coconut milk

I hesitate to celebrate the recent drop in temperature that September brought. I don't want to jinx us. It was a rough summer in the Twin Cities this year, with weeks of scorching temperatures right in the middle of outdoor entertaining season. MPR even nicknamed it Humigeddon 2011. During one of the heat waves, I enjoyed a chilled melon soup made by chef Joe Hatch-Surisook, of Sen Yai Sen Lek. On one of the hottest, more airless days of summer, he brought a sweet, cold, cantaloupe soup to a potluck and served it in cups for spooning or sipping.

There were baby sea urchins and shark fins and banana leaves and duck eggs and shrimps with eyes! And these candies you whistle through and real pig heads! And black chickens! And live snails that you catch with a scooper! And we got Chinese restaurant spoons! My kids were all talking at the same time, clambering all over each other to get my husband’s attention, while I sat back feeling mighty proud of myself.