Thanks for your patience. The second half of the tour, the part covering the new “Annex” we’ve moved into next door, is ready.
Part 1 of the tour is here.
Condo Tour Part 2
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Monthly Archives: July 2009
Eat Woys Crackers
Returning to the subject of Thai culture, there is an interesting series of print advertisements running in the BTS Skytrain stations. These are for Woys Crackers, a cheese-flavored cracker sandwiched with a butter-like spread. The ads have some clever wordplay, which is a common feature of the Thai language.
These are the cracker’s normal packaging. It shows a group or friends or siblings laughing. The script reads “Woys: with creamy butter” and “creamy butter” is actually a phonetic translation of the English words. If you want to sound Thai, accent the second syllable of both words: “Cree-MEE But-TUH”.
As their spokesman, the manufacturer has hired the biggest movie and TV star in Thailand, a comedian named Petchtai Wongkamlao (pictured below) who goes by the stage name Mum Jokmok. His nickname, “Mum” (หม่ำ) is a funny word for “eat”, kind of describing how a child might eat food.
Mum Jokmok is the hardest working man in Thai showbiz right now, producing an endless stream of films. He has a very expressive face and a gift for physical comedy. Playing off the meaning of his name, the ad reads “Mum Woys” – both his name and the name of the crackers, as well as “Eat Woys”.
The series of billboards continues in a spoof of the original packaging, in which he plays, with the help of some clever photoshopping, all three of the characters in the photo.
That must answer the question – they are siblings rather than just friends, right? But how does the mother look?
That question is answered in another billboard, where we see that the mother is another actor and Mum is the father as well as the children. The tag line: “Eat Woys together with the family.”
Thai advertising is generally clever (although prone to a bit of base humor) and this is a good example of it.
Saturday Game Night Explodes
Matt and Si invited us over to their place for game night on Saturday, but I asked if we could instead have it at our place instead and invite a few more people. Since Tawn and I are heading out for the US soon (me for 26 days, him for 16) we wanted a chance to see several of our friends before we left. So it came to be that we had our largest party yet.
A tale of two Chais. Chai is a popular Thai nickname, so here we have Suchai and Chairat, commiserating about their respective boyfriends over a glass of something strong.
While it turned out very well and there was plenty to eat and drink and everyone had a good time, it was probably a good lesson for me and Tawn. Sixteen guests is a bit overwhelming in our small house. Quick, break down the wall between units so we can spread our the party!
Brian, Ben, Geng, Matt, Kobfa, Bastian and Benji stake out the kitchen.
It was a fun time, though. I ordered pizzas and made a huge green salad. All the guests brought additional food to eat, so we had a tremendous amount of food left over. Thankfully, people helped us by bringing food home, otherwise we would never have been able to eat it all before leaving the country. As it is, I’ll be eating salad three times a day until Wednesday!
Francois, Ken and Russ wait for the games to begin.
The bar was open and thanks to our guests we had just about every type of drink you could want. Ken mixed something for us that was very nice. I don’t recall the name but it is one part of rum, one part of midori, one part of coconut milk and four parts of pineapple juice. Sweet and vagely Thai, it was a little too easy to drink, if you know what I mean.
Tawn, Geng, Brian, Si and Matt get down to some serious Aggravation.
After the eating, we got down to the game playing. The dining room had Monopoly (Did you know the new version of the game no longer has cash? Each player now has a debit card!), the living room had Uno and Pit, and we set up a game of Aggravation in the bedroom. Tawn was a bit concerned as Thais will generally not hang out in someone’s bedroom, let alone sit on their bed. Not polite. But in this case, our guests, perhaps lulled into relaxation by Ken’s bartending, plopped down for a few games.
Things wrapped up a bit late – the last guests left about 1:30! – and poor Tawn was quite tired, sleeping in the next morning. But it was a fun way to celebrate before our departure, see everyone, and introduce some groups of friends who had not previously met.
Ten Things You Should Know About Food Bloggers
Sometimes you read a blog entry and you think, “Yes, this person hit the nail on the head!” (If you are Matt, you might think, “Drat, I was going to write that and they beat me too it.” But that’s another story.) This morning, a friend of the younger sister of a high school friend whose food blog I read posted a link to another food blog by Not Quite Nigella in which she lists 10 things you should know about food bloggers.
Here’s a sample:
#1 – Be prepared to eat early. Like a reverse Vampire, we love the light as more light means better photos. Eating dinner at 4pm? Sure, no problem, the light will be good then. Similarly, you’ll also find us seated near the window more often than not as the light is better there and we only use flash in extreme circumstances or in closed blogger-friendly company.
For the rest of the list, her entry is here. After reading this, you’ll either understand my dining behavior better or… just maybe… you’ll recognize some signs of your own inner food blogger. Enjoy!
The Nickle Tour
We enjoy many visitors here in Thailand and when they come for a visit, there’s a request for a tour of our home. We’re always happy to oblige friends. Many of you haven’t had the opportunity to come for a visit, yet, so Tawn and I thought you might enjoy the nickle tour to tide you over.
I’m still working on the video of the “Annex” – the studio next door that has been turned into my office and our TV room. Stay tuned for that.
Ancient Coffee
I’m a coffee drinker, an addiction that I purposefully nurtured in university. No kidding. There was a cafe across the plaza from the movie theatre I was managing, back in the day when Starbucks were few and far between and espresso was still eyed with a little suspicion by drinkers of a regular cup of joe as a fou-fou drink.
I had never been a coffee drinker but always enjoyed the smell. My earliest coffee memory was when I was about five years old. I was visiting my paternal grandparents back in Kansas City and my grandfather and I got up early one morning to drive the two hours down to Cole Camp, Missouri, to visit my great-grandmothers. As was their morning habit, my grandparents had a percolator going, coffee bubbling up into the glass handle on top of the lid and the aroma filling the house.
My grandfather filled an old red plaid Thermos with the black coffee and we set out down the highway. Somewhere along the way, he asked me to pour him a cup of coffee while he was driving. I made a comment like, “Smells good!” and so he offered to let me taste it. All I can remember is that it was as strong as iron and as hot as sin, so hot that I actually burned my tongue and had no taste of sweet for several days.
Needless to say, I didn’t have coffee again for a long, long time.
Some fifteen years later, a few years after my grandfather’s death from cancer, I started nursing a coffee habit. Recognizing that espresso drinks were becoming more common, I decided to build up a taste for espresso. I started with vanilla mochas with whipped cream, a drink that leaves unmasked only the slightest hint of coffee flavor.
Then, methodically, I worked my way to less adulterated beverages: Eventually the mocha went away, leaving me with vanilla lattes. Then the vanilla went away, replaced with lots of sugar. Then I cut back on the sugar until I could enjoy my latte unsweetened. To this day, nearly twenty years after starting the process, I rarely drink my coffee black and only take my espresso straight if it is really tasty. Otherwise, at least a little sugar has to cut it.
Throughout Southeast Asia, sweet and strong coffees are common. There’s the white coffee of Malaysia, the Vietnamese coffee – slow drip espresso served with sweetened condensed milk, and there’s caffe boran – literally, “ancient coffee” – here in Thailand.
Caffe boran is the coffee sold by street vendors (well, the ones who don’t use Nescafe, which is something of a national habit) and it involves very strong but not terribly good quality coffee which is steeped for an hour in a pantyhose-like sleeve. This sludge is then poured over ice with a large dollop of sweetened condensed milk and then some evaporated milk tops it off for richness.
Needless to say, despite its cheap price (10 to 15 baht, about 30-40 cents), it isn’t the most refined way to get your coffee.
Nonetheless, you can now buy Ivy brand caffe boran in aseptic boxes in your local Thai supermarket! To advertise the launch of Ivy caffe boran, this display was set up at the Asoke BTS Skytrain station, showing an ancient Thai warrior (who seems dressed to do some muay thai boxing) roasting the coffee beans over the fire, while two Thai maidens (notice the fair skin) hold boxes of the coffee.
It is so wonderfully kitschy!
I haven’t bought any Ivy yet. It seems that if I’m going to buy caffe boran, I might as well support one of our neighborhood street vendors.
What’s your coffee story? (I already know Meg’s!)
A Buddhist Take on Michael Jackson’s Death and Popular Culture
While I’m not normally one for reposting other’s writings, I felt this article might be of particular interest to you. With all the fuss over the recent death and funeral of Michael Jackson, it seems that some important lessons have been lost and, worse yet, some of the wrong lessons have been learned. A Singaporean friend shared this article, by Shravasti Dhammika, a Theravada Buddhist monk of Australian heritage who writes and speaks extensively about Buddhism, especially as it relates to modern life.
MJ And Popular Culture
Now that the funeral is over I would like to make a few comments on the death of Michael Jackson. Some aspects of the whole business illustrate some interesting trends in popular culture. The first is what I call the exaggeration of emotion. Both here in Singapore and in reports in the foreign media I read expressions like ‘I am devastated’ ‘The whole world is in mourning’ ‘My family and I am in a state of shock’. Really? When I was in the Medical Corps in the army in the late 60’s I sometimes saw severely wounded soldiers evacuated from Vietnam, some of them in shock. Believe me, no one ‘is in a state of shock’ over the death of MJ. And the whole world mourning? I wouldn’t mind betting that a couple of hundred millions peasants in India have never he heard of MJ and even those who have are far more concerned about the fact that the monsoon is late. I suspect that hundreds of millions of poor villagers in South America, China and Africa have hardly given MJ’s death a second thought either, even if they have heard about it. Devastated? Now I saw devastated people on a recent news report of a bomb going off in an Iraqi market. None of the numerous reports I saw about MJ’s showed ‘devastated’ people. The problem with using absurdly exaggerated terminology to describe ordinary experiences, in this case a little bit of sadness, is that when something really shocking or devastating happens we don’t have adequate words to convey its true seriousness or impact. It diminishes it. This misuse of language also encourages people to ‘over-express’ themselves about what are actually rather commonplace events. Sobbing, huddling in weeping groups arms over each others’ shoulders, and gasping ‘Oh my God!’ over the passing of someone you have never met or even seen at a distance on stage, is completely inappropriate. It leaves you with nothing to do when some you are personally are struck by real tragedy.
Did you also notice that during the memorial concert and in the thousands of cards people wrote and left at the hall where it was preformed, that MJ was constantly addressed as if he were present. ‘We love you’, ‘We will always remember you’, ‘You enriched our lives’, instead of ‘We loved him’, We will always remember him’, etc. I find this sort of thing, very common in funerals nowadays, rather weird. And this is not just a matter of the proper use of language. It grows out of and reinforces a sort of pseudo-mysticism in which a vague sentimentality replaces more thoughtful idea about death and the after-life.
Another interesting thing about MJ’s passing is how quickly the recent deep concern and even disgust about aspects of his private life has been elbowed aside by an avalanche of accolades, A genuine and meaningful eulogy to him would include mention of his very real talents in some areas, his great generosity, but also the fact that he apparently made a mess of his life. On several occasions I read of or heard people say things like ‘His message will live forever’, as if he was some great prophet or spiritual teacher. I must say, I find this sort of thing to be the height of vulgarity. It also obscures an extremely important point. If MJ’s life conveys any ‘message’ it would have to be that talent, celebrity and unimaginable wealth do not guarantee happiness. The Buddha said, ‘Truly dire are gains, honor and fame. They are serious and difficult obstacle in the way of attaining true safety’ (S.II,226)
Bhante Dhammika’s interesting and thought-provoking writings, which are very accessible to Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, are posted here.
Food Safety Enhancement Act Won’t Enhance Food Safety
The House of Representatives is considering HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, and it will soon come to a floor vote. From its title, it sounds good, right? Don’t believe it. This one-size-fits-all approach will harm small farms and local artisinal food producers, the ones you like to support at your local farmers’ market.
HR 2749 does not effectively address the underlying causes of food safety issues in the United States, namely, the industrial food system. Instead, it will give the FDA sweeping powers that will hurt exactly the type of local producers that are finally gaining support through the local and sustainable food movement.
Some examples of the impacts HR 2749 will have:
GEOGRAPHIC QUARANTINE HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including “prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.” Under this provision, farmers’ markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. WARRANTLESS SEARCHESHR 2749 would empower FDA to make warrantless searches of the business records of small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation. Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.
TRACING SYSTEM HR 2749 charges the Secretary of Health and Human Services with establishing a tracing system for food. Each “person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food” would have to “maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food,” and “establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons.” The bill does not explain how far the traceback will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods. With all these ambiguities, it’s far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers. REGISTRATION FEE HR 2749 would impose an annual registration fee of $500 on any “facility” that holds, processes, or manufactures food. Although “farms” are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly. And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times. CROP REGULATION HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers.
In the past few years, a lot of awareness has been raised about our food safety and the negative influence of factory farms, CAFOs (Confined Animal Feedlot Operations), and industrial-scale food production.
They are bad for the environment, bad for communities and small farmers, and bad for our health. They are the type of food operations that need better regulation, not small family farms!
Books such as Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and the recent documentaries “Fast Food Nation” and “Food, Inc.” have helped raise awareness.
Action You Can Take:
If you are a U.S. resident and are concerned about food safety issues and local, sustainable and small family food production, please contact your member of the House of Representatives.
This bill has been sent from committee to the floor of the House and will be voted on soon. Please tell your Representative to vote no on HR 2749.
If you are not sure who your Representative is, you can go use the “Find Your Representative” feature in the upper left-hand corner of the House of Representatives website.
Thanks for your support! For all of my non-American readers, I apologize for going into US politics today and hope that you will encourage your government to support small, local and sustainable food production in your country.
Into the New Space
This weekend we moved into the studio. Basically, everything in our second bedroom/office was hauled over there. It has only been two days, but already the move is having some noticeable impact.
Above, almost everything has been moved out of the old office / future dining room.
The biggest change is that since the units are physically separated, with a concrete wall between them and two different front doors, we seem to be experiencing our own very distinct sense of separation now. Beforehand, even if I was working on one room and Tawn was in another, there was still the sense of being in the same space, being able to call out and ask a question, knowing that the other person is inhabiting the same area.
Now, it is as if the other person isn’t around at all. Sunday evening, a few hours after the move, Tawn came over to the “annex” (as we’re calling the studio) where I was working on the computer, looking kind of bored and lonely – a look that I’ve come to learn means, “I’m feeling disconnected from you.”
It takes time to get used to a new space and we’ll still be shuffling things around until we get settled into the new configuration, but I’m curious to see how this plays out. I suspect that there may be some issues associated these being two separate units. While we don’t have the funds to do a full remodel of the annex, I’m sure we could knock a door in the wall between the two units if necessary.
Interesting how the physical space we inhabit can have such an impact on us, isn’t it?
A few shots of the “remodel,” which took all of one day of the handyman working on a few things. Above, the laminate on the bathroom vanity in the annex had started splintering and peeling away because of humidity. We had it removed, sanded, and new laminate applied. Eventually, the entire bathroom will undergo a remodel. Heck, the entire unit will undergo a remodel one of these years.
Below, some previous owner thought it would be artsy to have an opening (with a pipe running through it) between the bathroom and the rest of the living space. Another previous owner installed a large mirror in the bathroom to block the space, giving bathroom users some privacy. We asked the handyman to add a frame and drywall to the space, so it now looks like a regular wall.
Before we moved into the new unit, I shot some video of the old unit, a virtual tour. I’ll try to get that edited before I head to the US and share it with you.
Meanwhile, walking home from the ramen shop the other day, I passed this ice cream vendor. There are lots of vendors who ride around on these tricycles, selling ice cream, beverages, brooms, and other things. What are your guesses as to the flavor of ice cream he sells? (Answer below.)
Our rainy season weather has turned interesting. We’re getting slightly cooler weather and after an evening of rain, the skies are bright blue the following morning. These big fluffy clouds, starting white but turning grey, move in as lunchtime arrives, building up until the rains start again in the late afternoon.
I find the clouds fascinating as they are very tall. Watching them float through the sky, I’m reminded of some Miyazaki film. Hard to believe they aren’t sentient beings!
Answer: coconut
Polenta Soufflé and Salad
For a long time after moving here to Krungthep, I continued to subscribe to Sunset Magazine, the “magazine of Western living.” Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, its articles and recipes reminded me to a lifestyle that is in my roots. Eventually, the subscription expired, renewal notices didn’t make it to me, and I decided it was time to let go. But the past week, I dug up a recipe from my Sunset files for a “never fall” polenta soufflé and salad.
Attributed to Victor Scargle, then chef at San Francisco’s Grand Café, these soufflés are moist and light, more like a spoon bread than a classic soufflé. With a salad and mushroom dressing, they make a simple but handsome supper.
You start off with a mixture of polenta, milk, salt and butter. Allow to cook over medium-high heat until the mixture boils, then reduce to medium heat and stir regularly.
Meanwhile, separate four eggs. Ultimately, I think I could have done with one fewer yolks, but maybe these eggs are “eggier” than normal. Beat the whites until they form distinct, moist peaks.
The polenta is done when it is thick enough to hold a clean path for a few seconds when drawing a spatula across the bottom of the pan.
Remove it from the heat and add baking powder and egg yolks, mixing well.
Fold in the egg whites, one third at a time, and gently mix. Spoon the mixture into ramekins that have been buttered and lined with grated parmesan cheese.
Bake in a 375 F (180 C) oven for about 30-40 minutes or until well-browned.
Meanwhile, make a mushroom sauce by browning chopped mushrooms and onions.
Deglaze with a little vinegar and beef stock (or substitute chicken stock, if you prefer.)
Reduce until mushrooms are soft and the liquid has formed a glaze.
Serve soufflés alongside a mixed green salad, spooning the mushroom sauce over the salad.
Alternatives: Since I had a few soufflés left over, I reheated them, combining the left over mushroom mixture with some bell peppers, onions and sausage fried in anatto oil. Spooning this new mixture on top of the soufflé was a wonderful addition.
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