It’s Saturday, so let’s have a food entry, shall we?  Not that we need any excuse for a food entry.

Pancakes

A notable aspect of Thai culture is the snacking.  There are always vendors handy selling food and Thais, not unlike Hobbits, eat many more meals in a day than the typical three.  Why do they do it?  Without a doubt, the answer has something to do with how fun it is to snack.

For the most part, Thais maintain their skinny figure because they aren’t over-eating, just nibbling a little here, a little there.  Most of these snacks are pretty healthy, too.  And since snacking is even more fun when it is done with others, they share their snacks with friends and don’t eat nearly as much that way.

From time to time, non-Thai foods manage to find their way into the snacking scene, probably with not so good results on the waistline.  Waffles are one example.  Many of the Skytrain stations have vendors who sell these small, yeast dough waffles.  They’re very sweet.

Then there are the crepe vendors.  We’ve started to see these over the past few years.  It is a take on the Japanese version of French crepes: cooked very dry and then rolled into a cone shape and filled with either sweet or savory fillings.  No Nutella here, though.

This week, though, I saw the strangest thing: one of the crepe vendors was actually making pancakes.  Yes, yes – I know that crepes are a type of pancake.  But these were big, thick, American-style pancakes.

Surprised, I stopped and asked if I could take a picture.  She just looked at me like I was an alien but didn’t say no, so I snapped away.  I was on my way to lunch so I didn’t buy one and try it.  But I’ve now seen her twice in front of the Thong Lo post office, so I’ll have to go back and see what flavor they are.  You can see that she has some crepes prepared, too, on the front of the cart.

Tonkatsu

The largest population of legal foreigners in Thailand are the Japanese.  I’d imagine that the number of Burmese, Lao, or Cambodians may be higher, but many of them are probably not here legally.

One of the benefits of having so many Japanese here is that we can get pretty good Japanese food.  One of the items that I really like is tonkatsu, the pork cutlet that is breaded in panko and then deep-fried.  When done perfectly, tonkatsu is moist with a crunchy exterior, very flavorful, and not at all greasy.

Of course, average tonkatsu is a dime a dozen.  Recently, though, I read a review for Saboten restaurant, located on the sixth floor of the Isetan department store (a Japanese chain) at Central World Plaza.  Oh, this place makes good tonkatsu!

First of all, the place itself is very bright, beautifully designed, and obsessively clean.  The service is very good.  In general, Thai service standards are quite high, but here they bring it to an even higher level.  Every time someone approaches the table, they give a little bow, even if they are just refilling my tea.

The menu is simple: they offer only tonkatsu and only about six different varieties.  Meals come with a bottomless bowl of shredded cabbage, which you can dress with either a sesame dressing or a vinaigrette.  Rice and miso soup are also bottomless, although one of each is always enough for me.

The tonkatsu is amazing: the panko are perfectly textured with not a drop of oil.  Nothing about the crust is soggy at all!  The meat is tasty and moist.  The sauce, which is mixed with toasted black and white sesame seeds that you grind yourself, is just a tad too sweet.  Another restaurant we know has a slightly spicy version that really is nice.  But all in all, this is good tonkatsu.

The best part is, it really is quite reasonably priced at about 300 baht.  Yes, a lot more than a 30-baht bowl of noodles from a street vendor.  But for what you get, it is a great value.

Sunset

Finally, let me leave you with this photo from Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro.  This comes courtesy of Prachya, who took it last year while on holiday there.

Normally I don’t post others’ photos, but when I saw it on his Facebook album, I thought it was so pretty that it should be shared with you!  I hope you enjoy it. 

Have a great weekend!