The BRAAIme of my Life

(If at any time the puns become overwhelming feel free to notify me but I can’t promise I’ll stop.)

I met a South African girl on Koh Phangan the last time we were there who was pleased to find a fellow Saffer in Wayne, and on the whole seemed approving of the international nature of our relationship. But at one point she said to me, in all seriousness, “Please tell me he’s got you to start saying ‘braai.’ If there’s one word I just can’t stand it’s ‘barbecue’!” My answer was that while of course at this point I’m very familiar with the word ‘braai’ and its usage in everyday conversation doesn’t throw me for any loops, I have yet to give up my ‘barbecue’ sayin’ ways.

That all changed, at least temporarily, last Sunday. Wayne’s sister Taryn was back from her course at Phuket. Glen’s grill/barbecue/braai that we’d borrowed (unnecessarily, as it turned out) for Thainksgiving had been laying woefully unused (and miraculously untouched by the pup) for days. David was leaving soon. Glen is our neighbor. Fish is plentiful in Thailand. The weather was finally nice (up until an hour before we started cooking, naturally, but the fates smiled on us again and it cleared up). The day had all the makings of a Sunday cook-out, but with two resident South Africans it officially became a braai.

And what a delightful, glorious, gluttonous braai it was! We were expecting maybe 6 or 7 people, prepared more than enough food for such numbers, and finished it with a turnout of only five. Vegetable kebabs, shrimp kebabs, salad, two big fish, and baked potatoes. I mentioned at one point that it was the kind of meal where it would have been nice to accompany it with some good beer (not to, you know, hate on the old faithfuls: Leo, Singha, and Chang), but Wayne pointed out there wouldn’t have been as much stomach-space for food, which would have been a travesty. Alas, my photography skills that night were not nearly as good as the food. Apologies in advance.

the braai-masters getting things ready.

shrimp kebabs in garlic/chili/lime marinade and veg kebabs in ginger/garlic/tumeric/lime/chili marinade, pre-braaiing.

lets just say the kebabs were considerably quicker-cooking than the potatoes...

first course up. good enough, but not nearly as ginger-y as i was hoping. there's always next time!

i considered this the best until we had the last fish. mmmmmm! and ollie got all the heads. lucky duck!

white snapper in sweet chutney/lime dressing, and mackerel with lime/lemograss/chili filling in the foil

david enjoying some salad, and ollie sleeping. too many shrimp heads i guess.

Even further apologies for no photos of the finished fish. Or the potatoes… though I think we all know what a baked potato looks like. The snapper was particularly bangin’ though! (Even though we had to finish it in the oven because the coals went out… wah wah.)

So that’s that, happy December to all!