It's Monday here in Thailand, and Monday is always a good day to express Love right? It helps the Mondays go a wee bit better than if you had less love. And how do I choose to express my love on this lovely Monday? With a salad of course. I can't think of much else in the whole wide world that I like to make and eat than a nice big amazing salad. Three times a day, if possible.I am a little or perhaps a lot in love with salads. I am in fact twitterpated with salads. Yes, twitterpated is a word. Google it.I love salads so much that eventually I'm plan on opening my own salad restaurant, but that shan't be for years in the future, in a foreign land, with odd looking people surrounding me. For now I'm very happy with my picture taking ways. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to have you come along with me on my salad escapades. Perhaps you'll even be a brave soul and try to make AND eat one of these creations? Gasp! Perhaps, but I shan't get my hopes too high, it is only Monday, you know.My first salad of choice? Well I opened up the refrigerator last night and the food started speaking, ::what? the food doesn't normal speak to you too?:: Well this is what my food friends introduced me to.

Mr. Cashew, Watermelon*, Coconut Salad

* cultural note * My Thai brother says that Watermelon is a lady's fruit, but I disagree. He is just jaded because he is Thai, and the only fruit he still likes is durian and rambutan. Lames choices of fruit lovin' if you ask me.

The recipe follows the pictures :)

Ingredients:

(change amounts to personal taste + experiment please! that's what makes cooking so fun!)

1. 2 cups seedless or seed watermelon cubed

2. 1 cup fresh coconut meat sliced

3. 1 cup tomatoes sliced in eighths

4. 2 cups sm. white radishes found an asian grocery store.

Amazing, amazing!

5. 1 small onion sliced thinly

6. 1/2 cup cashew nuts halves + 1/4 cup (saved for garnish)

7. olive oil + salt to taste

prepare and mix first the first 6 ingredients. Toss the salad with the olive oil and salt to taste.

Then make it all pretty like with a drizzle of oil and 1/4 cashew nuts to top it off!

You may think I've forgotten all my Korean cooking dreams, but you see I've been very hard at work over here in Korea land cooking! Why have there been no pictures to prove my words? The reason? Well.... I've had a few foodie failures! Yes, it's true, I think it's due to my cooking sins; I must have upset the Korean food gods by putting pumpkin and mushrooms in Kimchi Jiggae and pumpkins in my Spicy Mackerel Stew.. Pumpkin is my weakness, like honey is for Pooh Bear or Spandex for Superman.I've been having trouble following recipes because I always want to add different ingredients than those that are in the original recipe! And alas, my past few attempts I got over greedy and tried to add too many different ingredients, conflicting flavors, and well it turned out like poo. So maybe I'll go back to the basics next week? BUT it's sooooo hard!!!.. Repeat to self... FOLLOW THE RECIPE, INGE! ::inge, continues to mutter these four words over and over to herself, while slapping herself every time she reaches for the pumpkin.::After many failures and recipes mess ups.. I tried to make my favorite soup Soon-dubu Jjigae (A spicy Tofu stew) about 3 times and ickers! It just didn't come out right! I could have been because of the above problem of never wanting to follow the recipe. Why it just takes so long to read instructions. There are many better things to be done, like not reading the recipe, but alas my dinners were not tasty and after a while of nasty dinners I had to get it together, and Snap out of it! And thank goodness to the Lord above, I did! I figured out what my Soon-dubu Stew problem was. You see, I was trying to cook a Korean Soondubu Jjigae, when my soul longed for an exotic Thai Soon Dubu. So one morning at 7 am, just one hour before I was headed off to work, I came into my apartment from a morning walk and opened up my refrigerator and like a vision from Heaven, a recipe started to spill into my head. I started pulling out, ginger, garlic, jalapenos, shrimp, soft tofu, coconut oil, lime, cilantro, eggs, lime.... AND you guessed it, Pumpkin! and somehow in just 20 minutes I chopped, fried, mixed, stewed, and sprinkled until a dish that tasted so like Heaven that I was tears while eating breakfast! I scribbled the recipe down in Inge code, meaning it's short and confusing (because I hate both reading and writing directions, such waste of time). So one day, when I have my own restaurant, I can cook you this Heaven-sent dish! Please look below.. And wipe the drool off you keyboard, drool ruins electronics. I have experience ;)Ciao for now! My next week's cooking challenge? Kamja Tang! (potato and pork back stew) People say it's devilishly time consuming, but I got this right? Perhaps I'll substitute pumpkin for potatoes! Yum! And then my skin will turn even orange--ER. I swear, I've got to stop eating all these carrots and pumpkins, my eyes are loving me, but my skin, well, it practically glows in the dark! Which come to think of it could actually be fantastic! In that case, tomorrow's breakfast will totally be pumpkin eggs, carrot juice, and coffee with carrot milk and, and....hmmm.... carrots and gravy or perhaps sunny side up carrots?. But you see any way you flip carrots, they will always be sunny side up. Oh aren't they fabulous?!?!.. Ok, I'll shut up now :) Have a lovely day!