I tried preparing a new dish for lunch, Thai chcken salad with peanut sauce. Yum! I really enjoyed it, particularly the peanut sauce which was prepared with a bit of Thai curry... this leant the sauce a distinctly Thai taste, quite apart from the peanut sauces I have made with Malaysian dishes.
The salad itself was super easy: I simply boiled the chicken for fifteen minutes and then tore it into shreds. As for the peanut sauce, it was easy too. I mixed 1 tsp masaman curry paste, 2 tsp fish sauce, 2 tsp peanut butter, 3 tsp tamarind juice, 3 tsp sugar, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp garlic powder, crushed peanuts, and coconut milk to taste. This was heated on the stovetop for about 15 minutes until the oil began to separate.
My Xmas gift to myself this year was getting these portaits of historical Korean figures framed -- they're now hung prominently above my desk where I can enjoy them every time I sit down and use the computer. As far as I can tell, they were painted by hand sometine back in the 1950s in Korea... probably for tourists or military men, I would guess; on the back of each is a sentence or two on who each person is and when they lived, written in broken English. I got them off eBay for only about $10.00 each... I was thrilled.
My favorite, which was the only one I paid more than $10.00 for (it had 3 bidders and went up to $25.00) is this one. On the back it reads: Lon-Kae was a brave woman who fought for her country during Japanese invasion of 1592. According to Wikipedia, this event was the so-called Seven-Year War. Unfortunately, however, I can't find anything about Lon-Kae. Can anybody tell me anything about her?
Currently listening to:
Title: Milk from the Coconut
Play: 
Artist: Total Coelo
Album: I Eat Cannibal & Other Tasty Trax