Yesterday was my birthday, and I was having trouble getting celebratory. I was stuck in a condominium board meeting for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.

Then Meda and I stopped over at Antique Alley to see our friends Paké Zane and Julie Lauster. Paké quickly dug through a pile of assorted stuff and came up with a stack of birthday cards for me to pick from.

“I won’t sign it,” he said. “Enjoy it and then you can regift it.”

What a deal!

The card said:

“You’re not getting old…

Hell, you were old last year!”

Perfect.

While Meda was looking at old jewelry, Paké took me towards the back of the store and pointed out a small black & white photo of local legend Larry Mehau back when he was active in Sumo.

That’s why we love Antique Alley. You just never know what you might find among the amazing collection of cultural artifacts.

In any case, it was already after 3:30 when we left. Now what to do? I decided it was time to just stop and pick up something for dinner.

No, we weren’t going out to celebrate. Cooking is almost always fun for us, and it also provides time to sit on the deck and enjoy the views after the sun sets over the mountains.

So there we were, wandering the aisles of the Foodland store in the Windward City Shopping Center. Then I had an idea and turned to my iPhone for a recipe. Aha! It could be done. Into the cart went a package of ground chicken breast and a bunch of mint leaves. I was pretty sure we had everything else at home. Luckily I was right.

I was ready to attempt chicken larb, also known as laab or laap. It’s always been one of our favorite dishes when we stop at our current favorite Thai restaurant. I’ve looked up the simple recipe before but had never actually attempted it.

Tonight was the night.

First step–collect the ingredients, then get out the old reamer and juice a couple of limes.

Then I put the ground chicken in a bowl, and added about half the lime juice along with some hot red pepper flakes and a little garlic.

Then I chopped a little bit of red onion and started one of our cast iron frying pans heating on the stove.

When it was good and hot, I added a shot glass of water to the hot pan, then the chicken mixture and chopped onions. I cooked it until the chicken was fully cooked and any liquid cooked off.

Then Meda helped chop a handful each of mint and cilantro.

The cooked chicken mixture then went back into the bowl (after washing the bowl, of course) and I mixed in the mint and cilantro. Then I added several tablespoons of fish sauce and more lime, along with a couple of hot thai peppers, finely chopped. Balanced to taste.

Some cabbage leaves went on the serving plate to scoop up the chicken mixture. Brown rice was served onto our plates.

Dinner is served!

Ah, good enough to eat. I was going to dive right in when Meda reminded me to first get a few pictures of the final product.

It looked pretty good, and tasted even better. An excellent culinary adventure and a great way to celebrate my birthday. Next time we’ll load the plate up with a few more vegetables when serving.

As usual, click on any photo for a larger version.