Portland

I kept refering to this as the International District but that is not what this neighborhood is called in Portland.
We walked through it on a Tuesday morning and it was beautiful but completely dead. I was expecting it to be something like Seattle's International District which comes alive very early morning with the outdoor markets setting up their fruits and vegetables. We used to ride our Vespa's around early moning and witness the city waking up. Very fun.




Seattle's International District

Experienced a wonderful cooking class that started at Viet Wah supermarket in Seattle's international district and ended up in a kitchen near U. Village. It was wonderful to have a tour of the store from our instructor Pranee. She guided us through the maze of exotic fruits, vegetables, fish, sugars, spices, sauces and more.


Pranee runs a Cooking school and teaches at many of Seattle's markets and fine kitchen stores.  Her website is a wealth of information and recipes.  It was hard to keep up with which dark soy sauce, fish sause, oyster sauce to purchase so she put it on her website:  I love Thai Cooking



My sweet and beautiful friend Dagny holding chinese celery.



Ahhhh.....

3 crabs- fish sauce was a favorite


Dagny and Terry are both accomplished cooks. They take classes and cook a ton. Both are fearless in the kitchen. You will find me listening in on their food conversations and sitting back in awe of their talent. Oh to have a seat at their table...
I learned that if you want to buy the fish you grab a basket and tongs, put it in and hand it to the guys behind the counter. Also, they can scale the fish for you. Liking that part very much!


We all got to join in on the cooking. It went quick so you just copied Pranee's motions when she needed your help.



Had to photograph some of the sauces we used...

The soup above is Tomyam Goong
sweet and sour prawn with lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaf
It was amazing!!! 5 star hot!

Our menu:
Stir-fry fresh rice noodles with spicy sauce adn Thai basil
Green Curry with Thai eggplant and basil leaf
Stir-fried swamp morning glory
Beef mint salad with toasted rice powder
Brown sugar squash dumplings in warm coconut milk

I am still overwhelmed with all of the information but anxious to participate, especially her upcoming Vietnamese class.The classes and tours are on going. Call her to join the fun.