Around the World in 80 Meals: Results from meal number 1

Laotian Grilled Pork Skewers with Papaya Salad and Sticky Rice

I was excited to try this meal because I have always wanted to visit Laos.  When I was doing the research for this meal, I discovered why I wanted to visit Laos.  The adjective that most often applied to visiting Laos is forgotten.  For me, my theology centers around ministering to "the forgotten."

Anyway, to the meal.  I was letting the meat thaw when the heavens opened and the rain fell.  Because I wanted to cook the meat, I decided to use my grill pan instead of an actual grill.  I like cooking on my grill pan because the food tastes just like it was cooked on an actual grill.  The problem that I have using it right now is the stove's exhaust fan in my apartment takes the smoke from the stove and blows it into my face instead of removing it from the kitchen.  It only took a couple of minutes for my apartment to fill will smoke, and the smoke detector went off a couple of times when I was cooking.

I really really really liked how the meatballs came out.  They were delicious.  I think they will go great in my spaghetti too.  The only thing that I will do differntly is thgat I will add a little more lime leaf the next time I cook them.

For the rice, I simply cooked the rice that I had.  Thus, nothing to report.

The papaya salad is a completely different story.  First, I could not find a "green unripe papaya."  Heck, I had to go to three different stores just to find a papaya.  I purchased the most unripe papaya that I could find, and it was very ripe.  The papaya turned into juice right away, and by the time I put all the ingredients together, the salad looked more like a soup.  I must have done something wrong in cleaning the papaya because the salad/soup was very very very very bitter with a good amount of heat.  The salad/soup was soooooo bad that the meat, rice, or the beer that I was drinking could kill the lingering taste that was in my mouth.  The salad went straight into the trash.  I would say that this was the second or third time that I tossed something into the trash right after I made it.

This was a fun experiment.  I now have a new way to make meatballs.  I now know how not to make a papaya salad. And I am wondering what to do next.  Hmmmm....