Sunday the 22 of April was a very special day for us.
We had a plan to have dinner with very good friends that we have made here in the condominium. (I know. the term condominium is one that I never thought I would hear myself using. Hochhauser, apartment block, anything but condominium. But Condominium is the term used in Singapore for privately built apartments generally sold or rented to foreign nationals and middle class Singaporeans). I digress.
Barbara and Rajesh and their two lovely daughters, Vinya and Lena have been very good for us here in Singapore. Rajesh is a musician, Barbara a singer and their daughters are very smart and talented and they have been using our place as a second home.
After planning a dinner date many times, we finally were able to get together. Rajesh and Barbara are always very busy with their work and practice and something always seemed to come up so that we had to postpone. But not this time.
One of our big challenges in preparing dinner is that Lena (who is eleven) is a very strict vegetarian. We are not. So we don't get a lot of practice with preparing fully vegetarian meals. Claire was set on making a Thai feast and went seeking a menu to fill this order.
It is very surprising, but finding a vegetarian Thai dish is not as easy as one might suppose. Claire did source a recipe from The Cook and the Chef for "Vegetable Jungle Curry". This seemed like a pretty simple recipe to prepare, but getting the ingredients was an adventure in itself. It turns out that there is a little publicised, but well established Thai community in Singapore. Just as there is a Little India and a China Town. It is found centred around the Golden Mile Complex in Kalang. Within the complex are a large number of Thai shops and an extensive Thai supermarket provisioned with every thing that one would need for an authentic Thai meal.
So, on Saturday, while Sophie went to her French Horn lesson, Claire and I quickly slipped away to The Golden Mile to pick up the supplies. There we found every thing we needed for the recipe, but got carried away with exploring the many exotic foods, cooking utensils and serving dishes. We were a little late getting back to Sophie after her lesson ended. (Sophie is not impressed when we are late returning from our excursions when she has her lesson.)
The recipe was fine, however we were really nervous while preparing the dish, as the flavours were very light and delicate. It really wasn't until it was ready to serve that the full taste was apparent and it was delicious! We could tell, because not a thing was left in the bowls at the end of the meal. This was not as strongly flavoured as many of the well known Thai dishes like Crying Tiger, or red and green curry, but will hold a place in our recipe books for the future.
We had a great evening, which was rounded off with Barbara leading Claire, Gabriella, Vinya, Sophie and Lena in a 2 part version of Mozart's "Ave verum corpus". During the first rendition, Rajesh's sister called from the USA and she was treated to some very beautiful singing, long distance. The little singing group the girls are forming under Barbara's guidance is able to produce some very beautiful singing and Rajesh and I are very keen to hear how they progress.
So a great cooking adventure ending in a lovely meal and rounded off with beautiful music. Delightful!
