Peter Green

One of the things I’d promised myself I would do would be to either get to Chinatown for some roast duck at Shangralila, or else do FoodImport’s walking tour of the eateries in Saochingcha After a lot of dithering, I was tossed in the direction of Saochingcha, The Giant Swing. The new swing was just erected the week before, and blessed by His Majesty. Three years ago it was found to be rotted and decayed beyond repair, and so new pillars had to be found and consecrated. You can read whatever political allegories into that you want. I actually got a bit of both areas in this outing. We had to drive through Yaowarat in order to get past Sanam Luang to the swing, so I was able to admire what may be the world’s largest Chinatown (and the world’s largest concentration of bird’s nest and shark fin soup joints). As we sat in traffic in the middle of Chinatown, I admired the cheerful posters everywhere that were telling me that today was Car Free Day in Bangkok. I felt much better. We did arrive, finally, at the Swing. Yoonhi admired it for all of about two minutes, read the plaque, and then asked “so what?” “Well, it’s a Giant Swing.” I told her. “It’s got, like, Brahmin cultural heritage and stuff. Why look! There’s a man feeding pigeons!” That bought me about a minute. She didn’t fall for the Elvis spotting, though. “Why are we here?” she asked. “Um, well, I’ve got this guide to small restaurants in the area…..and, well……” “Okay, okay” The first spot went well enough. Shuan Shim was recommended for their beef broth, and it was quite good. Good meatballs in there, too, with the fish balls and fish cake. And the staff were all grins that I was there eating. It’s good to be a source of amusement. After this we didn’t do so well. Some great views, and some interesting looking things, (don't ask) but it took me awhile to find the Khao Niao Korpanich. Okay, it took me ages to find it. And I finally worked it out after standing on a suspiciously familiar street corner in deafening traffic noise. K. Niao Korpanich wasn’t open. As a note to working with this guide: it’s a gem, it really is, and its something I’d like to do with some of my buddies later on. But you need to read Thai. Be prepared for some groping. I hadn’t mentioned the “groping” part to Yoonhi. Just past the khao niao place was another recommended restaurant. It wasn’t until I saw the sign in Thai and English that I realized I was back at Chote Chitr, where’ I’d been last October.. The mee krob is good, it’s what they’re known for, and Halliday had written them up in a famous article that’s attached to their wall, but I’d been here before. I was looking for "new". We had the pork curry without coconut milk, which was actually quite painful And the eggplant, which is wonderfully smokey. I’d had this last time, and figured that Yoonhi would like it. At least they weren’t detailing the dogs nails on the dining tables this time. And Yoonhi was not happy. While I’m ecstatic at the chance to undertake a scavenger hunt, being tired, thirsty, and deafened was not quite how she wanted to spend her last day in Bangkok. I took the hint, we finished our meal, and headed for Tha Chang. This was my one good idea for the day (or at least non-disastrous). By using the River Express, we’d bypass the traffic jams of the city. Sitting in a car for a couple of hours would not make Yoonhi more pleased with me. And the area by the pier is pretty at night, as is the river. Sure enough, someone tried to tell me that I’d have to wait a long time for the boat, but I could rent one of theirs right now. Very cheap. Sure enough, I ignored her, and the boat was there in less than five minutes. A pleasant ride down the river, a bounce up the skytrain, and we were home. And Yoonhi was talking to me again.

Getting back into the sois, we found a local market. More fruits than anything else. But soon enough we bulled our way (well, maybe I was the one doing the bulling) into the “food court”. These places are great. Maybe not as hygienic as the malls, but cheap and cheerful. Fish, chicken, suspicious bags of green stuff. These people have obviously been getting their bananas from my freezer. And here I am perspiring away a dozen or so kilos, and these young ladies are wearing body stockings and gloves while working over the oil. Mind you, they probably don’t have the napalm scars on their body that I do from polenta. I wanted the rice noodles with the happy looking orange sauce. I should look up the proper name, but I’m on a flat out run here. Good fish balls in this, too (hopefully the fish won’t miss them). Like its khao soi brother, this comes with fixings to be added to the dish. The pickles in the middle are my favourite. I probably go overboard with the chili dusting, but my taste buds need to be woken up from time to time. Yoonhi switched the opposite direction, going here for a rice dish, but one that had benefitted from good pieces of stewed pork draped over. Lots of fat and skin, and a pull apart feel. This had us more or less content. Typical market eating. We’d need to walk around a bit to wear it off so we could get in another meal. “I want a massage,” says Yoonhi.

Yup, a Thai cooking streak couldn’t last. Last night it was the risotto, tonight it’s Szechuan. This is part my doing. With all the rooting around, I’m getting a lot of smells. And the one that really twists me off is that of Szechuan peppercorn. I’m an addict. Tonight, two simple dishes that I’d picked up in Chengdu. You’ve probably read it, but you can see the directions in the Chengdu cooking school post.. Kung Pao Chicken and Fried Eggplant. The only real trick to the eggplant is using a flower cut, a cross hatch on the upper side which allows the oil to pentrate deeply into the aubergine. This penetration gives the eggplant a fantastic silkiness, and it also creates more surface area to hold the sauce and the peppercorns it carries. Likewise, the chicken is a good delivery system for more face deadening sensation, as well as a good excuse to indulge in big chunks of good ginger. The eggplant (and mafu tofu) is also my primary excuse for pickling chilis, as all good Chengdu recipes call for oil, peppercorns, and pickled chili. Yoonhi’s just come by and offered me some hot bori. This is a “tea” made from roasted barley, and (almost) as cleansing as beer. It’s not that exciting a colour that I need to take a shot of it…….I told Yoonhi that this was my last night of posting, and she’s bouncing off the walls with glee. But that just means we need to get back to getting more pictures of food up. Give me a few minutes.

Here’s a little place in behind the Dusit. We were just wandering around, and decided to give it a try. Inside, it was pretty typical. A few metal tables, and the main stand for the food, almost as if they'd built the place around an outside hawker stand. They really only had two dishes. I ordered the rice dish. This is a fairlly typical quick eat in Thailand. Mix up to your own specs, and get it in your tummy. Rice, Chinese sausage, egg, onions, papaya, and chilis and more. Yoonhi ordered the Khao Soi. It was edible, but hardly what we were used to from our Chiang Mai time (Faa Ngam Khao Soi, I can still feel that crunch in the mouth and the pickles). But this is just the prelude to getting back into the streets, which I’ll get to after a bit of cooking. (Mutiny’s in the offing again)

Susan, Serena goes to school here with us. The company provides schooling through Grade 9, and The Girl has many more years to go before we set her adrift like her brother. For lunch she'll usually come home, and her babysitter will prepare things for her. Unfortunately, both Yoonhi and I are out, so I can't get shots. Typical lunches for Serena are: - kim bap - ice cream (if we're not watching) - shin ramyen - rice and soup - fried rice actually, it could be just about anything. Leftovers....generally Asian food of some sort. Cheers, Peter

Time is running out for us, and there's still a lot to talk about. One more dinner here at home, and then the wrap up at dawn for me tomorrow (or evening in North America). One topic I'll get to later in one of the venues, I did get a walk through of the new Cordon Blue school that's been opened up in conjunction with the Dusit Thani. I'm going to see if I can get a similar tour through their facility in Korea next week, and that should make for an interesting discussion. And we've hardly touched upon the great philosophical questions of food culture! But maybe I should stick to putting up more pictures of food for now?

That is a stunning shot! Greatness lies in drawing beauty out of the mundane. And it doesn't get more mundane than McD's!

Some folks have been asking about the mechanics of posting, especially given how much we all love working in Image Gullet. Typically, when I’m on the road, I work with my trusty 12” G4. It’s the size of a magazine, and light enough to take on the streets. The new Macs are pretty, and the screens are better, but that extra size bothers me. Some of you may recall that the old boy looked like he was down for the count a little while ago (“made a sound like a dog being skewered on a red hot poker” where the words I think I used), but I was able to resurrect him with a new hard drive and more memory. This is a shot from the Dusit, where I spent my time catching up on the WGF. Right now, I use this machine for posting the images that I’ve stored in the hard drive. The wine, by the way, is the Terrazas de los Andes that was being served with Douglas Rodriguez’ dinner. I’d missed this one, but I’m a big fan of Argentinian Malbecs, so a bottle found its way to me from the Four Seasons. It’s a good wine for sipping, which I did quite avidly, but would be a fantastic wine with a good piece of meat, which is obviously why the Argentinians export so little of it. They’re too busy enjoying it. Solid tannins, and a very well distributed mouth. If I’d been thinking, I would’ve found an excuse to take it over to the Roadhouse and share it with Dana. Life is full of missed opportunities……. Anyways, ror scanning, we use an older G4 tower with a flatbed. I hate throwing away computers, and there’s always a use for them (like allowing the rest of the family internet access while I’m doing this) And for the real work, which includes writing, posting, and my videos that I’ve been neglecting, I run off of a G5. I’m still reluctant to sully my hands with those Intel chips, but the day is coming, I can tell (Scud did get a new 24” iMac for school). So, the way things work, I run through the photos, drop the image size to 640x480, then upload them from the laptop under the appropriate ID. Then I can view them in Image Gullet on the main machine under this ID and get the http path to drop into these Word documents which I can in turn dump into the blog. Is that geeky enough for now?

Shochu You’ve probably cottoned on that I like Bangkok. But there are a lot of places I like. Why always Bangkok. Well, a big part of it is self-fulfilling. Bangkok has an initial attraction for a lot of people. It’s exotic. It’s stylish. The food is excellent. But that goes for other places, too. These all act as the hooks to draw people in, but a lot of fish get close, and are never completely landed. My thesis is that Thailand lands just a few more fish than the others. And these fish attract other fish. I enjoy Bangkok as much for who’s there, as for what it isThe more interesting people (like chefs and writers) who settle here, the more people like them come, and so forth, and so forth. It’s like living in Gurdjieff’s Meetings With Remarkable Men. Except that the women here are just as remarkable. After Le Vendome we were off to visit one of my friends. Let’s call her Y (as I still have to write and ask if I can use her name). I’d met her at the Club a couple of years back. An attractive Japanese lady, single, and working in Bangkok for the last dozen or more years as an entrepreneur. She’s a lot of fun. Passionate about North African cuisine, and continually moving. Always looking for something different to work at. So, she opened a bar. This in addition to her regular business. Busy, like I said. It’s a neat place. Down soi 33 (once known as the Dead Artists Street, but that’s been changing), and then down the first sub soi on the right. You go down the street, past the usual signs for Japanese clubs, and there, on your right is a very chic looking place, very brown, with an inviting wooden bar visible through the window, and no apparent sign. Inside I was just about to ask the Japanese speaking staff if my friend was there, when she popped right up in front of me. How come she looks the same after a couple of years, and I keep on getting older? She’d set this place up as a home away from home for the salarymen in the area, and she’s become very popular, especially with the Kyushu crowd, as she’s catering her bar to shochu rather than sake. Now me, I’m relatively ignorant. I’ve had plenty of the Korean soju (and lived to talk about it), and I’ve had shochu with soda and lime over horse sashimi at Uemasa last year, but I wasn’t really clear on the distinctions. Three glasses were laid out for us. One distilled from potato, another from barley, and the last from wheat. Being a complet heretic, I broke open the small bottle of Russian Standard Imperia that I was carting around, and asked her to have it put on ice so I could compare. The potato came through like some of the vodkas I’ve had, thick on the palate. The barley was a bit lighter, and the wheat was, to me, the cleanest of the three, pulling the feel into the front of the mouth. Y and Yoonhi and I tried the vodka, which had chilled. Very, very clean, but with far more fire (as it has far more alcohol) than the shochu, which runs around 25% in contrast to the vodka’s 40%. The bar filled as we drank, and Y had to leave us to see to her customers. She would great each couple (the came in twos and threes) and chat with them for awhile, before having to greet more people as they arrived. Her grace is part of the secret of the popularity of the place, but also her attention to detail. The glasses, the serving pieces, all have that slight touch of personality that is so important in a place like this. Also, she spends a fair amount of time flitting back and forth to Japan, sourcing shochu, and, just as important in Asian drinking, familiar snacks to go with the drinks. She sent out a pretty little thing of squid for us; grilled with the internals still there, a dollop of mayonaisse to set it off. Many of the Japanese places in Bangkok are fairly insular, and not particularly welcoming to Westerners, but Y made it clear she was happy to see anybody, as long as they were pleasant, so I don’t worry about recommending the place. Things were getting more and more crowded, and I hated to impose any further, so we bid farewell, and made room for those waiting to get in. It’s good to see people succeeding.

I know it's a new one, as the kids and I did considerable damage to the last one when we passed through in January. Unfortunately, Yoonhi had the misfortune to spend her birthday here and not in Bangkok, so no good restaurants. I cooked for her, and did a simple pan roasted tenderloin with foie gras and mushrooms finished off in the excess foie juice to soak it up. I thought the whole-wheat was a nice touch, myself........

Nicolas stopped by the table after dinner, and we chatted a bit, comparing notes on the Fornell dinner at the WGF, and discussing the state of things. For business, the private rooms were the right choice, and a good reason for moving to the new space. It's become very popular now to entertain in these settings, both for business purposes (it's good to have a little privacy when clinching that deal) but also for social reasons. In Bangkok, it's not that common to have dinner parties at home. Excellent food has been available close at hand for so long that the tradition of formal dining at home has not flourished. A private room, however, provides that sense of intimacy for a gathering of friends that may not be accomplished in an open dining area in a restaurant. Plus, you can smoke, if that's your pleasure. Perhaps the only concern with the new place is that the kitchen is a little removed from the dining area, which doesn't allow Nicolas to interact as much with his guests. This hasn't affected the quality of the food, however, so I'm not as concerned as he. We strolled out to the soi, and a taxi was hailed. Yoonhi was happy (champagne does that), we had had something a little different, and now we were ready for something even more different. It was time for shochu.

I have a number of views, none of which are really set in stone. I would never avoid a local cuisine if I had never tried it before. However, once having tried it, if it's not good, I see no reason to stick with it. Example:Mongolia. The only country with horrible food that I really want to return to. How I yearned for a vegetable.....when we returned to Ulan Baator we confined ourselves in a Korean run shabushabu place and had to be forcibly ejected. If the local food is good, and I'm only there for a brief time, I would probably concentrate on that. But I would still have my ears open for anything out of the ordinary. On our China trip, we just missed the top Austrain chefs cooking for the local Chaine in Shanghai. Not only would the food have been something I am not likely to have in the near future, but there's the opportunity to socialize with people of a similar interest in food as I. Also, there is a period with a cuisine when it's all passion and lust, and you can't keep yourself away, coming back panting every meal for more. The danger is in losing that passion. With the cuisines I love, I do have to intersperse other foods, just to keep the texture. In Bangkok we'll try to have one Thai meal each day, and something else to balance. This keeps the fire burning for Thai food, while also keeping variety alive, with fine chefs coming and going in the City of Angels on a regular basis (Keller, Santamaria......these are people that visit and cook!). And, as has been discussed above, at what point does something become "local cuisine"? Los Angeles is reputed to have the best Korean food in the world. Japanese fly to Vancouver for the sushi. The French cuisine in Hanoi is getting more and more attention. The Bund in Shanghai is coming back to its original roots as a focal point of Western dining. I wouldn't miss these for the world. Hmmmm.......I think I've strayed out of my blog again.

Dried chilis, chili powder, chinese bean paste, bonito flakes, fettucine, mouse ears.....it's a mix of China and Japan.......plus they're a Pocky fan (but who isn't).......no hangul anywhere, so it's not Korea......but then again it could be a clever ploy and this is out of NYC...... Hmmmmmm.......

How to show a girl a good time After several days of being on the run, hanging out with my friends, and generally being the social Mr. Hyde to my solity Dr. Jekyll when I’m at home, I decided Yoonhi and I needed a night on our own. So I took her to the Londoner. (“Shades of Sean of the Dead and the Winchester!” you say) Okay, we only went there for pre-dinner beers and a chance to drop off children’s books for Father Joe. That’s another story, and unfortunately not food related, but I will say, if anyone wants to support a good charity, Father Joe’s Mercy Centre is one of them. Besides the hospice to look after the kids with AIDS, they also run upwards of 34 schools for the kids in the slums of Bangkok. Read his book – Welcome To The Bangkok Slaughterhouse by Fr Joe H. Maier – there, I’ve strayed off the food topic. Take me away! Nope, no jackboots at the door, I think I got away with that. Anyways, we had a pleasant couple of beers (their Cream Bitter for me, and the Pils for Yoonhi), I got some fried camembert into Yoonhi to tide her over, and we made some new friends, this an ex-Thud jock who’d taken a SAM in the belly tank and disappeared from his formation over Hanoi. He was going to be doing an interview with The Big Chili magazine, so look for it there. As usual, Yoonhi had to drag me from the pub, but it was in a good cause. We were expected at Le Vendome. I’d chatted briefly with Nicolas at Romain Fornell’s dinner the week before (see the WGF thread for Romain’s cooking), and had promised I’d call. I like to keep my promises. I hate complications when it comes to dining. I’d just told Nicolas to cook what he felt like. We go back a littlle ways (and he’s very tolerant of me). I remember when he’d first come up from Singapore, and had started at the Four Seasons. Then he cooked that wonderful Riviera Dinner in Madison’s as part of the next WGF. Then, in one of my finer moments of inebriation, I had tumbled into an auction that saw me with his services for a dinner of 8 in a very large suite atop the Four Seasons. After, he opened Le Vendome, which is one of the top French restaurants in a town that worships French cooking (okay, they’re polytheists – the Thai worship a lot of cooking, but French cuisine is something they do admire a lot – somebody remind me to write a brief bit on the Cordon Bleu school in Bangkok! I did a brief walk through.). Anyways, I’m wandering. Nicolas, last year, had moved from his spot at the Conrad to a place on Soi 31 (beside the Eugenia Hotel). We were there for lunch at the tail end of the Laos trip, and I covered that meal here ). Go through my other threads, and you’ll find Le Vendome as a recurring item. I am fond of the food. So, we dropped down from our cab to find Nicolas waiting for us at the gate. The yard with the pool looks wonderful in the evening gloom. I love the way water plays with light. Nicolas sent over the carte to our hotel the next day (I forgot to pick it up), but let me post it here as a roadmap. We were early, especially by Thai hours, so we had the place more or less to ourselves. The private rooms were booked out, and families were to-and-fro from there, but the main dining area was ours for the short term. We’d brought a bottle of Moet & Chandon 2000 vintage, and they gracefully put this on ice. I always figure that champagne is a safe bet for any meal. While that chilled, we started with a glass of Pinot Gris each. The ham was still there, taunting me, but I turned my steely gaze elsewhere. The opener took me back to the dinner in the Rachadamri Suite. An egg,with the most elusive of tastes hiding in there. It reminds me of the pods in the first Alien movie, but with a much better palate. The carte describes this as a steamed hen egg, but there was the flavour of truffles in there, lurking on my tongue. The ravioli that came next was as good as Fornell’s class' macaroni. Foie gras raviolis topped of with a slab of pan roasted foie, with a beautifully emulsified sauce of mushrooms and foie gras. Thick, solid, very frontal. I like foie gras. The champagne was appropriately chilled at this point, down around 8 centigrade. It had the right feel, like a baby’s skin, rich with milk. The slow cooked turbot had a wonderful texture. I believe it had been sous vide’d. But the piece of crispy lard really took my attention. With a good champagne, this was just fun…and then the langoustine jus in the bottom…..with the taste of artichokes and leeks…. As you know from tonight’s dinner, we like risotto, and this was perfect. Just the right texture on the carnoli, truffle oil in there to bring the fats forward in your mouth. And the pigeon came away with that carnivore’s pull…. I had some more champagne. After the solid fats of the confit, Nicolas sent around a sorbet to cleanse. Again, “red” is my favourite flavour. And then the main came out. A wonderfully blackened pot with the pigeon, the beans, roast garlic – as attractive as jewels to us, and onions. The potatos, infused with thyme and a hint of truffles, were served in cups on the side. This was like a good wine, I couldn’t help but lean over and put my nose in the pot (luckily, I have a very large nose). It seemed such a shame to take the food out of the pot, but I suppose it was for the greater good. Dessert was very, very good. Remember I said that I wasn’t a dessert guy? I take that back. As long as there are truffles in the dessert. This chocolate soup beat the truffle ice cream at T8 in Shanghai hands down. The picture below is all we could shoot. sorry! And we, and the champagne, finished up on the little gem of a dessert. I'll write more about this, as I chatted with Nicolas after dinner. But it's late now, and I actually do have a day job to get to.

Bruce, the fresh green peppercorns taste hot like black peppercorns but, funnily enough, greener and sort of pop in your mouth releasing the heat in a clean burst, without the crunchy dry flavour of the balck ones; comparing fresh with pickled, the same difference as fresh vs green chilis....hope that makes sense ← Most women say I'm a lot fresher when I'm pickled...... Along with the drool icon, we need a Groucho Marx icon!

It’s Saturday evening. I’m running out of time. We had a mutiny. The family wants something other than Thai food for dinner tonight. Back from vacation, we’ve fallen into our “schedules”. Today, Serena had swimming right after school, then Yoonhi and I have karate, then Serena has ballet and jazz. It’s a little light, as baseball hasn’t started for her yet. Intermediate snacking consisted of the French oven treatment for some of the cha siaobao we keep in the freezer (you saw them in there). It’s not as good as when we first pull them off the steamers, but they fill the gap. For the main course tonight, I figured risotto. This way I could stealth in some of the flavours I like. I chopped the onions up, pulled out some brown chicken stock to thaw, and cleaned the tobiko mushrooms I’d brought back from Thailand. I toyed with the idea of using some Chinese sausage and coriander, too. To me, the tobiko mushroom is sort of the Hello Kitty of the fungus world. I changed my mind on the sausage for the risotto, and put off some sticky rice to steam with it as a later-on snack. The coriander went back in the fridge. I’ve dropped in the excess black Thai fungus from last night, and some dried scallops I found in the pantry (did we talk about those?), and the tobikos are in at this point The risotto itself went okay, although I missed having Serena around to do the stirring. It’s a good dish for the obsessive amongst us. Just all that time stirring, and stirring, and ladling in stock, and stirring….. and, in that Tardis I call a pantry, I remembered these. Sweet Chinese dried tomatoes to fill in around the tomato paste base in the brown chicken stock I used. They dried the tomatos and then set them aside in sugar syrup to sweeten. These are great, and I think they’ve only got an 8% lead content (just joking!). We’d picked these up in Xi’an, I believe. I’d have to go look at the China thread. Here’s my salt of choice for the table. I know it’s been tangential in a lot of shots, but I’ve never really introduced it to you properly. Darned if I can actually taste a difference in pink salt, but I feel so Steingartenerish using it (Note: Jeffrey Steingarten, along with P.J. O’Rourke, is one of my heroes). This is the finished product. I blessed it with butter (but I’d prefer mascarpone) and some truffle oil to complement the mushrooms in there. No parmesan, as it just didn’t feel right. A good flavour, lots of mushrooms, fungus, and earth, with those tomatos lurking around, ready to come out and bat playfully at you (I’m back on Hello Kitty similes). And for dessert, I couldn’t stand seeing those leprous looking bananas in the fridge anymore, so….. Which of you was it that mentioned banana bread?

Bruce, Here's a shot of the pea eggplants in comparison to a small, regular eggplant, and with an egg ("why an egg?" says Yoonhi). I didn't want to open up and take one individual one out, as they'll oxidize pretty quick. For curry, I'm fond of Mae Ploy's sachets, and Nam Jai's little wet bundles. I bring thes back from Thailand, as I'm not happy with the selection here. I'm lazy, so I don't make my own curries that often, as I don't have all the right ingredients. I'll break down and work up the odd stuff for jungle curries, or if Yoonhi's out I'll get enthusiastic and make a complete mess of things (what fun we can have with mortars and pestles!). The brined peppercorns don't work for Thai foods very well. I've experimented in salads. But they're interesting in stews and other things. Cheers, Peter

Peter’s idea of a good night out We started at Reflexions at the Plaza Athenee. This is easy enough to access from the Ploenchit BTS station, so there’s no fear of the 6 p.m. rush hour. A brief (if steamy) walk, and we’re safely past the windows of the Glaz Bar (that wonderful blue…and they’re doing tapas now) and into the air conditioned lobby. I hadn’t even broken a sweat. Yeah, I don’t blame you for not believing that one. Upstairs, and there’s a bit of milling and socializing as we wait for Reflexions to let us in. Some of my friends (the thirsty ones) are already here. On time, we were asked to enter, and, in a perfectly orderly and urbane fashion, queued up to put down our 200 baht for charity (Amcham, which would be the American Chamber of Commerce?). From there we ascended the staircase to the upper room. This is where the Austrian dinner of last September was held, and where we had done the reception for the Chaine dinner the March before. I appreciate the design, more of a loft overlooking the dining area proper, as the air flow allows the space to handle a lot more people than you would normally try to fit in here, even with two of the walls blocked off with tables for the wines. Italthai was hosting the event this evening, but the wines were very much French. There were two whites: Chateau Cadillac Branda 2005, a Bordeaux Blanc – 40%Semillon and 60% Sauvignon Chateau Le Bonnat 2004, a white Graves - 66% Semillon and 34% Sauvignon On the red side, we had three: Chateau Cadillac 2004 Bordeaux Superieur – 80% Merlot, and 20% Cab Sauvignon Chateau Cadillac Cuvee JJ LesGourgues 2004 – 70% Merlot and 30% Cab Sauvignon Chateau Peyros Tradition 2002 Madiran – 60% Tannat and 40% Cab Franc We started with the whites. Both were good. I preferred the first, the Cadillac Bordeaux Blanc. But while the tasting notes talked of “a beautiful, intense, and fruity nose” I found it rather restrained. Still, I found it did fill out the mouth well with good fruit. The Graves Blanc was a close second. A longer finish, perhaps a nicer nose. This would have benefitted from some food to go with it. While we’d been on the whites, a mob scene was growing around the reds. Okay, I exaggerate, but it was clear that a number of our number had parked out on the red table, and weren’t planning on going anywhere. We, however, have the benefit of mass, and so muscled our way in and fisted out a couple of glasses of each to support the smaller members of our cadre. Of the reds, the cuvee was my favourite, with a long finish and good tannins. Flavours back on the tongue and up, and lots of berries. The Peyros was also good, the blend of Tannat and Cabernet Franc getting my attention. A good feel in the mouth, and this had me hankering for some food. The Bordeaux Superieur was not as exciting, although the tasting notes spoke at great length of this one, with the Merlot giving the fruit, and the Cabernet Sauvignon providing structure. But I preferred the 70/30 in the Cuvee. When the wine runs out, it’s time to go. But go where. Well, when you’ve had the pleasure of an elegantly convivial tasting in the company of such a social crowd, it appeared that a slight contrast in texture would be best. Time for a beer hall. We had a new companion in the cell, K, and she had a car. So this looked like the perfect time to check out Tawarn Daeng. This is the famous pork knuckle shot that bemused the Coming Attractions page last week. Pulling up to the tastefully garish building way out on Rama IV, I admired the subtleness of their anniversary announcement. Eight years now! Heck, I haven’t been out here for at least three. It feels older, more of an institution. We’d called ahead to book a table, as they often tend to stick the farang out on the flanks where they can’t get into trouble, instead of up where they can see the stage more easily. They checked our reservations, and then showed us inside to our table out on the flanks where we couldn’t get into trouble. I should know better at my age. But, with a good selection of the Bordeaux grape harvest coursing through our blood, we weren’t about to let things dampen our spirits…..well, perhaps we’d be content enough to use damp spirits…..forget that, I’m becoming incoherent again. Four reasons to come to Tawarn Daeng 1) Beer 2) Food 3) Music 4) Sanuk (or Muaan) I could probably work it up to 5, but after that I get confused. Beer! Tawarn Daeng is in with some Germans, and they brew their own beers. Lager, dark, and a weisss. They also fill them up in the traditional “I’ll take 20 gallons please” dispensers that I so admired in Chiang Mai at the Good View. Except there they were full of Singha, and here I’d gone for a good, cloudy small batch lager. The dark is good, too. For the food, we weighed in fairly heavy. It’s good to have friends to eat with in Bangkok, ‘cause then you can order a lot more. A whole lot more. The green stuff up front is bitter gourd tips. Extremely good, and along with the deep fried morning glory in the pork knuckle shot, Yoonhi’s choices for favourites. Me, I had to order more raw prawns while I could get them. Cockle salad is a treat, and the little vermicelli nests to go with them and the greens are great. We just had to ask that the cockles be well cooked through so that our duds didn’t end up with that blood red stain they can put out (I learned that lesson with a white shirt in Phnom Penh). There’s some more som tam with salted crab. Next best thing to paa daek (I wish I’d brought a tub of that back from Laos, but Yoonhi didn’t think it was a wise thing to put in the suitcase). I found a yam som o (pomelo salad) on the menu, so that had to be brought over. Sai eua (I told you, “creature of habit”). These were serviceable, but not great. At least I didn’t order another plate of canned weenies. The red, evil looking thing under the plate is an oyster salad. The oysters all roiled up in chilis and more chilis. The stuff on the plate is a chilled green you take with the oysters. On it’s own it has almost no flavour, but with the oyster it changes and “flowers” up. Neat. And then we ordered second rounds of the pork knuckle and the prawns and the bitter gourd tips. The music had progressed beyond what I’d remembered. Before it had been the standard Thai rock stuff, with some Luk Thung (country music, but not our country), and a katoey show. Now they still covered the rock stuff, although tamed down a bit, and there was some Luk Thung (but more ballady rather than the twisty stuff I really like, which is more like Khmer music to my ears), but the big deal was the recreation of Hello Dolly, with the boys in their full costumes, people hoisted up in the air and paraded about, and that of course takes us into……. Sanuk! The Thai sense of fun (or muaan, for the Lao speakers). This was sanuk. When they took a break from the stage show, they’d go into the audience and get some of the serving staff to sing, tell jokes, and generally take part. More beer, say I! I made my way through the central throng without having to appear on the big screen, and made use of the washroom. There’s a new addition that makes sense in this place (and which I later saw in other venues): Coming back, I almost made it past the mob when I suddenly went bolt upright. Someone had given me a grope. You’d think I was in Wales. And our designated driver got us all home in one piece. There. A classy start. Good food in the middle, and ribald fun at the end. And we have all our original body parts the next morning!

.....does kiiniao mean sticky um, 'poo'? I haven't heard that one....the expression I'm extrapolating from is farang kiinok, (bird poo)the thought lurking behind some Thai smiles describing unattractive western tourists. ps. the kids and I are great fans of Hayao Miyazaki, beats the Wiggles every time pps. no green papayas within 150 miles of us I'll send you quinces if............ ← We're going to need some help on the etymology here, folks. I think Insomniac is on the right track, but can't confirm. Mind you, a google on "Thai slang" has turned up endless hours of entertainment! Khee dteuut is down as "stingy", so we're getting close. Is there a book out yet on Thai slang? I've got some for Mandarin, Kikuyu, and other languages, but hadn't found one yet for Thai. (Probably banned by the Ministry of Culture)

The Rattanakosin book I had to have. I think I found it in Kinokuniya in the Emporium, and as soon as I saw the little overlain tape labels in there (who went through every copy putting in corrections by hand?) I knew we were destined for each other. Some cookbooks you just like to read, and never really use. Fergus Henderson's Ear to Tail is such a lovely book, so gently written, but Yoonhi goes nuts from the lack of measurements. As for some of the other titles, well, they just show up. And you never know, there may be one great recipe in there somewhere! And then again......

Another dawn, and I fall behind as ever. But late last night was in a good cause. Serena and I were watching Japanese cartoons. Amongst all the to-and-fro of yesterday afternoon, I trimmed the beef we’d picked up the day before, and prepared a papaya. In the Great Pantry Paw-Through I’d turned up this sachet of interesting looking satay powder from Malaysia. As my ears are ringing with “We’ve got to use up more of this stuff,” I figured it would be an appropriate additive. So, the marinade was inchee kabin satay powder, coconut milk, and papaya. The papaya is to get some papene in the system to break down the meat a bit. We’d had some discussion in the China thread over why the bean flour in Chengdu made the meat so tender. After I had one of my Chinese speakers (or rather “readers”) translate the ingredients, papane was the active enzyme causing the tenderizing. Two good sources for papane are pineapples (which are expensive here), and papayas (which are not expensive here). Hence, being a farang kiinniao (cheapskate foreigner), I opted for papaya. With that settling, Serena and I worked over some eggs and finished off the custard for the ice cream. That just had to cool before I could make Serena work for her dessert. Along with “what we store”, “what we read” is probably just as important. The cookbook section breaks into two areas. This split is based upon the fact that they won’t fit in the kitchen. We try to keep the lighter ones in here, as nobody particularly trusts my carpentry. Cookbooks are sort of like pets. Some we go out looking for, and bring back home, others just appear on the beach one day and stick around. (Khun Malulee’s other two books are there on the right, with their spiral binds) This is a particular gem for Thai cooking, by Khun Wandee Na Songkhla. The recipes are good (there’s one we always use for stuffed crab) and cover all the regions – but of greater importance are the sections on the traditional handling of ingredients – how to clean pork bowel, how to remove unpleasant odours in rice, how to boil lotus leaves, and a treasury of Thai home kitchen information. I don’t know how available this book is. Inside it’s full of corrections that have been hand applied with stick-em tapes. The ISBN is 974-86722-7-1 My only wish is that the binding was better, as this is getting so much use that I know the pretty little book is going to be a pretty little collection of loose leaf pages in a few more years. The other cookbook repository is just outside the kitchen, and it hosts the heavier tomes (although not the lesser used ones, as I pull a lot of these out more often). And, of course, they’ll be more books weighing down the house in other locations, but they don’t pertain so much to food. Let’s take a look back in the kitchen now. Susur Lee’s carrot and coconut chutney is boiling down. This’ll be the sauce for the satay, after it’s done the merry-go-round in the blender. There’s a hint of chili in there, but not too much as I want Serena to eat this. I cleaned the prawns for the salad, and stocked the heads. I don’t have a use for the stock today, but you never know when you’re going to need it, so we just stock by reflex. Cooking with Alcan. I’ve got two packets of prawns, one grilling/steaming with chili paste, and one without for the girl. Food on the table. Man the hunter has returned with burnt meat offerings and a carrot-coconut-chili chutney as an accompaniment. And the girl and her prawns (what a wimp). And here’s the prawn salad for Yoonhi and I. And as the coup de glace (sorry) we have ice cream infused with lemon grass, kaffir lime leaf, and galangaa, topped with candied dried galangaa. And dessert led into Paprika, probably one of the oddest Japanese cartoons I’ve seen in a long, long time. But that’s another story. Gotta go to work.

I don't use the Skytrain in Vancouver much (we're on a Kitsilano-Downtown- North Shore routing when we're home), but they struck me as very similar.....except I don't remember video screens incessantlyl screaming at me in the trains when I rode in Vancouver. (although I liked the low-fat milk commercials they were running last week....well, maybe only for the first 100 times) The BTS link doesn't say much about equipment, but something in the back of my head remembers seeing Bombardier's name in the Post back in the late 90's when the BTS came on line. However, Siemens is in on this, and I'm seeing a lot of Siemens/Bombardier in the googles, so it may be a joint venture between the two. Trains run well, though. And they're air conditioned!

Was Khun Malulee as sweet as she looked in her picture? I always had a crush on her (don't tell Yoonhi). I don't see the bus routes on Nancy's latest (23rd edition) map. I know they were there back in the late 80's and early 90's as they calmed us down immensely when the bus would heave off in some strange direction because it couldn't go up Sukhumvit. Otherwise, once the meter taxis came out and I didn't have to fight over fares, I have not stepped foot on a bus for ages. It was usually faster to walk. The noodle carts can only be stopped with a steak through the buta gas container. The sois are still alive with the sound of bubbling broth, don't fear. The Oriental is still regarded as the height of fine dining with The Normandie, and Lord Jim's has had an extensive renovation and looks pretty good. You know, there's a string of other restaurants in there - Sala Rim Naam, China House, and Ciao - that are all quite good, but they just get overshadowed by these two. My only wish is that there was a transit line closer to the Oriental (okay, there's the River Express, but that's a tough ride in a tuxedo). I've seen some changes in the last 20 years, but when I talk with my expat friends that have been there since the 60's (plus my Thai friends, of course), it's really an eye-opener. Here's a link to Bangkok After Dark from 1967. I read this and then rewatched The Man With The Golden Gun. Roger Moore used to be a skinny Bond! Cool! Cheers, Peter

At the Club I’ve been remiss, and haven’t really gone into all the details we teased you with. The first three teaser photos that went up drew no response, so I figure I’d best give them a bit more detail. Let’s talk about lunch at the club. The Royal Bangkok Sports Club. The entrance to the club is just off Thanon Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross. This sign explains why the Thai look so good. They haven’t been trained to age. It started off in 1901, well over a hundred years ago, when King Chulalongkorn granted the club its charter to operate. By 1903, like all good clubs, they were racing horses. In 1904 they started draining the grounds so that they could get on with other things, such as cricket, golf, and rugby. From that time on, with a brief interrupt brought on by the Japanese (they suspended the races….war is hell!), the club was in constant operation. S.P..Somtow, in his Jasmine Nights, writes of the club and the pool, and its place in the social scene of Bangkok in his youth. As a note, Somtow’s work is fascinating. A musician, a Hollywood screenwriter, a fairly prolific author, and now a writer of operas, he could best be described as the Mozart of Thailand. His book, Dragon Fin Soup, a collection of short stories, has the title story as an item dear to any foody’s heart; a specialty restaurant. I won’t give away any of the plot, other than to say the protagonist is his old friend, Bob Halliday, Thailand’s leading food and music writer for decades. (I would kill to have a collection of his food writings as Ung Aang Talay – Sea Toad – from the Post). There’s a buffet upstairs, but where I prefer to eat is either out here, or just inside in the Air bar. They have very good Thai food here (which we’ll get to soon), and an ambience and history that’s hard to beat. But, back to the food. This day, the weather being fine, my host and us (including my director) sat outside, taking in the beautiful day and the howl of the handheld weedwacker that was being used to trim back the track for the ponies. This was driving the odd frog out of the ditches to bask in the sun. In addition to the regular selection, there was also a special selection on, a group of carts and charming young cooks preparing a variety of Thai dishes. I was particularly taken with the chicken blood for the soup. And the fried dishes looked as good as any tempura. Dessert of fruits, sugar water, and palm hearts (I think). The noodle soup with fish balls, pickled squid, and chicken blood was all anyone could ask for from such a dish. A lovelty pink tinged, broth, like the colour from a body in a large swimming pool. I lick my lips looking at this picture. Everybody likes rice crackers and minced pork. and the rice noodle with beef curry Indian style was not what we’d been expecting at all. I was thinking more like a Southern Masaman, but this, with the egg, made me think of Parsees. Good, though. And when, oh when, dear God, am I going to learn to be more sceptical of Thai “special sausages”? At least once every trip I get ambushed by canned weenies. A yam woon sen was in order. Clear rice vermicelli with burning chilis and lightly tinged prawns. Stir fried chicken with basil (which looks a heck of a lot better than what I cooked up for lunch today – I told you, I can’t get the wok hot enough to get rid of all the fluid). The Club’s version of phad Thai. Light on the eggs, which is fine by me. I’m not as thrilled by the egg encased versions. There’s the lemon grass salad with a fork in it, and of course there would be the usual condiments out and available, as we worked through our dishes. And last to arrive was the grilled pork neck. We caught up a bit on the film industry. There’s may be a review for P coming up in Fangoria close to our December 25 release in the US on Tartan, so you can look for that. And this led to a very good review of how all the money can disappear in the film industry. Quite illuminating. From there we turned to the recent history of Bangkok, catching up on which hotels were used for which ranks during the Vietnam War. The club is very good for this, as you never know who’s going to wander by from that period. And, naturally, the conversation at some point turned to real estate, a growing concern for me. Do I buy or rent? Decisions, decisions. All the stuff of a good afternoon, while the caddies shepherd their wards about the tees, and the staff quietly ensure that everything is done to order. I could grow accustomed to this life.

I'm not certain of any one particular reason. I can see their position from a safety point of view. Right now, the main cause of domestic fires is "chip fires", where "certain groups" of expats leave the oil on hot for their chips (French fries, frites, freedom fries, or whatever you care to call them), and forget to turn it off when they go out. ← I'm confused--why would they be more likely to leave the oil on with a gas stove than an electric? ← Sorry, I'm confusing in the post. The point there was that many people can't be trusted with cooking appliances of any sort, and the risk factor with gas goes way up when compared to electric. (as in large explosions).