Well after years of YouTube videos, we finally got our first real RC car. And by real, I mean better than the made-for-indoors small remote control cars. I can honestly say we have only barely dipped our toes in the water with this car, but it feels like a whole new world to one little boy.

Once we got the first charge on the battery, it was time to see what it was made of. So we raced it in the yard…

The street…

And in the park…

Basically anywhere we could think of.

Of course all this racing builds up an appetite. So, we went through the usual Play Gourmet song and dance, about what should we eat, where should we go, what should we make, etc. and decided on getting some Indian food out.

Insert this week’s inspiration here. The food was good, but it still left us wanting…

I don’t have a big clay oven to make Tandoori anything, but I do have generations of experience that I can draw from to make a nice Indian dish. So, I call up Uncle Lester to enlist him in this week’s Play Gourmet project.

We decided we will make a family specialty, Pork Sorpotel. Sorpotel is actually a dish of Portuguese origin that is now commonly eaten in Goa, Mangalore, and Mumbai. It is no coincidence that our family specializes in a dish with Portuguese roots, as our family name is Pais, also of Portuguese roots.

So he explains to me some of the finer points in building this art project, and we embark on our 18 hour journey.

We start by cooking down some onions, and adding a bulb of fresh garlic and some fresh hot peppers.

While that is going, we get the grinder out to prepare our spices. Once ground, we toast them a little to really release the flavor, and then pour them into the onion mixture to soak up all the onion juice.

Finally, we add the pork, and simmer for a few ticks.

Once this is done, we transfer the contents of the wok to a crockpot where we let those flavors marinate for a few hours.

Finally, before we call it a day, we add some freshly puree’d cilantro, vinegar and tamarind, and cinnamon sticks for good measure.

And now we go to bed. By the time we get up in the morning, the house is filled with the delightful smell of stewed onions and pork. Already the stew had cooked down, and the pork has started to break down.

Now, we spend the day out, as not to drive ourselves mad with desire to eat.

We wind up at a neighborhood birthday party, when a casual meandering of conversation led me to a neighbor that was coincidentally attempting one of his family recipes of chicken tikka masala. Another coincidence is that this is his first time attempting this dish. 

In fact he shared some photos, of the preparation of his curry.

So, we decided that we would share our first tries with each other the following morning.

The Curry Exchange

So the next morning, we pack up some Pork Sorpotel, and our RC car (we don’t leave home without it), and head on down the street to our neighbor’s house. 

We play for a little bit, share stories, and then make the exchange.

That night, we had a proper Indian meal, superior to any restaurant experience in recent memory.

Both the Pork and the Tikka, were outstanding, we are definitely going to lobby for a BYOC(curry) party in the future.