Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Chicken & White Peach Curry – Food Bloopers


Have you ever had any embarrassing moments related to food?

Although I am generally pretty obnoxious…and won’t get embarrassed so easily…(ya ha!)…but there was a moment which caught me off guard. It was a beautiful day, but I was probably feeling down, that's why I fancied a couple of (one is never enough ^_^) good sandwiches for lunch (what a splurrrrge! They are super pricey), with a hearty soup and a cup of nice coffee to polish everything off. So I dragged my lazy ass off my work chair and marched to Pret-A-Manger
to get my fancy treats. I had no idea how to pronounce Pret-A-Manger correctly, I used to pronounce it as “prey-a-man-jer”…until my sis, who learnt a bit of French in high school, told me that it should be “pre-a-mong-cher” (with French curly tongue). These days, I simply call it “Pretend-A-Manager”, to which my corporate pals could relate better (I get “HUH?” a lot when I tried to say “pre-a-mong-cher”. So...don't bother!)

Anyway...when it was my turn to order…

Staff: (checking out my Double Cheddar and Super Club sandwiches)…anything else?
Me: Ehm, a cup of mocha (for mochachocolata-rita) and a cup of minestrone (I pronounced it as “mind-stroun”) soup, please….
Staff: (straight faced, without blinking an eye, barked my order to the kitchen staff) ONE MINESTRONE! (it was thunderously shouted out as… mi-nə-ˈstrō-nē). One
MINESTRONE (again, mi-nə-ˈstrō-nē), right, mam? (PS. don’t you just hate being called “mam”?)
Me: Errr...yah! (Suddenly feeling very conscious of my surroundings and noticed that all the corporate slaves were shooting me Oh-how-could-you-not-know-how-to-pronounce-the-name- of-such-a-humble-common-little-soup? looks)

The heck with them! The sandwiches, the MINESTRONE soup and the mocha were delicious and I’d be damned if I let some Hong Kong corporate once over ruin my pricey lunch. Hehe…

At home, I had some left-over peaches and wondered what to do with them…(not another sweet treat!) so I made some…
Chicken & White Peach Curry

Recipe
- ½ lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized chunks (or you can use thigh fillet)
- 2 white peaches, remove pit, peel off skin, cut into bite sized chunks
- 1 zucchini, peel off skin, cut into 1 cm thick slices
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 5 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- 2 tbsp curry paste (or more)- 1 cup coconut milk
- salt, pepper, sugar, corn starch, olive oil
- chopped fresh coriander and fried shallot to garnish
Marinate chicken pieces in a bit of corn starch, salt, pepper and sugar (salt should be the dominant element). Saute garlic, ginger, and shallot in hot oil until fragrant, add chicken until a bit browned, add zucchini pieces until a bit softened, add coconut milk, bring to boil, add peaches, heat everything through and quickly remove from heat (not to overcook the peaches and turn them into mush), serve with freshly chopped coriander and fried shallot. Perrrrfect with rice!

Let me entertain Hong Kong’s miserable lunch crowd one more time by ordering minestrone again tomorrow…I’ll pronounce it as “meeenn- struuun” this time. HAH!

17 comments:

Big Boys Oven said...

wow looks very delicious to me, would luv to try them, mouth watering already!

rokh said...

i had the same experience 'literary' and from then on, i remember to pronounce it correctly whenever i order again ha-ha. don't let that experience put you off such a delicious soup :)

Little Corner of Mine said...

You are very adventurous to try peaches in curry. So, the peach gave out a sweet flavor to the curry?

Jagungmanis said...

wakakaakakakakak
ono-ono wae ki, bocah....

Anonymous said...

Hee hee great story ^^! and great recipe too :D yummmmm. Yeah don't let those kind of people ruin your lunch :) You are adding your own flavour to the pronounciation hee hee

Unknown said...

thanks for the comments, guys! share yours food bloopers with me too! :)

tigerfish said...

White peach?! What a cool tip!

Anonymous said...

This looks really tasty! It seems like a great, refreshing dish for a mild evening.

Nate @ House of Annie said...

hm, white peach huh? I know of chicken and apple curry but peach is a new one. Was the peach hard or soft before you cooked it?

Retno Prihadana said...

Ho..ho, rita...campuran yang berani sekali, gimana ya rasanya peach di curry :)

Snooky doodle said...

ha funny. but everyone says it their own way so don t bother. The recipe looks interesting

Jessy and her dog Winnie said...

Lol your story reminds me of when i go to some italian restaraunt. I can never pronounce anything haha

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

peach curry very interesting..

i didnt knw pret-a-manger was pronounced that way...when i was in london for hols..they all call it "prets"..

the sandwiches r awesome and very handy too

Beachlover said...

you're really adventure!! use white peach to cook curry chicken! syabas!thumb up!

Noob Cook said...

so creative to add peaches in curry ... must be very sweet and refreshing ^^

Jin Hooi said...

wow.. very interesting !!

CECIL said...

I will take 'mam' anytime than 'Pagi Bu'!! Argh! Pas pulang ke Indo kemarin, I got that greetings and ouch!! I don't think I look like Ibu2 or Tante2!!

This so new for me, peach in curry!! Interesting choice, Rit.