Today was a hot day.
Yesterday, and for several days before, it rained every day, and that cooled things down some. Heck, last night and the night before and the night before that, I was actually cold in the middle of the night. But covering myself with a sarong was enough to warm me to a comfortable temperature so I could continue sleeping.
Today, it’s hot.
I hit a brick wall some days around 1 to three in the afternoon where I get so tired, so cloudy, so brain fogged, that I feel such a strong desire to nap. Most days, I can resist. Today, I couldn’t. Is it a leftover of jet lag? Is it a result of not sleeping so well at night? Is it a result of not sleeping for a month and a half before I came over? I don’t know.
Today, I couldn’t resist. So I lay down and napped for about an hour. And even with the ceiling fan running, when I woke, I was so incredibly hot. Taking a shower cooled me down by a good ten degrees – until I stepped out and dried off. A very short reprieve. But I can’t stand in the shower all day.
Well, I could, but eventually the mosquitoes would get me.
Whatever.
We had another short power outage this morning – lasted about a half hour.
Lunch. Well, if I may say so myself, it was pretty good. Fahim agrees with me.
We had fish coconut curry – some kind of white fish, called something along the lines of talitut in Sinhalese, but Fahim has no idea what it is in English. (Fahim says: It’s actually "thalapath" :p) Okay, so here’s the general recipe – I wing things, a little of this, a little of that. Fish, about a cup and a half of cubed fish. By the weight? I couldn’t even begin to guess. I’m kinda dumb that way. Tossed the fish into the frying pan with coconut oil, about 3 tablespoons. Tossed in a teaspoon of curry powder and a teaspoon of salt. Let that fry until the fish was cooked almost all the way through, then tossed in 3/4 cup diced tomatoes and 1/2 cup green onion, chopped, and a half cup of coconut milk. Let that cook until the liquid reduced to about a half cup remaining.
Vegetable curry – one potato, one carrot, one Bombay onion, diced, tossed into the frying pan in a quarter cup of coconut oil. Tossed in 1 teaspoon each of curry powder, pepper, chili powder, and salt. Cook for ten minutes, or thereabouts. Then tossed in 1 c diced oyster mushroom, 1/2 yellow and 1/2 red bell pepper, both diced, 2 sliced capsicums, and three green chilis, sliced. Simmer until everything’s brightly colored and happy.
And the ubiquitous red (pink) rice.
Fahim was happy. Well, dammit, he should be. I’m a pretty good cook even when I’m in a foreign country with foreign ingredients and foreign cooking instruments.
And the coconut curry fish was really good. So far, that’s gotta be my favorite way of cooking fish.
