Iron Chef's Language School

I caught the judging part of Iron Chef America between Mario Batali v.s. Traci des Jardins at a friend's house.

"And here from Chef des Jardins we have a Deconstructed Tom Kah Gai..."

Upon hearing "Tom Kah Gai"--Thai coconut chicken soup flavored with galangal, lemon grass, kaffa lime leaves, lime and chili--I looked up. The Chef had essentially broke down the ingredients of the soup into a pile of herbs used in the soup and a pile of what looked like a couple of deep fried shrimps and their heads.

Wait a second.

Tom Kha literally means boil - galangal. It's the type of the soup. Gai is chicken. Tom Kha Gai means galangal chicken soup.

But that wasn't chicken on the plate. They're shrimps.

What the flying duckies was that!?!?

ROTFLMAO.

And here everyone on Iron Chef were, all impressed about the whole deconstruction of Thai flavors and this and that and other. And not even a piece of chicken in sight.

Um, just for the record, Chef. What you just made is a Deconstructed Tom Kha Goong.

*Chuckle* Deconstructed Tom Kha Gai.

It's good to know that Thai cuisine has made it to the international culinary scene. We should be proud of that.

But damn. That was some funny schnoodle.