The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

The new newborn baby tigers are kept in a glass enclosure 1 m behind a fence so people can’t tap on the glass and bother them. So this is the best picture I could get. One of them had to wear a cone.

From 2 weeks to 2 months visitors can hold them in a basket in a sterile gown and gloves for 1 hour a day. But there’s a long lineup and it’s really expensive for only a couple of minutes.

So Kerri decided to pet the 2-4 month old tigers. Because they’d still be small and cute and not scary.

But tigers grow really quickly.

Even if they still like their paws.

And don’t look that big.

Until you’re in the cage next to them.

On a cool day when they don’t want to sleep.

And keep jumping around and getting way too close to the camera.

Does he look nocturnal to you?

Tigers are nice to pet, but I’m not getting too close.

But maybe when he’s sleeping.

Except now they want me to rest my head on his tummy for a picture.

And neither me nor the tiger seems to like this idea very much.

Particularly because his tummy is rumbling.

Loudly.

Because I went into the tiger cage at lunchtime.

When lunch came out I learned that the barriers between the cages are to control people, not tigers. The tigers bound right over them.

And then I got to feed a tiger.

From a bottle.

Even though he seemed way to big for a bottle.

If I can barely reach what would its mom do?

Kerri did not want to get in with the grown up tigers.

Most people say that they just sleep and relax and are probably drugged.

Those people were presumably there on hot afternoons.

There were a couple resting, but never with closed eyes and never for long.

Because the others wanted to play.

Whether their siblings wanted to or not.

Brothers can be so annoying.

They jumped.

And they circled.

And they tussled.

And finally the trainers came in to give them something else to chase.

Which seemed to be fun.

The tigers that people actually go in with are in individual cages. But they weren’t sleeping either, they were all pacing.

They also have a couple of Siberian Tigers, who were not sleeping. The rest are Bengal tigers. They are kept in cages to get pictures with the visitors until they are 3 years old. Then they go to a reserve with a more natural environment.

Matt made a spicy red curry. These were the starting ingredients:

• 5 dried chillies, seeded and soaked.
• 12 cloves garlic, finely chopped.
• 3 shallots, finely chopped.
• 1 tbsp lemongrass, finely chopped
• 1 tsp galangal (thai ginger), finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp tumeric, finely chopped.
• 5 peppercorns.
• 1 tsp coriander seeds, roasted with no oil on low heat.
• 1 tsp cumin, roasted with no oil on low heat.
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves, roasted with no oil on low heat.
• 2 tsp curry powder.
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp shrimp paste.
• 1 tbsp peanut, roasted.

This was all put into a mortar and smashed to oblivion.

This made the orangish curry paste on the left of the plate.

To make the curry you take:

• A chunk of the curry paste
• 100g chicken breast/thigh
• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 100g potato, boiled and diced.
• 1 bay leaf.
• 1 roasted cinnamon stick.
• 2 roasted cardamom pods
• 3 roasted star anise.
• 1-2 tsp palm sugar
• 1-2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1-2 tbsp tamarind sauce.

You heat the coconut cream in the wok and then add the curry paste and stir over medium heat until fragrant and the oil surfaces. Then you add the chicken and stir for 1-2 minutes. Then add palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind sauce. Continue stirring for another minute then add potato and coconut milk. Cook over medium heat until chicken is cooked.

Add cinnamon, cardamom pods, star anise and stew for 10 minutes. Then add bay leaves and remove from heat.

 

Kerri made Panang Curry, the least spicy curry.

The ingredients were:

• 5 dried chillies, seeded and soaked
• 10 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp lemongrass, finely chopped
• 1 tsp galangal, finely chopped
• 1 tsp coriander root, chopped.
• 1/2 tsp kaffir lime rind, finely chopped.
• 1 tbsp peanuts, roasted and ground
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stp shrimp paste

 

This is Kerri doing the fine chopping.

And then she ground the whole mess with a mortar and pestle.

After making the paste we had to decide how spicy we wanted our curry. Elementary school, high school or University level.

Kerri answered “newborn”.

So she gave me the tiny daub on the left. Matt’s is on the right with much more of the spicier red curry paste.

Then it was heated in a wok with 1 cup coconut cream, 100g chicken breast 1 tbsp pea eggplant, 2 tsp palm sugar and 2 tbsp fish sauce.

And then some other stuff was thrown on top for garnish.

It tastes like spicy coconut milk. The only way to make it worse would be to add chocolate.

So Matt got double curry.