Thailand. Trying out the new cooker.

As I reported the other week I had a new BBQ or cooker made for barbecuing, grilling and so forth. After first making a stuff-up and then fixing it and then giving the cooker a burning to get it ready for use I haven’t used it. That was a few weeks ago.

Last night my lovely girlfriend couldn’t wait any longer and told me we were going to have a BBQ or grill session tomorrow night. I said that sounded fine to me.

So tonight I arrived home from work to find Noot and Ben had ventured to the market to purchase meats and vegetables for tonight’s feast. I went to the park as per usual and when I arrived home was told to go straight outside and light the coals for the cooker.

So I went out the side of the house and got things started and then Noot came out to check on me. I went and got the camera and Noot made some adjustments to the coal and I took a picture of her placing some more on the small fire.

I made a small bench from an old abandoned frame that was out the back of the house and used some small planks of wood to make a bench for the top and a shelf underneath. It is rough but works a treat.


I had to go to Big C to buy a few things and left Noot in charge. I was gone for about twenty minutes and when I returned the chicken and pork were already a golden brown. She said it was very hot and I explained she could have pushed the coals apart or waited a little while but she was hungry.

I took over and started to put the meat to the outside of the grill.






I was happy to be in charge as you can see. You can also see I am well rugged up in my tracksuit pants and jacket. The temperature here has dropped here in Isaan country Thailand. I would say around the 10-12 degree mark but seems colder with a cool strong breeze blowing.



Inside in the kitchen Noot was preparing a dipping sauce for the grilled pork and Ben who was watching and getting ingredients when told so.







The dipping sauce was a mixture of garlic, chili, lime juice, sugar and fish sauce and warm water. It is all placed into the pestle and mortar and combined together.


The end product looks like this. You simply dip the meat or your sticky rice into it and then stuff it in your mouth.


The next thing on the menu was Noot’s favourite, a papaya salad with seafood. First thing was to lightly cook the prawns and squid in some boiling water.


Noot had shredded up some green papaya and some carrot.


She places some garlic, salt, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and of course chili into the pestle and mortar and she starts making the sauce for the somtam. Pok. pok, pok.


Then, add the seafood and mix together.







Of course all good chefs have to test the food for the correct taste and add a pinch of this or that to make it perfect.








So when everything was finished we sat down to try out the feast. Ben and Bell were ready to tuck in.





Noot had marinated the meat lightly and it was very delicious but I will hopefully get to make some teriyaki and other marinades for a real cooking session. I am hoping to do this maybe on the weekend, maybe Saturday night if time permits.



It’s really hard living in Isaan Thailand.

Brunty.