"Slap Ya...."

I've mentioned before about what the team does on Thursday nights around here and last night was no exception. After a wonderful Bible Study, we all gathered around for the food. Now if you know me very well, you'll know that soup and I just aren't good friends. For some reason, I just don't gush and swoon over a bowl of soup:). But I loooove the smell of soup cooking. Kinda like I love the smell of coffee and can't stomach the actual drink. I'm a study in contrasts:).

Anyway, last evening, Bro. Tom made a big ole' pot of gumbo. For those of you who are as uneducated about gumbo as I was (until I met some people from Louisiana two summers ago!), Wikipedia comes to our rescue with this short blurb:

Gumbo is a stew or soup originating in Louisiana which is popular across the Gulf Coast of the United States and into the U.S. South. It consists primarily of a strong stock, meat and/or shellfish, a thickener, and the vegetable "holy trinity" of celery, bell peppers and onion. The soup is traditionally served over rice.

Thank you, Wikipedia.

The smell of the gumbo wafted through the Gaudets' house as well as mine because our kitchens are connected (I would show you a picture of our kitchens, but blogger is being a goober right now and won't let me upload any. Ahem). Everyone gathered around the food with anticipation and dove right in. I even took some gumbo, at which point Pookie asked me if I was sick as she felt my forehead:).

Earlier Bro. Tom had asked me to bring over some gumbo seasonings from my house since there used to be a girl from Louisiana who stayed here. So I grabbed anything that had the word "Cajun" on it and headed out the door. Well, one of my Thai co-workers - Berm - wanted to season his gumbo, so he reached for one of the seasonings and read out loud "slap ya mama." I started to laugh right away, not realizing that was the actual name of the seasoning and that all this time it had been sitting in my cupboard:).

With a look of confusion on his face, Berm turned to me and said, "Isn't that rude???" At that point, Pookie and I just lost it and I realized that once again, an Americanism had slipped through the cracks into Thailand and offered great confusion to a Thai person:). We finally got it all explained to Berm, who happily seasoned his gumbo with "Slap ya mama" and moved on with his evening.

Lest you think I'm making this up, I offer you the official website: "Slap Ya Mama". I highly recommend you refrain from taking that course of action though... maybe just do the kiss-on-the-cheek thing:D.


Just another typical evening in the Land of Smiles, thanks to some good Cajun cooking!