Almond Tuiles

Posted on 15 June 2009 by christao408

Last month Sheldon broke in his new kitchen with a batch of almond tuiles, a crisp, wafer-like cookie made with almond flour. They looked beautiful and since I had some extra almond flour left over from the macarons, this seemed like a good opportunity to use it.

The tuiles (pronounced “tweel” – I had to double-check this as my French has all but been replaced by Thai) are basically a mixture of almond flour, all-purpose flour, sugar and salt, moistened with egg whites and melted butter. They are spread very thin on parchment paper and then baked.

The name “tuiles” comes from the French word for “tile”, so these cookies are means to be shaped similarly to the terra cotta tiles you might find on the roof of a home in the French countryside.

To do this, you have to slide them off the baking sheet while piping hot and, working quickly, drape them over a curved object like a rolling pin. Even with only six on a tray, by the time you are pulling the third one off it is already beginning to cool and stiffen.

Frankly, I’m inclined to follow Sheldon’s lead and not curl them as they taste just as lovely flat and they store better.

One challenge I encountered with the recipe was that it calls for 1/2 cup of almonds, ground. This is not, I imagine, the same as 1/2 cup of ground almonds. Since my almond flour is already ground, measuring 1/2 cup of it may have been too much. But I didn’t want to tamper with the recipe until I had tried it once.

The cookies turned out a little chewier and “cakier” than I think they are supposed to be, which leads me to suspect that “1/2 cup of almonds, ground” must measure out to less than 1/2 cup of ground almonds.

I still have plenty of almond flour, though, and these were pretty easy to make. I do need to get a metal spatula, though, as the plastic one seems to be an attractive surface for macarons and tuiles to stick to as I try to remove them from the tray.

Top Secret Mission to KL

Posted on 14 June 2009 by christao408

I’ve been away for two days and apologize for not writing. Would you believe I left town for the weekend and didn’t bring my computer with me? To top it off, I couldn’t tell you where we were going beforehand because someone whose surprise 40th birthday party was in Kuala Lumpur this weekend, reads this blog.

Tawn and I arrived at the Grand Millennium Hotel on Jalan Bukit Bintang just before 1:00 am Saturday. This old hotel was bought and remodeled just a few years ago and is very centrally located to much of the action in downtown KL. Here’s the view from our room the following morning, looking down at the year-old Pavilion Mall.

We enjoyed some relaxing time in the afternoon after sleeping in late, spending a few hours by the pool on a relatively cool tropical afternoon. After confirming details with the party’s host, one of the older sisters of the birthday girl, we walked to Le Bouchon, a French restaurant just a few minutes from the hotel.

Our party was held in a small back room, more like a cellar, that was a really nice setting. Stephanie, who was my colleague when I worked in Hong Kong and then was later our roommate in San Francisco for the better part of a year, was shocked that we were there. She was expecting just her family members.

Above: Tawn, Stephanie and Chris at Le Bouchon.

We were there from 6:30 until about 11:30, a proper Parisian-length meal! The food was very tasty. The owner and head chef is French and stopped in to see us. Entrees were as follows:

Mixed seafood salad

Escargots (snails)

Foie Gras (goose liver)

These were fantastic, especially the foie gras. Not to get animal rights activists riled up but I firmly believe that government regulation against the production of foie gras is foolhardy. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. If you like, get the word out to as many people as you can about how it is produced, and then let us decide of our own conscience whether or not to eat it.

We enjoyed a pair of soups, a wild mushroom and a prawn bisque. These were good, although nothing particularly unique about them.

Everyone was able to choose a main course from the menu, which gave us a lot of variety.

I enjoyed a rack of lamb ribs with a mustard and bread crumb crust. Very tasty although maybe just a little too much mustard.

A very nice sea bass and linguini.

Venison stew. Didn’t have a chance to try this.

Duck confit with more foie gras on top. This was lovely. Confit is such a nice food.

For dessert, we had a bee cake that was surprisingly moist. Drinks included several bottles of champagne including a Moet et Chandon I picked up at the airport duty free. I probably had a bit too much to drink… becoming such a moderate drinker in my advanced age.

The whole evening was like a Chinese Malaysian version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a very warm and boisterous group. We really enjoyed being a part of it and were glad we could be there to help Stephanie, in pink on the left above, celebrate this milestone. Here’s to many more years of good health and great happiness!

Shopping for Coffee on Ratanakosin Island

Posted on 11 June 2009 by christao408

After the last entry about the shooting in Cole Camp, I’ve been surprised by the number of people who were directed to my blog from a variety of sources including the Sedalia (Missouri) Democrat’s website, a local newspaper. Along the way, I’ve received messages from several people who lived in and around the town and who knew (to one degree or another) the victims. Many thanks to all who have visited and those who have left words of support.

Part of me feels like writing another entry, particularly one just about everyday life, is a bit trivial. But life does go on and it is for the living, so I’ll pull another entry together and, with it, try to celebrate and honor the memories of all victims of violence.

Last weekend Tawn and I headed down to the “old city” – defined as Ratanakosin Island, the heart of the original city of Krungthep – to search out some coffee.

Last October while we had a guest in town, I had about two hours to kill while the guest was conducting an audio walking tour of the old city. Taking a break in a small family-run coffee shop called Mari Green Coffee, I got into a conversation with the proprietor and discovered someone who takes his coffee even more seriously than I do.

He chooses only Arabica beans grown in northern Thailand and is very picky, explaining to me in detail about the noticeable difference and quality and taste from one mountain ridge to the next. He then roasts these beans himself in small batches about once a week. Needless to say, the coffee there was great.

Months later, having finished up a supply of beans from the US – previously I was buying these wonderful fair trade organic beans from a co-op based in Chiapas, Mexico, organized and sold by Cafe Mam – I decided on a return visit to Mari Green Coffee and support the local coffee industry. Plus, I’m starting to realize that I need to be more selective when deciding what to bring back from the US. Five pounds of coffee takes up a lot of space in the suitcase.

For fun, we invited our friend Bob along, since he was also in the market for some more coffee beans. Ironically, I didn’t get a single shot of the coffee shop itself. Will have to do that next time. While we were waiting for the owner to prepare the coffee order, we enjoyed some banh xiao – Vietnamese rice crepes – and explored the surrounding area.

The coffee shop is a few doors down from an old fashioned ice factory, where they take big blocks of ice, chip them, then deliver them around the city. Tawn was a little chilly standing by the delivery truck.

A block over we found an intense bit of graffiti, something we don’t see a lot of here in Krungthep and never so elaborate.

Down the street across from the Tiger Temple was a tea shop (Mari Green Coffee’s competitor, I guess!) that had a huge white rabbit outside. Tawn was born in the year of the rabbit, so a picture was inevitable.

We picked up our coffee, thanked the proprietor, and headed on with our day followed by the heady aroma of dark-roasted coffee beans.

Small Town Triple Homicide

Posted on 10 June 2009 by christao408

“Small Town Triple Homicide” scream the headlines, a momentary blip lost amidst the noise of 500 channels of infotainment, a blip likely erased by the next news cycle, eclipsed by another equally shocking story. The blip takes on greater significance when you know the victims, though.

My paternal grandparents were born and raised in Cole Camp, Missouri, a town with a steady population of about 1,000 located some two hours southeast of Kansas City. A small, rural town, Cole Camp had its moment of fame as the site of a small skirmish during the Civil War.

Cole Camp was also where I would go visit my great-grandmothers when I was very young. After they passed away, we would still go down and spend a week or so there every summer in one of their houses which my grandparents had kept.

Great-grandma Tess’ house was the oldest house in town (picture about half way down this web page), the only house on a city block’s worth of property that would have been large enough for another half-dozen houses, except for one other house. The other house belonged to Donnie and Sharon Luetjen, a couple about the age of my parents who had a son and a daughter, Terry a little older than me and Debbie about my age.

During my primary school years, during every visit my sister and I would spend hours playing with the Luetjen kids, especially Debbie. We’d play at the nearby park, sit on the porch playing Clue and other board games, and go explore the tall grasses out behind the house. One of our favorite games was a version of volleyball using an inflatable beachball and an old smokehouse for the net.

Debbie and I exchanged letters from time to time, drifting apart as my visits to Cole Camp became less frequent. Eventually, I heard she graduated from school the same year as me and then not too much later had married. Her older brother got married, too.

When Terry’s first born was just a month old, she was orphaned when her father was killed. Debbie and Terry’s parents took custody of their granddaughter, raising her as their own. They were good people, hard working and always looked out for my grandparents and their property, especially after my grandfather passed away in 1986 and my grandmother didn’t go down to Cole Camp nearly as often.

A few years ago, after my grandmother passed away, my family sold the entire property to Donnie and Sharon. Donnie, a collector and local history buffs, had long expressed interest in it, talking about turning the badly aging house into a museum of local history. As they had been so kind to my grandparents and so helpful over the years, selling the property to them felt like the right thing to do.

Over the years, I’ve heard about them on rare occasion, seeing Donnie once a few years ago on a day trip down to see the house.

Yesterday my mother sent an email to me and my sister: my uncle had heard on the news about a triple homicide in Cole Camp. Donnie and Sharon and their 15-year old granddaughter were reportedly stabbed to death. Police believe it was a robbery (Donnie’s collection of antique Indian arrowheads and other items was well-known about town) gone bad, as all of the artifacts and Donnie’s collection of guns were gone.

So now Debbie is the last member of the family. I don’t know how to get in touch with her, but would like her to know that my thoughts and prayers are with her. It is so sad that her family, kind and thoughtful people who never hesitated to lend a helping hand, would meet such a violent and untimely end.

I know that all the leaves fall from the tree, a few when they are still young and green and most when their color has faded to shades of rust and sunlight and dirt. But it seems like people who live their lives so generously deserve to die peacefully.

May they rest in peace.

And the beet goes on

Posted on 9 June 2009 by christao408

Continuing (and concluding) with my theme vegetable, the beet root, I made a recipe suggested in my comments by Zakiah. Kheema Shulgum, or Ground Meat and Beet Root, has definite Indian flavors, is really easy to make, and is healthy to boot.

I’m going to share the recipe here as I suspect that Zakiah wouldn’t have written it in the comments section if she wanted to keep it secret. I cut back on the oil and butter as our lamb here has a pretty good fat content.

1 Tsp each oil and butter
1/2 cup sliced onions (I used a whole medium sized onion)
1 Tbsp paste of ginger and garlic
1 Lb ground beef or lamb (I used lamb)
1 Tsp chili powder
1 Tsp turmeric
3/4 Tsp salt
1 cup beet root, cut into matchstick-sized pieces (I added about 2 cups)
1 Tbsp shredded coconut
1 Tbsp sour cream

Start by heating the oil and butter, sauteing the onion till golden brown. Add the ginger/garlic paste and fry till fragrant.

Add the meat and brown well. There will be some liquid from the meat, so try and dry that a little. I unded up having to spoon out some of the liquid.

Add the chili powder, turmeric and the salt and continue to cook for about five minutes or until the spices’ aroma has blossomed.

Add the sliced beetroot pieces and cover the dish with a tight-fitting lid for five minutes, stirrring every so often. I improvised and added three small roma tomatos, seeded and diced.

Cook until the beet root is fork-tender but not mushy, then add the coconut and the sour cream. The sour cream I added was mixed with some shredded Granny Smith apple, left over from the borscht recipe.

Serve warm, garnished with mint and cilantro, neither of which I had handy.

It turned out very nicely, a squeeze of lime substituted for the missing herbs. I also added a sprinkle of some more coconut just for visual appeal.

To accompany this meal I baked pita bread, some of which actually puffed up this time. Last time, you might recall, they turned out mighty flat. Letting the dough rest for a few days definitely improved it.

Thanks again to Zakiah for that wonderful recipe. Reading the entry, I realize it just has my improvisational marks all over it. Can’t just follow the recipe the way it is written, can I?

As for the beets, I think I’m ready to move on to another vegetable!

Borscht

Posted on 8 June 2009 by christao408

My life isn’t an episode of Iron Chef by any stretch of the imagination, but lately there has definitely been a featured “challenge ingredient”: beet root. Thanks to some buy-one-pack-get-one-free specials on locally-grown organic beets, I’ve been stocking up and trying different beet root recipes.

First it was beet pizza. Then a beet and goat cheese salad. Now comes borscht, the classic Russian peasant soup that is served either hot or cold and is garnished with sour cream.

I don’t recall ever having had borscht. My friend Ken, whose parents are from Russia, hates it, but maybe if he tried this recipe he might change his mind.

I started out by sauteeing some aromatics – carrots and onions in this case, although a bit of celery would have been nice, too – with some thyme. I had already roasted the beets with just a little olive oil and a splash of orange juice until tender and let them cool.

Once softened and slightly caramelized, I pureed the beets and aromatics in a blender with some chicken stock. Stock, while relatively simple to make, is time consuming. I just buy my stock from the khao man gai (chicken over rice) vendor up on Sukhumvit Road. He probably loads it up with MSG so I dilute it in a 1:1 ratio with water. Even if it doesn’t have MSG in it, it is pretty richly flavored and I don’t want my borscht’s beet base overwhelmed.

After blending, which results in a beautiful color, I return the mixture to the pot, adjust with more stock and water to get the right consistency. Best to aim for just a little watery as it will thicken on the stove. A touch of honey and a bit of red wine vinegar adds a nice sweet and tangy flavor, which keeps the borscht from tasting heavy.

The garnish was interesting: in addition to the normal sour cream dollop, the recipe suggested grated Granny Smith apple. So I mixed the two. This was really nice as the apple adds a bit of texture to the soup.

We also enjoyed a nice pork loin and cheese panini on homemade bread, which is becoming a regular midweek dinner feature. This was a really satisfying dinner, easy to make and healthy, too.

Stay tuned for another beet recipe tomorrow!

Families United

Posted on 6 June 2009 by christao408

Immigration is a hot-button issue in the US, most often for reasons that are purely political rather than practical. On a practical level, though, immigraiton rights have a very human impact and America’s tangled web of immigration policies results in families being kept apart and even torn apart. This is the case for me and Tawn.

Two years ago I wrote about this issue and I’d like to take a few minutes of your day to write about it again, as there is some recent action taking place in the US Congress and if you are a US citizen or resident, we could use your help.

Uniting American Families Act (UAFA)

Under current United States immigration law, an unmarried citizen or permanent resident can sponsor an immigration visa for his or her opposite-sex partner.

Same-sex couples, however, are not afforded this right. Binational same-sex couples (one partner is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, the other a foreign national) make up an estimated 36,000 couples in the US, plus an untold number who, like me and Tawn, now live abroad.

Here’s an important point: Even though same-sex marriage is now legal in a few states, those marriages are not recognized by the US Federal Government including for immigration purposes.

This year for the fifth time, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have introduced versions of the Uniting American Families Act (HR 1024 and S.424) in both the House and Senate.

The act would add the term “or permanent partner” to those sections of the Immigration and Naturalization Act that apply to legally married, opposite-sex couples.

The act will afford equal immigration benefits to permanent partnerships – but it will also apply the same restrictions and enforcement standards including steep fines and jail terms for immigraiton fraud.

Progress

On June 3rd, for the first time ever, this proposed legislation received a hearing. Senator Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, bypassed the sub-committee process and held a full Judiciary Committee hearing for the bill.

The hearing featured Shirley Tan, a Filipina mother of 12-year-old twins from Pacifica, Calif., who is facing deportation despite having been with her partner for 23 years. Though Tan’s children and partner are American citizens, she cannot be sponsored for residency because her partner is female. Unless Congress takes action to pass UAFA, Tan will be forced to return to the Philippines.

Joining Tan as a witness was Gordon Stewart, Vermont native who was forced to sell his family’s farm and relocate to London to be with his partner, a Brazilian man. Stewart, who transferred his job with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to the United Kingdom, has been welcomed in that country, where his partner received a visa to be with him. Under U.S. immigration law, his partner was unable to join him in the United States, and Stewart was forced to leave his family behind to be with the person he loves.

Other witnesses included Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and attorney Christopher Nugent, who represented the American Bar Association (ABA).

Here is an embedded playlist of the witnesses’ testimony, the first two of which are espcially compelling:

Reuniting Families Act (RFA)

Last week, California Representative Mike Honda and New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez introduced the Reuniting Families Act (RFA), an omnibus immigraiton reform bill that address the need to reform America’s family-based immigration system to end lengthy separations of loved ones, promote family stability and foster the economic growth that immigrant families have provided throughout our history. Specifically, the bill:

Recaptures unused family-based and employment-based visas previously allocated by Congress which remain unused.
Allows a green card holder to reunite with their spouses and minor children: The bill classifies the children and spouses of lawful permanent residents as “immediate relatives.” This would allow lawful permanent residence spouses and children to immediately qualify for a visa.
Increases the per country limits of family and employment-based visas from 7% to 10%, eliminating the absurdly long wait times for individuals to immigrate from certain countries like the Philippines, China, and India.
Allows orphans, widows and widowers to immigrate despite death of a petitioner.
Ends discrimination in immigration law, allowing same-sex partners to reunite

The RFA is the first time that issues of binational same-sex couples has been included in comprehensive immigration legislation. Effectively, if RFA is passed it would address UAFA’s concerns.

Why Now?

The Democrats have been promising GLBT constitutents that once they control the White House and Congress, our families and our rights would finally be protected. That time is now and despite my feeling that there are also many other important issues which need to be addressed by the President and the Congress, I don’t think they have any good excuse left to not take action. Inequality is not excusable.

I would ask that you consider this proposed legislation and how it impacts people such as me and Tawn and then take the simple step of making your opinion heard.

There are two easy things to do:

Email your Representative. If you do not know his or her name, you can go to www.house.gov and look it up using your zip code.
Email your two Senators. If you do not know their names, you can go to www.senate.gov and look them up by state.

Online forms on each Representative and Senator’s website make it easy to quickly submit your thoughts. If you are at a loss for words, the most important thing they need to hear is that you want them to support the Uniting American Families Act and the Reuniting Families Act.

It is time to right this wrong and protect all American families. Please get involved and thank you for your support.

Update:

I was asked by Sion to provide a sample letter to your Senator/Representative. Nothing fancy is required; something as simple as this will suffice:

Dear Senator/Representative ______
As your constituent I encourage you to support the Uniting American Families Act (HR 1024/S 424). This act would bring an end to discrimination that results in American families being torn apart, discrimination that has already ended in countries such as Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Israel and the United Kingdom. Permanent, committed bi-national couples where one partner is an American citizen or permanent resident should be allowed the same immigration rights regardless of whether they are a same-sex or opposite-sex couple.
Sincerely,
_________

My, How The Neighborhood Changes

Posted on 4 June 2009 by christao408

Browsing the posts on 2bangkok.com, there was an interesting collection of old photos of Krungthep, many taken by servicemen who were hear during the Vietnam War era, as well as those taken by others.

One photo that caught my attention was this one, dated 1957. It is taken at the intersection of Rama I and Phaya Thai Roads, looking east. (Google Map here) There used to be a traffic circle – gone now – and the green area on the left is where the Siam Discovery, Sian Center and Siam Paragon malls are.

Between the time of this picture and today, the land that was Siam Paragon was home to the beautiful old Siam Intercontinental Hotel. This landmark, with lush tropical gardens and a unique roof line, opened in 1968 and then was torn down in 2002 to make was for Siam Paragon.

After seeing this photo, I decided to go seek out the same vantage point and see how fifty years have changed the landscape.

Now you see the Skytrain track, an elevated pedestrian walkway and, upper left, the office building that is part of the Siam Discovery complex. MBK mall is off to the right of the picture.

Would be interesting to see more “now and then” photos.

While walking from BTS National Stadium Skytrain station to this photo site, I watched a pick-up football game (Thai pronunciaton: foot-BON) played on a concrete pitch. Thought the colors were interesting.

The Thais love their footbon!

New Feature – Travel Guides

Posted on 3 June 2009 by christao408

When I was thinking about features for a new phone, GPS was one that strongly piqued my interest. This is because when I explore the world, I like to be able to share recommendations of sights, places to stay, places to eat, etc. with others Combining GPS and a camera would make it easy to create such recommendations, with pictures and geo-tagging all in one.

However, I didn’t get such a camera.

But my interest in sharing recommendations continues. Recently, a friend told me he was heading to Tokyo and was going to browse my entries for suggestions of where to go and where to eat. Great idea, I thought. Unfortunately, not every entry actually provided specific locations for things.

So I logged into Google Maps and created a Tokyo Map that has all my recommendations plotted out, complete with links and pictures. I’m not the first to think of this by any means. My friend Daniel created such a map of Montreal for another friend who was visiting there in December. I’ve also found a map like this for Krungthep, with lots of restaurants I want to explore.

Since these things take a fair bit of work, it is a shame that they don’t see more use. Because of that, I’ve added a new feature to my blog: travel guides. It will take a while to pull them together, but when I’ve traveled somewhere (or a friend shares a map and recommendations with me), I’ll post the information here in the hopes that you or a friend of yours will find it useful. This new feature is on the left-hand column on my blog.

I hope these are helpful and I encourage you to add your recommendations, too. I’m not going to recreate TripAdvisor by any means, nor would I want to since the recommendations there aren’t always very discerning.

Beet Root Pizza

Posted on 1 June 2009 by christao408

I try my darndest to support local and sustainable farming practices. This is something of a new industry here in Thailand, although I guess you could say it is really an old industry coming back around, since until a few decades ago all farming here was both local and sustainable. The seed and fertilizer companies gained significant influence, like they have elsewhere, creating a dependence on the part of farmers that is just now starting to be broken.

When I’m at my local market, I make it a point to look for specials and seasonal items. We don’t really have as distinct growing seasons here as you do in more temperate climes, though. This week, though, there was a special on beet roots. Buy one pack, get one free. Local, organic, free! What more do I need to be told?

I walked home with six packages of beets (yeah, all pre-wrapped in plastic trays and plastic wrap… what can you do?) – about fifteen beets, each about the size of a small orange.

Not knowing what to do with the beets, I decided a good first step would be to roast them. This took a bit more than an hour but afterwards, I was rewarded with some beautiful and tasty roots.

Looking at some recipes online, I decided I would make a beet root pizza for dinner last night and then use the rest of the beets for a borscht (beet root soup) later in the week. The pizza was more of an idea rather than a specific recipe, a little bit of a walk on the culinary tightrope.

First step – some pizza dough (always have some homemade half-whole wheat dough in the freezer) covered with homemade hummus (I keep portions of cooked chickpeas in the freezer, too) as a base. In retrospect, the hummus, while tasty, wasn’t the right choice. Something acidic was needed to brighten the flavors and a tomato sauce or a tangy squash sauce would have been a better fit.

Some onions, which I had baked at the same time as the beets with a little bit of balsamic vinegar. These would have been more lovely had I spent a few hours making truly caramelized onions.

Sliced beets on top. I also boiled some eggs and was going to add these, but then forgot to take the container out of the refrigerator so they are still sitting in there this morning!

A little bit of chèvre – goat cheese – sliced on top. One recipe I read also used a little bit of mozzarella cheese, which would have been nice. This pizza was a tad… fat-less. Does that make sense? Sometimes you need a little fat to make the flavors rounder and fuller.

Just out of the oven – it looks quite nice but it isn’t a balanced meal yet.

Topped with some organic, locally-grown rocket (arugula) – now it is finished. You can tell it is organic because of all the little bug bites on the leaves. At least they left some for me.

At the same time, I’m playing around with a new master bread recipe, an olive oil dough that has about 1/3 whole wheat flour.

As you can see, it rises nice and with a dusting of flour and a truly sharp knife, it looks pretty. (I just realized, as I searched for an entry about going to a local market to get my knives sharpened, that I haven’t written that entry yet!)

Even more so once it comes out of the oven. This was tasty bread, but it is a quicker dough than the “no knead” recipes I’ve been using, and as such the interior has a very uniform crumb, almost like sandwich bread. I kind of prefer to have some larger bubbles and spongier texture.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

Monthly Archives: June 2009