LARB (Thai salad dish)

yields 1-2 Servings

1 tablespoon toasted rice
1/4 shallot, thinly sliced
1-2 limes
1/2 lbs ground pork
1/4 tablespoon ground dried chili pepper
3 tablespoons fish sauce
5 sprigs cilantro, sliced
3 sprigs spearmint (Optional)
1 green onion, sliced (Optional)

*Tips and substitutions*
Substitute any ground meat for ground pork.

Substitute red onion or just onion for shallot if you like.

The spearmint adds zing to the laab.

Squeeze juice from 1/3 of the lime on to the ground pork. Mix well and let it marinade for just a couple of minutes until you are ready to cook it.

For this dish, people normally use a small pot; I use my cast iron pans because they can be heated up really hot, they retain heat well and heat evenly.

Heat up a pan on high until it is very hot. Add two tablespoons of water and then immediately add your marinated pork and stir. The pork will stick to the pan at first, but then the juice will come out and the meat will loosen from the bottom. Keep stirring until the pork is well done. Traditionally, the pork is undercooked, but I do not recommend undercooking pork for health reasons.

Put the pork in a bowl a large mixing bowl that will hold all the ingredients. Add fish sauce, green onion, shallot, cilantro, the rest of the lime juice, ground chili pepper and almost all of toasted rice into the bowl. Save some toasted rice to sprinkle on top for garnish. Mix well and taste. It should be a little bit hot. You should be able to taste tartness from the lime juice and the fish sauce. If you need to add more fish sauce or lime juice, don’t be afraid. Getting the flavor balance right is a trial and error process.

Put the mixed ingredients in a serving bowl, garnish with spearmint and sprinkle the rest of toasted rice on top. Serve with vegetables like cabbage, green beans, lettuce and Thai basil.

Tags: recipe

Ode to Lt Data

For Halloween, i persuaded my hubby to dress up with me, and what better way to do so than by picking his favorite sci-fi show of all time: STAR TREK! My hubby just recently exposed me to the 2009 Star Trek movie, I instantly wanted more (and there was a LOT!).

Yes, I am now a converted Trekkie.

Each night is easily turned into Star Trek night, since hubs has the TNG box set. And now, with KDOC airing The Original Series reruns at 10pm, we never fail to turn on the boob tube if only to see awful/awesome CG effects and old batman-like stunts. Spock is part of TOS, too, and he was my favorite character because he is calm logical and cool. However, after meeting Data in my TNG immersion, I guess I was hooked!

Lt Cmdr Data, the android on the Star Trek: The Next Generation series, is probably the most well developed character in all of the STAR TREK franchises.

He’s saved the crew more times than he almost killed them (LOL) and also gave lots of useful data to kids and nerds alike. An awesome role model for all ages. His only limitation was that he was not human and he so wanted to be. He did not lack the ability to bleed, or to offer his services (as with Lt Tasha, season 1 TNG), paint, play music impeccably. He also expressed interest in stand-up comedy and poetry. I personally find him funny and hilarious, and quite, quite endearing!

Here is a sample of Lt Data’s work.

Ode to Spot

Do you love Data too? Let me know how much by posting a comment below!