Saturday, July 15, 2006
Folk Fest and Mango Salad
Yo.
So....the first evening of the Folk Fest was divine. A heady combination of dub music, some bhangra, classic Irish folk (and adorable little Irish dancers), and some Appalachian folk-rock made for a very diverse and high-energy concert. Aside from the rather terrible experimental Frank Zappaesque jazz fusion band at the end, the music was amazing.
Hayley, to my happy surprise, was in a good mood tonight. We laughed, joked, cuddled, kissed, danced, and generally had a nice time. She's looking so insanely hot right now. She bleached her hair again and now it's absolutely electrically white-blond. It's so white it's almost blue. I'm pretty sure she could conjur up thunder and lightning if she wanted to. She's just this crazily casual ball of cuteness and all I want to do is take her home and....
Ahem. We listened to some great music.
I'll try to explain some of our funny folk festival traditions later, but one of the big ones is that my mom brings a picnic dinner for everyone we know on Friday night and we all dig in caveman style. This year I decided to stop being a slouch and make my famous mango salad for the whole crew (KRU!).
Nome's Mango Salad
(this recipe feeds about ten people as a side dish)
Ingredients:
Salad:
-3 slightly underripe mangos, cubed.
-1 cucumber, finely chopped.
-3 large carrots, finely chopped.
-one bunch of cilantro, chopped.
-half a Thai or bird chili pepper, diced into damn near microscopic pieces.
-three large handfuls of fresh bean sprouts.
Dressing:
-2 teaspoons rice vinegar.
-1 1/2 teaspoons light soy sauce (light as opposed to dark, not lite as in low-calorie)
-other half of said chili pepper.
-several drops of Thai fish sauce.
-the juice of half a lime (juice the other half over the salad itself).
-one teaspoon sugar, well-stirred, not shaken.
-couple of drops of chili oil, more if you're not a big pussy.
-couple of drops of sesame oil. Careful with the stuff -- a little goes a long way.
To do:
-I find the best way to chop the carrots and cucumber is to scrape them with a vegetable peeler. That way the pieces are really thin and absorb the dressing better. But follow your heart.
-Assemble, make dressing, and toss the thing.
-Enjoy!!
Keep the questions coming! The ones I have so far are great. Big thanks to Jag, Charlie, Adam, and Renny. I'll answer them ASAP but I don't think it will be tonight as it's already 12:30 and I have to get up at the crack of absolute dawn tomorrow morning. Soooo much music to see and hear!
And oh yes, you'd better believe that's Sarah Harmer at left. She came to the festival last year, and I have an excellent zoom lens.
Laters,
N
