Yesterday, Jake and I visited St. Petersburg’s Saturday Morning Market. The people were smiling, the vendors were busy, and the sun was bright. It was our first official outing since we moved to the bay area (been unpacking and visiting Ikea for the past weeks). The first thing we bought from the market was the “Spicy Thai Linguine” from Pappardelle’s - we are for some reason on a Thai kick and this Thai blend pasta sounded wonderful 
Then we followed the sunflowers all the way to the organic market where we picked up some organic veggies for the week … see if you can spot a bug on the veggie (no pesticide here).
There were lots of cool businesses there, including a few that catered to four legged shoppers, which explained the abundance of dogs on leashes at the event. The best thing about dog owners is that they are not shy about showing off their pets, I had fun walking up to the owners and ask to photography their pet.
For lunch we almost had too many options — I got a curry dish with Thai black rice with a cold thai ice tea (I found discrepancy in the color naming of the rice some call it black some purple, overall it’s the dark kind.) , Jake had a yummy looking veggie burger, and we shared a slice of spinach pizza. We picked out a place in the shade down by the water and made a impromptu picnic out of it. Love the sights, the smells, the busy yet relaxed atmosphere and the fun looking pets, what a wonderful day to spent in the sun. 
By dinner time I was eager to head home and try our speciality pasta with panang curry sauce, I’ve mentioned before — we are on a pretty strong Thai kick, and the combination made sense in our head. It turned out surprisingly well! And next time we’ll use a tomato based sauce to compare. After dinner we were feeling the effects of a day out in the sun (without sun block — rookie mistake).
Jake’s parents loves Thai food, in fact our first meal here in Florida (on April 20th) to celebrate our arrival and my birthday was to dine at a wonderful husband and wife owned Thai restaurant (we’ve since became regulars of the place on Mondays). Since then we’ve been experimenting with a Panang Curry recipe from Jakes stepmother:
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce (this is too strong for me-I only used 1 tablespoon)
1tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon red curry paste or panang red curry paste (not very spicy could use more)
1 can coconut milk
1 red onion sliced
1 red bell pepper sliced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro or basil
2 tablespoons peeled and thinly sliced ginger
In small bowl mix together lime juice, fish sauce and brown sugar. Set aside
In skillet over medium heat add curry paste with 1/2 can of coconut milk. Stir frequently until curry paste is dissolved and mixture is bubbling.
Add the rest of the coconut milk, onions and bell pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes.
Note: Since we are vegetarians, we are looking for a substitute for the fish sauce. It didn’t occur to us until recently that the fish sauce was made of fish (duh!). A very brief search on google yielded recommendations of soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, and salty water. Sounds like we’ve got some more experimenting to do.
[…] weren’t quite as many kiosks as we saw at the Saturday Morning Market in St. Petersburg, but it was less crowded and more relaxed which made for a very pleasant […]