Weds, 31st Oct 2007

I started my day at 9 am in the Atrium Asian kitchen shadowing Achara, their Thai chef - a magnificent lady, a workhorse who never tires; her movements are swift, quick & efficient, she's strong, clean, neat and tidy and she can match a robocoupe anytime with her chopping and dicing skills. Watch her fry a huge wok of rice with a heavy scoop in her left hand and a metal spatula in her right flipping and tossing that heavy loaded wok with one hand, you just stand and watch in awe at her strength and agility.....

Anyway, she asked me to help her cut some chillies,

and Mr K's story, related at ZT's house immediately came to mind.

Although we are biologically different (haha), I dashed off to get some gloves.. hehehe - does this bring back hot memories, B?

Job done - stalks in one bowl, cut chillies in another.

She showed me how to make (and I helped with her mise-en-place):

Hot and Spicy Squid in Thai Sweet Basil Sauce (YUMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)!!

Thick & tender pieces of squid in a hot chilli spicy sauce - the basil is the magic behind this dish. On Monday she also showed me a delicious dish of mussels cooked Thai style, with cincalok...... oooohhhhhh.....

Mussels Curry - the mussels were very sweet and succulent.

This is the pot it was cooked in.

DeepFried Grouper Masak Asam Pedas - she deep fried it first,

so it will keep firm and intact in the asam sauce - it was so fresh - I tried a piece before she put it into the sauce.

And Singapore fried seafood meehoon, topped with two eggs & 2 pieces of satay.

This is what I mean by neat and tidy - in the rush before getting food out onto the lunch buffet, this is her preparation area. My trusty notepad and pencil BURSTING with recipes and notes is in the right hand corner.

I had a short break at 5 pm and could have gone home then, but I reported to the Spaghettini kitchen at 6 and stayed till 10 pm - and they showed me how to made beef carpaccio!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I made one portion and rolled it too.

And the fantastic boys there tried to teach me how to flip a pan, first with a towel on a pan over an unlit stove, then with some spaghetti. I still can't do it - but practice, practice, practice.

Lots more Spaghettini food pics coming up but here is just a teaser.