Peter Green

Rona, What were the purple things they had on the appetizers at C&C? Little dumplings glistening with a sheen of fat and stuffed with minced meat and pork. They changed the food colouring to blue a couple of years ago, but I still call them the "purple things" (which is why I can't for the life of me remember the name). Kai, Expect that you'll be paying that $10 or more for a glass of wine, what with the baht skyrocketing lately. $40 is painfully abusive for so-so champagne, though. One option that many places will work with is they'll do corkage. Paying for corkage is painful at first, but once I became aware of the overhead on wines that the restaurants have, I don't mind so much. I'll usually load up on good wines before going into Thailand (but not too loaded, as they're keeping an eye out at the airport). Phone ahead, and ask! Vendome had no problem. At Beaulieu I raised the question (I hadn't brought anything, but was curious), and Herve was a mixed bag. Basically, he wanted to 'vet the wine before he'd say anything. His position was that he didn't want junk wines being brought into his restaurant. And, like I said, start scanning for wine dinners. I'll email Jan and see if anything's on the horizon. (and I still need to find that last email for BedSupper) Cheers, Peter

I don't think you need to worry about a suit and tie in many of the good dining spots in Bangkok, particularly Vendome. Smart, casual is more the norm (although I like wearing a tux from time to time). Biscotti is in the Four Seasons, but it's a nice room all the same, with a great buzz when things click. Not all hotel restaurants should be discounted, and many are just renting space in the hotel premises. Beaulieu is one example, and I admired what Herve was doing. Oh, and a place I haven't tried yet, but people recommend, is Maru over on Thonglor for Japanese. Bed Supper can be fun, but check out what their menu is like on-line before you go. I'm on their mailing list, so I'll see what I can dig up in my in-box. It's got a more notable rep as a club, and is admirable for having survived this long in a town where most clubs have a very short life span. Just remember to bring your passport, otherwise they may not let you in with the current rules. More news as it happens.

The "authentic" part is tough. Most of the "nice" Thai places aren't places Thai would go unless they were chaperoning foreigners. Typical conversation: "Where do you go for good Thai food?" Answer: "my mom's place". The waiters at Baan Khanitha regularly advise me that the food is touristy, and isn't hot enough. The clientelle, given the location, is pretty heavily Japanese at lunch, and farang at night. However, they do enough things well that I don't mind too much. In particular, I like their yam som o (pomelo salad), which has the arguable reputation of being one of the best in town. Likewise, I've always enjoyed their sai eua. I would go to the place on soi 23. There were a couple of outlets on Ruam Rudee, but the one place was too modern looking (and with poor acoustics) and the Curries by Baan Khanitha I found just plain disappointing. Another place I can't vouch for firsthand, but is frequented by some friends of mine, is Kinnaree. It's on soi 8 Sukhumvit. They've been well written up. Cabbages & Condoms (or is that Condoms & Cabbages) on soi 14 is an old mainstay, and can appear a little gimmicky, but they do well with their appetizers. These little stuffed Thai dumplings are way too much work for me to make at home. Their curries are pleasant, and their crispy duck salad is excellent. I've also enjoyed my meals at Baan Laos, way down Silom past the Hindu temple (I won't use the local name, it's somewhat rude). A nice restored house. For Vendome....I love what Nicolas can do. Depending on your timing, lunch is a very good deal. But dinner in the new location is very, very elegant. I should post my shots of our last meal there........ Also, I enjoyed my dinner at Beaulieu....you can check out the write-up here from last October. I also like Giusto (just a bit before Baan Khanitha on soi 23). Fabio does a very nice risotto with foie gras that I always try to fit in. Hmmm.....what else? D'Sens did a nice meal for me, but that was a set piece with Chapoutier. I like Biscotti in the Four Seasons. Oh, check to see if Jan Ganser is doing any wine dinners. In fact, check for any wine dinners, period. Wines are prohibitively taxed in Thailand (a sore point) but these dinners are a good opportunity to have well paired dishes put on at a less exorbitant price. I really should post those January dinners........

Geoff Lindsay from Melbourne would use the water to make a tomato jelly to use in his take on Greek salad. It was a pain for me to do, but I don't have a Superbag.

I checked with the reference source who must be obeyed. Beyond all else, it's just good hygiene. "And you want good hygiene because it prevents you from getting sick". For poultry, your concern is salmonella, which, as she says "won't kill you, but you'll wish it did". A quick rinse can remove a good bit of this, and cooking at temperature will kill the bacteria and denature the toxins. Consider it extra insurance. And don't forget those egg shells. Yoonhi points out that most commercial poultry is likely to have some salmonella present. The baths used on the lines create soups of the bacteria after the first bird through, so you're going to be sharing from then on in. For meats, there's just the general concern that what's on the butchers' knives, blocks, and whatever can easily enough be spread about. For vegetables - especially in the third world - bleach is a relatively easy way to avoid intestinal freeloaders. If you've had a collection of Vietnamese tapeworms living in your stomach, you may change your mind about "organically raised" produce. And for cans....when the cans come off the line, they're sterile. After that, it's anyone's bet. While I argue that heating the food is going to negate any bad stuff, Yoonhi still isn't too keen on ingesting rat urine, cockroach droppings, air conditioner drippings, or whatever. I've observed many an interesting top of a beer can across the world. I've taken to writing "clean me" in the junk on top of some. Cheers, peter

Just wash them out. They float. I remember sitting with one of my friends at their flat in Cairo. Yoonhi cheerfully dug into a nice bowl of rice his Chinese wife had cooked up. "What're you doing? Picking things out of the rice?" "Oh, I'm just taking out the rat turds." "No! Those are just stones!" "No. No. Stones don't crumble like this after they're cooked." With which she gave a deft flick of the chopsticks to show how things could oft gang agly. I wash my rice quite thoroughly.

Forget the branding. Knives have a purpose. To cut. Find something where the hasp suits your hand, and the balance is comfortable. If it holds an edge, that's a good thing. If it doesn't, and it's cheap, buy another. For more details, check out "Miyamoto Musashi - His Liife and Writings" by Kenji Tokitsu. It's a new set of translations, and relates well to cooking (and other things).

Two good slices of bread, some mustard, and a slab of cold ham. or Two pieces of white bread (the type that'll hold your fingerprints), mayo, cranberry sauce, cold turkey breast from Thanksgiving dinner's leftovers, and a bunch of salt. or A really good baguette streetside in Phnom Penh with that mystery meat the Vietnamese do, slathered with their approximation of mayonnaise (which you hope hasn't been out in the heat for too long). What more can one ask for in this life?

Favourites (venturing off topic from Pils)......that's tough. Beers are like friends, it's good to have a lot you get along with. Beer Lao (that was obvious) Bier La Rue in Vietnam (which was the original brewery in the French days as Beer Lao - you'll recognize the black panther) - like Beer Lao - you can drink it warm. Budvar (but I haven't found a lot of it outside of Mongolia) The cream bitter at the Londoner in Bangkok. It's a compromise bitter between the North and South of England, but I like it. Brewerkz Singapore's XIPA and MoGwai. The XIPA is everything you want in an IPA, and then overhopped, and the MoGwai has a deep maltiness that's intriguing. Bowen Island Blonde - just a nice blond Hophead - a good sitting around Vancouver beer Eumundi - I still have fond memories of this beer while driving down the coast of Oz Fuller's London Pride Tetley's Leffe blonde and Pauwel Kwack in Brussels (or Calgary) and any framboise in Brussels I'm actually kind of partial to Hite in Korea, although I don't know why. I used to like Crown, but I don't think it exists under that name anymore. La Fin du Monde and the Maudite (the Quebecois may actually make better Belgian beers than the Belgians) Guiness - but seldom after 9:00 a.m. Those are the ones that come to the top of my mind, which probably means that if I don't have to check my notes, they've gotta be my favourites.

Sissies. It was 43 centigrade out here today. I found a new sous vide method. Leave your lunch in the cooler bag locked in the car all day (uncovered parking). (Okay, I'm off topic....but it's hot)

3 people 1,000 Sterling The Square (in London)

I don't think it matters much what the temperature is, I'm always in a full-flow sweat when I eat hot pot. On the bright side, I don't have to salt the broth as I go!

Beer Lao. The story I had back in the early 90's was that, when things changed hands, the Lao got lucky and the boys from Pils Urquell came in from the Eastern Block to look after things. The result is (in my opinion) probably the best beer you can get outside of a microbrewery in South East Asia (I am partial to Brewerkz XIPA and Mougwai in Singapore). This started showing up in Bangkok last year. Before that, one of my friends was working in Lamphun and getting a case a week delivered from across the border (somehow). On the street in Bangkok - in cans - it was quite good, and tasted like it does in Laos. But in Penh it tasted off. I don't know if that is due to poor storage, or if they were adding formaldahyde to help keep it for export (like the Egyptian beers in the 80's). The dark was new when I went back, but quite satisfying. Best option is to fly to Vientiane and get it on tap. But, if it's being exported to Canada or the US, I'd like to hear about it!

I'm sorry you're stepping down, Ah Leung. I very much appreciated your help with the Vermin thread. Cheers, and all the best in your endeavors, Peter

Thanks, Shalmanese, I've loved your threads! And I'm buying me a blowtorch this weekend!

Okay, Yoonhi had some words to say to me when I woke her up to make panchan. Panchan is anything served with rice. But namool is specifically about prepared vegetables. Chigges and soups are not panchan, and neither are Chinese-style noodles, but chapche caused her to furrow her brows in consternation for a second (and stop hitting me) and she said it could be panchan. And then there's anju, which is anything served with alcohol. And things can be both panchan and anju, depending on which they're served with. I could ask her what happens when you have rice and alcohol together, but this could lead to more violence at this hour of the night.

I like it when they put out the blanched spring onions that they've tied in a knot. Dip those in the sauce.......I wonder if it's too late to make Yoonhi prep some?

Now I'm getting hungry.

What's galbi jim doing on the panchan list? And I don't see meruchi, those little fishies. And there's no roasted gim (nori)

The WGF gets under my skin, and I have to look for ways to let off steam as I count down the days until September 9. In preparation I started rooting through my old cooking class notes, my travel notes, and my pantry to see what I could get my friends to endure. (I suppose I could post this under “Dinner” but the rules of that call for more immediacy, and I’m too darn lazy to get things up fast enough – no rude jokes, please). First up was fried river weed from Luang Prabang (which I forgot to shoot). This gave people something to nibble on while they watched me make a fool of myself over the oven. I like the thickness to the weed, and the crusting of sesame and garlic. Everyone bites into it expecting nori, but what they get is quite “thicker” in the delivery. Sitting down to the table we started off with Geoff Lindsay’s take on a Mediterranean salad. This was from WGF7 last year. It’s effectively a Greek salad, but with watermelon added to the mix of olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers, imparting a sweetness and lightness that isn’t normally there. What I also enjoy in this is working the feta into a light, whisked fluffiness with the olive oil and capping the dish with this, rather than cubes of feta, which I can find too overpowering at times. What I don’t enjoy, and which Yoonhi doesn’t let me do, is make a jello of tomato water. (I tried it once, and Yoonhi told me what she’d do to me if I made that much of a mess again). Top it all with a drop or two of rose water to get that “Gulf Air toilet” smell, and you’re there. After this I reached back to 2003 and WGF4, when Mick Edwards from Nobu in London did his pineapple soup. I started the day before, enfusing a stock pot of squeezed citrus juices with caramelized pineapple and a selection of spices (cinnamon sticks, chilis, star anise, and whatever else looked good). You squeeze the whole thing out, boil the soup, and then top with two sheets of rice paper, between which you apply your aromatics – in this case cocoa and kaffir lime leaves. Pop the lid on the steamer, and the whole thing seals like a drum. Top with a dollop of ice cream and let the guests punch through. Then I went back to Susan Schafer in WGF7 and looked at her cooking with vinaigrettes, and moved from there to Tom Colicchio’s recipe for braising fish in a lemon vinagrette (Think Like A Chef – Sarah worked for Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern). I used a grouper, which works better for texture (and was the only fresh fish available) served with roasted red bell peppers and parsley for colour, and the oil in the braising fluid works really well with couscous which, which was all the rage last year at WGF7 as Fatema Hal (from Paris’ Mansouria) was also cooking. This then led, in turn, to the main. I started off with an Aussie tenderloin, rolled in black pepper, and grilled over low heat while I messed with the other bits. A local item I like to play with is fuqa, or desert truffles. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a few kilos of these every other year or so (the weather has been difficult), and then Yoonhi’ll spend her weekend cleaning them with a paring knife. We’ve talked about these in the dessert truffle thread under Middle East & Africa, so there’re more details there. I’m lifting a process I’d tried already, inspired by the Four Seasons and Michael Ginor’s liberal use of foie gras in all things. Once the meat is resting, pan fry the foie, then cook the truffles in the “butter”. I cut the tenderloin into respectably thick steaks, and finish these in any remaining fat. I figured these two dishes had loaded up enough fat in everyone’s palates, so we trundled out a G&T sorbet I’d had on the go (details at ). There’ve been numerous fun ices and such at the Fests that I won’t try to attribute this to any particular event. The it was time to finish things. We called upon Alan Koh from WGF6 in 2005 for a green tea mousse – nice and velvety. And then we ended it all with Sam Mason’s basil meringues. For these I really needed egg white powder that I could reconstitute with an infusion of basil, but we had to make do with just really finely chopping the basil. The result tasted very good, but you were left with a slight chewiness that I’d have rather avoided. And at that point, with everything out of my system, I could relax. And try to figure out what I’d do with the pot full of carrots I forgot to cook.

And you only need a 50% grade to get your license. We were on Insadong in Seoul years ago, and I spotted a beautiful old, restored house which was obviously a restaurant. Yoonhi's Korean is, unfortunately, kitchen Korean, as she emigrated at a young age (it's improved as she's been in more contact with other Koreans overseas), so when I asked her about the place her response was "it looks like a restaurant". Once seated inside, we asked for menus and were told they only served one dish - "bogaw" (pardon my spelling). I asked Yoonhi what that was and she went out on a limb. "It's a fish." So we figured, "we're here, the restaurant's here, might as well see what it is". We had three courses. The meal came in several stages. What I remember most was the skin, very rubbery, that came in a soup (this was 17 years ago, and my memory is failing). When we returned home to our friend, she asked what we'd had for lunch, and was horrified. Her father had died from eating pufferfish years ago. But, we were fine, so we must've had one of the guys who did better than a passing grade!

I've had a faggot at St. John. Quite pleasant. From one of my earlier posts: "And then there’s the faggot. Again, stealing from Penguin, this is a “simplified form of sausage, easier and quicker to make at home than a proper one. A mixture of pork offal – liver, lungs, spleen, etc. – fat, breadcrumbs, onions, and flavourings to tast is parceled in squares of caul.” How could I turn that down, I ask you? Even better, it appears that it was ”an accident with a batch of faggots at a shop in Pudding Lane that started the Great Fire of London in 1666.” " The Penguin Companion to Food is an excellent reference for old (olde?) English dishes. It's pretty much indispensible for deciphering parts of Fergus Henderson's menus.

There've been some discussions about getting food that may be "too authentic" (see FatGuy's Turning The Tables thread). I found this article on the Bangkok Post today detailing one case that may just be too local. The Bangkok Post only keeps their articles up for a limited time, so I'll give a synopsis (and leave the names out): Headline: Swedish man found dead after eating spicy som tam Girlfriend says it may have been the food A 40-year-old Swede was found dead in a Thai friend's house yesterday, following complaints of diarrhoea after eating som tam (papaya salad) and sator (stinkbeans). Sattahip police were alerted by (the woman), that her Swedish boyfriend, was found dead in a room in a house in Sattahip district. Ms Sopa and her friend cooked two dishes of spicy northeastern-style papaya salad, one mixed with pudong (fermented crab) and another mixed with plara (fermented fish) for lunch on Friday. They ate the salads with sator, a strong smelling flat, edible bean. (The victim) only tasted a little of the food as he found it too hot for him, she said. After a while, (he) developed diarrhoea, police quoted (her) as saying. She left on Friday and came back on Sunday to find him dead. Sattahip police said even though (she) believed he died of severe diarrhoea, police have not yet concluded the cause of death and will send his body for an autopsy before taking any further action.

The latest update to the schedule just arrived! - Malahov Andrey Vladimirovich from the Pushkin in Moscow is not coming. In his place they have Yuri Rozchov from Vogue Cafe (also Moscow) instead. I don't know anything yet about the place (has anyone on egullet eaten there?) but, as Russian Standard is still running the bar, I have high hopes. - All of the other chefs are still on, and the schedule doesn't change too much. Two of the open slots have been filled: one by Katrina Kanetani from Pier Restaurant in Sydney, and the other by Nicole Krasinski from Rubicon in San Francisco. From what I've found on the net so far, Ms. Krasinski should run a fun class, and the same goes for Kanetani, who's got an excellent reputation. - And I'm very, very happy to see Penfolds back with a "Super Tasting". I'm hoping Peter Gago comes back for this one again. The session they did back in 2003 made wine a lot more fun for me (and we snagged that extra bottle of Grange for our table at the Gala dinner later on.......) - And they're going back to a start-up party! I just don't know the timing on it. I'm hoping it won't interfere with dinner, as the opening cocktail party used to make a great place to meet up with friends and plan out some of the week's tables. - One item of interest, they're running the dinners in Biscotti, Madison, and Shintaro, only. I suspect this is to leave the Spice Market open for the non-WGF guests. - Now, the only thing up in the air are two open slots in the afternoons, in case some more tastings can creep in. Of course, if those stay open, I may have some time to write........ More news as it happens.

What a great idea for a post! What was your take on the flavours? There's always this arguement that your limited in what you can pull off in a pressurized cabin. The wines don't taste quite right, the food seems off to your tastebuds? But can this be treated with the right choices? Are we better off with higher fat content foods (like that excellent duck terrine)? And for wine, is it wisest to stick with champagne, sweet dessert wines, and ports? And what a contrast between the international flights and the one US carrier (Bangkok to Chiang Mai is a pretty short bump, so I wouldn't pick on them. The food looked good, no matter what). I'm looking forward to the rail trip! Cheers, Peter