The 40th Party

Posted on 17 November 2010 by christao408

Just a quick photo entry. Not too many words. Tawn and I joined a small group of friends at Soul Food Mahanakorn for dinner to celebrate my birthday. The food (Thai) was very good as usual and other than the oddity of being served sparkling wine in regular wine glasses (which the owner caught and corrected), everything was very enjoyable. It rained heavily during dinner, the first rain in a few weeks. Afterwards, the evening air was cool and relaxing.

From the left: Doug, Tae, Tawn, Tod, Matt, Suchai, Ken, and me. We are missing Doug’s girlfriend Bee, who arrived late from work.

Suchai and Ken goof around for the camera.

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The T-Team: Tae, Tawn, and Tod.

Slicing my own birthday cake. How come I’m doing all the work?

Chocolate raspberry torte. Made it myself and will write more about it tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Demolition of the Siam Theatre

Posted on 14 November 2010 by christao408

Pent-up anger fueled the flames of arson when forty days of anti-government protests ended on May 19 with the surrender by protest leaders to the police. The crowds that had blocked one of Bangkok’s main intersections for more than a month dispersed but before they did, violent elements in the crowd set fire to several buildings around the city in what appeared to be a deliberate and preplanned attack.

In addition to more than 80 people killed and 2100 injured during the protests, one of the victims of the arson attack was the the 44-year old Siam Theatre, which was one of only two remaining single-screen first run cinemas in Thailand’s capital.

Photo courtesy Southeast Asia Movie Theatre Project

Opened in 1966 in Siam Square, one of the first shopping areas in what is now the nexus of Bangkok’s lively Ratchaprasong shopping district, the Siam Theatre along with its sister complex, the Scala, were a reminder of a bygone era. Tickets were still paper and you chose your seats from a photocopied seating chart, which the ticket cashier then dutifully crossed out with a pen. The ushers, uncles that seemed to have been working at the theatres since the very opening, dressed in black slacks, white shirts, and yellow jackets.

In the aftermath of the fire, the bulldozers have moved in and started to demolish the burned out shell and surrounding shops. The property owner, adjacent Chulalongkorn University, has long held a master plan to redevelop this area into a more modern shopping complex as they did just down the block a year ago. Their good fortune, then, that this damage paved the way for the master plan to be implemented.

One wonders why we need another mall in a neighborhood (and an entire city) that is teeming with them. Siam Square and the Siam Theatre were unique elements of the city and were especially important to teenage and university life. As I understand it from my friends who grew up in Bangkok, hanging out in Siam Square was a rite of passage in that period of life where you transition from childhood to adulthood. Another few blocks of those memories have been razed.

Thankfully, the Scala Theatre and the nearby Lido three-plex, both operated and owned by the same family that owned the Siam Theatre, continue to operate.

2010 Scream for Charity

Posted on 5 November 2010 by christao408

Since 2003, a Bangkok-based company and member of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) called English Solutions has sponsored an annual Halloween party for underprivileged children at the Mercy Center in Khlong Toei. This was the first year I heard about it and my friend Ken and I went to volunteer.

Held the day before Halloween, the “Scream for Charity” gives hundreds of underprivileged children an opportunity to experience a fun day and a chance to get a taste of this very American of holidays. Halloween isn’t celebrated in Thailand although in the past few years it has taken on a little life of its own, especially at nightclubs. Thais love ghosts and all things spooky so Halloween is finding fertile soil in which to spread its roots.

Hundreds of children wait for the final event of the day – trick or treating.

The Khlong Toei area of Bangkok is the city’s largest slum. While I had previously been in some of the edges of the area, I had never before been into the heart of it and I was shocked. While the neighborhood is full of life, it is also teeming with poverty. One of the largest organizations helping the community is Mercy Center, a shelter for street kids, four orphanages, a hospice, a home for mothers and children with HIV/AIDS, a 400-pupil kindergarten, a community meeting place, and a serene haven in the slums with small gardens and playgrounds.

The Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus on a shelf that usually holds a Buddha statue.

Father Joe Maier, a Catholic priest who has served in Thailand since 1967, founded Mercy Center along with Sister Mary Chantavaradom. Father Joe has become something of an institution in Bangkok, speaking truth to power and shining the spotlight on the plight of the city’s poor even when the elite class would rather they be out of sight and out of mind. His columns regularly appear in the Bangkok Post, an English language daily, telling the stories of the young people who have come through Mercy Center. Sometimes their stories end in triumph. All too often, though, they end in sorrow.

The Scream for Charity was a lot of fun. We had more than 100 volunteers, both expats and Thais, and probably 400 children. Ken and I were assigned to the trick or treat bag decorating station. Working with eight or so children at a time, we helped them decorate their bags with pictures of jack-o-lanterns, bats, and ghosts.

Everyone, even if they weren’t showing it, was eager to get their face painted.

I didn’t have a chance to get a lot of pictures, both because we were busy working and also because the organizers asked that we hold off from taking pictures because it could become a bit of a circus. Interacting with the children was fun. Some were painfully shy, others were fairly outgoing. Some still had that childhood innocence, others had been affected by their circumstances and were already jaded. But for a few hours at least, they had fun, played games, visited the haunted house, ate food, and went home with bags of rice, candy, school supplies, and other things that are much in need.

Khlong Toei is in the port area and containers are stacked high behind many buildings.

Afterwards, Ken and I walked the couple of miles out of Khlong Toei and back up to the convention center area to catch the subway. Along the way, we remarked that it has been almost two years since our volunteer English teaching in Samut Songkhram province came to an end. It seems that it has been too long since there has been any regular volunteering in my life. Living in Thailand gives me a great appreciation for how blessed I am and how much I have that so many others don’t. I try to always be appreciative of those blessings and not take them for granted.

I’ll leave you with this trio of pictures from 2009’s Scream for Charity, courtesy of Fredrik Divall. These capture the sense of the event very nicely.

Unexplained Landscaping

Posted on 3 November 2010 by christao408

Sukhumvit Soi 53 (“soi” is Thai for an alley or small street) is one of the nicer sois in Bangkok. There are generally walkable footpaths on both sides of the soi and several trees provide shade. So it was a surprise when, in a flurry of unexplained activity, green Bangkok Metropolitan Authority trucks descended upon our soi, removed footpath pavers, and planted hedge rows and new trees the entire length of the soi.

Not that I mind the extra attention and new landscaping, although it is rare to see government landscaping that is actually set into the soil – potted plants seem to be the norm. But this landscaping project doesn’t seem to be happening anywhere else, just on our already better-than-average soi. That seems suspicious.

Tawn and I spoke to the workers in front of our condo, who didn’t know much other than they were following directions from their superiors. This shot captures both the full range of landscaping being added – tall hedge rows in the back, trees in the middle, and short hedge rows in the front – as well as the asinine lack of planning resulting in some areas in an entirely blocked footpath.

“What could be going on?” I wondered to myself.

In some stretches of the soi, such as this barren patch, the new landscaping was a welcome addition. You can see where pavers have been removed near the curb in order to add hedge rows. The irony is that a few weeks later, these trees and the hedge rows in front of this house have been inexplicably removed.

In other areas, trees and hedge rows were being planted right in front of properties that already have very lush foliage. This seems a bit wasteful to me. The tall trees you see in the distance of this photo, the ones on the left-hand side, are pine trees. Some of them have been cut down as part of this process.

While we were viewing the planting, a neighbor came up and shared some gossip with us. The landscaping has been done because a very important person is moving into the soi. So important that, because of Thailand strict lese majeste laws, I can’t tell you who.

It has been three weeks since the landscaping and I haven’t seen any signs of the pomp, circumstance, and police that one would associate with that sort of VIP. But it seems likely that this one-off landscaping which isn’t happening anywhere else in our neighborhood, must be the result of someone important.

We’ll see if the rumors come true. Perhaps more importantly, we’ll see if the landscaping lasts.

Would you believe five years alreday?

Posted on 31 October 2010 by christao408

After more than a year of planning, my move to Bangkok occurred the morning of Sunday, October 30, 2005. I departed from New York, spending my final two nights in America there. As with most of my trips, visiting friends and eating food were the main pastimes. Saturday evening was a 5-course tasting menu at Blue Hill just off Washington Square. The fantastic menu and wine pairings were a perfect goodbye gift from the land of my birth.

Thankfully, Daylight Saving Time ended at 2:00 Sunday morning, giving me an extra hour’s sleep before having to head out to the airport. The friend with whom I was staying flagged a taxi while I pulled off a minor logistics miracle and got my three large/heavy suitcases, one heavy trolley bag, and fully-stuffed backpack down three flights of stairs and through the front entry doors.

A few hours later, I was situated in seat 44D aboard a THAI Airways A340-500 as we rolled down the runway for a more than seventeen hour flight to the capital of Thailand. Since the flight crossed the International Date Line, it arrived on October 31 at 4:20 pm. Exactly five years and fifteen minutes ago. My, how time flies when you’re having fun!

If you’re curious to read all the details of that flight, which has since been discontinued, check out my trip report here on airliners.net. An interesting bit of trivia, that picture above is of the actual flight I was on that day. Through sheer coincidence, a member of airliners.net was taking pictures at JFK airport that morning and shot my flight. After reading my trip report, he emailed the pictures to me.

Food in BKK: Soul Food Mahanakorn

Posted on 10 October 2010 by christao408

Krungthep (Bangkok) is both an excellent food city and a disappointing one. Excellent because Thai food is some of the finest fare on the planet – complex, multi-layered food made with very fresh ingredients – and disappointing because unlike some other cities in the world that are good food cities, Krungthep seems to be missing the sweet spot, that convergence of high quality, moderate price, and comfortable atmosphere. I’ve found any number of places that hit two of the three, but in the capital of the Thai kingdom, the culinary triple crown is elusive.

The endless number of street vendors and air condition-less shop houses provide authentic, inexpensive food but without the atmosphere that encourages you and your friends to linger. In fact, they would rather you don’t linger so they can seat more guests. The fancy restaurants, often in hotels, have great atmosphere and generally good food, but will bankrupt you. And then there is this whole breed of restaurants that have opened in the last half-decade that are the result of hi-so Gen X’ers who have too much money and too little food knowledge. Their restaurants are popular as a see-and-be-seen place but the food always looks better than it is.

Which was why I have been so pleasantly surprised by a month-old arrival on the local dining scene: Soul Food Mahanakorn.

Food writer Jarrett Wrisley (blog) whose work can be found in The Art of Eating magazine as well as the Atlantic Monthly’s food blog, is the proprietor and chef of Soul Food Mahanakorn – “Mahanakorn” is Thai for “metropolitan” – which is located a block away from my home on Soi Thong Lo. Earlier this year, I started reading the Atlantic Monthly’s food blog, impressed by the general quality of writing. Jarrett’s articles about Thailand and Thai food caught my eye because unlike so many food and travel writers who are mired in cliches, he seemed to have a true appreciation for and understanding of the many facets of Thai cuisine.

It didn’t take long following Jarrett’s posts to learn that he was in the process of opening a restaurant. Details came in bits and pieces but the menu’s tag line – “Good ingredients. Honest cooking. Serious drinks.” – sums up what he was writing about in his blog. It caught my interest: could I really find a restaurant in Krungthep that would be serious in its pursuit of good food without falling into the traps of either pretending or pretentiousness? And would that be delivered in an atmosphere that was convivial and at a price that wouldn’t place it in the only for special occasions category?

Tawn and I were unsure exactly which day SFM (as I’ve abbreviated the restaurant in my mobile phone) opened, but took at chance and stopped by a month ago on what turned out to be their first night of business. I think we have the distinction of being the second table seated. We took to the place from the start. The interior of the three-story shophouse, which was initially a little hard to identify as you walked along the street but now has a lighted sign outside, has a welcoming atmosphere with a good-sized bar on the ground floor with perhaps eight tables between the bar and the front of the restaurant. More seating is on the second floor with the kitchen on the top floor. One imagines the staff must have well-developed leg muscles.

The interior is welcoming, modern without being decorated in any specific motif. The wood paneling on one wall suggests perhaps a speakeasy in the Deep South but not in a Cracker Barrel sort of way. The chairs are retro 50s, custom made and comfortable for lingering over a drink.

If you were to explain SFM in reductionist terms, it is either a Thai izakaya or a Thai tapas bar, depending on whether you want a Japanese or Spanish point of reference. What that means is that it is a drinking establishment that serves small plates of food. You can certainly eat well without drinking, although you would be missing out on some clever custom drinks that feature indigenous ingredients and generous amounts of liquor. There is also a smart wine list that offers some real bargains.

But decor and good drinks, as important as they are, are not what is missing so often in Krungthep’s air conditioned restaurant scene. Does SFM deliver in the food department?

We’ve made four visits in the month since they’ve opened and the menu continues to expand. Quality has been high since day one and the execution continues to improve as the kitchen team becomes more familiar with the menu and dishes and presentation are refined. The menu is largely what could be described as Thai soul food – favorites from each of the four major regions of the country along with a few dishes that creep in from elsewhere in the region. For example, the gaeng hung lay pictured above, a Burmese style stewed pork with ginger that is really tasty and inspired my recent experiments with braised pork with star anise.

SFM is not fusion food – the food here stays pretty true to its roots. Jarrett takes some dishes and allows a little culinary license that honors the original but takes things to a new level. For example, one of my favorite dishes on the menu is yam makeua yao, eggplant salad dressed with a mixture of palm sugar, lime, fish sauce, and chili. The twist here is that he replaced the traditional minced pork with a little bit of bacon and added a touch of balsamic vinegar. I’m hard pressed to believe that any Thai mother wouldn’t agree that the dish is improved with these changes and would rush out to buy some balsamic vinegar for her cupboard. Another minor change is that the eggs, normally hard boiled, are served soft boiled. Reportedly, there was some push-back from his cooks but they have now accepted this change, which I think is delicious.

It seems that nearly every culture has fried chicken as a comfort food, even before the Colonel’s global proliferation. SFM’s menu is anchored by a gai tod done up in the style of the Southern Thai city of Hat Yai – that means seasoned with a salty, spicy edge that you can’t get enough of. The dish is served with an interesting twist: pickled watermelon, a condiment that really reminds me of food from the Southern United States where pickled watermelon rinds are commonplace.

Another dish from the South (of Thailand, that is) is khao mok gai – a baked rice with chicken the roots of which trace back through Malaysia to India. You would recognize this as biryani and it was even served with a cooling yogurt and mint sauce. This dish has become one of our favorites and it is a good example where the attention to quality ingredients really pays off.

SMF offers many specials based on whatever is available at the fresh market. This adds variety to the menu and ensures there is something new to try on each visit. A recent special was larb pbed – a duck salad that is traditionally Issan, or Northeastern Thai. Larb is commonplace on Thai restaurant menus the world round and it features minced or sliced meat (often pork but chicken and duck are common, too) tossed with shallots, cilantro, mint, and uncooked rice grains that have been toasted and then ground. The dressing is made of fish sauce, lime, chili.

What sets the SMF version apart is that it is made with smoked duck, which is a bit of an unusual and tasty twist to this classic dish. If you are worried about authenticity, though, there is no need to be. The Thais with whom I’ve dined have enthusiastically praised the food and the dishes are both instantly recognizable and recognizably spicy. Settings on the the Scoville scale have not been turned down one notch.

Another example of a “what’s fresh at the market” special is this sea bass baked in banana leaf with aromatic Thai herbs. This is how fish is commonly served in Thailand (although usually whole with head, fins, and tail attached) and the lemongrass, lime, and Thai dill infuse the tender, moist fillet with a very appealing flavor. The fish is served with a traditional spicy seafood sauce made of blended green chili, cilantro, and lime.

Another example of how “soul food” crosses borders is SFM’s tamarind glazed pork spareribs. These ribs will be familiar to any devotee of American barbecue but the sauce, which borrows heavily from the Thai sweet and sour flavors of tamarind and palm sugar, is something else entirely. It is served with a pineapple relish.

The attention to detail in the kitchen and commitment to quality ingredients and well-made food are appealing. The atmosphere is friendly and comfortable, not too loud but not austere and minimalist. But what really makes Soul Food Mahanakorn work is that it hits that sweet spot I mentioned at the start of the entry. It not only delivers on its promises about food and atmosphere, but does so at a reasonable price. Dishes run from about 100 baht on the low end to just over 200 for specials like the sea bass. Drinks are about 150-200 but all are doubles. Over our four visits, we’ve been able to enjoy a filling, delicious meal including drinks for an average of about 600 baht a person, US$20. That puts it solidly in the once a week category.

I almost hate to share the details of this place because while I want the restaurant to be very successful, I don’t want them to be so successful I can’t get a table! But here they are:

Soul Food Mahanakorn – 56/10 Sukhumvit Soi 55 (Soi Thong Lo) – About 100 meters up from Sukhumvit Road on the right hand side. BTS Thong Lo station. Telephone: +66 (0)85 904 2691
Hours are listed as daily on the website, but I believe they are closed on Mondays right now. 5:00 p.m. until late.

Recovery and Donuts

Posted on 28 September 2010 by christao408

September 28, 2010 will go down in the history of Krungthep (Bangkok) as the day when the scars from May’s political violence truly began to heal for the Big Mango’s shoppers. It will also go down as a red-letter day in the spreading influence of American fast food and the subsequent spreading of Thai waistlines.

To the first point, Central World Plaza, the largest of the buildings that were badly damaged in the fires set by angry protesters after their leaders surrendered to police on May 19, reopened today.

While about 70% of the mall reopened today, the 70% that suffered no damage in the attacks, the remaining portion depicted above is expected to be rebuilt and open next August. The portion opening today includes the Isetan department store, the 15-screen SFX World Cinema, and the grocery store.

Can a mall’s reopening indicate political healing? Of course not. That was just a banal attempt to hook your attention as a reader. Under the surface, the issues and power struggles remain, yet to be resolved. But for those of us who live here, whose lives were disrupted by the political events of April and May, the opening of Central World Plaza is another sign of life getting back to normal.

In other news – and possibly an attempt to draw away some attention from Central World’s reopening – the first Krispy Kreme doughnut franchise in Thailand opened today at the Siam Paragon mall, just down the street from Central World. Doughnuts have been popular in Thailand for at least a few years, as evidenced by countless Dunkin’ Donut and Mister Donut outlets. Last year, a Malaysian chain called Daddy Donut entered the market and they even have a mobile donut truck that sets up in different locations to sell donuts to hapless passersby.

Nonetheless, there is no lack of hoopla surrounding the opening of this first Thai Krispy Kreme. If you want my opinion, I think the fad won’t last. The Hong Kong locations of Krispy Kreme only lasted a few years before they closed and I don’t think the Bangkok crowd, which is quite fickle with its fads, will turn Krispy Kreme into an overwhelming success.

The big question is this: What’s the big deal? Thai culture has so many fantastic desserts and snacks and they are inexpensive, readily at hand, and perhaps slightly healthier than a doughnut. As I notice the Thai high school and university students in their uniforms, bigger, taller, and heftier than their counterparts were even a half-decade ago, starting to approach the bodily proportions of their peers in the American Midwest, I can’t help but wish the influence of Western style fast food chains would wane.

So here’s to progress, as it were. A reopened mall and a new fast food shop. Bangkok, you’ve come a long way.

Scooting Along in Spandex

Posted on 22 September 2010 by christao408

Few of us have bodyfat percentages in the low single digits, ripped abs, and toned glutes that look even better in spandex than they do naked. So believe me when I say this entry isn’t intended to poke fun at someone who is a bit flabby in the nether regions. It is about something that is wrong, something I saw as I was walking down the street Sunday morning. Wrong in terms of “that’s not how a foreigner should be dressing in Bangkok.”

As I was walking from the Skytrain station towards Sukhumvit Soi 2, a farang (westerner) woman went zipping by me on a microscooter – you know, one of those skateboard-like vehicles with a tall handle. My first thought was, oh, what an interesting way to get around. When I noticed what she was wearing I quickly reached for my camera. It’s a bit hard to see the scooter as she’s blocking it, but I think this picture tells the story pretty fully:

What’s wrong here? As evidenced by the glances the woman is getting from the Thai women, what’s she’s wearing isn’t really… street-appropriate, shall we say. Unless you are a street walker, which I assume she’s not. Much too sheer and revealing for running out and about on a Sunday morning in Bangkok. Even if she was on the way to the gym (she stopped at the Starbucks around the corner, if you must know), some cover-up is called for. This isn’t the type of culture that goes for bare shoulders and revealing, tight-fitting outfits.

Enough said.

After the Rains

Posted on 15 September 2010 by christao408

It is rainy season here in Thailand and true to norm, September is proving to be the wettest month. Almost every evening we have heavy rains here in Bangkok and we’re even having several days with on and off showers. The air is cooler than normal, which is nice, but the humidity hasn’t been below 65% in two months. Still, I prefer rainy season to the hot season.

Here’s an audio clip I recorded last night about midnight after the rain had stopped. Various creatures are croaking and chirping in the background as the occassional drop falls from one palm frond to the next.

More Dining on Sukhumvit Soi 38

Posted on 11 September 2010 by christao408

More than a year ago I wrote about Sukhumvit Soi 38, a small alley near the Thong Lo BTS Skytrain station that is lined with food shops that are open only at night, at which time they spill out into the street. Soi 38 offers a lot of variety, freshness, and affordability, even if “fancy” isn’t on the menu. The other evening we went there for dinner and I thought I’d share a glimpse of the tasty dishes we enjoyed.

Guaytiaw kua gai – Stir fried wide rice noodles with scrambled egg and chicken.

Guaytiaw kua gung – Same as above but with shrimp.

Yam woon sen talay – Vermicili salad with seafood, dressed with a mixture of lime juice, fish sauce, and chili.

Bami giaw moo krob – Egg noodles with wontons and crispy pork

Noodles in Thailand always come with condiments – the final seasoning is up to the diner. The four most common condiments, usually served is a container with four glass or ceramic jars, are soy sauce (in this case, served in a Coke bottle!), sugar, crushed red chili flakes, and fresh chilies in vinegar. Also notice that the egg noodles, which I ordered “dry” (they could also come in a broth) are served with the broth on the side.

christao408

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

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