Peter Green

Getting back to the original question, but limited geographically to the "interior" as we call it..... Got me! But I'm keen on hearing about it! I've spent some very formative months in outside of the Lower Mainland, and I do have found memories of Ukranian food, Western/Chinese truck stops, and steaks I could barely choke down. But that was back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth (or at least the Bennett family). Tell us more!

The Wall Street Journal (of all folks) have this piece on Beer Lao. It looks like we'll (slowly) be seeing more and more of this fine brew. (If only we could get it on tap!....in blue plastic kitchen jugs.......)

I love a happy ending. Please, let's get some shots up. I'm really keen to see how Butler's looks out from underneath the covers.

As I recall, the food in the Taj wasn't bad. I just don't recall any great places....but that was 12 years ago. You're not going to be in Bombay? Trishna's is excellent.

How long did it take you to get the Aronia de Takazawa reservation? When I tried to go there, they were booked 4 months in advance (plus they don't take singles). I'd go to RyuGin. I really enjoyed it, and am planning to go there again in December. ← Great minds drink alike....or was that "think"?

Nathan, Me again. For high end, Shanghai is an excellent stop. 1. Pail Pairet's place,Jade on 36 at the Shangrila in Pudong. My friends in Shanghai had all voted this (last year) the chef to try. Given your parameters, if you do one place, do this. 2. T88 is also worth a visit. I had issues with the "nose in the air" attitude of the serving staff, but if you sit at the bar to the kitchen, you can ignore them and have an excellent time with the chefs. 3. I also give a hearty recommendation to M On The Bund. It's not cutting edge, by any means, but the service is excellent, the food is solid, and they've got a line on a very nice Chinese sourced caviar similar to an oscetra out of the West somewhere. 4. And, at the end of the night, you can do Absinthe on the Bund I'll leave the other recs to the board. If you go to only one place, do Jade On 36....for the roots of the city (and Shanghai was very much a European city) this place feels just about right to me. But that's just me.

Nathan, Seoul's a tough play for cutting edge cuisine. Some of the folks I've talked to think it'll still be a few years before you can find what you're looking for there (basically, for some of the kids who are doing home stays abroad now to get some serious experience under their belts and come back and cook). I'd check out zen kimchi for sure, and, of course, Doddie's blog for up to date rec's on where and what to do. You can wade through my last stupid trip to Korea, but have some patience. If I was asked what I really wanted to do as an outstanding meal in Seoul, I'd have three recommendations, none of which are fancy: 1. eat at that beef place Flavour of a Long Time Ago 2. eat at the Cheju-Do pork place 3. go to Garak Sijang, the big market on the south side of the Han, at around midnight, with a few friends and a lot of soju, and take one of the platforms in they have in the middle of the market and just start ordering a lot of food....order it live. Korea in Spring.....that sounds good.

June 28 – late – Gone To Ground Home and unpacked. I’m never certain which is the better feeling…..to stretch out horizontally in a soft bed that’s trained to my contours, to stand under the steaming water of a shower and strip away the grime of travel, or to break the seals on the suitcases and peruse my loot. I’d probably have to go with the loot. I’d done little real shopping, I must admit. Some shirts and pants that I needed, and a book or two (one on Nonya cooking, which was something I’d wanted to look into), and my food haul from Or Tor Kor. We have no restrictions on importing produce, so I look at these hauls as a way of extending my time on vacation. If I can eat like I was in Bangkok for a few more days, and share that with my friends and family, then I’m doing alright. Much of this we’d already covered – edamame from Fuji for Serena. Those plump Chinese sausages, big hunks of white fat under the intestinal lining like teeth in an eel’s belly. A bag of good dried shrimp, not the nasty things I normally get here, but soft, fresh dried bits of shrimp meat. A bag of dried mangos, to assuage the Boy. He’d tried to buy a similar bag in Kyoton in March, but I’d balked at $60. For $7 I can feel good about this. I tossed in some wet jerky for him as well. Fresh ginko nuts to try cooking with chicken. I remembered them this time. And there was some of the fermented pink sausage, pea aubergine, kaffir limes, and chilis.. And a rather incongruous package of smoked ham. This was where I’d messed up in my packing. It was meant to have gone in my hand luggage. I’ve found that, rather than whine about economy class food, it’s a far better alternative just to bring your own. The stewardesses always have buns and butter, so that, with a good package of meat and a glass of red wine is quite a civilized way to pass the time in the Tube in the Sky. And I had my bai cham poo – the leaves for miang kam. I’d looked for those for so long. And those peppercorns and eggplants are heading for a curry somewhere. But I’ll post the cooking in the Thai Cooking section. That’s where it belongs. Regarding the trip, it was more noteable for what didn’t happen. There was no coup. Not yet. We’ll see what the Fall will bring. For now there’s the shadow play of deals being cut, ministers being dumped, and respected outsiders being put in their place (hopefully as more than window dressing). Khao Preah Wiharn – or Wat Phra Vihearn – remains a rather water-logged flashpoint (although you never know how people will turn on nationalist hinges). Surprisingly, Hun Sen comes out of this looking like an elder statesman. Regarding food, I had a number of regrets, chief of which was that I’d left Bangkok. But I suspect there might be issues if I tried to draw my salary without actually showing up in the office. There were a number of places I’d wanted to get to, but ran out of time (and there was that one film party night when I missed a meal ). Hai Isaan sounds quite interesting, over on soi 22, not far from where I was staying. They’re taking an upscale approach to Isaan cooking, looking for the best ingredients and adequate care and attention to the processes involved. They’re starting to show up in more and more references, and I would really like to see what they’re doing. I didn’t get out to the Holland Brewery – the latest venture from Tawarn Daeng. But it’s a long way out, across the bridge. And I’m lazy. Still, I may aim for that for September with my nephew. There’s an Okinawan restaurant out Sukhumvit. That’s a cuisine I haven’t tried, and I’d like to give it a go some time. And YaowaratI need to wander and eat through. It’s been too many years since I was there, and Jok’s has got my interest up again. So little time, so many meals. There. Now I’m done. Next – idle chit chat

"Panicked"? I don't know that I was panicked..... Okay, I was panicked. But, when it comes to leaving in a rush, I've learned my lessons the hard way (Bogota was a case in point). You can panic, but you still need to stay organized. Hmmmm.... can one be obsessive compulsive about panic?

June 28/29 – The Importance of Being Earnest (or whoever else’s name you can come up with when they ask you for ID) Being Andrew, and being Bangkok, we couldn’t very well just call it a night with the conclusion of an excellent meal. Hence, it was out on the razz, which generally involves the consumption of large amounts of shochu, beer, cocktails, and, at some point, things with legs. I find these photos on my camera when I wake up. Things like this bug me. Actually, the cocoon shaped thingies down in the very bottom look to be bundaeggi (silk worms). I seem to recall they tasted a lot better than the ones in Korea, but that could be either the result of the deep frying (“Frying is good” Rona), or the general abuse of our brain cells. We’ll go with the frying. You can tell this was a good night. Now, I did have a plane to catch in the morning. And, being me, I had a number of contingencies in place. 1. The bars are shut down at 1:00 a.m. 2. I had a taxi coming for me at 8:00 a.m. 3. I had a 7:00 a.m. alarm punched into my cell phone 4. I had set the alarm clock in my room for 7:00 a.m. I had some vague recollection of getting home quite late. Quite vague. I opened one eye and stared at the sunlight poking in around the edges of the blackout curtains. Then, after staring at the flashing “12:00” on the alarm clock, I looked at my watch. It was 9:00 a.m. “The best laid plans of mice and men oft gang agley”….and I’m both. The bars did not shut at 1:00 a.m. I had some cloudy recollection of looking at my watch at 2:30 and thinking something was odd. Where’s a police raid when you need one? My bedside alarm clock had lost power at some point, and hence was flashing at me in disapproval. My cell phone was merrily chiming at me from my pants pocket in the other room. And the front desk had booked my taxi for 8:00 at night, so they weren’t in a rush to call. This was really not good. Luckily, I’d travelled light. I told the front desk to get me a car. I unceremoniously dumped the contents of the fridge into the suitcase, having moved all of my clothes into my duffel bag. I did a quick once over of the room, remembered my toothbrush and floss. Did another once. Noticed in the bathroom mirror that I had a cricket legs stuck in my teeth. Got the toothbrush and floss back out. Took care of the chitin. Repacked. Grabbed my last beer, and hit the road. I made it. I do feel real sorry for the guy that sat next to me on the plane. Next – Coda

If you're going for a Northern version, then load up with white peppercorn and balance that against the vinegar. If you want Sichuan, then you'll need to introduce the hot bean paste, and temper back the vinegar and peppercorn, loading up the Sichuan peppercorn for the numbing element. I'm very partial to numbing. From what I've heard, you can get good quality Sichuan peppercorns in the US now. They were a restricted item until recently. Beware of ones that have been too long in shipping. The effect passes with time unless they're sealed and refridgerated. The basic test is to try one raw. If your face does Jim Carey impersonations for ten minutes, it's a good batch.

I must agree on the wine. I found the stuff getting pushed on us in Vienna and the wine route was pretty close to what I could make at home. Did you have chance to try some shmeiz?

June 28 – Blowtorch Would Be An Excellent Name For A Band I like eating with Andrew. I never know where we’re going to end up. Or when, for that matter. Shunbo is his current favourite. Japanese, very low key, only a kanji-laden signboard outside to give you a clue that it’s here, tucked into a little alcove off of Sukhumvit Soi 11 at 33/5 (there, the secret’s out). It’s dark inside, and quiet. Shoes are off, so there’s only the soft tread of stocking’d feet. The space is broken up with partitions, the tables distributed with plenty of space (at least on the ground floor, I didn’t look upstairs). It’s very private. Andrew and I took over the bar. It’s not hard, as there were only four chairs there. And what great chairs! No wooden bar stools, or other quaint furniture. What we had were tall backed leather armchairs, the sort you could lean back into and pass out (more on that later). As you’d expect in a place like this, there were walls of sake and shochu bottles, each discretely tagged with the customer’s mark. I should’ve taken a picture, but it feels intrusive in a situation like this to presume upon another’s bottles. Shunbo is sumibiyaki, which is how they grill their meat – over charcoal. This is something I’m more used to from Korean places in Seoul….and, come to think of it, there used to be a place over on Soi 22 by Larry’s Dive – Korean – that did this, but it would pack out with smoke after about an hour or two. Anyways, the grill’s right in front of us, so we get a good view of everything going out to the tables. The initial impression (for me) is of a Korean place in Seoul transplanted into an exclusive gentleman’s club. But that’s probably just the leather chairs talking. Hakutsuru karakuchi jyosen was our beverage of choice. We figured the big bottle would get us started. They had two versions of the Hakutsuru, but karakuchi sounded cuter, so we went with this (I think Andrew had a firmer reasoning behind the choice than I). An amuse came out for us, a bit of sea borne meat with a sweet plum sauce and fresh spring onion on a bed of daikon. I wish I could tell you exactly what it was, but “fish” is about as far as my memory goes. I do recall that the slight cloy of the dish (not unpleasant) was gone in an instant with the sake rippling it away. Sake is good that way. Heck, sake’s good any way. And now I was into gorging on things I won’t have for awhile. Some fresh scallops arrived with fresh ground wasabi and pickled kelp. Not a fancy dish, not like the scallop with uni we had at the Four Seasons, but a deeply satisfying dish to have while chatting about food with my friend. This combination, with the lime, called for more sake. Andrew and I are, we must admit, jaded. He’s got a good point. The new restaurants that have been opening are good, but they’re not delivering anything “new”. Herve does excellent French cuisine at Beaulieu. I have very good faith that Tim’s place – Butler’s – is going to deliver excellent dining, Fabio does fantastic Italian….. But there isn’t that “different” bit to really grab our attention. Not on a big scale. I’d like to give Ginger the benefit of time right now. I think that there’s an opportunity there, but will that stand on its own, or will it always be compared to what Seiji is doing at Ryugin in Tokyo? Jaded. That’s us. But there are bright spots to get us out of our morose moods. This was one such highlight,; Shimesaba no Aburiyaki – or “saba yang” according to my Isaan waitress who was doing the grilling (a nice bit of Thaipanese that – which in itself is a word I should coin, unless Clavell has already done so). This is one of Andrew’s favourite dishes in town at the moment, and he’s been through a lot of dishes. Just the theatre of the thing makes it worth the baht. It’s a fillet of mackerel, skin on, deftly removed from the bone (okay, I already said fillet), and then blasted just enough to take it away from sashimi. It brings back happy times of wandering through Yaowarat back in the 80s and watching the people grill fish and squid in the alleyways with industrial blowtorch kits. While the fire was burning, we had some tako wasabi delivered, precious little bits of extremely soft octopus in a wasabi tinged ceviche. I like octopus – a lot – and this was another item that brought smiles to my face. And mushrooms, of course, had to be ordered. As this is a grilling place, it was grilled mushrooms with ponzu and shredded daikon. “They lay like toppled, chubby leviathans after a battle, a cloudy shroud over their helmeted faces….” Okay, I won’t quit my day job. The finished sabayang – grilled mackerel – was sliced and presented for our approval. We approved. BK magazine has this in the number one slot of their “Dishes to Die For” list, and rightly so. The meat was only lightly cooked, and retained that intense fishiness I look for in a mackerel. I’ll be back for more of this. If there’s foie on the menu, we’re going to order it. This just glistened cheerfully at us atop the caramelized pineapple (I think that was what that was). And, just as a note, good sake goes very well with foie gras, clearing the fat in your mouth so you’re ready for more. And there was grilled cod roe. I’d been admiring this at or tor kor market earlier in the week, so this seemed like the perfect (and last) opportunity to give this a try. I’m still looking for shiroko. Andrew thinks it may be a New Year specialty, as that was when he’d found it at Hanako on Thonglor. We’d piled out a few weeks later to give it a shot, but it was off the menu by then. I’d say more about that, but it may get distressing for some. And what’s a sumibiyashi joint without pork ribs on the grill? Or pork ribs on the plate for that matter? These were nicely marinated with a bit of gochujang, but not so much that it took away from the simple goodness we call pork. Soft, but with a bit of chew still there to keep your jaw busy. I’m truly in my final meal mode. Anything that looks to be off my menu for the next few weeks is going to show up. They advertised a grilled sausage, so I ordered it. The sausage came alongside some Dijon, bits of red pepper glaring at us from amidst the mousse of meat. A good sausage, with enough fat to keep me happy. And natto! They had natto! I ordered a plate of this, prettier than any that I had in Tokyo (and quite a bit cheaper) and proceeded to chase spiderwebs about the place, the gossamer strands of the fermented beans drifting lazily about, waking Andrew up from the short snooze he was having in his chair while I had been scribbling at my notes. This was a great place for a final sit down meal. Excellent food. Nothing particularly fancy or complicated, but each dish executed cleanly and nigh perfectly. If I had any one thing to take issue with, it was the lack of garlic to roast on the grill. But The service, likewise, was without fault. The combination of Thai service with good Japanese restaurants is a hidden treat (for non-Japanese) in this town. There’s a graciousness that even exceeds that I found in Japan, the result of the natural pleasant nature of the Thai, with the Japanese sensibilities and aesthete strongly imprinted. Plus, the chairs were really, really comfy. Next – These Things Never End Well

There must be a mathematical function to describe the deceleration of my posting with relation to the temporal distance from the events themselves. I don't even have the family about to blame it upon. But, I shall finish, I promise! (Close, so close)

First news in, they did Dalat, and quite enjoyed it. With a bunch of kids who were fussy eaters, and in-laws who need Asian food, they were all satisfied.

Thanks, everyone. Yoonhi's off to Detroit tonight, back in Vancouver next week. I'll let you know what she finally settles on for the Little Green Women night (okay, they don't all have that surname, but it does give it a nice X Files tone).

Yoonhi'll be in the Detroit area later tonight for the next few days (the Girl is doing the Junior Olympics thing). Does anyone have any kid-friendly recommendations for the area near the University (Ypsilanta or something like that?). The thread has been quiet for awhile, but it looks like there's activity bubbling under the surface out there (sort of like Serena's swimming). thanks, Peter

I can state for my part that that may very well be my favourite sandwich. Good bread with lots of grain, fresh greens, the dressed tomatoes, the mangosteens......everything all in, and you get that soft lump of happiness we call foie....okay, maybe that's the French, but it's ours now. As in demonology, possession is nine tenths of the law.

June 28 – The Beginning of the End Andrew was running late. Actually, I’d been worried that he wouldn’t be able to make it, but then I found his text messages on my phone. I’m not particularly good with cell phones. Maybe if they made one with a rotary dial?...... Unfortunately, when I confirmed that he was going to be able to make it, I’d already poured the last of that excellent sake I’d picked up at Fuji. In fact, I’d finished the sake, and was working over the beer I’d stocked in the fridge. One item I’d picked up had caught my eye earlier in the week at Kinnaree – Federbrau. I thought at first it was a tennis thing, but then the feather cleared that up. This wasn’t bad. A fuller beer, more central European in taste and head, with a pleasant flavour (I was never a Kloster fan). It’s brewed in line with the German Purity Law (the ones for beverages, that is). It was a pity that I was finding this on the last day. Thai Beverage, which is responsible for Beer Chang, Maekhong and many of my bad mornings (or afternoons, depending on when I get started), brought this onto the market to compete in the “premium beer” range. Given that the competition in the premium category is the local Heiniken, this shouldn’t be too hard (but if they had to compete with Beer Lao, that would be another matter). I found the Nation and Post’s pieces on the introduction of Federbrau. It was only just released. The marketing VP for ThaiBev gave the usual sound bites, and, I quote “These customers see themselves as "confident, loving freedom, embracing challenges and constantly looking for something special to enhance their sophisticated lifestyles", said the company.” (The Nation, July 25, 2008). Go ahead, enhance my sophisticated lifestyle. Beer has its place (and a very large place it is, right where my waist used to be), but I was worried about not having anything appropriate to entertain with. Time was on my side for once. I ran downstairs, past the san phra phum (with a quick wai), into Robinson’s air conditioning, through the cosmetics section, and downstairs to the liquor store. They had one sake for sale, in a pretty little blue bottle (and a few shochu, but I do have my sensible moments). I grabbed this, paid the bill, and retraced my steps to the room, where I ensconced the bottle in the fridge. And I didn’t even break a sweat. Andrew showed up a little later than planned, but about when he was expected, which worked out well with the drinks. One of the things I like about renting apartments over hotel rooms is that it’s a lot more comfortable entertaining. With the blue bottle I hadn’t been able to tell, but what I’d bought were a couple of bottles of Shirakawago nigori zake (“sasanigori” is what was on the label, which I could’ve read if I’d thought to when I bought it. I’d’ve still bought it, of course. This is similar to what I’d had in Kyoto at Okariba. Shirakawago is a small town up in the mountains of Gifu, with the famous Gassho style houses. I’ll have to leave it to Hiroyuki to fill in the details about the brewers themselves, as I don’t know much about the area beyond the World Heritage architecture. Anyways, we were in Thailand, weren’t we? Andrew showed up as planned, and we quickly worked our way through what we had in the room, catching up on the latest gossip and food news. Plus, as Andrew has moved up the ladder at work, we had grounds for celebrating. You know this isn’t going to end well. Next – When In Doubt, Use a Flamethrower

June 28th – Meet the Neighbors In Bangkok, you’re never alone. There’s always a spirit about who needs to be looked after, provided with his own home (to keep him or her out of yours) and fed on a regular basis. If anything, they should be provided for in a better manner than in this parallel world. Luckily, their requirements are in miniature, so it’s all quite manageable. This is another facet of what I like about Bangkok. The city may seem like concrete, pollution, grit, and packed humanity, with not a spare bit of pavement to walk on, what with all the vendors and motor cycles, but if you look always space for the spirits. In front of Central World, the newest of the mega malls, you find that accommodation has been found for an appropriately grand shrine, with a reflecting pool and space for incense. And these sites are very actively used. It may not be much, perhaps only a brief, respectful wai, but these are always paid their due. (It does make me a little nervous, when I’m driving with my Thai friends around Bangkok and they’ll suddenly let go of the steering wheel to wai a shrine as we pass). In front of MBK there’s a fine new teak san phra phuum and an accompanying san jao tii,. The san phra phuum houses the guardian angel of the land, sitting on a single pillar representing Mount Mehru, while the san jao tii, grounded on pillars (normally four, but here there are six) houses the older spirits of the land. The san jao tii being a reflection of the older shamanistic beliefs. And, of course, there’s the famouse Erawan shrine. This is a san phra brahm, where people can come to bargain for their luck, and pay back for that deal when things come through – with garlands, birds, or dancers. Of the larger shrines, my favourite is probably that of Mae Nak, at Wat Mahabut up at Phra Khanong. You can read the story of Mae Nak (or watch one of the several movie versions) separately. What I like here are how you find dresses offered up for her, a televsion with the soaps running, and plastic toys for her child. Plus, of course, food and drink. Of course, at night, before the lottery, is when it’s the most fun, but that’s another story. And I always have time for the smaller neighborhood san phra phum and san jao tii, with their collections of everyday things to keep their lives orderly and comfortable. This is all governed by common sense, and so a car or motorcycle is now more appropriate than an elephant for their transport. In this spirit house, just outside of my local Robinson’s there’s a can of Fanta (with a straw, of course). For food, I’ll often see sticky rice, fruit, and almost always there’s a shot glass of lau khao, the Thai white spirit with which I’ve had some painful encounters. But you can also see cans beer, a cup of coffee, or any number of snacks. The animist/shamanist parallels are very similar to Japanese Shinto and to the shamanist traditions of Korea, particularly chae seo, the offering of food and drink to the ancestors on set anniversaries (which you also get to eat, after). There, I’ve made room in this travelogue for the phi. Now, let’s return to other spirits. Next - More Spirits, but these are Japanese

June 28 – The Butler Did It I’d enjoyed my time with Tim and Pete at the market earlier, and so, when Tim let me know that they’d be doing some promo shooting on Saturday, I was more than happy to muscle some time around on my schedule. Tim’s new place – Butler’s – is in the bottom of the Gaysorn Plaza, one of the top end malls in Bangkok. That title is carved up between Gaysorn, Central World, The Emporium, and Paragon, and there’s an on going series of renovations at these places as they compete for the title of “who can sell the most handbags. It’s opportunities like this that, for me, make for a good vacation. I find it exciting watching a professional go about his business, especially when it involves the creation of something new. Bringing order out of chaos appeals to the engineer in me. And Tim definitely had a creation to be drawn out of the ether. Tim’s written a bit of this here, and so you can follow some of the early joys. His schedule is frantic, with not months but weeks in which to complete the build, from the ground up, of a new venue. And he’s doing this in a new home, with systems that are, well, alien at times. Okay, it can be like dropping in on Alien Vs Predator 3. But he’s coping well, and does a good job of thinking on his feet, so things are coming along as per plan (with an occasional hiccup). There’d been solid progress (thankfully) in the last few days. When I’d rendezvoused (is that really a word?) here a couple of days ago, the site was an interesting waist high drape, a veil of white under which the construction crew was working stooped over to get the flooring and fixtures down. A look at this, and a quick time check regarding the party for 300 scheduled for the next week, and I would have been in a bit of a panic. It’s good to see composure under pressure. But now, three days later, things were tightening up. The kitchen was functional, there were plates on hand, and there was material available. When I arrived, Tim and Khun Pete were busy at work, getting the dishes together for the shoot going on two floors above in Senses. Tim was frying up sweetbreads and detailing them on the plate, while keeping in touch with the work being done on the food. This was moving at a slower pace than expected, but you hope that pays off in better quality pictures later on. I love sweetbreads. Tim had found these at Villa 33, which just confirms my admiration for that old ex-pat market. The plan for Butler’s is to offer light meals, with a focus on desserts. There’ll be the three course dessert meals, opening with a champagne glass of Thai tea granitee, condensed milk, and mango, then followed by a main, and closed with tea inspired chocolates and a flight of floral macaroons. There’ll be light dishes such as these, too. Sweetbreads and foie gras and ceviches. It makes me want to get back in the kitchen. Watching the plating was fun, as the arrangements were being done up on the fly (almost) with questions arising of the right dish, the daubing of the balsamic, and the amount of cover the greens might shed on the product. An item that took my attention right off was the pan seared foie gras club sandwich. This is exactly what a club sandwich needs, and I’ll be coming back for this. This one wasn’t for the shot, this one was for us. Tim has a very good pedigree, graduating from the CIA and having done a series of solid venues (like Aquavit), before working at Alto and L’Impero in New York, where his fiancée, Khun Pareena, was also working as a sous chef, the two of them circulating between the different restaurants in that group. Mangosteen was a good idea, providing some tangy sweetness to go with the full fat experience of the foie. Tim worked the baby tomatoes up with some vinaigrette to prep them for the sandwich as we chatted over things. Khun Pareena stopped by briefly. In the new setup, she’s handling the front of the house, while Tim is in the kitchen. But here background is also excellent – a French Culinary Institute grad, and she’s worked her way through Per Se, Kraft Bar, Saam, and others before coming into orbit with Tim at Alto’s and L’Impero. Everything in hand, we had a very cheerful looking foie gras club sandwich all ready for the shoot. But it looked too good, so we ate it. But getting a second one ready wasn’t a great hardship. Tim and Pete played about with different presentations. You get kind of tired of white plates after a bit. The board seemed like a good idea, although the wood picks up every bit of oil that passes by. We had it ready, and then took the product up the lift. Then came more agonizing. Upstairs I found that it was Gregoire from BK Magazine who was doing the shooting, and he puts a lot of thought into what he does. The results are very good, so you don’t mind the waiting. As I’d mentioned, I like watching people who do things well. There’s a great overlap in the obsessive positioning and primping of cooking and photography. I do tend to fixate on compulsive obsessions, I must admit. At this point, I had my lunch appointment, but it was close, just over in Central World across the street. My margin of error had dropped from fifteen minutes to three, so I begged off and ran….okay, I walked in an urgent manner…across the overpass. I’ll cover that lunch separately. Once lunch was done, I hurried back to see where things had gotten to. I returned in time for the sweets. I’d missed the river prawn ceviche, but I’dl live. Dessert started with (I believe, my notes are sketchy) a fried banana siding a chocolate mousse, with some cashew praline to crunch down upon. After this came the Thai tea I’d mentioned earlier. Thai tea is Tim’s favourite new flavour. With the mango this was pretty, but there was a lot of work to be done in scraping up the granitee. This was one big container of granitee. But Khun Pete was up to the task. While he worked, I bugged him about his background. It turns out he’s from a restaurant family, his father owning Zanzibar over on Sukhumvit soi 11, a place I’ve enjoyed before. Pete had started working in the kitchens when he was 15, taking time off to go to school in Oz, polishing up his Western cooking skills at the William Blue School in North Sydney. With the dessert, Tim made the sensible choice to bring up partial builds, as the granitee would melt before the photos could be properly framed. This worked out fairly well, as Gregoire had enough material to frame everything, and then, with the temperature controlling the clock, he was able to execute the photos in fairly quick time. It was June 28, and there was a July 2 party to take care of. The restaurant was still a work in progress, but things seemed to be in capable hands. Now we just need to hear back from Tim as to how it’s gone. Me? I had an appointment to keep, so I was out the door and en route back to the flat. Next - Spirit in Da House

Ellen, We need to get back to Kinnaree in September/October, if possible. The only thing I didn't like about it was that I was eating there alone, and couldn't try as many things as I wanted to. I'd say it would be best with a crowd of about eight. And, now, back to our irregularly misscheduled programming.

I'll jump in here with a request, rather than opening yet another thread. Yoonhi (the significant other) is looking for a place for a girls' night out in the next couple of weeks. She wants to take out the ladies of our two families (without the kids), something she likes to do when she's back home. Given the our two familes are quite....well....varied, there are some parameters: 1. Not too fancy. This is meant to be fun, not intimidating. 2. Not Asian, as this wouldn't be as much of a treat for the Korean side (and that limits Vancouver). 3. Someplace either on the North Shore, Downtown, or the West Side, as the defines the axis of habitation of the crowd involved. 4. Nothing vegetarian. We have two Brazilians in the crowd. 5. Did I mention fun? I'm hopelessly out of date with regards to Vancouver dining. I liked Chambar, and thought that might fit. Yoonhi's considering that. Is Aurora still good? I did suggest the Ovaltine, and had things thrown at me. Pied-a-Terre is getting good reviews. Is it worthwhile? Anyways, please post some suggestions. Peter P.S. - I hear Moderne Burger finished their renovations! But that might not be quite what she's looking for.

June 27 – Lunch In The Sky Having spent more than my allotted share of the morning with Tim and Khun Pete at the shoot (which I’ll post separately, once Tim gets back to me) I had to race across the street to Central World to try and make my appointment for lunch. Usually Bangkok isn’t a place where you rush, at least not if you want to stay hydrated. But I was eating with Paul and Nick, and Paul was on a fairly busy schedule this day, taking up some of the organizational reins of the Bangkok Film Festival in September (happily coinciding with the WGF! ☺ ) Originally we were planning on eating on Asoke, but my schedule didn’t look like I’d be able to manage that from Rachaphrasong. Luckily, my friends are quite accommodating, so we’d switched to this part of town. The skytrain helps, of course. Our restaurant was Ginger, in the Centara Grand. We’ve been through the debate before of hotel restaurants, normally being leery of them. There’s always that nagging doubt that they’re too conservative, and won’t really go out on a limb with something different. The counter to that, though, is that the hotels have a direct line on work permits, bringing in chefs that would normally have to be more circuitous in taking up professional careers in these parts. And, really, would anyone harbour these doubts if they were in Europe? So, in Bangkok and many other places in Asia, I’m a little more open minded. (I reserve judgement on North America. I don’t eat there enough). I’m also very sensitive to coincidence, as some of you are aware, and tend to follow that scent when it comes up. Ginger had just been comin In this case, at Jok’s, my friend M had been saying very good things about eating here. Later that same evening we shared a table with the executive chef for the Centara Group, Michel Breliere, and I found that their chef at Ginger, Kenji Shindo, had interests similar to Seiji Yamamoto, looking at Spanish influences to adjust his native Japanese creations. Who am I to argue with Fate? (Fate usually wins) I had about a minute to spare as I took the elevator up, taunted by the advertising. “Pan-Asian” always has such sinister 1930’s Japan overtones when I hear it, but in this case I put such concerns aside. The Centara Grand isn’t just a hotel, it’s a convention hotel, and it’s still not really established. That means that there’s going to be a Dawn of the Dead sort of feel about the place if there’s no event happening at the moment. It’s a beautiful venue, with tall ceilings and wide open vistas, all of which goes with that “dining in the sky” (24th floor) sort of feel. But for that very reason you could feel somewhat intimidated if you found yourself sitting here alone. Luckily, I wouldn’t be doing that. Paul would be, though,…..but only for a few minutes. He’d preceded me by only five minutes or so. And on my tail was Nick, who wa also joining us. Oddly, I opted for a dry lunch. Paul had business in the afternoon, and Nick wasn’t quite in the mood. But I did look over their sake selection, and was suitably impressed. A nice collection of jyunmaishus, tarus, namazake, and evening the sparkling sake that Kitagawa san had mentioned back in the Fushimi visit of March. The menu does look really good. It was lunch, and we were on the run, so we decided to go with a number of small plates rather than the mains, but looking at the selection I was tempted. There was a steamed snowfish with a cherry cream sauce that sounded excellent, as well as plenty of foie gras, Japanese pork, abalone, and even a dish of chicken oyster (the soft bits along the spine) with cockscomb. The first to arrive at the table was a poo nim, a soft shell crab with the house’s version of sriracha sauce. Hot, fresh out of the fry, and we could happily chomp through. I like crab like this. All the finger-distressing issues go away, and I just move through the entire beast like a lawnmower. Like Rona says “Fried is good”. Next, I had to have some foie gras. Beurrecks of truffled foie gras with a yuzu miso BBQ sauce. Fried pastry stuffed with goose liver, with that deep earthy smell of truffles. Glass-shard crispy on the outside, and then that soft, fat tone of foie. Braised duck with vegetables and a kareshi mustard sauce. At this point I remembered that Paul was allergic to fowl. While that meant there was more for Nick and I, I did feel bad about the direction my ordering had gone. Curry scented sword fish tataki, with a wasabi mayonnaise, however, made up for this a bit. The fish came across very well, with just a hint of yellow “curry” in the mayo. Laab moo thod was excellent, the pork a little pink inside but very crisp on the skin, and nicely spiced up (with the extra chili up there for me). The spice was good, but could have been a bit more brutal for my tastes. But this is hardly a brutal setting, so it’s more me that’s out of place. And a masaman beef ossobucco curry. Beautifully soft meat, with that thick, rich southern curry in with that sheen of extracted fat. We also ordered the slow cooked pork belly with baby ching chiang cabbage and mizore sauce, but that somehow snuck by my camera with getting shot. I read up a bit more on the chef after the fact. Kenji’s published history is a little thin, but in 2006 he was in Taipei at the Show Restaurant at the Splendor Hotel (I’ve been hearing a lot of good things the last few years about Taipei. I really should get back.) The menu there was, in many ways, very similar to this, working with new Japanese cuisine, Thai and Lao recipes, as well as Chinese and European. At the age of 18 he was working for the Hotel New Otani, where he stayed for eight years, and then fell under the sway of Philippe Jego of Spain, and from that point he started to have a lot of fun. The rest of his story I’m going to have to draw out of him at a later date. Again, not a bad meal. I’d like to come back here in the evening when the place is hopping. It’s a good size, and a lot of the details look really good: like the big aquarium at the bar, the teppanyaki station. And the view makes a good backdrop. It’ll be interesting to see what they make of their rooftop venue, slated to open in a few more months. Anyways, we were on a clock. Paul had to leave first, and I wanted to get back over to Tim’s and see what had happened. Nick and I traded horror stories out through the mall, and then headed our separate ways.

There. The family's been nestled onto a flight that will end with them spilling out into Vancouver, and I have the time to get back to writing. I'll jump just a bit out of sequence, and then we'll get this trip wrapped up (before I start another).