Justice / Pad Thai

Why do people torment themselves looking for justice in the world? In this cancer game, you hear it all the time "What did she do to deserve this?" or "It's not fair!" Of course it's not fair. If the world were fair, there would be no starvation in third world countries, babies wouldn't have to live lifetimes of disability because of birth trauma, farmers wouldn't lose their crop and go into bankruptcy because of bad weather....you get the picture.

But we humans, in our need to explain the cruelty of nature, have come up with all sorts of reasons that bad things happen. Really, think about it. How many times have you heard, "Everything happens for a reason." Or from the religious, it's attributed to God's master plan, which we, with our lowly human idiocy, can't comprehend in its complexity. These folks come on strong, but their logic is circular. It's part of God's plan, we can't understand, we should pray for healing, etc. But what I don't understand is that if God has a master plan, then isn't it egotistical for us to think that our prayers will make him change his mind? Wouldn't that be an insult to God, like suggesting that he made a mistake and should change his plan? Especially since we've already admitted that his plan is too complex for us to understand?

In cultures and religions that believe in multiple lives, justice reaches across lifetimes. If you are bad in one lifetime, you will be born next time with fewer prospects, uglier, poorer, or some such. I spend a fair amount of time on the online breast cancer discussion forum, and when women are emotionally distraught, and anonymous, they express a lot of their innermost feelings that they might hold inside in a face to face conversation with someone they know. Often a bc patient will come on line desperate to find an answer to WHY ME? Sometimes they go through a litany of all the things they did right (I ate right, I breastfed my kids, I exercised, I didn't smoke). It sounds like a kid trying to weasel his way out of a punishment because he doesn't think he deserves it, it's too harsh. Other women wonder if God is punishing them for something they did as a child, or for not being a good enough wife or mother, sometimes even naming the "crime" they have felt guilty about for all these years.

Randomness is scary. If we can name the reason something bad happened to someone, then we can assure ourselves that it won't happen to us. Remember after Hurricane Katrina when John Hagee said that the storm was God's punishment because a big gay rally was to have been held on that Monday? How anyone can link in their minds cause and effect on a scale that grand is beyond me, but this "reasoning" was not only logical to many, but reassuring.

I think "Why me?" is the wrong question. A better one is "Why NOT me?" A toss of the dice, that's all. There is no blame for your body succumbing to disease - that's what bodies do in Nature. Time goes by, bodies give out. In the meantime, babies are being born to take their places. Sure, there are healthy practices that probably make a difference in your susceptibility to certain diseases, and you'll certainly feel better if you live a healthy lifestyle. But disease, injury, and death have nothing to do with justice or fairness. Imagine walking through the woods and there's a tall, majestic oak that has been hit by lightning, badly injured, probably will die. Do you think, "It's not fair for that oak to be hit when that hemlock didn't"? No, you likely pause and think, "Too bad that oak got hit by lightning. It was a beautiful tree and I will miss it."




Pad Thai

Imagine that you are a common person of Thailand, what would you make for a quick and easy supper at the end of a hard day? Something gourmet, with a lot of specialty ingredients? Not likely. Maybe you'd look into the fridge and see a bit of this, a bit of that, some leftover noodles, some tofu, some eggs. Certainly fresh vegetables and bean sprouts, lime and cilantro, peanuts.... things that are part of the daily Thai diet. Pad thai seems difficult because some of the ingredients are not familiar, and may be hard to find. But it's basically pasta with a sauce and bits of protein and veggies in it. Quantities aren't fixed, use what you have on hand. This is a casual supper, don't overthink it!

If you are from my area, you can get lots of the Thai foods from Marc's. They sell Roland brand foods, and have different sorts of ethnic foods. Mostly they display them on the endcaps of the aisles. Their rice noodles are perfect. However, I've never seen tamarind paste there. In North Olmsted there's an oriental grocery on Brookpark Road Extension, Kims Grocery. They have everything there. www.kimsgrocery.net




8 ounces thai flat rice noodles - soak in hot water until softened, about 20 minutes,
or leftover in the fridge. If you're in a hurry,
you can boil them for about a minute, but they'll
tend to get mushy later.

tamarind paste 1/4 cup or so
fish sauce 2 tablespoons
limes, juiced 2 to make about 1/4 cup of juice
brown sugar 2 tablespoons - you may like it a bit sweeter, if so, add more

This is the sauce. The tamarind paste may be only available from an Oriental market. I keep it on hand. It's about the texture of a loose fruit puree, and tastes very tart. It's used as a background flavor in Worcesterchire sauce, by the way. There's really no flavor substitute, sorry. Mix all this together.

Now, some protein. There are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to cook the proteins separately, pull them out and then add back in at the end. This keeps everything in distinct pieces, but is a lot more trouble. When I'm in a hurry, I do it all in one big stirfry.

Tofu, extra firm, cut into squares or small chunks. I like to presalt it for flavor.
Use whatever you want, depending on the other proteins. For vegetarian, use the whole block if you want. Otherwise, about half of the block.
Chicken cut into little strips (boneless thighs or breasts) 1/4 to 1/2 pound
shrimp, peeled and deveined, 1/4 to 1/2 pound
two eggs, beaten
Two cloves of garlic, chopped fine

Veggies:
Fresh bean sprouts, you'll need at least two cups, but you can use to your own taste.
Green onions, a bunch. Cut into pieces about an inch, and save some of the green tops to garnish.
Peanuts, I crush them with a rolling pin. You'll need a few tablespoons for garnish.
You will use part of the beansprouts and onions in cooking and the rest as garnish.

OK. That's all you need to call it pad thai. In my opinion, though, pad thai is a plate of flavored noodles begging for color. So, for garnish I use lots of chopped cilantro, red bell pepper cut into slivers, red onion cut into slivers, sometimes mango chutney, roasted red pepper paste (yum) and sambal oolek or rooster sauce (oriental chili sauce).

So, here we go. Everything is ready and at hand. Not much cooking, mostly stirfry to heat and assimilate.

Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a wok or a big frying pan.
Add chicken and garlic.
Add tofu.
Add shrimp. Stir till it's hot and shrimp are starting to turn pink.
Add eggs. Stir fry.

If pan seems dry, add a splash of oil.
Add noodles and sauce. Stir to combine all. The noodles will easily get overcooked, so be careful and don't let it happen. Add a big handful of beansprouts and a handful of green onions.

You're done.

To serve, pile the stir-fried noodles on a plate, and garnish with toppings, ending with peanuts. Serve with fish sauce, wedges of lime to squeeze, rooster sauce, etc.