About christao408

An expat American who moved to Bangkok in 2005 with his partner (now husband). Life is a grand adventure and each experience is worth having if for no other reason than to remind us that we are alive.

Rindercella and the Fallen Princesses Project

Posted on 27 August 2009 by christao408

Several years ago I worked with a man named Mik. Mik was a trainer on my team and he had this fantastic spoonerism he would share during a week-long training class. He told it during the section about effective communication, although its primary purpose was to serve as a mid-week tension breaker. Try reading it and see if you don’t enjoy it.

The Tale of Rindercella

Once upon a time in a coreign fountry, there was this girl named Rindercella. Rindercella lived with her Mugly Other and two Sad Bisters. In this coreign fountry there was also a Pransom Hince and he decided to have a bancy fall, inviting all the stabulous and fylish pich reople from riles amound.
When the Mugly Other and the two Sad Bisters received an invitation to the Pransom Hince’s bancy fall, they were so excited they nearly dell fown in their rush to mo to the gall and buy some dancy fresses and shancy fooes. When Rindercella asked if she was also invited to the Pransom Hince’s bancy fall, her Mugly Other laughed and said, “Wo nay! You have to hay stome to hean the clouse.”
The dig bay came and as Rindercella’s Mugly Other and two Sad Bisters were leaving in their dancy fresses and shancy fooes for the Pransom Hince’s bancy fall, Rindercella just crat down and sied!
She was kitting there a scrien’ when sall of a udden, Rindercella’s GaisyModFather sopped onto the pene and he asked…”Girl, cry are you whying?” Rindercella niped her wose and, thearing her cloat, answered “Because my Mugly Other and two Sad Bisters have gone to the Pransom Hince’s bancy fall and I’m not invited because I have to hay stome and hean the clouse!”
Well, realizing that an injustice had been done, Rindercella’s GaisyModFather turned a cumbkin into an polden goach and six whice mite into hancing prorses, and told Rindercella, “Girl… you better be home by nidmight.”
When Rindercella arrived at the Pranson Hince’s bancy fall, the Pransom Hince wecretly satched at her from behind a widden hindow and, seeing her punning steauty, he lell in flove. The two of them nanced and nanced all dite when sol of a udden, the slock clucked nidmite! Rindercella staced down the rairs and when she bleached the rottom, she slopped her dripper.
As you can guess, the Pransom Hince found the slass glipper and decided that the very dext nay he would set about his rather’s koyal findom to find the fady’ss loot that the flipper would slit.
When the Pransom Hince came to Rindercella’s house he tried the sass glipper on first the Mugly Other and you know it fidn’t dit. Then he tried the sass glipper on the two Sad Bisters’ felly smeet, and again, it find’t dit. Finally, he tried the sass glipper on Rindercella’s foot and fid dit, and the two of them heaved leverly after effter.
So the storal of the morey is…If you every go to a bancy fall and want to lull in fove with a Pransom Hince, you’ve gotta slop your dripper!

Fallen Princesses

Along the same lines, there is a fascinating photo series by Vancouvery photographer Dina Goldstein titled “The Fallen Princesses Project“. Bristling against the beauty myths that Disney perpetuates through their “princesses” series, she imagines “happily ever after” being replaced with a more realistic outcome that addresses current issues.

Above is Cinderella, sitting alone in a dive bar, drinking. The other images in the series are much more provocative, but I won’t steal Goldstein’s thunder by reproducing them here. Please go visit the article at the JPG Magazine website.

Happy Thursday!

Another Trip to Amphawa

Posted on 26 August 2009 by christao408

Sunday morning after a breakfast of homemade buttermilk biscuits and French Press coffee, Tawn, Bob and I set off to Samut Songkhram province, some 90 km southwest of Krungthep, for a visit to Ajarn Yai.

You may recall that Ajarn Yai (literally, “Big Teacher”) is the retired director of the small elementary school where I volunteered as an English teacher back in 2006-2007. Because she was so welcoming both to me and my family and friends when they visited, I have stayed in touch with her. Every month or so she calls, eager to tell me that while she was out and about she saw a farang (foreigner) and thought of me. (The truth is, all of us white people really do look alike!)

One thing she really wants is to take a visit to the United States. As a young lady, she was accepted to study at a university in Michigan, but her parents felt it was too far to send a woman to study, so she instead attended school locally. She now has three Master’s Degrees, including one in Special Needs Education, and even in her retirement serves as a mediator for the local courts and also as part of an adult vocational needs training program in this rural province.

She still asks, though, when I’m going to take her to the United States to visit my family.

After a nice seafood lunch at a small, riverside restaurant, we drove to the community of Amphawa, where a popular weekend floating market is located nearby the birthplace of King Rama II. This market is supposed to be a nighttime market, but due to its popularity, by early afternoon the boats were out and tourists (almost exclusively Thai) were strolling along the crowded sides of the canal.

The area of the market has been expanded to the north, opening up more space for the overflowing crowds of tourists. Dozens of weathered buildings have been unshuttered, turned into restaurants, gift shops, homestays and boutiques. While this is good economically for the town, the crowds threaten to make the quality of life less pleasant and relaxed. Signs, both in English and Thai, have been put up warning people to be aware of pickpockets. Amphawa, at least this small section of it, may end up being a victim of its own success.

The heat was intense and muggy, no rainstorms in sight to offer so relief, so instead we ducked into one of these new cafes and enjoyed a shaved ice dessert. You could choose three “add-ins” from things like corn, Job’s tears, kidney beans, hearts of palm fruit, etc. These were topped with a mound of shave ice, a drizzle of flavored sugar syrup and, if you like, sweetened condensed milk.

Cool and sweet and tasty and refreshing…

After a bit more visiting we dropped Ajarn Yai off at her home and headed back up the highway to the Big Mango, glad to be in the air conditioning.

What Are My “Must Eats”?

Posted on 26 August 2009 by christao408

Sorry to report, but I’m suffering from a bit of post-vacation depression. Okay, maybe “depression” is a bit too strong a word, but in the nine days I’ve been back, I have had more than my fair share of “Oh, this isn’t any fun… I wish I were still back in New York on holiday” thoughts.

Deciding to not be gripped by this emotions, I tried to take the detached, Buddhist approach and examine it. What was at the root of these feelings? The answer, I realized, was food.

Above, Sukhumvit Soi 38, the nighttime “Food Street” near my house.

Upon examination, I concluded that one of the things I like most about any place is the food. I could write a lot more about this (and possibly will in a future entry) but I think that food is really the tent pole of a culture to which I tether my experience and perceptions.

As I think about places I’ve lived and places I’ve loved (to visit), specific food memories come to mind. These usually revolve around not just certain dishes, but even specific restaurants or vendors where I had especially good versions of those dishes. The sauteed mushrooms with garlic at Cha Cha Cha in San Francisco. The gyoza at Rising Dragon in Ueno district, Tokyo. The bistecca alla fiorentina at Ristorane del Fegioli in Florence. The bánh xèo at that little outdoor restaurant in Saigon, the name of which I now forget and would have to look up. The truffled egg toast at ‘ino in New York.

See? Specific food memories. Things that, if I’m back in that town, I feel that I absolutely must eat them again. But when it comes to life here in Krungthep, I’m at a loss to name any specific “must eats”. Please understand, I really enjoy Thai food and, as Tawn put it, when I’m away, I miss eating Thai food when I am away from Thailand. But other than the sticky rice and mango place at the corner of Thong Lor and Sukhumvit (the best in town, I assure you), northing immediately pops into my mind.

This strikes me as a problem, a problem which may actually go a long way towards explaining why, when I have guests in town, I struggle to figure out the best places to bring them to eat. There isn’t anything that jumps to the top of my mind, shouting “Must eat!”

This also strikes me as an opportunity, a task to which I must devote at least some of my attention in the days and weeks to come. I need to brainstorm and if necessary, explore some more, in order to start building my list. I may already know of some places and all that is required is some gentle nudging to my memory. But I may need to start looking and tasting to see if I can build that list of “must eat” places here in the Big Mango.

What about you? What foods and places are on your “must eat” list?

Back in the Kitchen

Posted on 24 August 2009 by christao408

Oh, the pressure of returning from holiday! Not only do I have to get back into the habit of cooking again (instead of just eating wonderful food prepared by others) but I also have to get back into the habit of finding interesting things to write about again, instead of just encountering a parade of them on a daily basis.

It was nice to be back in my own kitchen, though. Admiring the efficiently compact kitchen at ‘ino in Greenwich Village, I returned home with visions of how I could add some stainless steel shelving, fit in a panini grill, and up my production capacity. Tawn probably wouldn’t appreciate my “function over form” remodel, though!

Joanne Choi is a friend of a high school friend’s younger sister. She keeps a wonderful food blog called “Week of Menus” over at Blogger. The subtitle of her blog is “Good cooking for moms who have too much on their plate” and, as you can imagine, the emphasis is on healthy, whole foods combined with simple preparation. There is also a bit of a Korean overtone to many recipes, since that’s her heritage.

A recent recipe that caught my attention was Turkey and Green Beans in Lettuce or Over Rice. Now, as is often my wont, I begin to tinker with recipes before I’ve even cooked them. Ground turkey is an impossibility here in Thailand, but ground pork is readily available and tastier. And since she offered the option of serving the dish either in lettuce cups (ala P.F. Chang) or over rice, I decided to combine the dish with a whole grain rice and serve them together in the lettuce cups.

The results were fantastic. The combination of ground pork, green beans, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and hoisin sauce (with some chopped cilantro on top) is just super-tasty in a massively “umami” sort of way. Combine it with whole grain rice, which is nutty and satisfying, and it really was a whole meal in a leaf.

I’ll have to try these again soon. Another option is to use water chestnuts instead of (or in addition to) the green beans. I couldn’t find them at the market, but I’m sure if I ask Tawn what they are called in Thai, I’d be able to run them down.

One of my purchases in the US was the book “Kneadlessly Simple“, Nancy Baggett’s book of recipes for no-knead breads. I like baking my own bread and find that these kneadless options produce much tastier, “artisanal” style breads. So far I’ve made one loaf that was quite nice, although I botched the shaping and it came out lumpy. I’ll do another loaf today and see how it turns out.

Realizations about Relationships

Posted on 22 August 2009 by christao408

Saturday night and we’re stuck at home with an empty refrigerator. Since returning on Monday, I’ve cooked a few times, buying only the ingredients I needed for those meals and leaving us minimally stocked. Another rainy season downpour has been falling for the past ninety minutes and based on the slowness with which the thunder and lightning are passing by, I reckon we’ll be stuck here for a while longer.

This has given me the opportunity to complete all my wedding thank-you cards, which now only need to be stamped and mailed. In doing so, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on how lucky Tawn and I are to have so many friends and family members who really support us as a couple and, beyond simply “accepting” us as a couple, really celebrate our relationship. It is nice to have all that support.

Whenever I attend a wedding, I’m always mindful of the fact that the witnesses, the friends and family who attend the service, have a very important role to play. I recall at one wedding that the officiant spoke to the congregation about our role. That message really resonated with me; I think we do have a responsibility to support and encourage the relationships that our friends and family members are in. Relationships are tender things that need nurturing.

Today we met four visiting Singaporean friends, two couples, for lunch at the Hyatt Erawan Tea Room. These are both long-term couples, still we were surprised when one of them remarked how they considered us an inspiration to them. Despite having been together for so long, they haven’t the family support (nor the political support there) to get married, let alone have a formal commitment ceremony.

Tawn mentioned on the way home that many friends we saw on this recent trip, as well as friends who contacted us online after our wedding, remarked that we’re the first gay couple they know who has married. It is kind of odd, as we don’t consider ourselves pioneers by any stretch of the imagination.

Thinking of our friends who are gay and lesbian, we know many couples, some who are married and many who have been together for ages. Perhaps because that’s what I see a lot of, I’ve forgotten what a rarity that is?

While settling down as a couple isn’t the only way to be happy – you don’t need to be with someone to be complete, as I mentioned to one friend over dinner last Friday – it is certainly nice to have a companion as you travel along the road of life.

Leaving you with this, a composite picture that Tawn took while at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

What’s the message he’s sending me? Ha ha… hope you all have a good weekend.

Le Bernardin

Posted on 19 August 2009 by christao408

Of all the thoughtful wedding gifts we received from our friends and family as part of the “New York City Honeymoon” package, the gift certificate and reservations to Le Bernardin was the one about which I was most excited. As a certified foodie, the opportunity to dine at a three-star Michelin restaurant was one not to be missed. Now that I know what those three stars mean, I can define what food heaven must be like.

We modified our reservations – originally, dinner, “Billy Elliot” and the hotel were all scheduled for Thursday night – and chose 9:30 Wednesday for this gastronomic adventure. We also invited my cousin Brad, so there would be a representative of the family to witness this event.

A little bit of background: Le Bernardin is a seafood restaurant started in Paris in 1972 by siblings Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze. They moved it to New York City in 1986.

After Gilbert died in 1995, Eric Ripert succeeded him as head chef. Ripert, a 44-year old Frenchman pictured to the right, learned to cook in his grandmother’s kitchen and, unlike many celebrity chefs, still regularly works in his own kitchens.

In fact, you may recall an early episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” in which he and Ripert, a chef he has long admired, work a full shift in the Bourdain’s former kitchen at Les Halles, to see who has the stamina to still work in an everyday kitchen. Ripert breezes through the evening while Bourdain is breathless and achey by the end.

Le Bernardin is located on 51st Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, just on the north side of Times Square. The dining room has a clean, contemporary design that looks a bit like a fusion of a French dining room and a Japanese sushi bar. Jackets are required for gentlemen diners, something I rarely experience.

The menu has three options: Two tasting menus, which are $135 or $185 per person (seven or eight courses, respectively, $220/325 with wine pairing), and a four-course menu which is $109 per person. With three of us dining, we went for the four-course option, which would allow us to sample up to twelve dishes.

The four-course menu verges on the overwhelming. It has three all-seafood sections: “Almost Raw”, “Barely Touched”, and “Lightly Cooked”, which correspond to the degree of preparation. Basically, you choose one course from each section, plus a dessert. There were also four non-seafood items that could be substituted as requested.

Some examples of dishes we didn’t choose in each area:

Almost Raw

Oyster – Progressive tasting of Kumamoto oyster “en gelee”; from light and refreshing to complex and spicy.
Salmon – Yuzu cured Wild Alaskan Salmon; endive and shaved red beet; coriander infused verjus.
Scallop – Carpaccio of scallop; ginger; shiso-infused shitake broth.

Barely Touched

Sea Urchin – Sea Urchin risotto; toasted nori; urchin-citrus emulsion.
Soft Shell – Peppered Soft Shell Crab; avocado-coconut cream; sunflower sprout salad; lime sauce vierge.
Mackerel – Seared Spanish Mackerel; parmesan crisp and sun-dried tomato; black olive oil.

Lightly Cooked

Skate – Skate “au bambou”; cellophane noodle and wood ear mushroom; spiced bamboo broth.
Monkfish – Pan roasted Monkfish; Israeli couscous tabbouleh; black garlic and Persian lemon sauce.
Codfish – Sauteed Codfish; stuffed sweet peppers; octopus-red wine sauce and Basquaise emulsion.

As you can see, Ripert’s combinations are pretty fuss-free. Usually, the main dish will have two or three complementary flavors, leaving the main ingredient’s flavors free to be explored.

Service during ordering could best be described as “unintrusive”, to the extent that I wish the person taking the orders had been a little more assertive in helping us navigate the menu. I realize that for people who can afford to eat at these sorts of restaurants on a regular basis, such help may be unnecessary, but I found myself struggling with a third course that would follow nicely after the previous two. When he came back and asked if we had any questions, I responded with a desperate, “Yes!”

Let’s take a look at what we ordered. Lighting was subdued so even with my gorilla tripod, pictures came out a little dark.

Amuse-bouche: a small portion of tuna tartare served with a citrus vinaigrette and micro greens. Refreshing flavor really cleansed the palatte for the meal to come.

My first course was marinated Hamachi done Vietnamese style with a Nuoc Mam vinaigrette. Truthfully, it tasted more Thai style. The vinaigrette had a lot of lime juice in it, effectively “cooking” the meat with the acid. This was very nicely prepared, although if the vinaigrette had been slightly less acidic, it would have been more pleasant.

Tawn had the Black Bass tartare served with a mint and ice plant salad and chilled lemon nage (poaching broth). This was a very nice dish, perfectly balanced flavors.

Brad enjoyed a starter of layers of thinly pounded Yellowfin Tuna, foie gras and toasted baguette with shaved chives and extra virgin olive oil. This was another lovely dish that really showed off the flavors of the fish nicely.

For the second course, both Tawn and I had seared Langoustine (a type of slim lobster) with mache and wild mushroom salad, shaved foie fras and a white balsamic vinaigrette. This was a pretty hearty dish and was very nicely done. The langoustine was perfectly cooked – not overdone or tough at all – and the salad’s eathiness went nicely with the rich flavor of the meat.

Brad’s second course was a curried Crab and zucchini panna cotta (being married to an Italian, Brad loves panna cotta), with vadouvan spiced broth. (Want to know what vadouvan is? Click here.) This was really tasty, too. The crab flavor stood up nicely to the more assertive notes of the curry seasoning.

For the main course, I had a crispy Black Bass with braised celery and parsnip custard, served with an Iberico ham and green peppercorn sauce. I had asked for a recommendation of a third course, not sure what would go nicely after the langoustine. I had debated between this dish and a poached Halibut, and the order-taker steered me towards this. It was also very nice, although the sauce cooled quickly in the air conditioned room and began to gel, creating an unpleasant texture.

Tawn had the barely cooked Wild King Salmon with sweet pea and wasabi puree, spring vegetables and a citrus-yuzu emulsion. I love my salmon a bit rare so I found this a really lovely dish. Tawn, however, prefers his meat drier so for him, it was way undercooked.

Brad, not a huge seafood fan, departed to the “Upon Request” section for his main, enjoying a buffalo mozarella tortellini with wild mushroom consomme, nettle and a parmesan emulsion. This was really good. The consomme was really salty but very flavorful.

With our meal, we enjoyed a $50 bottle of Long Island rose recommended by Aldo Sohm, chef sommelier of Le Bernardin. In fact, he’s been named the best sommelier in America and won several awards. This is the first time I’ve been to a restaurant where the wine was tasted (using a little silver cup attached by chain to the sommelier’s waist) before being poured. Sadly, I didn’t make note of the winery from which the bottle came, but I’ve enjoyed many Long Island wines during other meals in New York City. One of these days I’ll have to travel out to Long Island again, this time for the purpose of wine tasting.

For dessert, Tawn had the chocolate-chicory, a chocolate cremeux, pain de genes, orange “meringue” and chicory ice cream.

Brad continued the panna cotta theme, having a grapefruit panna cotta with vanilla cream, grapefruit sorbet, tarragon coulis and a crisp merringue.

I had the vanilla poached apricot, with apricot cream and coulis wrapped in white chocolate, with noyau ice cream. (Noyau being a French liqueur made from brandy and apricot kernels.)

Additionally, having been informed when the original reservation was made that this was a special occassion, the kitchen sent out a complimentary “happy anniversry” cheesecake. Yes, our fifth day anniversary, I suppose.

After it all, some petits-fours were served. These were actually better than the desserts themselves, if you want my opinion. Four little bites, each different, each wonderfully done. The desserts seemed a little fussy, compared with the meal itself.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing meal experience. The fish dishes were really well-prepared and very enjoyable. The service throughout the evening was of the highest calibre. We went through more silverware, and more differently designed silverware, than I ever knew existed. Did you know that there are a half-dozen different types of fish forks, depending on the type of fish being served?

If I may make an observation, though: my experience at Le Bernardin reinforces my opinion that “fine dining” is in the eye of the beholder. You don’t necessarily need to spend a ton of money in order to eat very well-prepared food. Thinking back to the dinner I had at Orris in Los Angeles, I’d say I enjoyed that dining experience every bit as much as I enjoyed this dinner at Le Bernardin, when it comes strictly to the food itself. Sure, the service and atmosphere at Le Bernardin were ten times more sophisticated than at Orris, but when it comes down to the most fundamental thing – the food – both were very good.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Le Bernardin – it was a fantastic dining experience and a spectacular way to celebrate our marriage. But for those of you who may feel like you’ll never be able to afford to eat well, I would stress that eating expensively isn’t a prerequisite for eating well. Many of my readers are foodies, too, and I’m sure they’ll agree.

So that’s a wrap on the New York entries. We returned Monday morning to Krungthep and are settling back into work and our regular routine.

Strolling the High Line

Posted on 18 August 2009 by christao408

Friday afternoon, after Tawn and Biing had shopped and Brad and I had taken the Staten Island Ferry, we met up at the rooftop bar at Hotel Metro on 35th Street. This hidden gem has the most amazing view of the Empire State Building:

I can only imagine how much better the view must have been after the sun set. On a future trip, we’ll have to return and take it in. Sally and Malcolm also joined us. Below, Tawn, Sally and Biing.

We were fortunate to have seen the three of them multiple times throughout the trip, and especially fortunate that Biing was available to make suggestions, show us around and take Tawn shopping. You know those people who always know the perfect place to go? He’s one of them.

Unfortunately, we had time for only one drink before we had to head to Astor Place. Despite this being our last night in New York, there was still time for a few more Xanga meet-ups. The venue was Grand Sichuan restaurant on St. Mark’s Place. The food was very tasty. Best of all was the opportunity to see Aaron again and to finally meet Tae and Oates in person.

Aaron predates Xanga as a friend, going back to an early visit I made to New York City with a friend and former colleague from my days in Hong Kong. There was a large group of us having brunch at Danal, all of whom were Cantonese speakers except myself. While I don’t expect a whole group to speak English just to accommodate me, Aaron was the one person who made the effort to be inclusive. Since then, our paths have crossed again and again and he’s even gone to teach with me in Bangkhonthiinai.

Tae and Oates are two other Xangans, both Thai, with whom I’m been interacting almost since the start of my blogging days four years ago. It was fun to be able to meet them and I hope they’ll come back to visit Krungthep again soon. Sadly, none of the three update their blogs with much frequency anymore.

From left to right: Brad, Tae, Oates, Aaron, Tawn and Chris.

Saturday morning, our final day in the Big Apple, Tawn wanted to sleep in so I went down to the Village for one more serving of truffled egg toast at ‘ino and a latte. Oh, you can just imagine how much trouble I got into with Tawn for doing that. “What!? I wanted to go there, too!” he said when I returned to the hotel room with truffle oil on my breath.

While there, I snapped this picture of their extremely small but functional kitchen. It is about the same size as my kitchen at home and, I tell you, I need to do some seriously remodeling to fit in nearly as much equipment and shelf space.

Once Tawn was up, we headed to the Chelsea Market on Ninth Avenue at 15th Street. Housed in the former Nabisco factory where the Oreo cookie was invented, it is now an urban food concourse, similar to Pike’s Public Market in Seattle, Victoria Market in Melbourne or the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Most of the vendors produce cooked goods, although there is a fresh fish monger, too.

Best of all, there was a location of Amy’s Bread, one of my favorite bakeries in New York. Their entire production complex had large windows so you could follow the process from proofing, above, to shaping and baking, below. That reminds me, I would like to get a few of those bannetons, the baskets used for proofing the loaves, shown in the photo above.

I suppose it is unnecessary to tell you how long I could have stood here, watching them make bread?

Our reason for being over on the west side of Manhattan was two-fold: we were supposed to meet my high school friend Scott and his partner, who were driving in from Philadelphia, and Tawn was also supposed to meet his second cousin, who lives in New York and was recently married. We headed our separate ways for this, since planning and scheduling hadn’t worked out so well.

Brad and I joined Scott and his partner Michael for a visit to High Line Park. Several other people have photographed and written about this extensively (Rob has entries here and here that are worth checking out), so I’ll simply explain that the High Line is an old viaduct that allowed trains to deliver and pick up from the meatpacking and manufacturing districts without interrupting the flow of vehicular traffic.

Having long since been out of use, the line was going to be torn down but was instead saved and renovated as an elevated urban park. The space is fantastic, giving unique views of the city and featuring much of the same flora that had naturally overtaken the old tracks.

One point of the park has this seating area that looks down onto the street, sort of an opportunity to view everyday life on the street as theatre. This would seem boring, I suppose, but while we were there, a scantilly-dressed lady in sandals came running around the corner and down the street, crying out after her small dog, which was on a tear, his leash dragging behind him. Despite the sandals, this amply-endowed woman was making good time along the avenue, although her dog was faster, dodging onlookers who helpfully tried to catch him.

The park also features benches and lounges from which you can enjoy the beautiful weather. These were interestingly mounted on the rails and could be rolled together or apart.

Most of the buildings in the area are converted warehouses, although some newer structures (I believe this is a hotel) are making their appearance. A third segment of the park is still under construction on the north end, which will run from 20th to 34th streets, doubling the length of the park.

In my previous entry I talked about some of the changes being made in the city that make it more pedestrian friendly and more human in its scale. The High Line is definitely one of these improvements and well worth checking out.

We returned to the Marriott Marquis to check out then went for a bite a few blocks away before Scott and Michael, who were heading past Newark on their way back to Philadelphia, dropped us off at the airport. Above, Chris, Scott, Michael and Tawn over a quick dinner.

I hadn’t seen Scott in twenty-one years since graduating, although we had been good friends in junior and senior high school. It was fun to meet up again and I’m glad we’re back in touch.

Tomorrow, the long-awaited entry on dinner at Le Bernardin.

A More People-Friendly New York

Posted on 16 August 2009 by christao408

I’m sitting at Taipei International Airport, “borrowing” Singapore Airlines’ wireless service (I’m sitting just outside their Silver Kris lounge – don’t tell them, please) after a relatively painless 16-hour flight from Newark, including a one-hour refueling and crew change in Anchorage, Alaska. Time for another update on New York.

As part of his summer work schedule, my cousin had Friday off from his job at MTV, freeing him up to accompany us around the city. After lunch at ‘ino in the Village, we stopped by Magnolia Bakery, a place made famous (as I understand it) in Sex and the City, ostensibly for their delicious cupcakes. I tried them and have to say that the cake was very dry and the icing too sweet. But then, there are few cakes that I really find all that moist. Below, a line of Sex and the City groupies, queuing for their cupcakes.

Biing joined us at Magnolia and then he and Tawn went for some more shopping. I’ll tell you one of the secrets to great trips together: when you have divergent interests, sometimes it is better to spend a bit of time apart on the trip, following those interests with people who are like-minded.

As such, Brad and I headed to the southern tip of Manhattan for a ride to Staten Island. This free ferry service, which departs half-hourly from the South Ferry subway station, is a good way to catch a view of the skyline and Statue of Liberty, without enduring the expense and crowds of a harbor tour.

It takes about twenty minutes on the trip and as soon as you reach Staten Island, nearly everyone rushes off the lower exit and back up the stairs to board the same ferry for the return trip, such is the minimal appeal of this borough. There’s probably enough sites to merit a little exploring, but we followed the crowd and made an immediate return, too.

The South Ferry subway station has been completely redone, as has the ferry terminal. It is beautiful, clean, and very tourist-friendly. In fact, having visited New York regularly over the past twenty years, I have to say that there are a lot of recent changes that are making the city more and more people-friendly, both for residents and visitors.

One of these changes is the recent reworking of several blocks of Broadway in Times Square, closing it to traffic and making it into a pedestrian-only area.

In this photo taken from our room at the Marriott Marquis (where we stayed our final night), you can see three blocks of Broadway, painted red, which is now off limit to vehicles. Additionally, changes have been made to Seventh Avenue, creating more room pedestrians and giving over designated lanes to vehicle making left turns.

While I understand there has been some initial grumbling by those who have to drive in the city, the changes certainly make the space much more pleasant and safer for pedestrians. No longer do you have to take a risky walk in the gutter to avoid the awed crowds; now you have much more pedestrian-friendly space in which to navigate.

Above, a view of a piece of sculpture installed on the closed portion of Broadway in Times Square, a collection of damaged beach chairs.

Interesting thing: after alighting from the Staten Island Ferry, I saw this dragonfly perched on a piece of rebar. I’m a bit amazed my camera could actually focus on it!

Our flight boards in ten minutes, so I’ll add more later.

New York Bites

Posted on 15 August 2009 by christao408

May I tell you about my ideal New York vacation? If I could have any type of vacation in New York, it would be a strictly food vacation. I’ve loved seeing my friends and meeting Xangans, but the absolute best New York vacation would be going from place to fantastic place, trying all the great food that is available in this city.

The highlight of the trip was our dinner at Le Bernardin, which I’ll write about in the next few days. That wasn’t our only good eat, though. Here are some other places we went:

John’s Pizza – three locations in the city, this one in Greenwich Village – has been widely hailed as the best pizza in NY. This is a matter of opinion, of course, as everyone has their favorite place for pizza pie. John’s coal-fired ovens are something of a dying breed and lightly char the thin crust. We ate here with Malcolm, Sally and Biing and really enjoyed it.

The better of the two pies was this bianco – no sauce, just mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and ricotta. The crust is a little thicker than the Italian style pies I’m familiar with, but still thing with just a little chewiness. Excellent pizza.

We actually spent a lot of time down in the Village and the surrounding neighborhoods. This little street was very cute. It reminds me of the “New York Street” on the Universal Studios backlot. Something about it doesn’t quite look real.

After the pizza, Biing took Tawn shopping. Knowing he would enjoy it better without me, I headed off with Malcolm and we hung out at a coffee shop, browsed for books at Strand Bookstore (“18 Miles of Books!”), and stopped by Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, Mario Batali’s foray into family dining to try his olive oil ice cream.

Yeah, it may sound a little strange, but there is an olive oil ice cream as well as a salty caramel ice cream on the dessert menu.

I know what you’re going to ask: What did it taste like?

As much as I don’t want to answer, Like olive oil, that’s the best answer I can give. It wasn’t super sweet, but the predominate flavor was of very good quality olive oil.

It was very interesting to try and I enjoyed it, but I don’t know if I’d be running out to eat more of it anytime soon.

The salty caramel was notable because, unlike “salted” caramel, which implies a little bit of salt flavor added to the caramel, this ice cream truly was “salty” caramel, something overly salty. It went beyond complementing the caramel flavor and ended up overwhelming it.

Above, olive oil and salty caramel ice creams, along with a scoop of Santa Rosa plum sorbetto. The plum was really the winner of the three, tasting just like a big bit of ripe plum. Reminds me of the creative seasonal ice creams I enjoyed in July 2008 at Ici in Berkeley. More about that here.

Thursday evening we headed to Grand Central Station (below) for a pre-show dinner at Grand Central Oyster Bar, with my college classmate Steven. The Oyster Bar dates from 1913 and is an institution that still earns its reputation. The seafood here is really fresh – they run out of many things later in the day because they only stock one day’s worth of inventory.

I haven’t seen Steven in the 15 years since I graduated university. Not only were we classmates, we actually worked together (along with Andrew) on our senior research thesis and were also disc jockeys at our school’s radio station, KSCU. He’s been in New York for many years and married just this past year. It was really nice to catch up with him and see him again.

Preparing to get a little messy, Tawn dons a bib.

The Grand Central Oyster Bar is, not surprisingly, known for their fresh oysters. There were more than a dozen types on the menu Thursday evening and we ordered two samples plates, each with two types of oysters from each coast. From the West Coast we had Carlsbad Blonde (Baja, Mexico) and Chef Creek (Washington). East Coast options (smooth edges versus rocky ones on the left coast) were the Tatamagouche (Nova Scotia) and Wellfleet (Massachusetts).

The flavors were very distinct: sweet versus briny, fruity versus metallic. All were wonderful. Sadly, I became confused about what was what and so couldn’t provide any more specific tasting notes.

Tawn and Steven had the bouillabaisse, one of their classics, with a rich tomato broth filled with lots of fresh seafood. The quality of the seafood was excellent.

I was looking for some crab crakes, but they only have those on Wednesday. For some reason, I took the waiter’s suggestion of deep fried softshell crab, which are in season.

The two crabs were very tasty and not oily at all. But the side of waffle fries was just too heavy. Something lighter – maybe a vegetable? – would have gone with the crabs much better.

We weren’t able to linger and visit over dinner as we had tickets – also part of our wedding gift from friends and family – to see Billy Elliot at the Imperial Theatre. The show was nice, with superb dancing by the young boy playing Billy (David Alvarez, one of three boys who rotate the role). The language was quite salty, especially given the number of young people in the audience.

Above, two days after the show, Tawn is still inspired.

The music (Elton John) and books and lyrics (Lee Hall) weren’t catchy. Fifteen minutes after the show, I couldn’t hum a single tune. The dramatic flow was also a bit stilted; had I not seen the movie, I wouldn’t have been able to clearly follow everything that was happening. Still, we had excellent seats and from and entertainment value perspective, we had a great time.

Friday for brunch we followed the recommendation of one of Tawn’s friends and headed back to the same corner of the Village where we’d enjoyed John’s Pizza. This time we ate at ‘ino, an Italian wine bar that serves excellent bruschetta and panini.

This restaurant, at 21 Bedford Street, is a tiny hole in the wall. We saddled up to the bar and had an excellent culinary experience. Our server was a friendly lady named Annie and another guy – maybe he was the owner – came over and spoke with us very knowledgably about Italian wines. Since Brad lived in the Milano area, he had some specific questions about varietals from that area. The man helping us really knew his stuff.

Four types of bruschetta from back left: Sweet corn and ricotta; sweet onion; artichokes and peccorino cheese; white beans, tomato and basil.

Four types of panini from back left: Pork loin with spicy mayo and fontina cheese; summer squash; prosciutto, bel paese and sweet onion; and bresaola (beef prosciutto), asparagus and pecorino peppato.

The real highlight – and I want you to understand how amazing this was – was the truffled egg toast. A thick slice of bread, hollowed out in the center, filled with fontina cheese, two eggs, and black truffle olive oil, then baked. The eggs are still soft, fresh black pepper is cracked on top, and lightly sauteed asparagus are the perfect foil to the truffle flavor. This is heavenly!

Tawn and I in the bar mirror.

We concluded the meal with an affogato – gelato with two shots of espresso poured over it. Yummy.

The truffled egg toast was so good I came back for another on Sunday morning when Tawn wanted to sleep in an extra hour. He wasn’t happy to hear I had gone without him.

I’m sitting at Newark Liberty International Airport as I write this. We’re on our way back to Bangkok. I’ve been in the US for 24 days, my longest trip back since I moved. It has been a lot of fun and I still have more to share about the trip, so I’ll be back on in a few days!

Upper East Side

Posted on 14 August 2009 by christao408

Wednesday (after breakfast, of course) was mostly about the east side of Manhattan. We were up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art twice, met another Xangan for lunch and strolled across Central Park. All of this before going to dinner at Le Bernardin!

I’ve been here countless times both for work as well as pleasure. My most recent visit to New York was in October 2005. It was the last point I was in the US before moving to Thailand. New York is also important to me because I had accepted a job here at the end of 1999 and almost moved here. Had I not decided the job was flawed for several reasons and quit before moving here, I never would have gone to Thailand between jobs and met Tawn. So you can see why NYC holds a lot of meaning for me.

On our way to the museum the first time, walking from the 86th Street subway station, I spotted a Tim Hortons donut and coffee shop. This Canadian chain, which I like, is making inroads into the northern US, it seems. Good for them! I doubt they’ll supplant Dunkin Donuts as the morning snack of choice for New Yorkers, but you never know.

Our first visit to the museum was mostly spent in the exhibit on ancient art from the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul.

It contained many beautiful pieces that reflect how much of a crossroads that country was, with so many different styles and techniques, adapted from many different cultures.

We also headed to the American wing, a newly renovated space that has a superb collection of silver. Tawn was taking pictures of lots of tea sets and I’m sure he was disappointed that the gift shop wasn’t selling any reproductions of them.

The museum also has this interesting space that looks like an Etruscan courtyard. The museum does a great job of intermixing spaces and the use of natural light in many galleries to keep visitors from feeling like they’re going from one darkened room to the next.

We could easily spend days on end browsing through the museum’s broad collection. We had an eye on some other exhibits and resolved to come back later in the afternoon. But first, we had an appointment in Bryant Park with another Xangan.

Yes, this has quite unintentionally become the trip of meeting Xangans. In this case, it came about because Wai Sze, a fellow blogger with whom I’ve been corresponding about an upcoming trip she and her husband will take to Thailand, noticed that we’d be staying nearby her office.

Bryant Park is a great space with lots of trees and shade, free tables and chairs and games spread throughout the place. It reminds me a lot of Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, a public place that invites people to linger and enjoy the space.

We had a quick lunch at Witchcraft, a sandwich and salad kiosk located in the park, and a short visit before Wai Sze had to head back to work. My cousin, who had also joined us, headed back to work, too.

After Tawn took a few more pictures around the park, we headed back to the Metropolitan Museum, where we met up with our friend Biing. A long-time New Yorker, Biing really knows his way around and has given us lots of tips of places to eat, things to see, etc.

Here, he and Tawn are on the museum’s rooftop garden and Biing is pointing out famous sights: Yoko Ono’s home, Madonna’s home, etc.

After a few more hours at the museum, we walked across Central Park to the west side. It was threatening to rain the whole way, but luckily we never had more than a few drops at any time.

Posing in front of one of the most-photographed spots in New York City: Bethesda Fountain. We also stopped by Strawberry Fields and saw the John Lennon memorial before finally catching the subway back to Brooklyn. This would seem like a long day in and of itself, but we still had dinner to catch!

Stay tuned…

christao408

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

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