What Do You Mean “Thai Food”?

Thai food is the national cuisine of Thailand, which borders Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Myanmar, formerly Burma. It’s no wonder I had to look up its location, I thought it bordered China, and therefore “Thai food” was basically Chinese cuisine. Oh, no!

Thai cuisine places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components. This cuisine is known for being spicy. Balance, detail and variety are important to Thai cooking.

Thai food is known for its blend of the four fundamental taste senses in each dish, or in the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, and bitter. And, it also can be quite hot and spicy.

Host Executive Chef Lauretta Bonfiglio, owner of Boquete Bistro knows all about Thai foods and how to prepare authentic Thai cuisine. She brought together 12 excellent cooks, all very eager to learn her techniques to bring real flavor and spice to their tables here in Boquete, Panama.

The menu for our “Thai Won On” evening of preparing, tasting and dining on cuisine originating half-way around the world began with making “Pineapple My Thais”, of course.

Lauretta’s recipe for this exotic drink includes pineapple juice, orange juice, lime juice, dark and light rums, triple sec and grenadine, all mixed to perfection and served over ice. If you’d like to try a “My Thai”, stop in The Bistro Boquete and ask Lauretta to mix one for you.

This is Karen very carefully laying out the fresh ingredients on a rice paper wrapper. You can barely detect the wet wrapper in the photo. The results were magnificent, as you can see from the finished work. Along with the Spring Rolls, the cooks enjoyed blending ingredients to make 3 authentic Thai dipping sauces that complimented the taste of the fresh, colorful rolls.

Chicken with Green Curry was the main entree dish, served with Coconut Rice. Finally, Thai Fried Ice Cream was removed from the freezer and fried.

Yes, each participant fried their own ice cream for dessert, and then topped it with chocolate syrup and toasted coconut, a very popular dish in Thailand.

The completed dishes were served with flare, with Chef Lauretta and all the cooks enjoying this fine, very special cuisine of Thailand. All the flavors were there; sour, sweet, salty and bitter, with a bit of hot peppers thrown in.

Nancy is having fun adding chombo hot sauce to her Thai Peanut Butter Sauce. The combination of hot and sweet was new to most of the cooks. and so delicious!

The only photo not included here was one of everyone finishing off their fried ice cream, a very unique experience, indeed!

Thanks very much to Sandy and Betty for these perfect shots of this eventful evening. We hope to have more International cuisines presented in Boquete soon.
Keep watching!
Cora

Fajitas – Hot Off the Griddle!

Lots of fun and ideas are ahead for the next Boquete Gourmet Host Chef Cooking Class, “Fajitas – Hot Off the Griddle!”, presented by retired engineer, owner of Inglestec Language Institute and Coordinator of the Annual Brisas Cooking Contest and honored Guest Chef, Renny Kranich.

The class will be held in the Boquete Gourmet’s kitchen, high above Boquete, Panama on Thursday, February 11 at 5:00pm.

Renny will be sharing her one-of-a-kind method for preparing “Fajitas”, using the finest of beef filet mignon, fresh-grown Boquete vegetables, as well as her very own “Pico de Gallo”.

The base for Renny’s fajitas are her hand-made “Tortillas”, better than can be found anywhere. They made exactly the right size to use with imaginative fillings that are spiced just right to your taste, whether mild, hot or in between.

To begin the class, enjoy a cool glass of “Margaritas on the Rocks”, made in Renny’s very own nontraditional manner, no blender, please.

The photo below doesn’t show the unexpected ingredient Renny adds to her Margaritas, you won’t want to miss it. Notice the large serving glass, it only needs to be rimmed with salt and filled with Renny’s Margaritas. Yum!

The crowning dish of the evening will be “Filled Nubes de Chocolate”, a tall tower of clouds dripping with chocolate ganache. You’ll want to make this for all your guests, a real show stopper!

To reserve your seat for this unique class, please comment below or email boquetegourmet@gmail.com. The registration fee is $30, including the class instruction, recipe book, complete dinner, Margarita on the Rocks and a glass of wine. Class size is limited to 12, first come, first served, so please make reservations now for this once-ever event!
See you there,
Cora