fi at the reception to check mail from the night before. I was a bit lost, what do I do now?
Wandee was the completion of Act 2 of my '10-year play'. LCB was Act 1 and I should start working on Act 3. Barcelona, perhaps? Tapas would be a good way to learn Spanish food culture? Should I learn some rudimentary Spanish? What time of the year is best? What started as an obsession to escape when I was consumed, exhausted and disillusioned by my last years at work has become the driving force of my retirement. I am totally commited, and very driven. Whatever energy I used to dedicate to work ... I had plenty then, but I have even more now ... is now directed to my 10-year quest. God willing, I would have attended 10 different 'cooking schools' when I turn 70. It beats preparing meaningless, long term, 10-year business plans, using assumptions that are presumptious. What I do now is totally manageable, by me, without intrusion. I measure everything against facts, reality and my capabilities. Above all there are no excuses, no pretenses and no BS politics. I and only I can make it happen, and I plan to.
What an exciting challege, and what a beautiful dream.
Thank you Thailand, thank you Bangkok, thank you Wandee and, thank you Uncle Kalid!
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TCK,
ReplyDeleteHave really enjoyed following your blog. I'm quite interested in doing this course myself some time. I suppose that most of the people on the course will end up working overseas or at least a lot of them will. Do you think that a lot of the course is really redundant for them because say for example one of them ends up working in Northern Europe then many of the ingredients you mention will be difficult to get hold of eg zest of Kaffir lime. I know that the Thai restaurants I have knowledge of use commercially prepared pastes. Did Wandee cover this? Do they cover the preparation of Curry Sauce before-hand and then just add meat and veg which restaurants do to save time? These are the tricks I would like to learn about in addition, of-course, to the purist's making of the curry paste from scratch. Do they cover such practical matters employed by Thai restaurants?
You said it they are Purists so packaged pastes were never used, nor taught. That said, Professor Wandee did sponsor a certain brand at the top end of the market and had made cooking shows using them. But no, they are not on the syllabus ie lots of mortar & pestle work. Thanks for supporting my blog ....
ReplyDeleteenjoy reading your blog
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