Too Many Cooks!

Its not true what they say about too many cooks spoiling the broth. We have three cooks in our house at the moment and we are bloody eating like royalty. We are all on holiday but forget restaurants and cafe's they have nothing on us. Surrounded by little rustic villagers, at any given moment markets pop up around us selling local produce, of which we laboriously sift through for the good stuff. the Shangrila of galangal, the prize winning kaffir lime or the aromatic delight of the most pungent lemon grass. As a result our curries and thai soups and stir fries have attained mystical proportions. The locals are curious, "What goes on in this house full of farang's (foreigners)", "what does it mean when they wander back into their house with traditional ingredients - they can't possibly be concoting real thai food". But we do and we do it with glee. In these stinking hot days were the kitchen with the fan is the coolest part of the house, we vie for the chef's hat and relish producing meals fit for kings. Having all gone to Thai cookery classes now as well, we get adventurous and daring and try our hands at new things. Its comraderie and assistance not competiveness and bitchiness, Gordon would be shocked. Although as we all settled down in the living room to listen to music last night and let the swelling of our full bellies subside, a new more intrusive delinquent invaded the space of our oasis in the kitchen. As I wondered into the kitchen to refresh my glass of another vodka (the tipple of choice last night) I encountered these marauders. Six fiesty little bush rats ran up the wall and rushed to their freedom through the eaves. Our kitchen is merely a lean-to at the back of the house so it is open to the elements (we are very tidy and clean cooks so they had no spoils to ransack). So in my best Ozzie Bushman swagger I screamed and ran from the room announcing "fucking rats, fucking rats" and everyone else laughed at me and said they thought I was Steve Irwin. Well, I will venture into this dangerous lair everynight from now on declaring my entrance with vigour and a lot of noise. Rat stew anyone!?