Travelogue: Valentine's Day in Thailand

[Peter Green]

Part 15 - Striking a Balance

Sure enough, with midnight ticked over, the price came due.

Enjoying champagne, having fun with boas, and not paying attention, I fractured my small toe on the immobile desk in our suite.

It's always an interesting thing to see your body parts improperly juxtaposed.

But, I have a good wife, and she straightened the toe (my lack of screaming indicated it wasn't broken) and splinted it with blue duct tape.

It's a small price to pay for a good trip like this.

[Peter Green]

Part 16 – You’re Where You Should Be All The Time

It was Sunday.

Is there any question where I would be for eating this morning?

Yoonhi had left earlier to join M for a spa treatment. M had been trying to get the Valentine’s Day special package for two, but it seems you have to be of opposite genders for this.

“That just seems unfair!”

So, rather than waiting for the two of them to finish up, I limped down to Madison.

I’ve written far too many times about this. Check out the last WGF for what I feel is my ultimate brunch strategy.

I’ll just drop in a few of my favourite shots from this one.

New on the selection this time were North Atlantic lobster claws. This is the first time I’ve seen them here.

I’d been dissatisfied with the ikura before, but today they were salty enough for me. And they had tuna roe, as well.

And I can’t get away without a shot of the foie gras four ways.

There.

I restrained myself.

[Peter Green]

Part 17 – Tapping Out

Having gorged to the point of doing a Mr. Creosote, there was obviously only one matter left for our attention.

“What would we do for dinner?”

I blame M. It was her instigation.

Actually, we were debating between Chinese and Thai seafood, and it occurred to us all that it’d been awhile since we’d had a good Thai seafood meal.

So……

Som Boon is fairly well know. They’ve some five branches around town, and M, E, Yoonhi, and I set off for the one by Chula, the Boontadthong branch.

I’d been warned to watch my head, but I hadn’t realized that every one was warned. The piece of styrofoam they’d put on the ceiling, coming up from the car park,was very well dented.

Having paid my karmic due (it had to be karmic, as, with my toe damaged, the burden now rested on my sole) I was delighted to see that I was back on track, having ended up in a Thai seafood restaurant that served sake. Hakatsuru.

They must do a good trade here with the Japanese, as not only did they two or three sake, but they also carried shochu (which probably would have stood up better to the spices in this meal).

I know it’s juvenile, but I can’t help but enjoy finding bits like this.

We started with stir fired bitter gourd tips in oyster sauce (something we always enjoy at Tawan Daeng).

And we had what I think were zucchini stems with garlic.

Raw prawns with nampla, lime, and lots of chilis, lemon grass, and stuff are always a good thing to have.

And soup. We needed soup. The tom yam goong was a nice flavour – slightly soft.

We’d mixed up the prawns a bit by this point. They were looking a lot more fun. I hadn’t noticed the chili paste to go with them before.

The grouper with crispy basil was just plain pretty. And the meat of this fish, thick and fleshy, was just rightwith the spiced strength of the sauce.

The big draw here is the chili crab, though. Our waiter, watching me take pictures, came by for this one and posed the claws.

The sauce is extremely rich, just oozing calories at you, and its one of the joys of life to scoop this sauce onto your rice and chow down.

And the crab meat is pretty good, too (but I hate having messy fingers).

We’d wanted to have the stir fried clams with chili paste. Everytime M&E had been here, though, it was sold out.

.

Today was no exception. We had the grilled mussels, instead. They weren’t particularly interesting, I’m afraid. Still, you hope for the best.

E hadn’t been with the there of us at brunch, and so was still hungry. We ordered another set of the prawns.

And then I hit the wall. My time was done. Like a good rat, I just put my paws over my belly and said, “Enough”.

It was time to head back home.

[Peter Green]

Part 18 – Gone

It was the morning of February the 16th, and time was up. We checked out, packed ourselves into the Four Seasons Mercedes (might as well leave in style, say I), and headed out, with plenty of time to spare.

Or so we thought.

Eleven kilometers from the airport, traffic halted. Well, not really halted, but came to a crawl.

Forty-five minutes and 1 km later, we passed the still burning wreckage of a passenger vehicle.

Remember those LNG containers in the back?

But we’d enough of a margin that we weren’t too late at the airport. There was just enough time for some miso ramen for Yoonhi, and then we were running (Yoonhi ran, I limped very fast) to be the last on board our flight.

And so it ended almost where it began.

With noodles.

[Dejah]

Peter: You're like the Energizer bunny - you just keep going! Another wonderful travelogue. It's always a learning experience reading yours and Rona's posts. Thank you!

[Peter Green]

Peter: You're like the Energizer bunny - you just keep going! Another wonderful travelogue. It's always a learning experience reading yours and Rona's posts.  Thank you!

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Now I have to start listening to non-stop Coldplay and get the London stuff done.

Edited February 21, 2009 by Peter Green (log)

[OnigiriFB]

Wow. Fun filled trip with good food. What more could a woman ask for? Nice to see you return to the City of Angels again again. The love the North so this was a trip I'm glad to have read about. Can't wait too see where else you end up this year.

[Peter Green]

Wow. Fun filled trip with good food. What more could a woman ask for? Nice to see you return to the City of Angels again again. The love the North so this was a trip I'm glad to have read about. Can't wait too see where else you end up this year.

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It's going to be a busy year........

[C. sapidus]

Funny and hunger-inducing is a rare combination, one that you capture with aplomb. I always look forward to your travelogue, and appreciate the time that you put into them.

Cool garden. Did you happen to notice what material they used for the walls of their raised beds? Concrete poured into forms, perhaps?

I like the look of that curry, too. C'mon, you didn’t sneak a taste?

[Peter Green]

Cool garden. Did you happen to notice what material they used for the walls of their raised beds? Concrete poured into forms, perhaps?

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Could've been concrete, that's the best bet, given how clean the lines are. But it had the look of a clay finish......

Man, now I won't sleep!.....

I like the look of that curry, too. C'mon, you didn’t sneak a taste?

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Hey,Bruce! Did you see how fast her hands were moving with that knife?

Rule 15 of romance: keep all your body parts attached