Immersing and Blending

Posted on 18 August 2008 by christao408

Now that I’m all caught up on my blog entries, you’ll be disappointed because there isn’t any fabulous jet setting about which I can write. Just normal, everyday entries. Prepare yourself for the mundane!

After discovering that the NY-style pizza place was closed, I decided to walk across the street and try Mes Amis Cafe, the “down market” location of the nearby upscale Mes Amis French restaurant. To call the cafe “down market” is a bit of a stretch: white tablecloths, attentive waiters, high prices – it is still relatively upscale.

The food was good, though. Pretty authentic (for Khrungthep) French cafe food. I had roast chicken with a side of vegetables and mashed potatoes. Looks beautiful, no?

One of the waiters seemed quite intrigued by my ability to speak Thai and he kept engaging me in conversation. Or, more accurately, he would keep thinking of additional questions to ask me, which resulted in an uncomfortable (for me) desire to be able to read my book and eat my lunch in peace. Finally, dessert arrived so I had an excuse to stop answering questions.

On my trip back to the United States, I bought a Kitchen Aid immersion blender. This is an addition to my stash of kitchen appliances that I have been considering for two years, so it wasn’t an impulse buy by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve found that using a traditional blender is not very effective for things like pesto and hummus, and is downright messy and even dangerous for blending soups.

Additionally, I’ve previously owned a food processor and found that I rarely used it because of the amount of clean-up necessary. Unless I’m chopping and slicing for a dinner for dozens of people, it is faster to do the prep work with a knife.

But I have been reading how an immersion blender makes quick work of soups, pestos, hummus, and sauces – as well as how it can be used in the pot or container the ingredients are already in. Talking with several people who use them, I realized that the immersion blender would be a very handy addition to my kitchen. As for which model, I settled on Kitchen Aid because of the very high review it was given by Cook’s Illustrated magazine, who rated it their best value.

Thankfully, Macy’s had them on sale for $20 off the regular price, so only $49.99. Oddly, they only had red and black in stock although Kitchen Aid does make a white body as well. Sadly, no yellow to match my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

Inspired by T. Susan Chang’s NPR story about chilled summer soups, I made some chicken stock and then prepared this roasted tomato and pepper soup. It was very easy to make, although I had to substitute the broiler for a grill as we don’t have a grill. This led to a less smoky flavor, but it was tasty nonetheless.

Before and after pictures, below:

Tawn isn’t a big soup person to begin with and there was a bit of cognitive dissonance as the expectation (soup=warm) and the temperature (cold) did not match. Still, he liked the flavor. I thought I could dial back the peppers a bit and find some more flavorful tomatoes. Tomatoes in Thailand aren’t as tasty as summertime tomatoes in the United States. Maybe I can enrich the soup with a little tomato paste.

Worth reading: Sonny shares a funny, true story about his trip to a Starbucks to get one of their mango-banana blended drinks, where he had to contribute the banana because the store was out of them. Link here.

Eighteen Hours in Taipei

Posted on 15 August 2008 by christao408

As my trip in Los Angeles wound to a close, I found myself increasingly under the weather. By mid-afternoon Saturday I felt some aches in my shoulder and neck and popped an ibuprofen tablet to keep down a mild fever.

Whether because of a bug I had acquired or simply running around too much and not sleeping enough along the way, I was hitting that dreaded obstacle to fun travel: being sick.

After returning from dinner in Culver City, I took a light weight sleeping pill and settled in for a good night’s rest.

Zombie much?

Sunday morning, some nine hours later, I could barely pull myself out of bed and shower. I felt like a zombie, like there was a layer of cement covering my body. Bill had agreed to join me for brunch with Gary and William in Venice Beach and I didn’t want to miss another opportunity to visit with them, so I forced myself to get up. But I was so tired that not only did I doze in the car as Bill drove to the west side, I could barely function over brunch, speaking very little, not eating much, and not taking any pictures – shocking!

Embarrassed by the awful impression I made (especially as I was just meeting Gary’s brother for the first time – “Hi, this is my friend Chris, he’s a zombie.”), but too tired at the moment to care much, I spent another couple of hours sleeping in the afternoon before catching my flight back to the Bay Area. And then I slept on the flight to the Bay Area.

Returning to Life

By the time I arrived in Oakland I was starting to feel human again – a little bit – and had dinner with Paul and Anita. We ate at Chow, a long time establishment at the corner of Church and Market Streets, that has been “around the corner” from most of the places I’ve lived in San Francisco, although not quite all of them.

I made the amazing discovery that eating some dinner, overcoming the lack of appetite I felt, actually improved things for me and I started to function more normally. After a very pleasant meal and good visiting, I returned to Anita’s to finish packing and take another two-hour nap before calling a taxi at 11 pm.

My flight from San Francisco to Taipei, which left at 1:40 am, actually was quite smooth. Originally seated in an aisle seat in the center seating section, I switched to a window seat so that a husband and wife could sit together. Normally, I don’t like to be stuck in window seats on long flights in economy class, because I can’t easily get out to stretch my legs or use the facilities. This time, however, it was fine because the lady on the aisle was about one-third my size. Teeny-tiny. Very easy to climb over even when she was asleep and everyone reclined their seat.

To top it off, I slept for about six hours of the twelve-hour flight. God bless Tylenol PM, protector saint of the jet setter.

Once again, EVA is to be commended for very good service in their “Elite” – premium economy – class. The food was tasty, portions generous, response to call buttons prompt, etc. Perhaps I should sell sponsorships? “EVA Airways is the official transpacific airline of this blog.” What could I get for that?

Loooooong Transit in Taipei

The flight arrived nearly an hour early into Taipei – about 4:45 am! This gave me about eighteen hours, a long layover I had intentionally scheduled so I would have an opportunity to explore the city. Thankfully, my friend Jay was in town and had time to meet for lunch.

Knowing that it was much too early to try to head into the city – the busses weren’t even running plus there wasn’t anything to do at that hour – I proceeded through security to the departure level and checked into the transit hotel. I love transit hotels. The ability to freshen up and even take a nap makes a long trip so much more pleasant.

I booked a room for five hours and was able to get almost four hours of sleep, although a on-and-off fever had me throwing the covers off then pulling them back on throughout the morning.

At 10:00, after showering, shaving and getting a cup of coffee from Starbucks, I retraced my route back through security (“Oh, I need to go to the transit desk, please.”) and then proceeded to immigration where I threw everyone off. It seems that there is a bank of early morning arrivals into the airport and then nothing for several hours, so immigration was literally closed. Nobody at any desk.

An officer came over to her station and waved me through, and a few other officers came over, curious where this random foreigner arrived from. Looking at my arrival information, the officer took several minutes to mentally process why, if I had been on a flight that arrived five hours ago, I was just passing through immigration now.

After explaining that I had been at the hotel, sleeping, she stamped my passport and then accidentally stamped my onwards boarding pass with the arrivals stamp. Whoops! That is meant to be stamped with the departure stamp when I leave Taiwan. So she grabbed her “void” stamp and tried to undo the damage, which would cause confusion later that day when I headed through the outbound immigration line.

Customs was equally empty, with a lady officer having to set down her breakfast and jog over to my line, only to wave me through without a second glance.

After storing my roll-aboard bag at the bag check (left hand side of the terminal as you exit), I bought my bus ticket into the city and headed on my way. Below, the view from the bus as I catch my first glimpse of Taipei 101, currently the world’s tallest building.

[As a side note about how one’s English degenerates after living overseas, it took me about a minute to decide how to spell “glimpse”, above. I couldn’t remember the “e” a the end and was sounding it out and spelling it different ways before I finally looked at a dictionary. Sad, sad, sad…]

Lunchtime

By the time I made it into central Taipei, a good 45-minute ride from the airport, it was nearly lunchtime. Jay met me in the lobby of the Shangri-La hotel, where I had frittered away a few minutes reading the Sunday NY Times, which I had carried for the past thirty hours and not made much progress on.

Jay’s a friend from San Francisco who moved to Taipei to start Portico Media, what originally was an animation company but now does production, distribution and a wide range of other media-related tasks.

It has been seven or eight years since we first met through the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. If I recall, Jay worked as an intern with the festival’s former director and there was some screening at the Castro Theatre in which we were both involved.

Anyhow, it is good to know nice people all around the world. Especially nice people with good taste in food! Jay took me to Yongkang Street, in the western end of the city, where we ate at the well-regarded Yong-Kang Beef Noodle Shop, left.

The neighborhood is a web of small streets mostly filled with small buildings, a very walkable neighborhood that reminded me a bit of New York’s Chinatown, but cleaner. Along the way we passed so many good-looking restaurants and I instantly regretted having but one day to give to this city.

Beef Noodles & c.

Yong-Kang Beef Noddle Shop is a compact, clean but not fancy two-story restaurant. We found room on the second floor and set about perusing the menu, which is limited to about fifteen key dishes, many of which we had the opportunity to try:

Working from the top row, across and down: Seaweed with garlic, steamed hog spareribs, cucumber with acorn jelly, the famous spicy beef noodle soup with soy sauce broth, spicy Schezhuan style pork dumplings, stacks of the hot spareribs steaming away in the downstairs kitchen.

The food was really good and I regretted that, as there were only two of us, we left some food on our plates. The beef noodle soup is made of very tender stewed meat with lots of gelatinous fat and connective tissue. Sometimes this is a little hard for me to get used to, as this is what I learned to leave on the plate when I was growing up, but you realize just how delicious it is, you realize you have to enjoy it!

Of course there was time for some dessert at Ice Monster (below), a local chain that serves various fruits, beans and jellies over shaved ice.

We shared a triple serving of fruit: mango, strawberry and kiwi topped with a scoop of mango ice cream. Oh, that was good!

Below, we get a photographer (you see him shooting two pictures above) to take a picture of us.

About Taipei

Since Jay had to go back to work, he put me in a taxi headed to the National Palace Museum on the north side of town. Along the way, I was a little surprised to see less traffic and far fewer scooters than I had expected. My vision of Taipei has been formed by the movies of just a few directors. Most notably, Tsai Ming-Liang and Edward Yang. From these films, I built the image in my mind of a Taipei that was perpetually polluted, crowded, and a teeming hornet’s nest of scooters.

While there were a lot of scooters, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had expected. In fact, given that the city has much more land to work with, it was less crowded and less vertical than, say, Hong Kong. To top it off, there was a monsoon working its way up from Hong Kong so the winds were very strong, making for beautifully clear skies and a very pleasant afternoon, despite the 34-degree temperature.

Below, one of many dogs I saw riding on scooters. How does he not fall off?

The front of the National Palace Museum and below that, the view looking at the entry garden. The museum has one of the largest collection of Chinese artifacts in the world, which were moved from Beijing by the nationalists during the Chinese civil war. While controversy surrounds many aspects of the museum’s existence, much as the China-Taiwan question is a live wire that sparks many conflicts, the museum has an excellent collection that is very well presented. On a future visit I will have to give it more time, as I didn’t want to spend my entire afternoon indoors on this trip.

From the museum, I caught the bus down the hill to the nearest MRT station. The transit system in Taipei is extensive and fairly easy to navigate. There are signs and announcements in English, including “next destination” signs inside the buses. You have to watch, though, as the English flashes by pretty quickly!

The MRT system is likewise easy to use and I found may way back into the heart of the city with no difficulties. Below, my train arrives. In the main stations, there are safety gates along the edge of the track. At smaller stations, it is open.

There were two things I still wanted to do: visit the observation deck at Taipei 101 and then also take the Maokong Gondola from the Taipei Zoo station. Somewhat along the lines of the Nong Ping 360 gondola that has opened in Hong Kong, the Maokong Gondola is an extensive line, built into the MRT system, that takes you up a series of hills and mountains to a temple from which you get a good view of the larger Taipei area.

The engineering of the system is fascinating as at one point the gondola line has to drop below a large number of high-tension power lines. The view is less spectacular than, say, from Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, but is still very nice.

Below: Sunset as seen from one of the gondola cars. Note that you can see Taipei 101 in the photo, which looks roughly northwest.

By the time I descended the gondola, the sun was tucking into the western horizon, ready for bed. Knowing that the airport was quite a ride away, I didn’t want to risk being delayed by going to the top of Taipei 101, which was a good thirty minutes away from the Taipei Zoo station where I picked up the gondola.

I called Jay to report my whereabouts, lest he feel responsible for having lost a visitor to the sprawling Taiwanese capital, and we agreed to meet for a quick dinner near his office. We headed out to a night market, a familiar site in Chinese cities around the world. Once again, we had some really tasty food to eat.

Above: Various meats and veggies are added to hot broth to make a satisfying soup. Below: A fresh oyster omelet is prepared for us.

Above: Our oyster omelet and zoh geng or meat noodle stew with pork sausage. Tasty, unfussy food for the market shopper.

Even though it was a Tuesday night, there were plenty of shoppers looking for bargains, below.

By this point, it was pushing 8:30 and I had an 11:05 flight. Not wanting to risk heavy traffic, we headed back to the Shangri-La Hotel and five minutes later I was on a bus to the airport. Many thanks to Jay for taking time out of his busy day to ensure I had a proper introduction to Taipei food. I’m going to pack Tawn up and head back one of these days soon to get some more.

Conclusion

The trip to the airport was smooth. I reclaimed my checked bag about thirty minutes late, but the lady didn’t charge me anything extra. Outbound immigration was a little confused why my boarding pass was stamped with an entry stamp and then subsequently voided. After a brief explanation, the officer added an exit stamp to the mess and I was on my way. Just enough time to shower and change at the transit hotel so my final flight would be made in comfort.

Eighteen hours doesn’t seem to be enough time to explore a city, but I found a lot to enjoy about Taipei and look forward to a trip back. It is much less intense than Hong Kong, a city I love, and that is a positive thing. Not everywhere needs to be so vertical and intense.

The flight back to Khrungthep was smooth and I enjoyed a long conversation with an American-born Thai from Arizona who was flying in to visit relatives and explore business opportunities. With the number of times this young man called me “sir”, I assumed he had served in the military at some point. Turns out to just be good manners on his part combined with a touch of looking middle-aged on my part.

All Day at the Aquarium of the Pacific

Posted on 14 August 2008 by christao408

Saturday was aquarium day. I coordinated meeting two sets of friends, one from the North County of San Diego and the other from Culver City. Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific seemed to be a great meeting place as it is central and appeals to children, which both sets of friends have.

Unfortunately, coordinating the timing didn’t work quite as well as it could have, so I essentially did two tours of the aquarium. That’s okay, though, as it is a surprisingly good aquarium and when seeing it through the eyes of children, you can always find something new to enjoy.

Danielle and Ian drove up from San Diego in the morning and were waiting for me outside the aquarium with their children, Piper and Devin. The last time I saw them was in July 2005, when Piper was only about a year old. (Trip report here on airliners.net that covers the First Class flight I took after that visit from LAX en route to BKK aboard Asiana) Needless to say, she has grown quite a bit in the meantime. Very well mannered, she shook my hand and said hello. Devin also was very outgoing. Right: Ian watches as Piper and Devin get up close and personal with the sea lion tank.

The most popular parts of the aquarium were the two petting tanks. One for the sharks and another for the rays. Below: Danielle, Devin, Ian and Piper at the shark petting tank. Remember, we use two fingers to pet the sharks, not our whole hands.

From the upper outdoor level of the aquarium, you get a view of the Queen Mary in the harbour. Quite a view and somewhere I should visit one of these days.

The aquarium was fascinating for me just because all of this sea life amazes me. Especially the jellyfish. How in the world do these things work? It seems impossible. Plus, they are amazing to watch. Put on some ambient music and just stare at them for hours.

A bit after lunch, Piper and Devin were starting to tire so Danielle and Ian got ready to pack them up and head home. Perfect timing, too, as the second wave of friends had arrived so there was a few minutes of introductions and chit-chat.

Below: We pose beneath a blue whale that is suspended in the aquarium lobby.

With that, I started my second round of the aquarium, this time with Lalima and Aaron and their son, also named Devin. Lilian and Samantha flew down from San Jose to join us, so it was a high school reunion.

Below: Lily, Samantha, Lalima and Aaron observe the rays at the ray petting tank. There was one very playful ray who liked to swim right along the edge and flap his wings and splash people. Such a character!

After a quicker breeze through the exhibits and a search for Nemo and Dory in the tropical fish section (we found them), we headed out for a mid-afternoon lunch at The Corner Place, a Korean BBQ restaurant in Cerritos. This, according to Samantha, is one of only two restaurants she knows of on the west coast that serve dong chi mee kuk sul, a cold rice noodle soup with a vinegar/ginger broth, garnished with green onions, julienned cucumbers and a slice of tomato, pictured below.

A refreshing summertime specialty, the restaurant is so jealous of its recipe that it won’t even sell you a to-go order of the soup. In fact, Samantha was once apprehended trying to sneak some of it away in a plastic container! They are serious about this soup.

If was enjoyable, reminding me a bit of khao chae, the jasmine-scented cold rice soup that Thais enjoy during the hot season. Not so much in the taste or flavor but just in the idea of a refreshing cool dish to eat when the weather is warm.

In additional to the soup, we enjoyed beef kalbi, the typical Korean grilled beef with garnishes, shown below.

What most amazed me was that Devin, all of two years old, was so adventurous that he would try each of the different varieties of kimchee that were on the table. Spicy? No problem. Sour? No problem. If he didn’t like a flavor, he would chew and swallow his mouthful and then politely decline any more. No spitting out his food.

It probably helps that several months ago his parents brought him to Bangladesh to visit Lalima’s extended family, so he’s been exposed to a lot of different types of food. But some of it must be personality and he’s just a very easy-going, open-minded sort of child.

Below, Lalima and I wait patiently for our food.

After a few hours of napping back at Bill and Alex’s place, I drove to Culver City to join the gang at Aaron and Lalima’s house. We had a very nice barbecue dinner sitting on the patio. The menu included grilled shrimp and pineapple with roasted squash and a tomato and avocado salad. Dessert was Lalima’s famous homemade peppermint ice cream. Delicious.

It was a bit late when dinner was finally ready – nearly ten o’clock! – but Devin was a trooper and stayed up to eat with us, conking out just as soon as he had finished eating. Below: Aaron, Samantha, Lalima, Lilian and Devin.

Poor Devin suffers from a mother and two aunties who like to take lots and lots (and lots!) of pictures. He must have the strongest cheek muscles of any child his age from all the smiling he’s asked to do.

It was a really fun Saturday in SoCal and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see this friends.

Torched Saba at Musha with Curry

Posted on 12 August 2008 by christao408

Friday was a day of reunions and a lot of good eating. Sounds like the same story as every entry when I’m on vacation, doesn’t it?

First there was a lunch at the Shoreline Cafe in Long Beach with Aaron and Jose, former colleagues from my days working at AMC Theatres. Aaron had just moved to Los Angeles two days earlier, after living abroad with his partner in Mexico City for the previous two years. Having followed similar paths, we have had a lot to talk about and I’m glad we have stayed in touch. Hopefully now that he is in LA, he’ll find the next path that he needs to follow.

Jose is someone I haven’t had any contact with in years, and he was able to give me the low down on the universe of former AMC colleagues (a few of whom actually still work for AMC!). My days working in the motion picture exhibition industry were formative. One of these days I’ll write more about it, to try and capture just how much fun and how difficult running a movie theatre is.

After lunch, I continued my way to the west side of LA, making a stop at the pocket park next LAX. Located across the street from an In-n-Out Burger, this park is directly under the short final approach path for runway 25R. This is where many of the large planes coming from Europe, Asia and Australia land. Great spot for plane watching. Notice that I’m restraining myself and not posting any more airplane pictures.

About 3:00, a little Xangan pow-wow began as I met Gary at Cafe Surfas in Culver City, above. Surfas is this combination of a cute cafe and a store that sells restaurant supplies and gourmet foodstuffs. Credit goes to Tony for including this in one of his photoblogs and giving me the idea. Oddly, I got into trouble for taking pictures, so I guess Tony was just more clandestine than I, as he was able to get many beautiful shots.

Below, Gary is shocked by the high price of imported Thai coconut milk. What goes for fifty cents in Thailand (or the equivalent in baht) is three dollars at Surfas! This must be designed for Angelenos who aren’t comfortable walking into a local “ethnic” market, where you could get many of these ingredients at a much lower price.

On the kitchen supply side of the store I found my dream oven: an industrial sized convection oven in which I could cook a few hundred cupcakes at once. This is where a passing employee admonished us to not take pictures. I would have been more favorable in my comments above, noting the broad selection of foreign foods rather than their significant prices, had they not been so camera shy.

We were joined by Steve. Because he doesn’t regularly include any photos of himself on his blog, I made the decision not to include any photos of him in this entry. But he’s coming to Thailand soon so maybe you can encourage him to jump in front of the lens.

After browsing as Surfas, which really does have a great selection of things, especially cookware, we headed to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. This is one of my old stomping grounds. When I lived in Los Angeles in 1995-96, I worked in Century City and spent a lot of time in Santa Monica with friends. Glad to see some things have not changed despite the continual “mallification” of the Promenade. Below, a group of hare krishna perform at the corner of Arizona and Third Street.

How do you know when you’ve really arrived in LA? When, in the course of two blocks, you hear hare krishna chanting at dusk, watch a group of youngsters break dancing for tips, get bored with a French mime doing slow motion sleight of hand, observe a man with his monkey, and are a bit shocked by a pair of books on display in the Barnes and Noble window: The Big Book of Breasts and The Big Penis Book. It is always 74 and sunny here, right?

For dinner, we were joined by William and tried Gary’s recommendation of Musha on Wilshire Boulevard, a Tokyo cuisine restaurant that also has a location in Torrance. Musha is often described as a Japanese-French fusion tapas restaurant. I’m not sure how accurate that description is. It might be better to describe it as an izakaya restaurant, kind of a sake bar that offers more significant food than your regular sake bar.

In the same way that Spanish tapas evolved from small bites provided to bar patrons to keep them from getting too drunk, izakaya serve small plates of food to satisfy customers over several hours of drinking.

Musha has received positive reviews for some of the spins it places on traditional izakaya dishes, as well as some downright non-Japanese food on the menu. We skipped the heavy drinking part (other than a beer that William and I split) and focused on the food.

The interior of Musha is small, with a bar at the front and a dozen tables behind. Lanterns and warm colors keep the space intimate and cozy. Service is friendly and efficient, primarily by a pair of Japanese-speaking wait staff that keep things running smoothly. Other than a noisy group of office workers who gathered at the bar to celebrate something, the volume of the restaurant was tolerable.

Let’s take a look at our culinary tour. We started with a spicy tuna dip served with rice crackers, something fun and tasty:

Also arriving early was duck breast marinated in ponzu sauce (the citrus-flavored dipping sauce common with things like gyoza) served on grated daikon oroshi with Tokyo leeks. The duck was very tender and the ponzu sauce really cuts through the richness of the meat.

The highlight of the evening – the culinary highlight of my entire trip, in fact – was the torched aburi saba. This was mackerel sliced sashimi-style, marinated in vinegar, then torched at your table. Here’s a video:

The finished product was a perfect balance of textures and flavors. Saba is a meaty fish with a slightly salty disposition. It wasn’t marinated too long, so it still had the sashimi texture, but the saltiness was balanced by the sweet tanginess of the marinade. To top it off, the skin was slightly crisp and had a charred smokiness from the torching.

Such a delicate layering of flavors. I’d like to try making it at home, but don’t want to buy an industrial grade torch. That’s a bit too much. Maybe I can find a pipe-fitter who will lend me a torch. Below, a closeup of two individual pieces. Notice the color of the flesh.

Next we had a grilled portobella mushroom and acorn squash with a miso-citrus dipping sauce. A charcoal brazier was placed on the table and we were able to cook our own mushroom.

I wasn’t the only person taking photos. William provides many of the excellent photos that appear on Gary’s blog. I’ve been thinking about this idea – I should have a crew with me when I’m out. Someone to take pictures, someone to take notes, while I just savor the experiences and write about them later. Applications now being accepted!

About this time, Steve had to take off for business. Sadly, he missed out on a number of great dishes that followed. Here are homemade tofu fries with a creamy wasabi sauce and a sweet chili sauce. I’m going to share a secret with you: I think the chili sauce is the same sweet chicken dipping sauce you can buy in large bottles at Asian supermarkets throughout the US. The tofu, being homemade, was very fresh and the concept of tofu fries is very fun.

We took a distinctly non-Japanese beat with the arrival of a risotto, typical ham and cheese but served from a hollowed out round of Parmesan cheese. Sadly, they didn’t leave the round at the table, but instead served the risotto and took it back to the kitchen.

The risotto was probably the low point of the savory meal. It was tasty, maybe a bit gloppy, but it was just risotto. I didn’t see how it fit into the larger theme of the menu.

Our final savory dish was the takotama. This is a two-layer omelet with chopped octopus, leeks, red ginger and bonito broth. It was very geometrically laid out, so I needed pictures from both sides.

The takotama was tasty, although a little sweet. By this point we were getting quite full and decided to share a dessert. Japanese restaurants aren’t known for their desserts. Traditionally, if you want something sweet you’ll head over to a bakery or sweet shop after dinner. This might explain why the dessert menu was lifted straight from any western restaurant: tarte tartin, creme brulee, molten chocolate cake, etc.

We opted for the molten chocolate cake, which was served on an ice-cold plate. Good for keeping the ice cream frozen but the cake didn’t feel like it had seen the inside of an oven anytime recently. In fact, given the soft exterior, I think it was zapped in the microwave. Not long enough, though, as the interior wasn’t molten by any stretch of the imagination. Molasses moves faster in a Minnesota winter!

The chocolate cake aside – really, what was I expecting of a chocolate cake ordered at a Japanese restaurant? – the meal was really tasty and surprisingly inexpensive. Would you believe that the total bill for all of the above plus a large bottle of Japanese beer, was under $80 before gratuity? A very good value.

Of course, more than anything else, the company was wonderful. Sorry that Steve wasn’t there to see the meal to its conclusion. I did enjoy visiting with Gary and William and look forward to our next culinary adventure together.

SFO to LGB

Posted on 10 August 2008 by christao408

Arriving in San Francisco after that beautiful flight across the western United States, I made my way to Anita’s, dropped off my bags and headed to Union Square to complete some last-minute shopping.

While there, I was hungry and wanted a quick, easy and relatively healthy bite to eat. That desire made me realize another notable difference between life in Thailand and the United States. In the US, if you are out and want a quick bite to eat, it seems that more often than not you end up at a fast food restaurant. In Thailand, you can end up eating something fast, but I wouldn’t call it fast food.

My hunger led me to the only Thai restaurant I went to on my entire trip: King of Thai Noddles, the small San Francisco chain that does a good job of approximating the Thai wok-style street food experience. The surest clue is that the entire staff is Thai – my first time hearing Thai spoken in nearly two weeks. The pad siew, wide rice noodles in a soy sauce with chicken and chinese broccoli, were a flavor memory of Sukhumvit Soi 38’s night dining and a much-needed reminder that home is where the taste buds are.

After completing my dining and shopping, I headed to Newark and dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house. Like many houses around the Bay Area during summer, once the sun begins to go down the onshore breezes pick up, making a sweatshirt or even a roaring fire necessary.

Above, clockwise from upper left: my uncle Dick mans the grill; Cousin Patrick prepares hamburger patties; I try to light a fire while extended family members look on; Cousin Jackie poses with a plate of watermelon.

We had a number of extended family members in town, including my cousin’s cousins (their first cousins through their mom’s side of the family) whom I had not seen in probably twenty-five years as they now live in Arkansas. They were visiting with their respective families and it was interesting to catch up with people whose lives have taken an entirely different path than my own.

I also had the opportunity to meet my cousin Michael’s future in-laws. He and Sara are getting married next summer and this was my first opportunity to meet Sara’s parents and younger siblings. All very nice people and I look forward to them being a part of the family.

As a result of all these new people, we had a lot of young children running around. Jackie decided that smores were the answer to keep them occupied and so, ever the girl scout, she pulled out the smore making gear.

Notice that some people didn’t wait to put the marshmallow between the chocolate and graham crackers, opting to just eat it straight from the fire.

Patrick, ever the chef, made a chocolate chip and tequila bread pudding that was really tasty. The serving was also way too big!

Thursday morning I headed down to San Jose to catch my flight to Long Beach. My decision to fly out of San Jose was based both on low prices as well as a desire to see how the airport from which I flew a great deal as a child has changed. The old terminal still uses air stairs instead of jetways, something of a throwback to an earlier generation of air travel. A new terminal is under construction, threatening to modernize the airport to an entirely unrecognizable point.

Thankfully, though, the outdoor observation deck is still open and I spent two hours watching planes, taking pictures, and getting a sunburn on my forearms. The best of the shots, a Southwest 737 rotating and climbing into the sunny afternoon:

Below, my flight on a jetBlue Embraer E190.

You’ve probably had enough pictures from the air after yesterday’s entry, so I’ll ask that you indulge me with just a few more.

Below, “Silicon Valley” – the San Jose area – just after takeoff, the airport visible in the background.

Smoke from the many fires still visible as we head down the coast, just past the Monterey Bay.

The art deco terminal of Long Beach Airport, complete with palm trees. What could be more Southern California than that?

Since Bill works for jetBlue, he met me at the baggage claim and then took me on a little tour of the airline’s west coast operations center, a nondescript building near the terminal. It is interesting to see how they still have much of the start-up mentality, making it a fun place to work.

We headed to their house, just a five-minute drive from the airport in the city of Lakewood. Alex joined us a little bit later and I had a tour of their backyard, which they’ve recently done some work on.

Below, Bill (or Bill’s arm) feeds Alex some wild grapes that grow along their fence. Turns out to be pretty bitter.

After the grazing, we headed to the nearby city of Bellflower. During the summer months they do a weekly Thursday evening block party. The main street is shut down and a combination of craft fair, farmer’s market, and concert takes place. There are many people who show up, especially families, and the crowd shows the diversity that is very much a part of Southern California.

Below, Bill stands by as Alex snaps pictures.

We opted for a barbecue dinner at Johnny Rebs, a Carolina-Georgia style BBQ place that has buckets of peanuts on the table and encourages you to throw the shells on the floor. Despite this, they received an “A” rating from the public health department.

The food is good, although I think Lucille’s – another of Alex and Bill’s favorites that we went to last September – had smokier meat. Here’s what we had:

Bill had the deep fried catfish with hush puppies and fries. The tartar sauce was homemade and the hush puppies were, surprisingly, not oily.

Alex had the pulled pork shoulder, which I found a little dry and not very smoky. The sauce, which is a regional matter, is pretty vinegary but I found it lacked a distinctive flavor profile. Of course, taste in BBQ is very individual. Something that one person loves, another will not.

I chose the tri-tip sandwich. Tri-tip is a unique central California treat and it should be medium rare with lots of juicy pink in the center. Unfortunately, the meat for this sandwich was overcooked and, subsequently, a little tough.

We wrapped up sharing a peach cobbler that we barely made a dent in. Too much dessert and the cobbler itself was a little doughy and undercooked.

Overall, my impression on Johnny Rebs was that it was okay, but it was not the real deal. It was BBQ done Los Angeles style with lots done to make it look authentic but not enough to make it taste authentic.

Back at their home, we stayed up until after 1:00, visiting. I realized as I rolled into bed at 1:30, that I’ve spent too many nights on this trip staying up too late and getting up too early. Something that ended up catching up with me.

Santa Ramen

Posted on 1 August 2008 by christao408

Taking a step backwards to San Francisco, I forgot to write about my dinner with Ryan and Sabrina (below), who took me to their local ramen noodle shop in San Mateo. The place is called Santa Ramen and it is really, really popular. A review at Rameniac, a site devoted to reviewing ramen restaurants, compares it to “the prettiest girl in your 8th grade class who’s actually only a 6, [but] she’s a 10 to you because hey, that’s all you’ve known these few, queasy years.”

Nonetheless, we enjoyed it a great deal. The restaurant is a small space in a strip mall on El Camino Real just off highway 92. It is busy from when it opens at five until well into the evening. Lots of people show up early for their house specialty, the stewed pork or buta kakuni. Sadly, they always sell out quickly.

Despite the review from Rameniac, I thought it was really tasty. Between the three of us we tried a range of types: miso based, pork based, and soy based. Sadly, I didn’t take notes on exactly what we ordered. Here are some pictures:

I had the middle one, which was a miso base with barbecue pork. Yummy!

Oh, and I took the train down the peninsula! CalTrain now runs a “baby bullet” service that goes from SF Townsend Station to San Mateo non-stop. Shaves about 20 minutes off the time.

Cobblers

Posted on 31 July 2008 by christao408

Within my first few days back in the United States, it occurred to me that I should be making a list. What are the differences I particularly notice between life in the US and Thailand? Of course, I wouldn’t include the obvious things like there being no elephants plodding down streets in the US.

The occurrence didn’t translate into action, so I’ll just have to share observations as I think of them. A few differences that do spring to mind:

Car alarms – I just don’t hear these in Thailand at all, although I know cars have alarms. In the US, both in San Francisco then again in Kansas City, blaring car alarms were a frequent auditory intrusion.

Fresh cooking – Far from an exhaustive and scientifically valid analysis, my perception is that the percentage of restaurants that cook food from scratch, using fresh food, is much higher in Thailand than in the US. Chains, chains, chains is what I see a lot of here, followed by many restaurants that still rely on a lot of canned and frozen goods. Sure, the fine dining restaurants are a likely exception, but that’s not what most people eat most of the time.

Those are just two observations. If I remember more, I’ll share them.

My sister and her family have a new puppy. They lost their companion of seven years of so, Zoe, to cancer about two weeks ago. It was a tough loss for them and I don’t think they were planning on finding another dog anytime soon. But a trio of puppies literally appeared on their doorstep and after the owner was located, they decided to adopt one of them, another blonde labrador.

He arrived two days before me and I was honored to participate in the name selection process. It looks like “Jasper” in the one that will stick.

Jasper was still adjusting to life with a new family and seems to have an inverted biological rhythm: he is up at night and sleeps a lot during the day. Maybe this is just an adjustment phase and he isn’t used to sleeping alone at night?

Anyhow, he is cute and a lot calmer than Zoe was. Definitely not an Alpha Male. Jenn and Kevin are reading a small book about training their dog as Zoe didn’t have the same opinion of her position in the family as they did.

Ava was best friends with Zoe whereas Emily was a little cool towards him. Jasper, however, receives the full affections – some would say abuse – of both girls. His kennel is an interesting addition to the sun room, too. Several times we found Ava and Jasper playing together where Ava was inside the cage and Jasper was outside, looking confused by the arrangement.

Saturday morning was buttermilk biscuits. You’ve seen these on the blog before, homemade, flaky, just begging to be slathered in butter and preserves of – better yet – sausage gravy. So that’s just what we did: whipped up a batch of country sausage gravy.

With that satisfying start to the day sticking to our ribs, we set off for the Overland Park Farmer’s Market. When you think about the number of farms in Kansas and Missouri, it is amazing that farmer’s markets aren’t more prevalent. For those of you outside the United States, these are just like your regular fresh markets almost anywhere else except that the actual farmers (or their families and friends) do the selling direct to the public. The other difference is that this way of conducting business is seen as a novelty rather than the standard way of buying your produce.

My objectives were clear. The things I missed from the Midwestern US that you can only buy in Thailand at a dear price were stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries) and ripe beefsteak tomatoes. Sweet corn is on that list, too, although we get pretty good corn in Thailand throughout the year.

Knowing that the extended family would be over Sunday for lunch and I was responsible for dessert, I loaded up on peaches and blackberries. Blackberries the size of my thumb! Yum!

Pictures in a moment.

Saturday night I met up with Trish for an interesting night at KC Pride – the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered Democratic Party organization for Kansas City, Missouri. I know what you are thinking: Is there such a thing?

Indeed there is and while a pretty small group, it is tight knit and active on the political scene, ensuring that Democratic candidates understand the issues relevant to the community and act on them.

The evening’s event was a series of auctions, both silent and live. Wine, cheese and snacky food was served. Trish tells me that turnout was much better last year – there were only about fifty people there this year and ten of those were elected officials or those running. In fact, the number of “straight allies” seemed to outnumber the members of the GLBT community.

One highlight of the evening was the game of “heads or tails”. The prize was a fabulous package included a hotel stay and a nice dinner. You bought a strand of beads for $10 and then when the time came, all participants stand up and place their hands either on their head or their “tail”.

A coin is tossed. Those with their hands in the same place as the coin, continue to the next round. Eventually, it came down to a pair of people. Unfortunately, Trish was knocked out in two rounds. But you have a fifty-fifty chance each step of the way, right?

Afterwards, we stopped by the Coffee Cup on the Plaza for a shared dessert. Blackberry cobbler, pictured right. Just a preview of what I would bake the next morning. The restaurant was shutting down but we lingered, catching up on what was going on in each other’s lives. As I finished my glass of port, the bartender came over and gave me my second glass of free wine on this trip: a double, in fact, of an even nicer port wine.

He said something, but I didn’t quite understand why I was the recipient of this generosity. No matter, though. As my mother always said: never look a gift glass of port in the mouth. Or something like that.

Sunday

While everyone was off at Church Sunday morning, I started my baking. First the blackberry cobbler, then the peach. Interestingly, the topping for the peach cobbler (right) was more moist than the one for the blackberry cobbler, making for a different result when I baked it. Both tasty, I might add.

Later in the morning, Tawn called and gave me an update on his trip to Italy. It sounds like things are going well and he is having fun with his parents, although with the occasional frustration that comes when you spend a lot of time with the same people all day and night long. This happens on most trips, I think.

Below, Ava talks to Tawn on the phone. How much of it he understood, I don’t know, but they chatted on for several minutes.

You might have noticed that there are more pictures of Ava than of Emily. By the fourth day of my visit, after she would only make silly faces when I took snaps, Emily announced that I take too many pictures.

I found myself channeling my parents when out of my mouth came my reply, “When you are my age, you’ll appreciate having all these pictures.” Yikes! “When you are my age… !?” Where did that come from?

Sunday afternoon my grandparents, aunt and uncle, another uncle, and two cousins came over for an indoors “picnic” as temperatures were very hot outside. Jenn bought sandwich makings and my grandmother made deviled eggs. Not the fanciest food, but quintessentially American cuisine.

Below, my grandfather reads to Ava.

One of my cousins, Kari, actually flew in to KC for the weekend from her home in Nashville. It was nice that she did that, as I don’t have enough opportunities to see my cousins.

We posed for some pictures in the back yard. Above: me, Kelly, Kari and Jenn.

Finally, it was time to serve dessert. Topped with a little freshly whipped cream, we had the peach cobbler (the more popular of the two):

And my personal favorite, the blackberry cobbler:

Blackberry cobbler with a biscuit dough topping is just one of those great foods. Very satisfying, it captures the essence of summer. The berries were so ripe and sweet that I had to add only a little bit of sugar, maybe 1/4 cup for the entire cobbler. It was fantastic.

Summertime and the Cooking is Easy

Posted on 30 July 2008 by christao408

After the business was wrapped up, it was time to focus on the family – James Dobson allusion intended.

This meant staying at my sister and brother-in-law’s and spending maximum quality time with the nieces, Emily and Ava. Since I last saw them in October, they’ve grown up so fast. Emily, in particular, has gone from being pretty whiny to being a young lady who is very capable and interested in helping. Such a pleasant change!

We did a lot of cooking and most of the time, Emily decided to be sous chef. She’s at the age where she can handle a knife (under very close supervision) and has only lost a few fingers so far. Just kidding…

Above, in preparation for dinner Emily chops peppers and I slice carrots to go with my homemade hummus.

Below, our spread of pasta with fresh tomatoes and onions, mixed green salad with walnuts (Jenn made this), and a gratineed dish of summer squash and zucchini.

Emily was very proud of her contributions to the cause. I was very proud of her contributions, too. Below, she points to the pasta she helped make. Worth noting that, true to form, she refused to actually try it. There is a precedent to this that you might find funny.

Our pickiest customer was Ava, Emily’s younger sister. She was even less willing to try my food. How could someone from my family not be willing to try new things? Maybe they aren’t actually related to me!

Above, Ava has decided she is too grown up (at two years old) to wear a bib, so she wears an oversize t-shirt during her meals.

After dinner, we took a trip to the park.

It is nice to see my family again.

Off to KC

Posted on 29 July 2008 by christao408

There’s a one-week delay going on right now, just so you know. As I write this entry about heading from SF to KC I’m actually just one day away from doing the return trip.

After a pleasant and, as you’ve ready, busy and filling few days in San Francisco, I headed back to Kansas City. While I was born and raised in the SF suburb of Sunnyvale, my parents are from Kansas City and that is where grandparents and many other relatives have always been. My sister moved there for university and married and settled down there, so KC continues to be a primary destination anytime I head to the United States. Finally, I spend fourteen months living in KC immediately before moving to Thailand (I love contrasts), so I know my way around very well.

Below: Midwest Airlines 921 at the gate in San Francisco.

My airline of choice for flights to and from Kansas City is Midwest. This regional carrier offers a lot of nonstop service into KC and while they have suffered the same challenges of the rest of the US airline industry, they’ve managed to retain their friendly service and are still more comfortable than most airlines. Plus they fly these great old McDonnell Douglas jets, nicknamed “Mad Dogs” for the amount of takeoff power they have.

Sadly, Midwest has just announced they will ground their entire fleet of MD-80s, leaving only their smaller but more modern B717s. Along with this is the reduction of 40% of the employees and a similar percentage of the route structure. Tough times but I understand the strategic decisions they are making and hope that the company survives and eventually thrives again. Best wishes to all the YX employees!

Below: Views from the air.

When I arrived in KC Tuesday evening, I was met at the gate by my sister and two nieces. Thankfully, they are now both at the age where there isn’t a lot of shyness, hiding behind their mother’s legs, etc. Hugs, kisses and fighting over who will carry the bag, abound.

My presence back in the US during a non-holiday time is quite rare. My manager and six colleagues decided to take advantage of it to hold a team meeting. Instead of having to fly somewhere else to meet them (thankfully, KC is in the geographic center of the continental US), they all flew to meet me. I’m honored!

Wednesday and the first half of Thursday were spent in very productive meetings, which lends credence to my theory that if you only have meetings once every twenty-four months, they can be very effective uses of time. From left to right: Becci, Debbie, Darla, Keith, Jenni, Kim and my manager, Sally. Expert corporate trainers, all.

Half the team members are people I used to manage (or managed their managers), so it was a fun reunion. The other half of the team are new since I left, so it was an opportunity to meet people face-to-face for the first time, after having worked together remotely for a long time.

The highlight of the two days was dinner on Wednesday. We went to Lydia’s restaurant. You might know Lydia Matticchio Bastianich from the United States Public Television (PBS) shows Lydia’s Italian Kitchen and Lydia’s Italy. She is the grandmotherly Croatian-Italian who makes wonderful, no-nonsense food.

For whatever reason, Kansas City was the location selected when Lydia and her husband opened their first restaurant outside of Manhattan, where the flagship Felidia’s still operates. Perhaps because of the large Italian immigrant population or maybe just the carb-happy populace, but Lydia’s – located in a renovated rail freight depot on the back side of Union Station – has been a huge success.

For an appetizer, I tried the Frico, shown below. From the menu: “A speciality of the Friuli region of Italy, the Frico is an envelope of golden-brown, crisp Montasio cheese with potato, leek, onion and Luganega sausage and roasted tomatoes.

This was like a quesadilla made with cheese on the outside rather than tortilla. Really tasty!

For the main dish, I had Gnocchi con Anitra in Guazzeeto, below. These hand rolled potato dumplings are served in a rich sauce of slowly-simmered pulled duck and vegetables.

The duck meat was succulent and the portion size just right. Not too filling, which was perfect because I had my eye on the dessert menu! The nice thing about eating in groups is that you can sample others’ desserts.

First off, the Tiramisu, below. This traditional Venetian dessert is made with layers of espresso-soaked ladyfingers and rum-flavored mascarpone cream, topped with a generous sprinkling of cocoa powder. You know it, you love it, and this one was not only beautiful but very well made.

Torta del Marchese, below. A very rich (emphasis on “very”) and silky chocolate cake with candied Amarena cherries and fresh spearmint ice cream on a bed of bittersweet chocolate curls.

When it was ordered, Keith initially expressed skepticism at how small the serving was. Once he tried it, though, he was shocked by how much flavor and richness was stuffed into such a small package. A single bite shot your glycemic index through the roof!

Lastly, the dessert I chose for myself (but graciously shared a few small bites with others) was the Torta Di Oliva e Limone, below. This was a most unusual dessert, a moist olive oil and lemon cake served with Meyer lemon ice cream, sweet basil sauce and candied basil leaves.

This was such an intriguing combination. It shouldn’t have been a surprise – basil and lemon are a natural pairing, after all – but the herbal flavor of the basil was such a nice complement to the sweetness of the cake and ice cream. And the candied basil leaves? What a refreshing idea!

Our service was impeccable (other than a fly landing in my glass of wine, which was promptly replaced) by a flirty waiter named Michael. This was actually one of two restaurants in KC where I was given an extra glass of wine on the house, for no explanation other than, “With our compliments.”

The treat to end the evening (besides having a surprise for Darla’s birthday next month when a cake and candle arrived) was when Lydia came over to visit, above sitting next to me. With her many restaurants and multiple responsibilities, it was a surprise that she was in Kansas City. She graciously sat with us for a picture and some small talk. I left the restaurant with an autographed copy of her latest cookbook, so there will be some Italian cooking going on once I’m back in Thailand.

After the conclusion of meetings mid-day Thursday, my vacation officially started. More on that soon.

Ice Cream Here

Posted on 28 July 2008 by christao408

Monday morning I took BART over to Berkeley for lunch with Ethan (right), a Wilcox High School graduate (but a few years after me) who has been reading and commenting on this blog for some time.

It is interesting to hear the perspectives of someone from the same school but at a later date. And interesting to find out that some of the same teachers – Mrs. Owens, the AP English teacher, for example – were still there. Some things never change.

Based on Samantha’s recommendation, we sought out an ice cream shop in the Elmwood district on College Avenue called Ici (French for “here”). Opened by Mary Canales, graduate of Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant, all of the ice cream is made daily on the premises with the highest quality, freshest local ingredients.

The interior has a lovely European charm, clean and bright, with the current ten or so flavors listed in neat script on the walls. There are a variety of confections and cookies to accompany your ice cream.

Above: Sneaked peek into the back of the store where a pile of fresh melons will be turned into something wonderful.

The advantage of having multiple people is that you can try a greater variety of flavors:

Above: Molasses gingersnap ice cream, black cherry ice cream and peach habanero sorbet.

Above: Santa Rosa plum, white sesame praline and peach leaf ice milk

Here are my thoughts on the different flavors:

Molasses gingersnap ice cream: Rich flavor and nice contrast. Ginger flavor was very pronounced. Pleasant but maybe a little too heavy.

Black cherry ice cream: Very fresh cherries capture the flavor of summer along with refreshing vanilla. Very nice.

Peach habanero sorbet: The peach flavor was nicely balanced, not too assertive, with an interesting and unexpected chili bite that snuck in as the ice cream melted in your mouth.

Santa Rosa plum: Just like biting in to a fresh, ripe plum. The bright color was as vibrant as the juicy flavor of the ice cream.

White sesame praline: Such a clean, satisfying flavor with a southern sweetness and a crunch that contrasted nicely with the ice cream.

All things considered, it was worth the effort to take the bus across Berkeley and try this really good ice cream. It was also a pleasure to meet another reader of the blog.

And thanks again to Samantha for her recommendation.

christao408

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

Tag Archives: food