Thai-ing up Old Memories...

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

These are the last of the series of photos I took at the Thai Festival that took place in August 2010.

I’ve never been to Thailand, although it is on my list of ” places to see one day“. In the last two posts especially, I saw things totally new to me and learned about new cuisines but there are some things that pop up as “variations upon a theme” in one culture or another.

The coconuts in one of the previous posts, all carved up ready for easy opening could have been taken in Singapore, or many places throughout Asia and the Pacific regions.

These little deep fried pastries in my first photo here, look exactly like the Samosas  that my Chinese-Malaysian house-mate used to make when I was looking after my parents New Zealand house when they lived overseas.

I know from my other travels that samosas  are often made in triangular form, but my house-mate called her version Samosas too and watching her deftly form the same beautiful scrolled edges speedily on the small fat crescent shapes is stuck with awe in my memory.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

She made it look so easy, but when I tried it, I kept impaling the soft almost sticky dough with my fingers, the filling kept falling out the holes and my attempts at an even half decent crimp around the edge were laughable if you were being polite, and a well deserved  0/10 if you were being honest.

She, of course had the secret weapon of experience: her Grandmother had a restaurant in Malaysia and as a girl received no education because her Father believed that only her brothers needed any.

Her lack of education grated on her and determined to prove herself she spent her life building up a thriving restaurant business from scratch.

When in turn her only child, a son, lavished education and a home on his son but not his daughters, she financed her granddaughters education herself and in return they would help her part-time in the restaurant.

Thus, from a young age my house-mate made hundreds of these samosas each week and could turn out several perfectly filled and crimped creations every minute.

The crabs in a bucket reminded me of the Solomon Islands market stalls,  and the whole fried fish looked the same in a variety of countries off the beaten track that Himself and I have travelled to.

It’s good to celebrate our differences, but even better to remember that we are often more similar than we think, and widening your horizons at any time is always a very satisfying experience.

Let’s take a look at what we are seeing as we leave…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Deep fried Bananas… the process…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

…and the result…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)