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.

The Concrete Jungle

Posted on 26 June 2008 by christao408

Like any major metropolis, Khrungthep stuggles with how to strike a balance between open space and development, between the green of tropical foliage and the grey of the concrete jungle.

Unlike many other cities around the world, Khrungthep’s development wasn’t concentric, built along major roads radiating out from an old center of the city. There is Ratanakosin Island, the historic old city – the royal island on which the Grand Palace and the government ministries are located.

But it is not truly the center of the city. There were never any high rises there, no physical concentration of the population. It was originally ministries and mandarins and to this day has a lower concentration of residents than many other areas of the city.

The pattern of the city’s growth is of old waterways and canals – khlongs – being filed in and paved. Smaller paths – sois – connect to these khlongs and today form the narrow and often twisted backroads that do not make a coherent alternative to the major, vehicle-clogged trafficways.

Thanon Sukhumvit – Sukhumvit Road – was once a road to the suburbs, where wealthy families would build their weekend houses to escape from the traffic and polution of the old city. These days, these same old houses are being hemmed in, right, by condominium developments, quaint reminders of the days when greenery on your property meant a proper garden, not just a potted plant or two on the balcony.

To this day, there is a surprising amount of green in this city, given how little unpaved area there is. This is more a testament to the robust nature of tropical flora than anything else.

Along Sukhumvit, now permanently in the shadow of the Skytrain viaduct overhead, the Metropolitan Authority tries to spruce up the city, planting median barriers with bushes and flowers and trying to bring some green back to the dark monochrome of concrete. Left, there are even billboards with pictures of tropical foliage, in case the real plants aren’t enough. The trees that are there exist only because they provide a screen for the national police headquarters behind them.

In the aftermath of the 1997 Asian economic crisis, the shells of three hundred buildings were left uncompleted, in various stages of construction. These ghost buildings serve as a reminder to us of the pitfalls of an unrestrained lust for development, growth and progress. Sadly, the reminder goes unheeded, as more lots are graded over, trees pulled down, and single family homes meet the bulldozer so more development can occur.

At least this development is “in-fill”, within the existing city limits, not expanding them. Increasing density near existing transit, not encouraging a new generation of car owners. But it is still at the loss of openness and greenery, taking away the lungs we need to scrub this urban air.

Weekend Recap

Posted on 23 June 2008 by christao408

What a busy weekend! It seems that there was so much to do that the weekend went by in a flash. Sadly, along the way I managed to catch a bit of a chest cold so I’m coughing and feel like I have cement in my lungs. Let’s hope a bit more rest clears that up.

We celebrated Tara’s third birthday on Thursday. She’s the daughter of Tawn’s long-time friend Pim, so we were invited to the family celebration held at The Sylvanian, a family friendly restaurant that has a large play area and caters especially to birthday parties.

For a three-year-old, Tara is quite tall and is very vocal about things. Anytime Tawn goes over to visit with her, she asks about me, but then when she sees me in person she gets tongue-tied. Probably because she doesn’t understand either my Thai or my English.

We had a fun time, but when the birthday cake came out and the staff came over to sing “Happy Birthday”, Tara was unsettled by the human-sized rabbit that came out for the singing. I’ve never seen a child climb further into a seat cushion before!

Her Uncle Tawn posed for a picture with the rabbit, but no amount of coaxing would convince her to get near it.

I can understand her concern. Even as an adult I get a little freaked out by these costumed mascots. There’s just something strange about them.

Tawn, being born in the year of the rabbit, saw nothing odd about the rabbit at all. But he’s biased.

Both Friday and Sunday I caught films as part of the annual French Film Festival. This is part of a larger arts festival called Le Fete, which is the largest cultural festival in Khrungthep.

Friday’s film was Naissance des Pieuvres (Water Lilies), a coming of age story about three teenage girls in suburban Paris who struggle with their sexual identities as they become aware of their desires while also trying to conform to peer expectations. It was well made, a bit quirky in the way that some French films are, and well acted. All three of the young actresses have the talent to go on to strong careers.

Sunday’s film was Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), based on the novel by Jean-Dominique Bauby.

American director Julian Schnabel manages to give vision to something almost unimagineable: the true story of Elle editor Bauby, (played by Mathieu Amalric, shown to the left shaving his father, played by Max von Sydow) who was left entirely paralized by a stroke with the exception of his left eye. Seemingly impossibly, he learned to communicate and was able to write the book on which the movie is based.

My original expectation was that this film would be haughty and pretencious, as Schnabel himself is known to be. But it is a gorgeous, touching, and even humorous film that gives a lot of insight into the most trying of circumstances: being locked fully conscious but nearly uncommunicative inside your own body.

Adding to that fine amount of culture was some exercise. Markus and I did a 40-km circuit of the old city, stopping by the construction site of the new Airport Express rail line to check on progress.

I’m fascinated by the machinery they use to lift the viaduct sections into place. I had previously assumed that they lifted each individual section, about 2-3 meters long, and then attached it to the adjacent sections.

But based on what I saw in this picture, it looks like the entire length of 10-11 sections is fastened together on the ground and then lifted into place with this crane.

That seems terribly heavy, but then this is large equipment we’re talking about.

Along the way, we also saw the section of machinery that is being used to construct the viaduct over Asoke Road. The crane is slowly inching its way out over the road, and based on what they’ve done elsewhere, this will be built section-by-section as they can’t afford to shut this major arterial road down for any more than a few hours in the middle of the night.

Our bicycle riding also took us down to the hotbed of political protests: Government House. This is the office of the Prime Minister and we’re back to pre-coup levels of protest and political friction, with rumors running around that we’ll have another coup. The army head has come out and said that the military has no part in politics and that as long as they are peaceful, the protesters have a right to voice their concerns as part of the democratic process.

Just remember, that’s what the previous head of the army said shortly before the last coup.

Below, protesters have baricaded the entrance to a four-square block area around the Prime Minister’s office. We considered entering the area – the protesters invited us to – but figured that there is only so much risk worth taking on a Sunday morning. The last thing I need is a police officer asking to see my passport.

With rainy season fast upon us, we’ve been getting near-daily thunderstorms, often torrential in nature. Compared to the horrific flooding in the American Midwest, the flooding our soi experiences is almost indecent to mention. However, since it is a feature of life in Khrungthep that isn’t “normal” for most of my readers, I thought I’d share this short video with you that shows the post-rainfall water we regularly contend with.

My thoughts go out to everyone who is dealing with real and devastating flooding.

Sidewalks of Khrungthep

Posted on 20 June 2008 by christao408

As the week comes to an end, I want to share with you a recent development in the sidewalk near the entrance to the Thong Lor BTS Skytrain station.

A former classmate of mine, a British man here with his wife and two children, shared his fear that he’d be walking down the street with his family and return home minus one child, what with all the gaping holes in our footpaths.

This rather dangerous situation fills almost the entire width of the footpath and is a result of the excess wear brought on by large vendor carts and motorcycles traversing the path every day, both of which are heavier than the utility covers are designed to withstand.

Hello, Bangkok Metropolitan Authority? I’d like to register a complaint…

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).

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.

Trip to the land of honey part 1

Posted on 26 May 2008 by christao408

Saturday morning Tawn and I joined Aori and Paul on a trip to the floating market at Bangnamphung (literally, “The place of honey”) in Phra Pradaeng. It has been the better part of two years since I last wrote about Phra Pradaeng. It is a near-island created by an excessive bend in the Chao Phraya River, somewhat to the south of the main part of the city. Unlike all the surrounding areas, Phra Pradaeng has undergone minimal development and is mostly covered with banana and coconut plantations. A fantastic place to ride a bicycle, it has more in common with the countryside on the outskirts of the city than it does with the industrial area, port, and financial centers that lie just across the river from it.

We drove down to Aori’s house in Bang Na to pick them up, then continued to a temple at the edge of the river. Parking at the temple is ostensibly reserved only for people coming to the temple – the signs specifically say there is no parking for the floating market.

So we spent some time at the temple first, feeding the cows and water buffalo, praying to the Buddha statues, and donating some money.

This is the first temple I’ve seen that have farm animals. They are there to be donated to needy families in the countryside and you can make a donation and feed them. It was a regular petting zoo although, as Tawn found out, the cows don’t like you to touch their foreheads, above.

The sala or pavilion was right next to the river, open on both sides and enjoying a pleasant breeze. Dozens of adherents were coming and going, making offerings, receiving blessings, and prostrating themselves before the images of the Buddha and several revered monks. I found it curious that this cat was just lying on the carpet, above, unconcerned about all of the people coming and going around him.

A large family arrived all at one in two vans to receive a blessing, above. The monk, in order to be heard, was holding a small microphone – a very modern addition to an ancient ceremony.

The ferry runs about every twenty minutes and carries a lot of traffic across the river, including a lot of motorbikes which are the primary form of transportation on Phra Pradaeng. This is a well-organized system with pedestrians first, followed by motorbikes, then any bicycles. A recording plays just as the boat is landing with a little patriotic music and then announcements about the embarking and disembarking procedures. It sounded more like an amusement park than anything else.

Once we were seated onboard, a stream of about two dozen motorbikes followed us on, above, directed into the correct place by the deck hand, below.

Even on the hottest days, there is a nice breeze on the river. As we worked our way across and slightly up the river, we had a good view of part of the Khlong Toei port area, where all of the oil products are off-loaded. There are numerous industrial plants and factories in this area. I’m curious what will happen in the next few years as the Skytrain extends into this end of town and more and more condominiums and residential developments drive up the land values. Will the factories move and will the area gradually be rezoned?

Thankfully, this polluting smokestack was only running for a short while. When we returned later in the afternoon, the sky was much cleaner.

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow…

Truck Envy

Posted on 24 May 2008 by christao408

Walking down Soi Lang Suan after brunch, I snapped this photo of a young boy – probably not even three years old – squatting on the sidewalk playing with his toy truck. As near as I could figure out, he’s waiting for his father, who is in the cab of the Caterpillar.

What first crossed my mind was that he seemed to be looking on with a certain sense of jealousy, envious of the much larger truck his father had to play with.

Questions that also crossed my mind included, “Why is this young boy just sitting there on the sidewalk while the construction equipment was producing a deafening racket (I had walked with my hands covering my ears until I snapped this photo) as it tore up the street?” Also, “Why is nobody, including the father, wearing any hearing protection?”

Posted on 23 May 2008 by christao408

Sitting here at my computer, even though it is early afternoon the sunny sky has turned as dark as dusk. The wind picks up from dead stillness, rushing through the bedroom balcony and slamming shut the bathroom door before leaving through the living room windows in a furry.

After that brief outburst the stillness returns and the air feels as if it is solidifying. If I wave my hand through it quickly enough, I imagine that water will condense in its wake.

Then the first few drops fall on the open windows, splatting against the panes with ripe fullness before the intensity can no longer be held back and the storm lets go its torrents.

Spontaneous Singing in the Boarding Area

Posted on 21 May 2008 by christao408

Above: Not quite 5:00 in the afternoon and yet the sky is dark as a storm consumes the central part of downtown Khrungthep. Picture taken from the Thong Lo station looking northwest.

According to the guides, charts and historical patterns, we’re a little bit ahead of the normal rainfall for May, which as I understand it, marks the first of the two monsoons (the other is in September, the wettest month by far). For the better part of the past two weeks we’ve had daily rains. Not just the late afternoon thunderstorms mind you, but drizzly, temperamental rains that come at all hours of the day and night. Our power cut out twice yesterday evening and once again while we slept last night, waking us up a while later when the unconditioned room became too warm because the air conditioner had been reset by the power interruption.

The rains are okay by me as they keep the temperatures cooler, especially with the dark clouds blocking out the tropical sun. Sure, you have to plan a bit so you don’t get caught on the back of a motorsai without protection, as Tawn did on his way home this evening. Actually, he had protection, but he sacrificed his sweater to wrap his bag.

I encountered this funny advertisement on, of all things, airliners.net. It is for a British travel website called lastminute.com and as far as I can tell from a bit of research, the advertisement is exactly what it appears to be: a Candid Camera-type moment in which a group of professional actors conduct an ad hoc musical performance in the waiting area at London’s Stansted Airport to the surprise and amusement of those in the lounge.

From my perspective, this is pretty much the story of my life: breaking out in spontaneous song to drive my personal story line forward. Does that happen to you?

christao408

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

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