Joanna's Amazing Margaritas

Last night Leigh, Ang, and Sarah came over. Joanna made margaritas and let's just say that my beautiful wife is pretty dang handy with a blender and a bottle of tequila. Good times.

Joanna's Amazing Margaritas
1 can frozen concentrate limeade
1/2 can frozen concentrate berry punch
big handful trimmed fresh strawberries
1 tray ice cubes
1 cup of tequila

Toss all ingredients into your trusty blender and frapperoo. Adjust tequila potency according to taste. Pour into fancy glasses rimmed with sugar. Garnish with a fresh strawberry. Makes one full jug of summery happiness.

The Tuk Tuk Boom Boom

Speaking of refreshing cocktails by the pool, here is what Phil is drinking today. He thought this one up with our friend Zack and called it the Brazen Hussy, but in the spirit of our fabulous Cambodian adventures we have decided to rename it the Tuk Tuk Boom Boom, because it goes down fast but it will hit you hard, just like the traffic here in Phomn Penh.

The Tuk Tuk Boom Boom

1 oz vodka

1 oz Cointreau

juice of 1 lime

Combine with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake it like the turbulence on a transpacific EVA Airlines flight. Serve in a chilled martini glass. Sip and repeat until you forget how hot it is.

Drinks by the Pool in Phomn Penh

Tomorrow I fly back to Canada for a triumphant reunion with my schmoopie and very cute family. The only thing that is keeping me sane right now after a very successful, although ridiculously hot and sweaty, 3 weeks in Cambodia is sipping refreshing cocktails beside the pool at my favourite hotel in the entire world. Today's current favorite beverage (I've had 3 so far) is essentially a mojito slurpee. Here is my rough guess of the recipe just like they whip it up here at the Billabong Hotel, deep in the heart of Phomn Penh.

The Mojito Slurpee

1 cup ice cubes

juice of one lime

2 oz rum

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 fist of fresh mint

Combine, blend the crap out of it, and sip beside the pool. Kampai!

jo hijacks the blog

Greeting! It's Joanna and I am highjacking the blog. I thought all you dj dread fans would want another update, so here are some excerpts from Wade's email today:

I am in Siem Reap (tourist town closest to
Angkor Wat temples) and my net connection is awesome
but my keyboard sucks. It's like playing a really old
piano where you need to hammer each individual key
down really hard just for it to do anything.

phil, l. and dj dread at angkor watt

Yesterday we had lunch at a great Thai place.
In the afternoon we prepared for our time in
S'ville. I taught my usual balloon ninja skills.
Then we gave all the balloons away to the
neighbourhood kids so of course in a few minutes their
was a small riot in front of the house. It was
pretty funny.

This morning we left at 6 am for Siem Reap. The bus
was air conned but no leg room. Our driver is also the
slowest driver in all of Cambodia, which i think is
rather ironic. We stopped at a 'rest stop' and Phil
bought a bag of toasted crickets for everyone to try.
I ate a BBQ'd tarantula again. It was a lot bigger
than the one i had last year, and was honestly tastier
and way better than the crickets.

last year's tarantula

We had about 3 1/2 hours to see the temples. we saw
Angkor Watt ( the biggest one) and ta phrom (the jungle
one) everyone really loved it. Phil took a bunch of
pictures of me in [my utili] kilt so I can try and win a free
one. because we are in a tourist town We took
everyone out for pizza for supper and we are going to
a breakfast buffet before we leave tomorrow. We are
definitely in everyone's good books right now.

Soph, dj dread & the utilikilt

Tomorrow we go to Sianookville and we will be in the
bus for at least 11hrs, maybe 15 the way our driver
seems to take his time. There is no leg room so
please pray that I don't go insane.

The dread sensei probably will be out of touch for the rest of the trip, but returns home on the 20th...stay tuned! Love Joanna

Tuk Tuk Lunch Adventures

Well I am in Cambodia and so far loving every minute of it. Yesterday Phil (most of this text is lifted directly from his blog), Rachel and I spent the day with Darah, our tuk tuk driver that we hired for the day. He took us all around the city of Phnom Penh showing us all the non-touristy places. It was so cool just to hang with him and hear about his family, his job, and his life.

We wanted to go for lunch at a local, non-tourist, Cambodian place so he took us to Mekong Island. And so the adventure begins...

We thought that it was going to be totally touristy and developed by the pictures that we saw on a billboard, but it turns out that the guy who took the picture is a liar and also a ninja master at Photoshop. When we got there we hopped on the ferry (less glamorous that it sounds, imagine a rusty, diesel belching, floating hunk of scrap steel) and headed across the Mekong to the island. The island paradise was a bunch of sketchy 6 foot high bamboo huts, mostly under water with grass roofs on them. We walked along the littered beach to the huts all the while being mobbed by sweet people asking us to buy their scarfs that they made. When we got to the huts the 4 of us sat down in confusion for lunch.

People were surrounding us the whole time asking us to buy stuff and we almost fell into the Mekong as the bamboo floor we were sitting on broke through. We waited for a while for lunch (they needed to kill the chicken and catch the fish), still not knowing what was going on, but having a great time talking and hanging out with Darah, and all our new friends trying to sell us their stuff. When lunch came we were not let down.

A whole fried fish, ungutted, served with fresh chili sauce: the scrawniest, most pathetic (although organic) chicken I have ever seen, served with lime rock salt; a mango chili salad finished with fish sauce; and a huge pot a of rice. All washed down with bottled water and weak beer served over ice. We ate until we were full and also shared our food with 3 kids and a one-eyed dog wading in the river. We all agreed that this was the best Asian lunch we have EVER had, even though a few times we were seriously wondering what we were getting into. Good times in Cambodia.

Airplane Pork Congee (with 1000 year old egg)

I may not be able to post many recipes over the next few weeks because I am currently in Cambodia sampling the amazing food over here (and doing a bunch of other stuff as well.) On the flight over here I had my first ever congee. It was so delicious and warm and gingery and smooth and soul satisfyingly tasty (even though I have no idea what a 1000 year old egg is, and I'm not sure I want to know). Even though I can't guarantee it's yumminess, here is a recipe I found for pork congee. I mean if EVA Airlines can make a great congee, how hard can it really be?

INGREDIENTS
1 cup long grain white rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
5 cups water
1/2 pound boneless pork loin roast
1 1/2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 salted (hard-cooked) duck egg, chopped
1 hundred-year egg, minced
1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger root, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped green onion
ground black pepper to taste
soy sauce to taste
DIRECTIONS
Rinse and drain the rice, and place in a large pot. Stir in the salt and oil, and let stand for 5 minutes.
Add the pork to the rice, and stir in the water. Bring to a boil, then simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes, or until the pork is cooked through. Remove the pork from the pot with a slotted spoon, and set aside. Continue to simmer the rice for 20 minutes. Chop the pork into small cubes, and mix with the salted egg and hundred-year egg.
After the 20 minutes are up, stir the pork and egg mixture back into the congee along with the oyster sauce. Serve in bowls, and garnish with ginger and green onion. Have soy sauce and pepper on the side for seasoning.