Compromise

I got sucked back into Lemon Grass today.  I met a former line cook who lived in Thailand for a year and she asked me if there were any good Thai restaurants in the area.  I told her that last week I would have recommended Lemon Grass but I was pissed off about the evil jungle princess fiasco.  Based on my description she assumed that it just might be some version of a jungle curry.  I excitedly told her about the grocer and the dishes I cooked.  She was shocked about the laab - she lived in the north eastern part of the country and said it was one of her favorite dishes.  I decided that it would be worth a tasting.  Although the sauce on the pad thai was a bit sweet, she thought the food was pretty good.  She also said that my pad kee mao looked more like pad see ew due to the size of the noodles.  We had a great conversation about food but to the server's surprise, I did not order a thai tea to go. 

One essential element to Asian cooking is a seasoned wok and high heat...one of my burners outputs 14,000 btus but I think I need to step my pan up. 

A few hours later at home I was once again confronted with my son's request for seafood salad.  I used to make seafood salad with shrimp and pasteurized crabmeat but I've come to have an aversion to what my friend refers to as mayo salads.  I knew he was looking for the typical seafood salad with the imitation crab hence I went with the stuff at Whole Foods (Kanimi - made from wild caught fish).  However after boiling quality noodles and sauteing delicious shrimp I couldn't bring myself to sprinkling Old Bay (I found a low sodium version) on it and adding mayonnaise so I threw in some basic seasonings and tossed it with celery and french vinaigrette.  He said he liked it but wanted it a little less gourmet and more like my Aunt Mary's.  Fortunately I had reserved half of it so I was able to oblige him.