They say a picture tells a thousand words. In that case, let me share about 10,000 words worth of pictures and catch you up on recent events. There’s a big story to tell you about my trip to the Northeast on Sunday, but I still have some video to edit so let me get these loose ends tied up first.
One of my Xanga “blogrings” to which I belong is “I Never Leave Home Without My Camera”. This is true. There are simply too many fascinating things to see, especially in Krungthep!
Another entry in my “Overloaded Trucks of Thailand” coffee table book series. Here a bunch of laminated particleboard armoirs make their way down Asoke Street.
There are lots of street vendors here, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone selling honeycomb from the back of a bicycle.
Also along Asoke, a man and a woman are rescued by a tuk tuk driver as their motorscooter has a mechanical. Somehow the driver is able to secure their scooter to the back of his tuk tuk.
Six weeks ago, this tree outside our bedroom window, in the driveway to the neighboring condo’s car park, was barren. I wasn’t sure if it was dead or just going through winter. Sure enough, the green buds of new leaves started appearing as the cold weather disappeared, and last week there was a profusion of yellow blossoms. The recent heavy rains and wind of the last three days have already knocked them off, though.
Friday night Tawn came home from work and I prepared dinner. I almost always have a few portions of homemade pizza dough in the freezer as it makes for an easy and relatively quick dinner. This time was vegetarian: instead of the typical tomato sauce, I used a pureed roasted squash, seasoned with Italian spices. Throw some tomatoes and fresh mozzarella on top, then garnish with fresh basil once out of the oven. Serve with a mixed arugula salad and you have a pretty healthy meal.
The next morning I made use of some leftover buttermilk to make waffles. I tried a new recipe that substitutes 1/4 cup of cornstarch for some of the flour, which gives it a crispier texture. Also, the egg is separated and the white is beaten before being added, giving it more volume. Sadly, the cap on the canister of Vermont maple syrup I brought from the US (and which has been stored in my refrigerator) is stuck. I was unable to open it and so we were limited to preserves and honey as toppings.
Saturday we headed out to run some errands for Trish. You’ll recall that we’ve been trying to chase down the owner of a silk factory who sold Trish 60 yards of ostensibly 2-ply white silk, that upon inspection ended up being 1-ply. After months of the run-around we finally met up with her last weekend at Old Siam shopping center and made the exchange, picking up 2-ply navy blue silk instead of white. Old Siam is shown above, with a large floor of clothing for sale. This is kind of like MBK Shopping Center and a little of Chatuchak Weekend Market but all in an air conditioned environment. There are many silk stores on the second and third floor.
Can you spot the foot massage station at the top of the photo? There is one in each of the four corners of the main shopping floor. Not fancy at all, but cheap!
Driving through the old section of the city, we passed many shop houses, some of which have beautiful tilework on the ground floor. This one in particular caught my attention.
While waiting at one traffic light I saw this colorful scene unfold before us. Red, orange, yellow and green. Bangkok: a city painted in primary colors.
christao408 
Try putting the stuck end into a hot water bath. It might unstick the cap.
You have become a photographer.
It was good you managed to get the exchange, sometimes markets like that won’t help you.
@whonose – In this case, we had actually purchased from the owner at her factory out in the provinces. The product she gave us – single-ply silk – was not what we had paid for. So in this case, we had some leverage because it was deceptive, although I don’t think intentionally so.
@LostSock21 – Yeah, I’ll have to try that. Thanks.
@choyshinglin – Actually, I’ve been an avid photographer since secondary school. Maybe just not any good at it, though!
It took this long to exchange?! Whoa!
I was also going to suggest putting the cap under warm water too.I was almost gonna say Eggo Waffles but it’s homemade! Kudos to you!
Wow! I’ve never thought about using squash as pizza sauce. That sounds really, really amazing!
Did you find what you were looking for at the silk stores?
o no syrup for the waffles?!what could you do with the honey combs???
Great pics as always, Chris! (a) I love the honey combs. . . was wondering what they were! (b) With your homemade pizzas, I think you could go into business. They look soooooo good! (c) Foot massage with silk shopping? I could do that! (d) “Having a mechanical”? How British. I love it & am planning to use that phrase from now on if it’s okay with you! 🙂
@Dezinerdreams – Yes, that long. Needless to say, now that business is settled, we will look for a new supplier for Trish because that, even by Thai standards, was unreaonsable.
@ElusiveWords – Okay, thanks for that confirmation. When I get back from Japan I’ll pull out the can of syrup and try again. Maple syrup is one of my favorite things flavors so having it locked away from me is torture.
@TheCheshireGrins – Yeah, the squash puree idea came to me as an alternative to pesto. You can really take many hearty-flavored veggies and puree them to make a sauce. Just need to drain the excess water. As for the silk, yes we did. I’ll try to get a picture of the items but we’ve had overcast weather and the color might night come out very accurate.
@yang1815 – I believe you can eat the honey combs. The unpasturized honey is supposed to be quite good for you and the comb has a waxy consistency.
@jojobaDESIGNS – Didn’t realize “having a mechanical” was so British, LOL. But you’re more than welcome to adopt it!
I love the title of your coffee table book!! 😛 And that is gorgeous tilework!!
@christao408 – woah… didn’t know u could eat the honeycomb!!!
Waiting for your coffee table book of random photos of the Big Mango! Nice!
Beautiful pics Chris. I loved the tiles. I think all over south east Asia, the tiles and the art of putting them in an artistic way, makes it very pleeasing to the eye.
@yang1815 – Indeed.
@brooklyn2028 – @curry69curry – In all seriousness, I think the coffee table book idea has merit.
@ZSA_MD – I’ve found that the best tile work, though, comes from predominately Muslim countries. I understand that because the Koran forbids making representations of living beings, the artistic efforts have instead gone to architectural flourishes such as tile work. Not sure if I have an accurate understanding, but it sounds quite reasonable to me.
@christao408 – Thanks! 🙂
I feel a bit better about my pizza not being round
@christao408 – You are absolutely correct in your assumption Chris. just look at some of the mosaic and marbles in Morocco.
talking about MBK shopping centre, reminds me of bargining…….