#Thai March 6

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Last night my wife and I completed the first of four parts of the #Coach4aday 30 Day Ethnic Food Challenge. We prepared a THAI inspired menu for 6 friends and family.

The 30 day challenge for March is to prepare four ethnic dishes or complete menus that you have not tried before. It averages out to one new menu per week.

I am very happy that my wife who is a talented cook and much more adventurous than me when it comes to trying new foods agreed to be my challenge partner. We spent a good portion of Thursday afternoon prepping and getting everything ready for Friday evening. It was a great shared activity for two retirees.

One of the benefits of this challenge in addition to broadening my limited culinary appreciation was to reengage in small groups with friends. We have missed the frequency that we socialized pre COVID. With the right precautions and being in small groups we felt like the time was okay.

In Thailand, food forms a central part of any social occasion so that made our first menu choice even better. THAI meals includes five main flavors: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy. In fact many individual dishes in Thailand accomplish that taste profile. The obstacles we faced was finding many of the ingredients in a rural North Carolina grocery store. We did some shopping online to find tamarind, oyster sauce, and authentic rice noodles.

All of our guests and my wife had tried THAI food before. I had not. So the menu was selfishly prepared that I at a minimum would try something new. Here is the menu we served.

Appetizer-Spring Rolls with sweet/sour dipping sauce

Entrée-Chicken Pad THAI-served with long beans sautéed in garlic and red pepper flakes

Dessert-Fried Plantains served with sweet sticky rice

Here are some pictures from the THAI Ethnic Dinner we hosted.

The entire evening was a big success. Our guests all enjoyed the food and we had lots of laughs. I have to admit I have been missing out on THAI food.

Thursday it is on to our next ethnic adventure as we take on a Caribbean menu. It is not too late to join the Ethnic Food Challenge. Just add to the comments “I’m in”.