Shrimp on the Barbie

Okay--if anybody knows me at all, you`ll know that seafood really isn`t my passion. Well, yesterday the menu for my cooking class was coconut shrimp with mango sauce, Thai soup and Thai chicken curry. We started off with the shrimp. They are ugly, gray little critters but the tails come off easily with one little pinch. That was kind of a cool discovery! We then learned how to batter them without getting your fingers all sticky and covered in flour! What you do is set up four little bowls. You have one wet hand and one dry hand. Then you put the wet hand on the shrimp, the dry hand in the flour once the shrimp are dropped into it, the wet hand again in the egg yolk and the dry hand in the coconut-bread crumb mixture. It is a genius idea, don`t you think? My fingers were actually pretty clean by the end! I then put all 8 of them in the deep fat fryer and watched them sizzle. When they were done, they looked pretty tasty! I put them aside and worked to make the mango sauce.

For the mango sauce, you blend up a cut-up mango with a bit of cilantro, sugar and water. As always, I love large quantities and put in way too much water. Vincent, the chef, joked that I wanted to make mango juice. He gave me another mango and watched as I put in just a pinch of water. It turned out pretty good as well....and would you believe it?? I ate three shrimp with sauce! And I hate shrimp! But these were actually pretty good. It is fun to see how much you enjoy trying out foods that you really worked and sweated over.

The Thai soup and curry were actually an interesting adventure as well! Vincent showed us how to cut the chicken against the grain and how to peal fresh ginger with a spoon. By the way, did you know that you never wash mushrooms? I never knew that till now!

After we got everything all boxed up, these two old ladies were still piddling around and their dishes weren`t even washed. Another girl and I washed and dried practically everybody`s dishes. I asked Vincent if I could leave because it was 4:00 and my friends were waiting for me outside but he said I needed to help out the old ladies. I tried my best but they acted like they had all the time in the world! Frustrating!

I finally got out of there at 4:20 and we took the bus up to the Chateau Frontenac. It was as beautiful as I remembered. We got some ice cream and sat on benches to watch the St. Laurence river as the breeze blew through our hair. We could have opted for Queue de Castor (Beaver tails)--really just batter, deep-fat fried and covered in powdered sugar--kind of like funnel cakes...but we thought it was too hot for that. It made for a nice afternoon. We then went shopping together. Andrea bought a bride`s maid dress for over $300 at this store called Chateau!! Ahhh!! I don`t plan on buying any souvenirs here because nothing has really caught my eye and I`ve been here before. Does anybody want anything? If you do, you have till Friday to let me know. Your options are a Quebec flag, postcard, stuffed animal or caramel cookie.

Bon--this teacher class is getting underway. I guess I need to present an idea to the others about how to teach grammar to kids. We have supposedly been surfing the internet, looking for ideas for the past two hours now. All I can think about is how fun it will be to learn how to make apple crumble and blueberry tarts in my cooking class today.