A few years ago I had a prolonged and well-documented breakup with Thai food. Okay, it wasn't so much well-documented as it was widely and at-length discussed over MSN with Lisa during one of my bouts of unemployment. Within my first couple of years of living in Toronto I couldn't really afford to go out to eat anywhere nice and being a bummy student, I didn't really know of anywhere hip. Seth's dad came to town one time and took us out to the Queen Mother, which we both thought was just the bee's knees when it came to dining. I thought Thai food was pretty awesome. But then, I dunno what happened - too many bad Spring Rolls encounters, questionable Fung experiences, too much blatant use of ketchup in Pad Thai - something like that. When even my mum knows what Thai food is, all of its hipness goes out the window. So, yeah...we broke up and haven't really gotten back together aside from my insane love for the hot & sour soup @ Bua Thai [which Kathryn reminded me of this week and now I really want some].
Also, I happen to recall that Lisa was in a grand Pad Thai cook-off and therefore, she must cook something quite excellent. I don't cook a lot of Asian food @ home, aside from miso soup, stir fries and rice - which are not great culinary feats. So tonight, plucked from the pages of one of my most white-person cookbooks ever I made Pad Thai @ home. I was beyond skeptical and had actually been putting this off for a week. Like most of my recipes, I neglected to purchase everything that I would need so I had to improvise and just plain old neglect some things. One thing I did not neglect was the tofu. Yes, I'm a vegetarian and yes, I do like tofu in certain restaurants. But no, I do not regularly have it on hand and no, I do not cook with it. It smelled so discusting while I was preparing it [hello fish sauce - Joseph thought I was using stinky cheese that had been left out] and looked highly questionable up until the last moment...when in some great moment of glory it all came together. The noodles unstuck, the colour stabilized [and wasn't the bizarre pink shade it sometimes is in restaurants], the smell became fragrant and citrusy, the sauce ceased to really exist except to cling to the noodles, vegetables and absorb into the tofu...and bam - the tofu was practically the greatest part. It kinda made me miss eating meat, to be honest.
Oh, and yes - Happy Leap Year. No, I didn't ask Joseph to marry me. I totally couldn't find my fancy red petticoat that is necessary to wear if a fair maiden such as myself were to ask a young lad for his hand in marriage. Maybe in another four years.
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