Becoming a good cook - bf without wallet

My boyfriend has arrived well in Macau. Apparently, it was quite hard to find budget accomodation, but he did finally find a place to rest. The places all seem to have Portuguese names...well it's quite logical, since it used to be a Portuguese colony.

I wonder how the bf pronounces Portuguese. He is now pretty good at German after taking the 4 week intensive course at Goethe Institute. There, he made two ladyboy- and a closet gay friend. It sounded like they had a great time. Lets see how much he will pick up in Switzerland around Christmas.

Anyhow, on the first proper day in Macau, his wallet got stolen:( About 300US$ or so gone....Sometimes he attracts bad luck. I told him to separate his money, which he at least did, so the Chinese money is still in his possession.

Instead of enjoying a few days in Hong Kong and Shanghai, he is now on his way from Guangzhou to the port city of Qingdao. The train takes 28 hours and he is apparently in Hard Sleeper Class. I told him that if I were there, it would be a bit more squishy:)

In the meantime, I am learning how to cook Thai food - very successfully. How? Well, after 1.5 years in Thailand, I know how the dishes SHOULD taste, so imitating is not that hard. Importantly, I always look at the food I eat and therefore know the ingredients a bit.

Basic Thai food is relatively simple. You always need to find a balance between sweet (sugar), salty (fish sauce), sour (lime juice) and spicy (chili). If the food doesnt quite taste right, you need to adjust either of these. Of course, not all food consists of these ingredients, but this are the basic four elements of Thai food.

I cooked ยำทะเล (Yum Talee, sour seafood salad) yesterday, and ตมยำกุ้ง (Tom Yum Gung) with ผักบุ้งไฟแด (Fried Morning Glory) today. It all tasted yummy. By the way, I am writing these in Thai because sometimes I really dont know how to translate the dishes into English.

One thing I cant stand about Thai restaurants either geared towards the tourist market, or situated abroad is that they will sometimes not have the name of the dishes in Thai. How the heck I am meant to know what something like "fried chicken with chili" (that's just a fictional example) is???

I couldnt take pictures of the dishes I made, since my camera is in China with my bf...but it's nothing spectacular anyway, at least not compared to the fancy creations of Bkkdreamer's boyfriend :)

Otherwise, I am busy writing my thesis. Not much time left, and as always, as I am nearing the finishing line, my speed picks up. I am writing between 500 and 1000 words a day, which is ok. Ironically, my thesis is about European students in Thailand, why they study in Thailand and what benefits this can bring for Thailand.

I could interview myself and write the thesis about myself:)