scrabble and adobo

sdf
School was back in session today at SB and the kids, despite having just enjoyed five days off school, were as unwilling as ever to get any work done ...which doesn't phase me at all anymore. I just let the motivated students work in one corner of the room while I work on herding the other little monsters into their desks, keeping them from cutting too much of my hair off (that's been a favorite with my grade 5 class lately) and combing out most of the obscenities and violence from the work they're bringing home to their parents (each day I have to remind them on the chalkboard of the rules... NO weapons. NO killing. NO warfare. NO obscene words)

Back at the apartments where most of the Thai teachers live, Ivy planned to cook adobo, a traditional dish from the Philippines, for dinner. No motorbike drivers to be found in today's sticky late afternoon heat, I walked the 20 blocks over from my house, my clothes and hair drenched (no, it wasn't raining) by the time I arrived. The neighborhood was astir with the usual characters, done with work and school for the day - squealing kids pushing each other on tricycles or riding 5 at a time on little motorbikes, grandmothers sitting together in groups on the curb in the shade of droopy tropical trees, street vendors selling the last of their meat-on-a-stick or noodle bowls or baskets of lychee and guavas - and I waied and "sawatdee kaaaa"ed my way down the hot streets to dinner...

the chef, ready to eat

adobo with chicken, potato and onion

Adobo, I think, is traditionally made with a few basic ingredients (pork or chicken, garlic, onion, vinegar, water, soy sauce and cooking oil) all simmered together for a long time until they make a thick, hearty sort of stew. Ivy's version was cooked up in her one-room little unit, in an electric frying pan set up on the floor. She just worked from memory, browning the chicken (chunks of bone-in dark meat) and adding potatoes, chilis, and splashes of soy sauce, pours of vinegar and oil and several cups of water, then letting it simmer and thicken while she prepared rice in her rice cooker (plugged into the only available wall outlet - in the bathroom).

The dish turned out beautifully - hearty, savory, salty with a mild sweetness and a bit of spice.

after dinner game of scrabble
(not a terribly fair game, as i had a distinct advantage over the non-native english speakers..)