Sunday Daytime

Posted on 26 July 2008 by christao408

Sunday morning dawned overcast and cool, as is often the case in San Francisco. Once Anita was awake, we headed over to Elite Cafe on Fillmore Street for breakfast. San Francisco is a breakfast city, a city awake early enough to enjoy its eggs an endless variety of ways.

One our way over, we passed the Webster Street fire station where the fire fighters were out for morning ladder drills.

Below, outside Elite Cafe

Elite is a New Orleans style restaurant, specializing in Cajun cuisine. For breakfast there were Bloody Marys, Arkansas scramble (eggs scrambled with bacon), corned beef hash, and beignets. No pictures of the beignets, I’m afraid. Ate them too quickly!

On the way back to the car, we passed a beautiful dog with a rather interesting haircut.

The results of some surgery? Or just an overzealous groomer?

Khlong Toei Market

Posted on 8 July 2008 by christao408

Saturday proved to be a fruitful day for blog fodder: blueberry muffins, Khun Nui’s visit, the Independence Day celebrations. I’ll squeeze one last entry out of that day based on the walk from the football pitch to the Skytrain station.

Since the weather was cloudy, breezy and relatively cool, we decided to hoof it all the way to Sukhumvit, a good 25-minute walk. Instead of staying on the main streets, we cut through talat Khlong Toei – the wet market in the Khlong Toei district.

Khlong Toei is a rough and tumble part of town, home to a number of slums that have sprung up on unused land owned by the port authority and the state railway.

Located originally near the abattoir or slaughterhouses, the section of town provided housing for the poor workers. To this day it is still known as place where the poor and destitute live.

Once a year or so, a fire will sweep one of the slums, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of homes and the displacement of thousands of people. Amazingly, they rebuild quite quickly. Sadly, the homes are never any safer.

In fact, there is the interesting story about the work of Father Joe Maier, an American-born Catholic priest that has spend more than thirty-five years working in this community fighting the ravages of poverty, disease, prostitution and drug addiction. Here’s a link to a recent book about his efforts.

Unlike some of the other wet markets in the city, which are listed in the guidebooks as “unique” (but decidedly accessible) looks into the heart of the daily lives of residents of the Big Mango, Khlong Toei’s market sits in relative obscurity.

It is one of the largest markets in the city and if you eat at restaurants or street vendors anywhere along Sukhumvit or in Siam Square, it is certain that at least some of your food was originally purchased at this market.

Let’s take a virtual tour of some of the sights in the market:

Below is a look down one of the long aisles in the market.

By late afternoon, almost everything is closed and vendors have cleaned up and gone home for a few hours of rest before their day begins again in the middle of the night.

The concrete footpaths are still damp from scrubbing. Sunlight filters down through the tarpaulins. The community of shopkeepers is tightly-knit. Friendships are made and families intermarry. True to the Thai ethos, despite the hard work there is always time for some fun. And nothing is more fun that some chit-chat and gossip. Well, except eating!

Above, a view of the khlong – canal – that runs through the market. This used to be used as an open-air sewer, the tides flushing refuse out to the river twice a day. While it still isn’t the cleanest water in the city, shopkeepers are now forbidden to dump anything into it. From what I understand, most of them comply. Quarters are close as houses are tightly packed but this part of the district is by no means the most humble.

Thai Buddhists love pork but rarely eat beef. The taste of Thai Muslims is the reverse. But poultry, below, is a favorite food for Thais of all beliefs. Guaranteeing freshness, you can buy your chickens and ducks alive and kill them yourself at home, or if your condo doesn’t allow that, have them slaughtered and cleaned for you.

The market offers an interesting array of food and no shortage of people who were curious about the farangs walking through their world. I want to go back in the predawn hours, when the market is at its busiest, and see how it looks then. Probably a lot harder to take pictures, though.

If you’re in town, you should stop by for a look. The market is a very short walk from the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre subway station.

Visit by Khun Nui

Posted on 7 July 2008 by christao408

Hot on the heels of Independence Day ponderings and a previous post about families that aren’t as close as cozy as they could be, we have an entry about my mother-in-law’s visit this past Saturday.

Several days in advance, Khun Sudha (Tawn’s father) told Khun Nui (Tawn’s mother – “Khun” being a prefix of respect) that he was joining his friends for some social event all day Saturday. She called Tawn to announce that she would come over and visit us on Saturday. Shortly thereafter, she called me to say that she wanted me to cook for her.

Considering my options, I selected a recipe for blueberry muffins from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook, a.k.a. Baking on the Cellblock. Muffins are a fun breakfast food and, despite the expense of the imported from Australia berries, a worthwhile treat for my mother-in-law.

The recipe is basically a white cake dough: eggs creamed with sugar, add vanilla, then spoon in a mixture of flour, baking powder (of which I need to buy some more – note to self), and salt.

Mix just until moistened, taking care not to over mix. Fold in the blueberries – coat them lightly with the flour mixture beforehand so they don’t sink to the bottom of the muffin – and then scoop into a buttered and floured muffin tin.

After filling the tins, bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.

While the muffins bake, clean out every last bit of goodness from the bowl and eat it with complete disregard for the raw eggs in the batter!

Below: Before and after.

Tawn went to pick up his mother while the muffins were baking. His parents live only about 10 minutes away (when there isn’t any traffic) so by the time the muffins were ready to come out of the oven, Tawn and his mother had returned.

I was fearful that the muffins would stick to the pan, but a little gentle loosening with a table knife was enough to overcome their shyness and they popper right out as if to say, “Hello, world! Eat me!”

Also on the list was a roasted bell pepper fritata.

So easy to roast bell peppers at home using your broiler. Burn them and then thrown them in a plastic container to steam for a few minutes. Peel the charred skins off and then slice and use to add a bit of smoky goodness to your food.

To add some moisture to the eggs, I used cottage cheese. It produces a nice creamy texture and, by adding some additional lumps on top of the fritata, I get a nice browning effect.

Finish with some sliced fresh avocado and you have a good California breakfast on your hands.

Below: Before and after.

Finally, after a flurry of picture taking that caused Khun Nui to arch her eyebrows in a unspoken question, we sat down and ate breakfast.

Above: An artistically-composed show by Tawn and me, Mom and the muffins. Notice that he focused on the muffins.

Lunchtime in Khrungthep

Posted on 4 July 2008 by christao408

Friday afternoon I joined Tawn for lunch near his office. We went to the local talaat nat (regular market), the noontime habitat of office boys and girls throughout Khrungthep. These talaat take different forms, but the one located next to the Ploenchit Ayuddha Bank building is about a quarter-acre of small shops arranged along four alleys, each covered with tarpaulin to keep out the sun and rain.

One alley is exclusively food vendors, small mom-and-pop operations that have their own space or, in some cases, cohabitate in a larger space. This is Thai food at some of its most real: fresh, fast, inexpensive, and full of flavor.

It has to meet the exacting expectations of some of the pickiest eaters in Muang Thai: office workers. Short on time and cash, they are looking for good value for their money. These are not the people who are riding the Skytrain, spending 50 baht each way to and from work. These are the people who are riding the un-airconditioned buses and concerned that fares just raised from 5.5 baht to 8 baht per ride.

Serious value shoppers. If the food doesn’t meet expectations, the shop will be out of business faster than you can stir fry an order of pad thai.

Most vendors are selling prepared gap khao (literally, “with rice”) – curries, stir fries, grilled chicken, green papaya salad, veggies, fried and boiled eggs that are served on a plate with a molded mound of rice. There are also some noodle vendors, who will whip up a bowl of rice noodles to order.

Generally, there is no fried food cooked to order as this would create enormous clouds of smoke and chili oil that would make dining unbearable and result in customers returning to their offices smelling of the restaurant – a definite no-no in cleanliness conscious Thailand.

The vendor at which Tawn and I ate offers many fish and vegetable choices and is also known, incongruously, for their Korean-style pork. They also have a khao soi vendor – the Northern Thai style noodle soup served with a curried broth that is a favorite of mine – which I’ll have to try next time.

The recent price increases for rice have hit the office workers hard: a plate of rice and gap khao cost 25 to 30 baht a year ago. These days it is running 40 to 50. Between the two of us (Tawn was hungry), it cost us 103 baht to eat, not including drinks.

Finding dining space would, at first glance, be a daunting challenge. The dining room is crowded with small tables and smaller stools. Packed shoulder to shoulder, coworkers eat and gossip. Thankfully, turnover is rapid so upon receiving and paying for your plate of food, you’ll find a spot within a few seconds.

From your seat at the table you can order beverages from one of the roving waiters/bus boys. On your way out you settle any outstanding charges with the owner, usually a woman and sometimes a man, who is standing watch over the operations.

The lunch rush is compacted into just 90 minutes, from about quarter before twelve to quarter after one. But by 12:45 the food selections are running out and latecomers can’t be picky.

Afterwards, there is time for some shopping in the nearby boutiques. Each vendor has a space of maybe three meters by four, but sells clothes, shoes, and just about everything else you might need. Bargain hunting is a good way to burn off the calories you’ve just consumed.

Notice the tree in this picture: it is wrapped in strips of fabric and has food, drink, figurines and other offerings at the base of its trunk. I’ve written before about spirit houses and the belief that the land, the trees, and all living things contain spirits. Thais cover their bases when it comes to beliefs, seeing as how Buddhism – strictly speaking – doesn’t subscribe to these animist principles. Here you can see how the tree has been saved and incorporated into the development, and how the spirit or spirits living in the tree are accorded the proper respect by the vendors.

Finally, before returning to the office, there is time to stop at the street vendors at consider which khanom – sweet snack – to bring back to the office to share. Thais know that everything, especially eating, is more fun when done in groups. Whether it is fresh fruit, grilled sticky rice and coconut, little taco-like sweets, or cookies, the bag will contain enough to share.

And that, my friends, is lunchtime in Khrungthep.

Kuppa Brunch

Posted on 4 July 2008 by christao408

Thank you for all the feedback and thoughtful comments on my last entry about Tawn’s father’s birthday. I have realistic expectations and, while optimistic, know that things will progress however far they progress and I haven’t much control over that.

In sort of a poetic irony, though, Khun Sudha will be out of town this weekend and Tawn’s mother, Khun Nui, called me up and said she’s coming over Saturday so I can make her breakfast. On the occasional mornings when she stops by I always make a cafe au lait for her and serve some baked good. Maybe I can make some blueberry muffins.

Stay tuned.

I forgot to include pictures from the brunch with Ian last weekend at Kuppa. The restaurant, which would be completely at home in San Francisco or Melbourne, roasts its own coffee and is located in a former warehouse. The American style breakfasts were okay, but it was the other food that I thought was more impressive. Here are a few examples:

Below: Chai and Ken share a huge bowl of salad – and this is meant to be a side salad! Piyawat’s elbow sticking in on the upper right hand corner, in case you’re wondering.

Below: Tawn ordered a side of oven-roasted vegetables, only to receive this huge plate with a whole onion, a quarter of a butternut squash, a whole potato and nearly a whole bell pepper. Holy side dish, Batman! He barely touched the plate, having a main course on order, so I took it home, chopped it up, and had it with an egg and some tandoori chicken as dinner the following evening.

Below: French Onion Soup, a very nice beef broth (not a pork or beef broth like some restaurants make in Thailand) with sweet onions and plenty of gruyere cheese on top. Very tasty.

Below: Chai went with traditional Thai – gai yang khao niaw – grilled chicken with sticky rice, the most street food of street foods. They served it fancy, with the sticky rice in a chic black basket and a large bunch of fresh herbs.

Another breadmaking attempt goes awry

Posted on 16 June 2008 by christao408

For those of your with broadband, you can watch the whole thing in this three-minute video. For the low-bandwidth version, see below.

You know that I enjoy baking. You know that I’m still on a quest to create a really good loaf of whole wheat bread, a loaf like the ones I bought at Whole Foods back when I lived in the US. And I hope you know that these continual mishaps and disappointments are real, not just staged for your entertainment.

After my last attempt, I felt I had at least arrived at a recipe that had good flavor and good self-rising capabilities thanks to the sourdough starter I’ve been nuturing. The problem was, the loaf wasn’t big enough to fill the pan.

This time I increased the recipe by 50%, approximately how much more bread I needed in the pan to get a loaf big enough for sandwiches.

Somewhere after the first rise I got distracted and decided to bake the bread in my French loaf pan. I don’t know why I didn’t stick with my normal rectangular loaf pan. Changing pans meant that I wouldn’t be able to compare the volume of the new loaf to the old one. But some whim captured my fancy and the French loaf pan seemed like a brilliant idea.

At first, it seemed like a success. After the second rise, I had a beautifully shaped loaf that looked a lot like a real French batard. I was even able to score the surface without any tearing or deflating.

I popped the pan into the oven, added hot water to the cast-iron skillet in the bottom of the oven in order to create steam. (Now you know why there are rust stains in it.)

Fifteen minutes later the aroma of fresh-baked bread began to fill the house. Oh, I just knew I was on the path to success!

When it came time to pull the loaf out of the oven, it was a little dark on the outside – note to self: lower temperature next time – but the internal temperature indicated that it was cooked through.

The problem came when I tried to remove the loaf from the pan. The pan, which has a thousand or so tiny perforations to allow the crust to crisp on all sides, was supposedly non-stick. In fact, a previous loaf I baked in it had pulled away with no problem.

But this time the dough had risen into hundreds of those holes, expanding as the loaf baked and essentially gripping the pan like hundreds of little fingers. I couldn’t remove the loaf!

I tried using a silicone spatula to slip between the crust and the pan. No success. Ultimately, 80% of the loaf came away while 20% stayed with the pan.

The upshot was that despite its hideous exterior, like Victor Hugo’s Hunchback, the loaf contained a complex, delicate, and rich interior that was worth knowing. Especially with butter and preserves.

The downside was that I had to “stew” the pan for several hours over low heat, basting it with water, in order to loosen the lower crust. Even then, I still had to take a toothpick and clean out each of those hundreds of holes, one by one. Next time, despite the claims of non-stickiness, I’m using parchment paper.

The starter is back out of the refrigerator, though, so I’ll try another loaf this week. Stay tuned…

Cooking for Khun Vic’s Party

Posted on 5 June 2008 by christao408

Every so often, Khun Vic invites friends over for a get-together at his apartment. Sometimes it is a poker party, but seeing as how so few of us actually play poker, more often than not it is a simple get-together. Most people contribute by bringing something snacky or a bottle of something alcoholic. No surprise, I contribute something cooked.

Last time we attended a party that I didn’t host, there was too much of the salty, snacky, sweet stuff and nothing substantial. By the end of the evening, Tawn and I were feeling yucky and not because of the drinking. If you invite people over pretty early in the evening, there should be at least something quasi-substantial (cheese and crackers with fruit, for example) to fill your stomach.

Taking matters in my own hand, I bowled over Vic’s objections (“I didn’t want to have to put out utensils or plates…”) and insisted that I would bring some salads. I’m kidding, of course, about the “bowling over” thing. Vic and I talked a couple of times and, ultimately, I wore him down and he agreed that some substantial food would improve his party.

Turning to Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Parties, I found some perfect recipes. Ina believes that parties should be as much fun for a host as for the host’s guests, so she emphasizes recipes that are either easy to prepare or that can be prepared in advance. Since this wasn’t my party and I was a guest, not a host, “prepared in advance” was critical but “easy” wasn’t.

Chinese Chicken Salad

Sure, I know it isn’t politically correct because the Chinese just don’t eat chicken salad like this. But that’s the ubiquitous name of the salad that is dressed with a soy sauce – peanut better – sesame seed oil dressing, which makes it sound more like satay dipping sauce than anything else.

Step 1: Cook the chicken. Ina suggests thighs, which have more fat and, therefore, more flavor. She also suggests roasting the thighs in the oven with the skin on. I like thighs, too, but went with breasts as they were less expensive and I tried poaching just for a change of pace. Below left.

Step 2: Prepare the other ingredients. The body of the salad contains scallions, red bell peppers, and blanched asparagus spears. I blanched the asparagus in the liquid I had used to poach the chicken breasts. Water chestnuts would have been a lovely addition, too, but I didn’t have any. Above right

The sauce was a mixture of the aforementioned soy sauce, peanut butter, and sesame oil, with cider vinegar, honey, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper to taste, and some good-quality vegetable oil to smooth the whole thing out.

Step 3: Combine. Afterwards, I’d recommending refrigerating for a few hours to let the flavors mix and develop.

The second dish was Pasta, Pesto and Peas. For her recipe Ina suggests that you can “cheat” and use store-bought pesto to save time. But with a large bunch of fresh sweet basil selling for only 7 baht – about $.023 – how can I not make fresh pesto? Plus a little extra for the freezer!

Step 1: Prepare all the ingredients. This includes your basil, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and walnuts, and Parmesan cheese for the pesto. Wash the basil leaves and remove them from the stems as the stems will add a rather chunky texture to your pesto.

Step 2: Make the pesto. This is super-easy. The hardest part is washing, drying, and removing the basil leaves from the stems. You start with a small amount of olive oil in the base of the blender and then grind the pine nuts, walnuts and garlic into a paste. From there you start to add the leaves a small amount at a time, adding a little olive oil as necessary to maintain consistency. At the end you can season with some lemon juice (to keep the bright green color) and salt and pepper to taste.

Below, the finished pesto. Lovely, isn’t it?

Step 3: Gather your remaining ingredients. You’ll need lemon juice, mayonnaise, frozen peas and spinach, and of course cooked pasta for the rest of the salad.

You take your pesto and put it back into a blender or food processor (if you made it from scratch, no need to have taken it out in the first place) and add the spinach, making sure to squeeze excess water out of the spinach.

Puree it to blend the spinach into the pesto then add some lemon juice and some mayonnaise. Blend until mixed. This is the sauce for your pasta salad.

Step 4: Mix together. Your pasta is mixed with the pesto-mayonnaise mixture and then add the peas, grated Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. You can also throw in a few handfuls of toasted pine nuts for garnish and texture.

Those two salads took me about two hours to make, but I wasn’t entirely focused on the cooking and was multi-tasking. The results were lovely and perfect for any party.

What’s especially good is that the pasta dish is entirely vegan so it is good for any crowd. And it tastes great, too. Now, if you wanted to add some grilled chicken to it then you’d really have something going. But then the vegans would be unhappy. So would the vegetarians. And the chicken.

Left, Tawn is ready to go to the party in his “school boy” outfit.

We headed out on Saturday evening and arrived just a few minutes late, what we would describe as “fashionable”. Since Vic lives in the Asoke Place complex where we lived until this past December, the guards still recognized us and gave us a resident parking pass instead of the usual guest parking ticket. No waiting to have our host come down to get us as the clerk working the front desk wai’d us and buzzed us in. So nice to be known!

Vic is from San Francisco and is a man who defies stereotypes. There is nothing more demonstrative of this than his big-ass toolbox that he keeps on his balcony, padlocked so his maid won’t steal a monkey wrench. Would you believe that he had this shipped over from the United States when he moved here? It must have weighed as much as everything else he shipped, combined. Next time I need a tool, I know who I’m invited over for lunch.

Above, the party-goers. Sadly, we’re lacking in diversity when it comes to gender and sexual orientation. I’m trying to work on that, but it is a slow process. Since some of these people may not be familiar to you, I’ll let you know who they are. Back row, standing from left: Russ, Jay, Markus, Vic, Brian, Piyawat and Stuart. Middle section, seated from left: Francois, Chairat, Ken and Mark. Front group from left: Tam, Darrin (visiting from SF), Tawn, Kobfa, and Suchai (standing on right).

Starting some starter of my own

Posted on 4 June 2008 by christao408

First off, I’d like to thank everyone who engaged in the exchange of ideas and friendly debate in my last entry. My blog normally doesn’t head into political topics but on occasion I like to express my idea. I find that when people take a deep breath and exchange their ideas on a civil level, there’s an opportunity to learn much more from each other and to be more open to different ideas.

Let’s all keep that spirit of open-minded dialogue as we head into November. Heck, let’s try to keep that all the time.

Let’s turn away from topical things and get back to the subject that is no less partisan and divisive, food!

I’ve been experimenting with sourdough bread as of late, not so much to recreate the sourdough I know and love from San Francisco (funny story, the first time Tawn visited me in SF and he tried the bread, he looked at me with this odd face and told me he thought the bread had gone bad), but just as a way to leaven and make more flavorful whole wheat bread.

The whole wheat bread I buy here in Thailand is just awful. Even some of the hotel bakeries, which cater to Europeans, still make pretty cardboard-ish whole grain bread.

A great website I found – www.sourdoughhome.com – is literally the home of everything sourdough. Some much information and helpful descriptions and explanations from a former bakery owner and baking instructor!

I created my own sourdough starter, basically a jar of water and flour that is allowed to catch its own yeast spores from the air. Over time it begins to ferment a bit and a sour air become more noticeable, picture on the left.

Every twelve hours I remove half the starter and replace is with a 2:3 mixture of water and flower. Then I let it sit for twelve hours or so, during which time it should double in height (picture on the right). Now that it has matured a bit I’ll send it to the refrigerator to hibernate for a few days at a time but I am sure to bring it out and start feeding it again a day or two before I want to make another loaf.

Below, close up of the starter.

My first few loaves had some problems. One just never rose at all. I think I used the started too far along in the 12-hour cycle after the activity had died down. Another loaf looked pretty good but when I pulled the plastic wrap off the top of the loaf before placing it in the oven, I realized I hadn’t oiled the plastic. The dough caught on it, ripped open, and the loaf deflated into a dense brick.

My most recent loaf turned out quite nicely. It still isn’t as tall as I’d like, but since it had a very nice, light crumb inside I think the issue is that the recipe isn’t large enough for the pan. I’ll try again next week and increase the recipe by about a third.

Below, a nice loaf but still a bit short.

There is nothing like the smell of fresh-baked bread in a house, even when the loaf turns out to be a doorstop. My maternal grandmother used to bake quite often and I recall the smell and taste of fresh-baked bread at her house.

Trip to the land of honey part 2

Posted on 29 May 2008 by christao408

After some political interruptions, let’s return to the second part of my trip to the land of honey – the literal translation of Bangnamphung, the location of the nearby weekend floating market.

The floating market isn’t really a “floating” market. Instead, it is a weekend market built alongside the khlong (canal) that may have at one point years ago had some vendors in boats but which eventually was developed by well-meaning local officials into a destination for local tourists.

It is still a fun place to visit, but isn’t the quaint local market that you might envision. Still, there aren’t too many foreigners there. I did see one other but I pushed him into the water so there wouldn’t be any competition.

Some areas of the market sell crafts and products, others sell fresh fruits and vegetables, but most of the market space is dedicated to prepared foods. This is because, as any Thai will tell you, there is absolutely nothing more fun to do than eat! Eat in a group and you’re in an even higher plane of heaven.

Below, Khun Tawn borrows my straw hat as he prepares to chow down.

Here’s a guide to our culinary explorations. First, we enjoyed that tasty snack that thrills your tongue, pak pbed. Literally translated, “duck mouth” or grilled duck beak. Let’s get a closeup of that beauty:

Here’s one of several vendors grilling the delicacy, proof that you can eat pretty much every last part of a duck except the quack.

And did Paul try one? Despite the pose, I wouldn’t count on it! Aori, however, thinks they are the best thing in the world, or pretty darn close to it. They taste smoky and the beak is edible albeit crunchy. The tongue (still intact) is supposed to be the best part. As my paternal grandmother used to say, to each his own.

Moving on to other delights, we have hoy tod or fried mussels. Normally fried in a batch with scrambled eggs, this vendor did a little play on tradition by frying an individual mussel in a half-moon shaped khanom khrug pan with a little egg to make versions of the original dish. Tawn didn’t feel like it was an improvement.

We also had some khao klug gapii, friend rice with shrimp paste served with a variety of condiments including lime, cucumbers, shallots, green beans, chili, scrambled eggs, green mango, dried shirmp, and sweet and sour pork sauce.

Turning to some more traditional Thai foods, here is som tam, the ubiquitous green papaya salad that is crunchy, sweet, vinegary, salty and spicy all at once. A fixture of northeastern Thailand, it has been adopted by Bangkokians as a de facto official dish in part because so many people who live in the Big Mango are from the northeast of Thailand.

Something you can find in nearly every culture, fried chicken wings. I don’t know what they use to season them, but these were incredible.

Our little culinary tour included some flavors of Muslim Thai food, predominately from the south of the Kingdom but brought into the local culinary lexicon by the many small pockets of Muslims who live in and around Khrungthep. Here is gai satay, chicken skewers served with a peanut sauce. The onions and cucumbers, pickled in rice wine vinegar, provide a clean contrast to the sweet richness of the dipping sauce.

Below, the satay vendor prepares an endless supply of satay served with toasted white bread. Note the way the fans are rigged to blow the smoke and smell away from the tables but towards potential customers.

The tables were tightly nested together and this young man behind us almost had to climb over us to get out to buy some ice cream.

This homemade ice cream is made from fresh young coconuts that are locally grown with the scoops served in pieces of the shell that still have shreds of the coconut flesh attached.

Chatting with his family, they encouraged him to try speaking whatever English he has learned in school, but I couldn’t get so much as a “hello” out of him.

Below: Yes, there is actually something floating at the floating market. Here a vendor grills khao niyaw ping, literally “grilled sticky rice” wrapped in a banana leaf and filled either with baked taro root or baked banana.

Actually, the guy doing the grilling is the husband of one of the ladies sitting at the stall onshore and conducting transactions. How he got stuck in the boat, I don’t know, but at least he was in the shade and there was a little breeze along the water.

One final food item was kai nokgrata nam siiyuu, grilled quail eggs (they are boiled first otherwise they would take forever to cook on the grill) served with soy sauce.

After eating our fill and far beyond it, we wandered around the market to see what else was interesting. We saw these seed pods called teen bet naam, which look like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Here I am standing on one of the concrete pathways built above the marshy ground.

The market also included a park area with public karaoke. Anyone was invited to sing and, judging from Tawn’s reaction below, greater discretion should be used before people go on stage and inflict their voices on others.

Despite the lush local atmosphere, the latest security systems are installed to help the police keep an eye on all corners of the market.

Walking back along the khlong to the main road where we would catch motorbikes back to the pier, we saw a group of local children playing in the water and diving from the bridge and the water pipe. Once I started taking pictures and they saw they had an audience, all sorts of derringdo ensued.

On the ferry ride back across the Chao Phraya River, I took these shots of two youngsters:

Lovely helmet, huh? I can’t imagine what good it would do him on the back of a motorcycle but it is the thought that counts, right? Whoops! That was very “naive farang” of me. I should let Thailand be Thai.

That concludes our trip to the land of honey. And, I’ll have you know, I did return home with two bottles of unpasteurized local honey to add to my morning oatmeal.

A braise in Bangkok

Posted on 25 May 2008 by christao408

With all this cloudy, overcast weather as of late – providing a wintry look, if not wintry temperatures – I’ve been in the mood for something braised. A nice chunk of meat, slowly cooked in a pool of simmering liquid until it is just falling off the bone… mmmm, that’s good eating!

Tawn doesn’t eat a lot of meat, so I had to provide plenty of advance notice about our dinner. Thankfully, he was willing to try so long as I also made mashed potatoes.

The recipe was a fairly simple one, adapted from the Junior League of San Francisco’s cookbook. Lamb shanks, aromatics, potatoes, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, and red wine. I was supposed to include parsnips and pearl onions, neither of which I could find at the market.

I started by seasoning the shanks, dredging them in flour, then browning them in an oven-proof pot. This is supposed to be a Dutch oven ideally, but I haven’t one of those. Maybe Santa will bring me one…

After browning, you remove the shanks and cook the aromatics (carrots, celery, onions and in my case, Japanese spring onions and garlic) until they are lightly browned. Add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or so, then add the chopped tomatoes and red wine. Stir well and then add the potatoes.

Partially cover it and then put it into a medium-low oven for three hours or more, turning the shanks occasionally, until the meat is super-tender and loose from the bone. From that point, cook about one more hour so that the connective tissue is fully dissolved.

From there, remove and reserve part of the sauce, and allow the remainder of the ingredients to cool. They can be refrigerated overnight to allow the flavors to develop further. When you are ready to eat, reheat the food in the oven for about an hour or until warmed through.

On the stove, you’ll strain and reduce the liquid until it has made a nice sauce. I added some additional wine and a little beef stock to round out the flavor. I probably should have added the stock to the original dish, but those are lessons learned for next time. Below: the first time I’ve used all four burners!

Finally, after all that work you will have your finished product. Serve it with whatever other dishes you like. In my case, buttermilk horseradish mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus with lemon-olive oil dressing.

The meat turned out delicious and flavorful, although I hadn’t cooked it quite as long as I mentioned above so some of the connective tissues were still connecting. Not a problem, just a little more work with the fork and knife. Still, a very nice attempt at a wintry dinner.

The next day, though, skies were clear and summery again!

christao408

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

Tag Archives: food