Retire Early
Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler
In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age
of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this
financially independent lifestyle, they invite you
to take advantage of their wisdom and experience. |
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"Happy Hearts" - Cooking in
Thailand
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli
Steamed vegetable display in Thailand
Chiang Mai,
Thailand, a quick one hour flight north of Bangkok, offers many
regional Thai cooking classes. And thanks to its abundance of fresh fruits,
vegetables and herbs, this city is rapidly becoming a culinary training
center. People from all walks of life are mesmerized by Thailand’s extensive
exotic and mysterious flavors.
While on a visit to Chiang Mai, my girlfriend and I carefully examined the
choices of classes, which also included vegetable and fruit carving, and
chose one especially focused on making curries.
Literally from around the world, twenty students of all ages showed up
promptly at ten a.m. the morning of the lesson.
After introductions, one of the three instructors began explaining the
ingredients that go into making a curry paste. Before this moment, I held
the mistaken notion that "a curry" was a single spice like turmeric or
cumin. Being shown physically by sight, smell, touch and flavor all the
ingredients that go into making a curry paste opened my mind for the first
time to this new world of curries. Panaeng curry, a special Thai paste that
we were making on this day, included fifteen ingredients some of which were
coriander, cumin, ginza, mace, kaffir lime peel, lemon grass and shrimp
paste.
I had no idea it was this complex!
Curry pastes and shrimp paste are
available already made in the Thai markets
I looked around, blushing to myself, wondering how many of those attending
were as naive about Asian food as I was. When time came to prepare our
paste, a gentleman raised his hand, and politely asked "Would you mind
showing me the difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon?"
Well then.
I breathed a sigh of relief and settled down into the instruction.
Cooking stations were everywhere, complete with a gas burner, cutting board,
cleaver, wet cloth, bowls of water, spoons, cooking utensils and woks.
Finding a station to work at was a little like musical chairs. Every time I
reached to claim one, it was already taken.
Finally, I spotted a station on the far side of the room and I tossed my
notebook over a burner and onto a chair from the middle of the floor where I
was standing. Then I confidently and quickly maneuvered my way around
bodies, woks, utensils, backpacks, water bottles and supplies, to set myself
up and prepared to work.
At our posts, all the ingredients that we had been previously shown, both
fresh and dried, were waiting. As I began slicing the fresh herbs, leaves
and ginza to add to my pounded dry ones, my "station mate" began talking to
me. Being no slouch with a knife myself, I immediately recognized that her
skills were far superior to mine. I realized that this class was not about
competing but rather learning, so I finished slicing and dicing and
commenced to pounding.
These little chilies are hot hot hot!
Much like the native Thais who spend time on the floor of their homes, we
each found ourselves a comfortable spot on the floor with a wet towel under
our mortar and pestle. We began to pound, and drum, and hammer.
Earlier we had been shown how to do so with much vigor. A short story had
also been told about how Thai men in the village would often stand outside
homes in the morning listening to the pounding of the curry pastes. It is
said that if a Thai woman pounds her paste with enthusiasm she will make
quite a sexy partner, no matter if she is beautiful, rich or well known. The
only thing that matters is how she goes about making that paste.
The other main ingredient, is to SMILE (emphatically); to have a noticeable
"Happy Heart". We were assured "Happy hearts make the best flavors. We do
not want any bitter curries here..."
So hammer we do, vigorously, for the next ten full minutes. I get really
into mine, smiling, sweating, trying to get those blasted chunks to
pulverize into a smearing paste. My station mate had sliced her ingredients
so finely that she finished smashing minutes before I did. I continue to
beat and grind, until I find that I'm the last and only one still pounding.
Ooops. I will have to live with the chunks.
Course after course, we are first shown what to do then we proceed to make
these dishes for ourselves; two different curries, chicken, pork, fish,
sauce after sauce, vegetables, coconut milk, salad and dessert. At lunch
break, we sit down, each of us, savoring our creations and visiting with
each other. I sit next to my girlfriend who had been on the other side of
the room all morning during instruction.
As the cooking school is used to having vegetarians attend their courses,
they provided her with unique and tasty alternatives to our meat and fish
dishes. She was most pleased.
I have appreciation for these pastes
now. Maybe I'll just buy them!
Conversations were as diverse as our ingredients. There was a Restaurant
broker, a young and energetic English chef with his wife, a cooking teacher
who taught ten year olds in southern France, a lawyer beginning his new life
in Sydney Australia, a young girl from India, a marine biologist living and
working in Puerto Rico, and all had successfully made their smiling, sexy
curries.
My belly was full, my heart was happy. The program had been professional and
well organized. Smiling humor had been the theme of the day. On top of it
all, I believe I learned several useful things to take home with me to add
to my style of cuisine. And you can bet from now on I will be smiling when
I'm cooking.
For more
stories and
photos on
Thailand,
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About the Authors
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli are
recognized retirement experts and internationally published authors on
topics of finance, medical tourism and world travel. With the wealth of
information they share on their award winning website RetireEarlyLifestyle.com,
they have been helping people achieve their own retirement dreams since
1991. They wrote the popular books, The
Adventurer’s Guide to Early Retirement and Your
Retirement Dream IS Possible available on their website
bookstore or
on Amazon.com.
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