Littles Kitchen: raw-ish pad thai

My number one obsession is food blogs. I love perusing the endless pages of recipes, drooling over the plating of quinoa tacos, savory chickpea wraps, and just out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. When my favorite foods are combined with amazing plates and season specific napkins, I swoon! If it’s not clear, cooking and baking is my love- it’s how I made at college, how I show love to my friends, and bond with my sister. Food is the simplest way for me to express myself. It’s an art form and an act of love.

One of the aspects from my America life that I miss most frequently is trying new recipes from my favorite bloggers. Sadly, Saturday mornings of egg skillets, donut pans, and pancakes are behind me and replaced with Markets with Mina and eggs made in a steel wok. Not bad, just different.

I mean mind you I can still find amazing foods that are simple to make (hence this blog) and use ingredients that are both unique and new as well as easy for me to find! It seems that learning how to use spelt and chickpea flour is out of the question in the Littlest Kitchen but much to my surprise and joy, experimenting with kelp noodles are in!

I was “doing research” for work aka browsing Laura Miller’sblog who is one of my most favorite bloggers. Check her out- she’s real, hilarious, open, and defiantly someone I would love to meet some day! Last year, she posted a video for raw pad thai. As I’m living in Thailand and LOVE anything containing noodles, I clicked the video out of curiosity and watched her whip together this delicious, healthy, and raw dish that contained kelp noodles. I’ve never hear or seen these noodles before so imagine my glee when I found them in the grocery store that very day! Perks of living in an Asian country!

Kelp noodles are light, naturally gluten-free, and contain lots of iodine! It’s a perfect way to get your daily dose of salt without all the junky additives and oils. And they also soak up tons of flavor and bring a nice crunch to the dish!

So this quick meal is a perfect mid-week dinner or lunch as it is oh so simple to bring to work in a tubberware.  I’ve added a few extra veggies as well as baked tofu BUT FORGOT BEAN SPROUTS like a total goof and once I remembered this crucial ingredient, I was all too lazy to run downstairs and make the 30 step journey to my neighborhood fresh market. Laura would have been disappointed. I, however, was not.

Kelp noodles are a sintch to work with! Just soak them in hot water for like 20 minutes and you're good to go! In a jar, shake together the peanut butter-soy dressing and drizzle over the noodles so they can start the process of soaking up ALL the flavors. Then, chop up the tofu into squares and create a marinade using oil and your preferred spices. I like Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute! After the tofu has marinaded for, who knows-like 20 minutes, just  BAKE it in the oven. People who have an oven say to bake at 400 F for 25 minutes and those with a toaster oven (like ME) bake their tofu for 30-ish minutes This process adds an amazing golden color and wonderful firm texture while maintaining a soft, warm inside. Major yum!

Finally, slice up some yummy greens, like spinach or kale, and a nice red pepper! Toss all the ingredients together, add a nice slice of lime and pinch of black sesame seeds and you've created one power-house of a meal! 

Ingredients: 

1 package kelp noodles
1 red peper
1 bunch kale

Tofu:
1 8oz block tofu, pressed
Oil
Spices to taste

Sauce:
1 white onion, finely minced
1/4 cup peanut butter
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsb honey

Quite heavily inspired by mah girl Laura Miller. Watch the video here!

The gas cylinder situation

Having family in town is the BEST but also working a 40 hour work week and then staying up late for 6 days in a row and then somehow getting sick does take a toll on a person. At the market this weekend, Mina said, “Olivia your eyes look tired. Come to the market at 2 you need rest.” THANK YOU MINA. With this time off, I slept super late, almost read one book within the span of 2 hours, and ate chocolate covered pretzels for breakfast, and only left the flat in search of water and coffee, or as I like to call them Life’s Biggest Necessities. And heck, while I’m up and out, might as well to the responsible thing and get a new gas cylinder.

Our gas cylinder is the thing we use to boil water for coffee and make eggs- basically the two things Erin and I survive off of. And it’s been out for like 5 days. I try asking the apartment cleaning lady/gardener/knower-of all-the-things if the shop is open today since I’d called without getting an answer. But of course I don’t know the official work for ‘gas shop’ in Thai so she found a tenet who speaks English and I asked her and she said maybe. I thought I might as well walk there since it’s like oh maybe 3 minutes away. I’m strolling down the ally and see another lady who lives in the market, knows everyone and everything and seems to have like 184 jobs. She asks where I’m going, I tell her-still not knowing the Thai word for gas shop- she finds 2 school aged girls to translate, they don’t understand so the pair run inside their apartment and wake up their dad who then calls the shop only to discover they don't have my size of cylinder ( I can say this part well- lek, sii som aka small, orange color). Not to worry, the All-Knowing-Neighbor takes me and one of the school aged girls to another ally to consult with two vendors they know of another shop. They point to an advertisement on the wall with a near-by gas shop, which she calls only to find out that they too are out of my size of cylinder. She then instructs the gas shop to deliver a new gas cylinder in the size I need to her apartment tomorrow because I have work and won’t be around when they can deliver. Y’ALL. That literally 10 people that worked together to orchestrating this whole getting-Olivia-gas situation.

This makes me feel two things. One- a dire need to learn all the thai right now in this very instant. And second feeling is a deep sense of gratefulness for people’s ability to offer kindness, patience, and helpfulness to a person who is mostly a stranger. Though it took 10 people, which is kind of ridiculous let’s just say it, it means that on some level 10 people cared about my well-being. Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it and they had nothing better to do on a Sunday morning than to help a confused white girl. But I’m clinging to the optimistic thoughts mostly because it makes me feel like I belong here.  And that’s what every human needs to survive and begin to succeed. That’s what’s making me thrive here in Thailand- little glimpse of belonging. And it’s the biggest challenge that life is offering me right now; slow down enough to show people you want to belong to them, that you care for and about them, that you desire engagement and connectedness. So I will. I’ll create time in my schedule tomorrow to sit with the All-Knowing-Neighbor lady and to ask the school aged girls how their homework went and to thank the dad for calling the gas shop. Because once you feel like you belong, it’s only natural to make sure other people know you’re there to stay.