world cuisine wednesday.

thai?
oh my.
yeah.
kids,
i got a little busy again.
actually,
i got a lot busy.
and in the spirit of wednesday night dinnertime fun,
i freaked it off with a whole bunch of thai magic for our faces.
that's real.
like,
when i took a bag of cashews,
and added raw sugar and ginger and basil and g.p.o.p.
and cinnamon and black pepper and hot pepper,
and paprika, and a couple seconds' worth of oil?
yeah.
i baked 'em up and added them to a plate already overflowing
with too many kinds of hottness.
mmmhmmmm.
it was just right.
i mean it.
check the teleport:

c'mon!
we took healthy helpings to eleven, for sure.
go ahead-
look closer, neighbors:

rice skins, and lettuce, and cucumbers, and carrots,
and rice thread sticks,
and fresh basil and fresh mint, and bean sprouts!
those are summer rolls, kids,
and the little glass bowl of brown sauce is the magic peanut
homestyle dippin' expertism you wish i wrote down the recipe for.
...and so do i.
what i can say with absolute certainty is that it was way better than restaurant jauns
by a force multiplying order of magnitude,
which was seconded, and then even thirded, by my dinner companions.
is that cilantro-sprankled coconut flour-dredged
coconut flake-crusted, coconut-oil-fried tofu?
it sure is.
what?
where?
oh.
the black stuff?
extra fancy coconut black japonicum rice.
yuuuuuuuuuuuup.
with those key lime wedges for squeezin' all up on 'em?
that's IT.
you know you like the way i doo-doo that freaky sh!t.
basil garnishes are nice, but crisp cuke spears are nicer,
and pineapple?
well, duh.
it goes great with every damned thing on that plate.
that's a tested and proven fact.
so what's the jasmine rice doing lookin' all cuter-than-cute,
with a scallion tophat on?
oh, not much,
except getting oh-so-ready to get added to a little of this:

wu-TANG!!
yellow curry in F*ing fully-dressed war-ready regalia, y'all.
expert expert expert.
peanuts and sweet onion and garlic forever,
sauteed in coconut oil, with turmeric and cumin and coriander
and g.p.o.p and black pepper and ginger all added in and activated,
before broth and coconut milk simmered it up,
and potatoes and sweet potatoes and baby carrot circles,
and chick peas and grape tomato halves all joined in as it bubbled.
basil and cilantro and scallions all slid in at the end to wilt it into
a big ol' boggin' bowlful of better-than-what-you-had-for-dinner.
yeah.
i know you saw 'em up top,
but get closer to what's good right now:

yeah!
nailed the perfectly paired beverage for the meal, kids.
thai iced tea, with coconut creamer, and crushed ice,
and a squirt of sweet lime?
smoother than the smoothest smooches on my lips.
*
me and my peoples feasted, again,
for world cuisine wednesday.
we make the moments matter more by assigning meaning to each of 'em.
none of it means nothing,
as long as we keep caring about it all.
i am grateful for the time i have been given,
for the food and the friends that i share,
and for the time we span.
it's all really happening,
and it can't be any better than that;
never quiet, never soft.....