Is it H1N1? Update

Posted on 8 December 2009 by christao408

I like to consider myself a man of science. When I came down with flu-like symptoms (temperature of 102.5 F / 39.2 C, muscle aches, occasional cough) I of course realized that I must have been exposed to a flu virus, although it is unlikely I’ll get tested to know specifically which one it is.

But there’s just a little bit of me that rejects the rational science expectation. Here’s why: Sunday afternoon I went for a traditional Thai massage, something I haven’t done in at least nine months. Like shiatsu, Thai massage is about manipulating pressure points and working deeply into your muscle tissue. It can be painful.

Before going into the two-hour massage I felt fine but afterwards my muscles ached as if I had been beaten up. More than once I had to ask the masseuse to lighten the pressure a bit. Sunday evening my face and neck were flushed and warm although a check of temperature didn’t show any notable elevation. I drank plenty of liquids and got some extra rest.

Monday, though, it wasn’t getting any better. I got up and worked for a while and then went back in to take a nap. Checking my temperature, it was up to 38.1 C (37.0 is normal body temperature) and as the evening went on it spiked at 39.2 C. Ibuprofen didn’t seem to be making any difference. Fortunately, I’ve not had any nausea and my appetite has remained healthy. This evening my temperature seems to have dropped a bit (haven’t check it yet but I feel cooler) and I had a light dinner of whole grain rice and some “gaeng jut” – so called “bland” soup which is broth with some ground meat and soft tofu in it.

I’ll get a full night’s sleep tonight and see how I feel in the morning. If the temperature drops then I won’t go to the hospital.

Again, I know there’s a rational and scientific explanation for my illness. But I can’t help wondering if the masseuse didn’t manipulate my energy points in such a way that it brought on the symptoms or opened the door to the virus by messing with my immunity.

Maybe an unfair assumption but I’ll probably be hesitant to get another full-bore Thai massage for a while. Maybe just stick with the foot and shoulder massage, which is less painful.

Tuesday Evening: Despite taking ibuprofen for the fever, my temperature has gone up and down always staying at least a bit about normal. Right now at 9:10 pm it is 39.0 C (about 102 F). Chest congestion has built over the last twenty-four hours with a very deep, rumbling cough beneath my breast bone. I’ll head to the hospital in the morning and have this checked out.

Thai Style Pumpkin Soup and Cranberry-Beet Relish

Posted on 5 December 2009 by christao408

To catch you up on some of the recent culinary delights that have come out of my kitchen (well, culinary attempts, at least…) here is an update on two different dishes.

The first was a Thai-style pumpkin soup made after Tawn requested that we have some soup for dinner one evening. I didn’t follow a particular recipe with this one but just pulled it together by taste.

Base ingredients: pumpkin, butternut squash, onions, carrots, celery, chicken stock.
Aromatic ingredients: lemongrass, galangal root (similar to ginger but less harsh), bay leaves, curry powder, cayenne pepper.
Finishing ingredients: fish sauce, coconut cream, palm or brown sugar.
Optional ingredients for garnishing: bacon, cilantro, sour cream or parmesan cheese.

Here’s a picture of the finished product, which tasted wonderful.

Coupled with a video that shows the whole “making of”.

The second dish is a cranberry-beet relish that I made for our potluck Thanksgiving over at Vic’s house. I stumbled across several recipes for this and so improvised a bit.

Sautee a chopped onion and then add the cranberries, stirring for a few minutes but not cooking so much that they begin to pop.

Add shredded raw beets – this would actually be gorgeous with golden beets – and cook a while longer until the mixture softens.

For flavoring add the zest and juice of two oranges.

Sweeten to taste with maple syrup. The natural sugars in the beets offset much of the tartness from the cranberries, so I find that you don’t need much maple syrup. If needed, add a little bit of salt to the mixture.

Let cook until at a nice consistency. Since I like to still have some whole berries left, I reserve about a cup of berries and add them later in the cooking process so they don’t pop before the relish is done. This turned out as a very nice alternative to regularly cranberry relish and several diners commented that while they don’t normally enjoy cranberry relish, they particularly liked this recipe.

Zense

Posted on 5 December 2009 by christao408

We were recently paid a visit from Singapore by David and Chor Phan. To celebrate the cool season we dined at the 18th floor rooftop restaurant/nightspot called Zense, located at Central World Plaza on top of the Zen department store.

There are several different restaurants that provide food for Zense so you can order from a combined menu and then your server coordinates the orders from each of the restaurants. Service was good and the food, while a little pricey (which one would expect from a rooftop restaurant), was pretty good for the money. A fun place to enjoy the cool weather and take in the lights of the city.

Here’s a selection of some of the dishes we had:

Assorted appetizers: spicy shrimps, crab cakes, baked oysters and smoked salmon.

Bacon-wrapped sweet potato French fries! Yummy…

Tawn’s obento box unagi, grilled and glazed eel. He said it was very tasty.

Australian sirloin marinated in a Thai-style lemongrass and citrus marinade, grilled medium rare and served with spicy chili and fish sauce dipping sauce. A contemporary take on a classic northeastern Thai dish.

Sticky rice (three colors) with mango.

Mixed berries tart.

Could All My Troubles Be Caused by My Coffee Grinder?

Posted on 2 December 2009 by christao408

The past week or so, things have just been off. My mood has run foul, Tawn and I have had a hard time coming to agreement on some decisions we would like to make, and things have generally just been funky.

Casting about for answers, I looked at the tides, the phases of the moon, and changes in the weather systems with an eye to determining what it was that was causing these unusual bumps in the road. Then it hit me: the problem is with my coffee grinder.

You see, about a year ago we caved in and purchased an espresso machine. A bit of a luxury item, yes, but one that really helped set the mood for the start of our day. The machine, a Starbucks branded one, has performed well all year but a bit more than a week ago it seized up in what the instruction book called a “vapor lock.” When opening the valve for the steam wand, water would instead come out the brew head. We could get all the espresso we wanted but none of the steamed milk.

After trying all of the troubleshooting remedies called for in the instruction booklet, I caved in and brought the machine back to the store where they are handling repairs. Good service on their part so no complaints there. But in the absence of our espresso machine I’ve been brewing our morning joe in a French Press.

French Presses are the glass containers with a plunger you press down after several minutes of steeping to separate the grounds from the brewed coffee. They have the reputation of producing wonderful coffee. Some aficionados say that French Press is the ideal way to appreciate coffee.

But each morning we wound up with mouthfuls of grit in our coffee, small black flecks floating to the surface of the scalded milk foam.

When I examined the grounds they appeared quite sizable. so I was confused as to why the coffee was turning out so poorly. What I determined was that our coffee grinder, a Krupps model that is reportedly one of the higher quality grinders, grinds very unevenly. In addition to some large chunks – half-bean size! – there are other parts that are pulverized to a fine powder. The result was coffee that is still watery but also contains lots of sediment, a brew that does nothing other than put me in a foul mood.

Finally realizing what might be the source of all my troubles, I headed to the coffee shop, bought a half-kilo of coffee and had them grind it in their professional grinder. Sure enough, the coffee was a uniform coarseness and when I put it in the French Press this morning, the resulting coffee was richly flavored and without any significant sediment.

I was happy. Tawn left for work with a smile on his face. I think things are looking up!

Dreams of Dancing

Posted on 1 December 2009 by christao408

There was a lad of twenty months,
He’d barely learned to walk.
He loved to watch the dancers
As they tango’d and fox-trot’d.

He felt the music in his heart.
His body knew the tune.
He couldn’t wait until the day
That he’d dance round the room.

And he’d go dancing,
He’d go dancing.

So many dreams start out so young,
So few will follow through.
They’ll fall aside and leave our eye
Before we’re fully grew.

But no matter what grand dreams we have,
They’re ours to go explore.
If we follow them we’ll be full grin
As we whirl around the floor.

And we’ll go dancing,
We’ll go dancing.

Inspired by our friend’s twenty-month old son J.J. who was mesmerized by the dancers at his mother’s birthday party. Set to the song “Marilyn Monroe” from the musical “Blood Brothers” by Willy Russell, which we saw performed this weekend by Bangkok Community Theatre. Here’s a picture of J.J. with his mother and Uncle Tawn.

Lost? Just Don’t Blow Your Nose

Posted on 30 November 2009 by christao408

I’m a closet shopper. Everyone thinks Tawn is the shopper in this family but sometimes I find something that I think is really cool and I’ll buy it. So it was while we were in Taipei and stopped by a branch of Muji, the Japanese “no brand, high quality” store that is kind of like the Gap meets IKEA but better.

What caught my eye? These exciting Muji cotton handkerchiefs here that are printed with maps of London, New York, Tokyo and Kyoto. Each city has both a present-day map as well as a map of the old city, usually from the mid-1800s.

Almost all my handkerchiefs come from Muji, ever since I first discovered the store in Hong Kong years ago. Their handkerchiefs are of good quality, durable, reasonable priced, and come in a variety of colors and patterns that, while conservative, give me a little room to express myself.

Of course, the fact that I carry a handkerchief at all probably puts me into a category all my own. There seem to be few men anymore who carry handkerchiefs. Truly, though, how can a gentleman not carry one with him? You never know when there will be a spill to clean up, a person in tears, a wound that needs staunching. Plus, these map handkerchiefs would make for cool tray liners during a party. I’m not sure they’ll go into my handkerchief drawer but may instead end up in the linen closet.

More on Muji. Muji describes itself as follows:

“Muji is not a brand. Muji does not make products of individuality or fashion nor does Muji reflect the popularity of its name in its prices. Muji creates products with a view toward global consumption in the future. That means that we do not create products that lure customers into believing that ‘this is the best’ or ‘I must have this.’ We would like our customers to feel the rational sense of satisfaction that comes not with ‘this is the best,’ but with ‘this is enough.’ ‘Best’ becomes ‘enough.'”

In the Wikipedia entry about Muji, the consumer goods retail chain is distinguished by its design minimalism, emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, and no-logo or “no-brand” policy. Really, it captures a lot of what I think of as the hallmarks of the Japanese design aesthetic.

Signs of Health

Posted on 27 November 2009 by christao408

While in Taipei, I observed this sign:

Looking at it for a few moments, I realized that comparing this sign to the common one used in the US to convey the same meaning says a lot about the eating habits of the two countries’ populations.

US “No food or drink” sign

What’s the difference? Look at the symbol used to represent “food” – in Taiwan it is an apple, in the US it is a hamburger.

When it comes to relative rates of obesity, that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

Kiki’s Dinner Service

Posted on 27 November 2009 by christao408

Funny how two and a half days in a city can take a week two blog about. We’re nearing the end, though. More telling, perhaps, is that Andy is just catching up to the first day of our trip. Of course he has many more pictures than I do plus had been in Taipei for a week before we arrived.

The final day in Taipei followed the bleak and misty pattern that had been the tone of the weekend. We took the subway to the north end of town, out past the suburbs, really, to the Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf and the nearby market area. From the terminal station of the subway (Danshui) we strolled along several streets that had many of the same foods and items for sale that we had seen at the night market.

The mist was just enough to get you wet if you weren’t using an umbrella but not enough to keep us from enjoying browsing the shops. We had just eaten bao at Din Tai Fung so there wasn’t a lot of room left for snacking. That didn’t keep me from looking at all the interesting things to eat.

Two types of noodles! And the vendor’s arm as she stirs them.

Stuffed tofu skins. Not sure what it is stuffed with but I’m sure someone will tell me in the comments. Pretty sure that isn’t mozzarella cheese on top, though.

I did buy some grilled mochi (pounded rice). The proprietor’s daughter was running the stand and took my order, grilled the mochi, figured out which bottle had the sauce I ordered (she sniffed them), took my money and made change. Very cute.

We then got on a ferry to the Fisherman’s Wharf. Looking at the map, we probably could have taken a bus or walked there just as easily. The Fisherman’s Wharf is “D” on the map and the shopping street is “A”. As the boat approached the mouth of the river and made the turn around the breakwater to the entrance to the wharf, we were rocked with some pretty strong waves. Strong enough to crash across the bow and onto the lower windows, which is where we were sitting.

The big attraction at the wharf is Lovers Bridge, shown in both the above pictures. By this point the wind was really blowing and the mist was growing heavier. As Sugi and I posed for a picture, her umbrella was caught by the wind and snapped like a twig. I’m sure Andy will have a picture of that for you soon.

Tawn smartly stayed in a coffee shop, taking a nap, while the rest of us wandered about, sacrificing umbrellas to the winds.

That evening, after some gift shopping (pineapple cake!) at Sogo, we met Andy’s parents for dinner at Kiki Restaurant, a Szuchuan restaurant that’s been around for nearly twenty years. If you ask me, Szuchuan may be the tastiest of all the Chinese cuisines.

Tawn, Andy, Andy’s parents, Sugi and me in front of the restaurant. I think Andy has his mom’s nose and eyes and his father’s forehead and chin. Let’s discuss…

The restaurant had wonderful lighting for taking pictures. If you are designing a restaurant, please spare a thought to food bloggers and install halogen lamps over the tables.

Braised tofu. Had my mother made tofu this way when I was growing up, I would have learned to love it much earlier.

An elaborate version of drunken chicken.

Bitter melon with salted duck egg.

Morning glory stir fried with garlic and fermented tofu.

Boiled pork with thick, sweet soy sauce.

Dan dan noodles – served with ground pork and bok choy.

Tripe and duck’s blood stew in a spicy chili sauce. We got into a discussion of what tripe is. I had always thought it was intestine but, as I’ve since learned thanks to Wikipedia, it is stomach. There you go.

So called “water wok” beef – a stew with bean sprouts and bamboo shoots. The type of chili in here isn’t spicy so much as it numbs the tongue for several minutes. Seriously, the front half of my tongue was numb after two servings.

Last but not least, yes we did try stinky tofu. Here it is fried up in a dish with dried chilies and spring onions. Actually, pretty tasty.

The meal was excellent and a bit thank you to Andy’s father for treating us. It was an excellent end to the trip as we headed to the airport shortly thereafter. But not before some dessert!

Stopping at a local dessert chain we encountered some Engrish. “Garss jelly” and “Retrospective tea” were two of my favorites. It would seem that “old-fashioned” might be a better translation. Note that in addition to English we have Japanese. Ah-ha! More proof that there are lots of Japanese tourists here.

Last but not least, here’s a photo Andy took while I was filming my tasting of salted plum stuffed cherry tomatoes dipped in candy coating at the night market. Superb shot.

Din Tai Fung Dumplings

Posted on 25 November 2009 by christao408

Perhaps the best of all the great food we ate in Taipei were the dumplings and bao at Din Tai Fung. Before we headed there, we received many recommendations to try the xiao long bao, Shanghainese steamed buns, from this famous fifty-year old chain. Since I love Shanghainese buns, I was excited to try.

If you’d like, here’s a short video (less than two minutes):

What you might notice first at the branch of Din Tai Fung located in the basement of Sogo department store are the large plate glass windows that let you and everyone else look in on the kitchen. This has to be the ultimate sign of confidence for a restaurant for poor sanitation or hygiene, sloppy techniques and poor quality would become quickly apparent with such visibility. Certainly, this served as a visual promise of what was to come.

We took Andy’s parents’ recommendation seriously and ordered basically every type of dumpling they offered. The order taker looked a bit skeptical that the four of us were going to eat so much food. But who could possibly resist?

The lovely food we tried. Each dish is named in the video above. The key item is the lower left-hand dish – this is the famous xiao long bao, the Shanghainese style pork “soup” buns. They are called this because when forming them the cook places a small cube of gelatinized soup stock into the wrapper with the seasoned pork. When the buns are steamed the stock liquifies. The goal is to pick up and eat the buns without tearing the skin and, thus, spilling the soup.

Sugi didn’t know this the first time she tried to eat them, eliciting cries of anguish from her fellow diners as they watched the soup spill onto her plate.

Funnily enough, the restaurant provides a laminated sheet with directions in both Japanese and English (lots of Japanese tourists here) about how to properly enjoy your bao.

I’m pleased to announce that next time I fly through Taipei I will be scheduling my flights so I have a layover long enough to allow a trip into town to eat at Din Tai Fung. Oh, but the good news! There are some three dozen locations of the restaurant including several in Japan, Singapore, throughout east Asia and a branch in Los Angeles and Sydney. Even if I don’t get to Taipei I should be able to enjoy these dumplings much more often. When does the branch open here in Thailand?

Shilin Night Market – Taipei

Posted on 25 November 2009 by christao408

The food adventures continued on Saturday night when, after a day wandering around the malls adjacent to Taipei 101, we rode the subway to the north end of Taipei to visit the Shilin Night Market. This is the largest night market in Taipei.

Foods we enjoyed at the official food section of the market (as opposed to the endless rows of street vendors scattered throughout the rest of the market) included these dishes:

What did we eat? I’m afraid I didn’t take careful notes, especially while we were inside the food portion of the market. But from the upper left, clockwise, we have fried noodles with a ground pork mixture, a fried “pancake” that seems to be mostly made from corn starch with pickled cucumbers on top, an omelet with shrimp and greens with a thick sweet sauce, and steamed rice with another ground pork mixture.

The food in the indoor portion of the market was, honestly, a bit bland and a lot oily. Corn starch and oil were two of the main ingredients. The food was certainly interesting but the blandness, combined with the overwhelming smell of stinky tofu (a fermented tofu the smell of which some compare to death boiled over) from adjacent stalls, drove us back outside where we continued our hunt for food from the street vendors. Full story in the video.

Focusing my energies on video, I ended up not shooting pictures of the wide variety of interesting food available at the food court in Taipei 101’s shopping mall. See Andy’s entry to enjoy those pictures.

christao408

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

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