Brunch at the Starling Cafe

Posted on 26 July 2009 by christao408

Saturday morning my cousins Alex and Bill took me out to the Starling Cafe, voted one of the best brunch places in Long Beach. It is a cute place, reminding me of the now-defunct Miss Millie’s on 24th Street in San Francisco.

Thankfully, by the time we arrived the breakfast crowds had thinned and we had no wait for a table. The menu had all the usual suspects including a French Toast that they claimed was absolutely unlike any French Toast you had ever eaten before: stuffed with marscapone cheese, the baguette was dipped in creme anglaise and then broiled instead of the usual frying.

The French Toast, above, was absolutely every bit as good as they claimed with a nice light crunch on the outside and a moist but not soggy interior. With plenty of fresh berries and some whipped cream, it was a nice treat.

There were several scrambles, too. This one was a smoked salmon scramble that was very tasty. Alex had a pulled pork scramble that had some of the tenderest barbeque pork shoulder I’ve had.

A trio of cousins, Chris, Alex and Bill. Would you believe she’s already six months along? Barely showing!

Afterwards, we made a few stops in and around Long Beach, cruising down Second Street and seeing the sights.

Looking towards the harbor with an oil tanker off in the distance.

A beautiful dog in a stylish kerchief waits for her owner at a sidewalk cafe.

A pair of cats wait for adoption outside a pet store. They were sitting in the shade and were huddled together as if they were chilly.

Saturday afternoon I drove to Culver City to visit my high school friend Lalima and her husband Aaron and son Devin. Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures but had a fun time visiting with them and eating a fresh peach pie they had bought especially for me to enjoy. Oh, summer fruits!

Saturday evening I met Gary, W and Eric for dinner. It was so fantastic that I’m going to wait and give it its own entry… stay tuned.

Middleaged Muscleman Mexican Mason

Posted on 26 July 2009 by christao408

Los Angeles is nothing if not diverse. Driving back from Long Beach this morning we traveled alongside a convertible Corvette blasting a song in Spanish, a beefy middleaged man with a sunburned scalp showing through his thinning black hair sitting behind the wheel, singing along. His vanity license plate read MSL MSTR and the frame explained: “Muscle Masters, Inc.” Above the plate, the logo of the fraternal order of the Freemasons. Where else but LA would you see this?

After dropping my boss at John Wayne Airport at 4:00 Friday, I met fellow Xangan Kenny at Starbucks and then we continued to Fashion Island in Newport Beach for an early dinner.

Since he doesn’t include an actual picture of himself on his site, I’ll respect that and show only the caricature he uses. Suffice it to say that he closely resembles this cartoon.

We went to Cafe R+D (as in “research and development”) which is part of Hillstone Restaurant Group, the same chain that owns Houston’s restaurant. The concept here is that Cafe R+D creates and tries dishes that will appear at other restaurants in the chain. Based on their menu, I couldn’t identify anything that seemed like a trial dish. Grilled fish, sandwiches, chops… nothing researched or developed.

Nonetheless, the food was tasty and, nicely, the portions weren’t obscenely large.

Appetizer of heirloom tomatoes and roasted golden beets served in a light vinaigrette. A tasty, summery combination, I found the tomatoes a little mushy. When the waiter enquired about the food, I told him this, resulting in a bit of an over-reaction. He apologized profusely and said he would let the kitchen know.

A few minutes later the chef came out. “I understand you were disappointed with the appetizer.” he said. He apologized again and said he had taken the item off the bill. I responded that I wasn’t disappointed but was only providing some feedback about the ingredients. In fact, I said, it was neither expected or necessary to not charge us for the dish. In either case, it was good that the staff takes customer feedback seriously.

My entree was grilled Copper River salmon served on mashed potatoes with a slice of baked tomato. It was tasty enough but was uninspiring.

The dessert: fresh berries with whipped cream. Very simple and very flavorful. The whipped cream was a little too sweet but other than that, a winner.

The best part of the meal was the opportunity to meet Kenny. Lots to talk about and always interesting to learn more about someone you only know virtually. Let’s hope that he and his boyfriend, who do a lot of traveling around the world, will make a stop in Bangkok one of these days soon.

Ten Things You Should Know About Food Bloggers

Posted on 19 July 2009 by christao408

Sometimes you read a blog entry and you think, “Yes, this person hit the nail on the head!” (If you are Matt, you might think, “Drat, I was going to write that and they beat me too it.” But that’s another story.) This morning, a friend of the younger sister of a high school friend whose food blog I read posted a link to another food blog by Not Quite Nigella in which she lists 10 things you should know about food bloggers.

Here’s a sample:

#1 – Be prepared to eat early. Like a reverse Vampire, we love the light as more light means better photos. Eating dinner at 4pm? Sure, no problem, the light will be good then. Similarly, you’ll also find us seated near the window more often than not as the light is better there and we only use flash in extreme circumstances or in closed blogger-friendly company.

For the rest of the list, her entry is here. After reading this, you’ll either understand my dining behavior better or… just maybe… you’ll recognize some signs of your own inner food blogger. Enjoy!

Ancient Coffee

Posted on 16 July 2009 by christao408

I’m a coffee drinker, an addiction that I purposefully nurtured in university. No kidding. There was a cafe across the plaza from the movie theatre I was managing, back in the day when Starbucks were few and far between and espresso was still eyed with a little suspicion by drinkers of a regular cup of joe as a fou-fou drink.

I had never been a coffee drinker but always enjoyed the smell. My earliest coffee memory was when I was about five years old. I was visiting my paternal grandparents back in Kansas City and my grandfather and I got up early one morning to drive the two hours down to Cole Camp, Missouri, to visit my great-grandmothers. As was their morning habit, my grandparents had a percolator going, coffee bubbling up into the glass handle on top of the lid and the aroma filling the house.

My grandfather filled an old red plaid Thermos with the black coffee and we set out down the highway. Somewhere along the way, he asked me to pour him a cup of coffee while he was driving. I made a comment like, “Smells good!” and so he offered to let me taste it. All I can remember is that it was as strong as iron and as hot as sin, so hot that I actually burned my tongue and had no taste of sweet for several days.

Needless to say, I didn’t have coffee again for a long, long time.

Some fifteen years later, a few years after my grandfather’s death from cancer, I started nursing a coffee habit. Recognizing that espresso drinks were becoming more common, I decided to build up a taste for espresso. I started with vanilla mochas with whipped cream, a drink that leaves unmasked only the slightest hint of coffee flavor.

Then, methodically, I worked my way to less adulterated beverages: Eventually the mocha went away, leaving me with vanilla lattes. Then the vanilla went away, replaced with lots of sugar. Then I cut back on the sugar until I could enjoy my latte unsweetened. To this day, nearly twenty years after starting the process, I rarely drink my coffee black and only take my espresso straight if it is really tasty. Otherwise, at least a little sugar has to cut it.

Throughout Southeast Asia, sweet and strong coffees are common. There’s the white coffee of Malaysia, the Vietnamese coffee – slow drip espresso served with sweetened condensed milk, and there’s caffe boran – literally, “ancient coffee” – here in Thailand.

Caffe boran is the coffee sold by street vendors (well, the ones who don’t use Nescafe, which is something of a national habit) and it involves very strong but not terribly good quality coffee which is steeped for an hour in a pantyhose-like sleeve. This sludge is then poured over ice with a large dollop of sweetened condensed milk and then some evaporated milk tops it off for richness.

Needless to say, despite its cheap price (10 to 15 baht, about 30-40 cents), it isn’t the most refined way to get your coffee.

Nonetheless, you can now buy Ivy brand caffe boran in aseptic boxes in your local Thai supermarket! To advertise the launch of Ivy caffe boran, this display was set up at the Asoke BTS Skytrain station, showing an ancient Thai warrior (who seems dressed to do some muay thai boxing) roasting the coffee beans over the fire, while two Thai maidens (notice the fair skin) hold boxes of the coffee.

It is so wonderfully kitschy!

I haven’t bought any Ivy yet. It seems that if I’m going to buy caffe boran, I might as well support one of our neighborhood street vendors.

What’s your coffee story? (I already know Meg’s!)

Food Safety Enhancement Act Won’t Enhance Food Safety

Posted on 14 July 2009 by christao408

The House of Representatives is considering HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, and it will soon come to a floor vote. From its title, it sounds good, right? Don’t believe it. This one-size-fits-all approach will harm small farms and local artisinal food producers, the ones you like to support at your local farmers’ market.

HR 2749 does not effectively address the underlying causes of food safety issues in the United States, namely, the industrial food system. Instead, it will give the FDA sweeping powers that will hurt exactly the type of local producers that are finally gaining support through the local and sustainable food movement.

Some examples of the impacts HR 2749 will have:

GEOGRAPHIC QUARANTINE

HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including “prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.” Under this provision, farmers’ markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination.

WARRANTLESS SEARCHES

HR 2749 would empower FDA to make warrantless searches of the business records of small farmers and local food producers, without any evidence whatsoever that there has been a violation. Even farmers selling direct to consumers would have to provide the federal government with records on where they buy supplies, how they raise their crops, and a list of customers.

TRACING SYSTEM

HR 2749 charges the Secretary of Health and Human Services with establishing a tracing system for food. Each “person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food” would have to “maintain the full pedigree of the origin and previous distribution history of the food,” and “establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons.” The bill does not explain how far the traceback will extend or how it will be done for multi-ingredient foods. With all these ambiguities, it’s far from clear how much it will cost either the farmers or the taxpayers.

REGISTRATION FEE

HR 2749 would impose an annual registration fee of $500 on any “facility” that holds, processes, or manufactures food. Although “farms” are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly. And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times.

CROP REGULATION

HR 2749 would empower FDA to regulate how crops are raised and harvested. It puts the federal government right on the farm, dictating to our farmers.

In the past few years, a lot of awareness has been raised about our food safety and the negative influence of factory farms, CAFOs (Confined Animal Feedlot Operations), and industrial-scale food production.

They are bad for the environment, bad for communities and small farmers, and bad for our health. They are the type of food operations that need better regulation, not small family farms!

Books such as Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and the recent documentaries “Fast Food Nation” and “Food, Inc.” have helped raise awareness.

Action You Can Take:

If you are a U.S. resident and are concerned about food safety issues and local, sustainable and small family food production, please contact your member of the House of Representatives.

This bill has been sent from committee to the floor of the House and will be voted on soon. Please tell your Representative to vote no on HR 2749.

If you are not sure who your Representative is, you can go use the “Find Your Representative” feature in the upper left-hand corner of the House of Representatives website.

Thanks for your support! For all of my non-American readers, I apologize for going into US politics today and hope that you will encourage your government to support small, local and sustainable food production in your country.

Polenta Soufflé and Salad

Posted on 11 July 2009 by christao408

For a long time after moving here to Krungthep, I continued to subscribe to Sunset Magazine, the “magazine of Western living.” Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, its articles and recipes reminded me to a lifestyle that is in my roots. Eventually, the subscription expired, renewal notices didn’t make it to me, and I decided it was time to let go. But the past week, I dug up a recipe from my Sunset files for a “never fall” polenta soufflé and salad.

Attributed to Victor Scargle, then chef at San Francisco’s Grand Café, these soufflés are moist and light, more like a spoon bread than a classic soufflé. With a salad and mushroom dressing, they make a simple but handsome supper.

You start off with a mixture of polenta, milk, salt and butter. Allow to cook over medium-high heat until the mixture boils, then reduce to medium heat and stir regularly.

Meanwhile, separate four eggs. Ultimately, I think I could have done with one fewer yolks, but maybe these eggs are “eggier” than normal. Beat the whites until they form distinct, moist peaks.

The polenta is done when it is thick enough to hold a clean path for a few seconds when drawing a spatula across the bottom of the pan.

Remove it from the heat and add baking powder and egg yolks, mixing well.

Fold in the egg whites, one third at a time, and gently mix. Spoon the mixture into ramekins that have been buttered and lined with grated parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 375 F (180 C) oven for about 30-40 minutes or until well-browned.

Meanwhile, make a mushroom sauce by browning chopped mushrooms and onions.

Deglaze with a little vinegar and beef stock (or substitute chicken stock, if you prefer.)

Reduce until mushrooms are soft and the liquid has formed a glaze.

Serve soufflés alongside a mixed green salad, spooning the mushroom sauce over the salad.

Alternatives: Since I had a few soufflés left over, I reheated them, combining the left over mushroom mixture with some bell peppers, onions and sausage fried in anatto oil. Spooning this new mixture on top of the soufflé was a wonderful addition.

Dining on Sukhumvit Soi 38

Posted on 1 July 2009 by christao408

Our friend Jackson is in town from San Francisco, his first time back since late 2006. The other evening we took him for dinner to Sukhumvit Soi 38, a side street near the Thong Lo BTS station known for its nighttime eateries.

Both sides of this Bangkok soi are lined with food shops that spill onto the streets, offering nearly every type of Thai food you can imagine. The food is very fresh, very cheap and very authentic. Because of the location – lots of expats live nearby – some concessions have been made to non-Thais for everyone’s convenience. For example, it is increasingly common to find laminated menus that have some of the more popular items with both English and Japanese names. If you want some of the more obscure items, though, you have to read and speak Thai.

Regardless of your Thai literacy, no corners are cut when it comes to preparing the food! This is the real deal.

Fatty pork (roasted then fried in oil for an extra-crispy skin) served over rice with a Hoisin-type sauce.

A “red soup” with various pork parts including cubes of boiled blood.

Borrowed from Malaysia and Singapore: chicken and oily rice.

Wide rice noodles stir fried with egg and shrimp – kind of like pad thai but without the tamarind sauce.

Everyone’s favorite – and also a Malaysian import – chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce.

One of the nice features of Soi 38 is that if you are sitting in one vendor’s building, you can still order form other vendors elsewhere on the soi. They will deliver the food to you, collecting the money and then returning for the utensils and plates later on. Each vendor uses a different type of plate, so it is easier to identify what belongs to whom.

Here’s a little video:

While eating, the rain started to pour outside. After several hot days with no rain, we seem to be back into the typical rainy season cycle. Building humidity and clouds throughout the day, giving way to intense storms for thirty minutes or an hour in the late afternoon or early evening.

Above, Jackson dodges the rain.

Since there was nowhere to go and no way to get home without getting soaked, we stopped in at a massage parlor around the corner for a 90-minute foot massage. This was a very “old school” parlor, Chinese owned with the menthol smell of balm thick in the air. My masseuse was a blind man who was surprisingly in tune with the knots in my feet and lower legs. What the parlor lacked in ambience, the masseuse more than made up for with skill.

Back in the Kitchen

Posted on 24 June 2009 by christao408

It has been a while since I’ve done a food entry (yeah, maybe a whole week!) and there’s plenty that’s been cooking. In fact, I’ve been preparing food at home more often lately, on account of a couple of factors.

First, Tawn has been getting home from work late, so it feels too late to go out for food. Second, I’ve been working more in the evenings recently because of a couple of big projects, so I don’t want to take so much time away from the office. Finally, I prefer to cook our food, that way I have so much more control over what goes into it.

So, what’s been cooking? Here’s a selection of recent items.

Grilled pork chops with a cumin-paprika-chili powder rub. Side of mashed potatoes, homemade applesauce, and stir-fried asparagus with garlic.

Cook’s Illustrated had this recipe for “easy” chicken tikka masala. The tomato and cilantro sauce was nice. The chicken could have marinated a bit longer in the yogurt mixture. Served with mixed rice and a spinach and ricotta cheese bake.

A recent loaf of bread came out kind of funny. I think it looks like an alien!

Pizza pie is always a quick and easy meal. There are usually a few servings of pizza dough wrapped and stored in my freezer. This one had salami, roasted red bell peppers (easy when you use the broiler as the oven is pre-heating for the pizza), mushrooms and fresh basil.

A fun dessert: free-form apple tart using store-bought puff pastry dough and two types of apples. Toss them in a little maple syrup and cinnamon, add some cornstarch, and then sprinkle some ground walnuts on top.

Finally, after the latest Martha Stewart Living had some pictures of various hamburger recipes, Tawn asked for some. So I made a pork-chicken burger with Italian spices, with avocado and tomato. Quite… er, vertical.

Almond Tuiles

Posted on 15 June 2009 by christao408

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Top Secret Mission to KL

Posted on 14 June 2009 by christao408

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

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

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

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

Above: Tawn, Stephanie and Chris at Le Bouchon.

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

Mixed seafood salad

Escargots (snails)

Foie Gras (goose liver)

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

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

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

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

A very nice sea bass and linguini.

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

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

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

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

christao408

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

Tag Archives: food