Garlic Bread in a Wok

After two weeks of Thai cooking, the teacher P'Dang decided that it was our turn to cook for her. We went the Italian route, making spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce and garlic bread. We crushed garlic and butter in a mortar and pestel, then toasted the garlic bread on a wok. Everything turned out awesome. Like, so good, especially given our limited resources.

As we were cooking, I jokingly said that I could see them putting the pasta over rice...but then they did. They also added fish sauce and these bean crouton things. Though funny at first, it did strike me later as kind of rude. We have eaten everything they've fed us, said we liked it, took seconds. I wouldn't dream if asking for ketchup with their fried eggs, even though eggs and rice taste like a whole lot of nothing to me. All the teachers added fish sauce. None of them hid their nervousness about trying it. The only comment we got was P'Dang saying "doesn't butter make you fat?" in significantly poorer grammar.

While we're on the subject, I'd like to say a few words about P'Dang. P'Dang is, as the Thai people say, "ting tong" (crazy). A few days ago she showed us pictures of her family, including a fair amount of selfies of her teenage daughter. She then kept insisting to our translator that I should plug my camera into the tv to show the students pictures of my family. On the way home from school she bought us hot milk(?), and her son magically appeared during the pit stop. The conversation somehow turned to how her son thinks I look like an angel. Did I mention that he's 14? After I was thuroughly creeped out, she put the icing on the cake by giving me a hat and telling me I remind her of her daughter. I think the translator summed her up pretty well by saying with a chuckle, "P'Dang...P'Dang, she make me headache."