Category Archives: Asia

by | 01/21/2011 · 11:32 am

I’m Toast

Toast: it's what's for dessert at Suan Luang market

Toast. What’s not to like? Or, more accurately: what’s not to dislike? I think that’s what ends up becoming the main rap against toast. A spineless blob of a person is a milquetoast. And something that’s effectively done, used up, ruined — it’s toast. As in, “you’re toast”. “They’re toast”. “This writing career that never started, it’s toast.” Not that I’m talking about myself, mind you. I’m doing swimmingly, thank you very much. My services are very much in demand. Now please excuse me as I edit these Tops Supermarket Recipe Cards (TM). Deadlines, I haz ’em!

*  *  *

I’m done. You didn’t even notice I was gone, did you? That’s how amazing I am. Why the Wall Street Journal isn’t bashing down my door is beyond me. I can only imagine they are busy setting up the next sap who can be publicly pilloried for more page views on their website. I don’t see what the big deal is. I, too, was raised the stereotypically Asian way (no Bs allowed, no friends, no boyfriends) and look how great I turned out!

What was I talking about? There is no way to link “Tiger Mothers” to toast, is there? See what I did? I linked them anyway! I’m a genius. Or I am still drunk from last night. One of the two. I blame @pmetz and his delicious wine. You gotta watch out for those Luxembourgers.

But as I said, toast gets a bad rap. Toast can be good, clean fun. And although you look at a big piece of freshly grilled toast, slathered with salted butter and doused in the siren call of granulated sugar, and say “I can do that at home”, you don’t, do you? You sit down there on that stool at Suan Luang Market, at that stall with the cow face on it (because milk and toast are inextricably linked in the minds of Thai people), and stuff your face with that sweet, sweet oblivion. And you cry a little bit and churn over past regrets and wonder what Padma Lakshmi is doing, right at that very moment, and if she’s thinking of you, too.

Toast cubes and coconut cream dipping sauces

(Photos by @SpecialKRB)

Yes, toast wrecks your diet. It’s evil that way. It’s that undermining saboteur who poses as your friend, casually mentioning the very worst moments of your life in a crowded room, among polite company, making you want to shrivel up and die. But it’s SO SO good. And the best place to plunge into that sweet oblivion, for me, is on Dinso Road, part of that beautiful loop in Banglamphu that is my favoritest place in Bangkok. It’s called Mont Nom Sod (Fresh Milk Mont) and it doesn’t just offer toast with butter and sugar for 13 baht, but also toast with condensed milk, toast with orange jam, toast with coconut custard (two colors, orange and green), toast with chocolate, toast with creamy corn soup, toast with peanut butter, toast with creamy taro (Mondays only) and toast with creamy pumpkin (full moon days only), all for 20 baht.

 

Toast and drink at Mont Nom Sod

Mont Nom Sod

160/2-3 Dinso Road

02-224-1147

8 Comments

Filed under Asia, Bangkok, dessert, food, food stalls, markets, restaurant, Thailand

by | 01/14/2011 · 7:44 am

Little mysteries

After what seems like a lifetime, I’m back at home, ignoring the wobbling towers of correspondence that have popped up, like furtive mushrooms, all over my house. I’m not ready to deal with Real Life just yet. So let’s procrastinate with a lil’ post before the chore monster intrudes once again!

Hongreeee

(Photo by Marijke Whitcraft)

You know you’re back when you’re at Emporium, minding your own business, and a Hitler-themed music video appears on the monitors, complete with faux-Fuhrer moustaches and synchronized “Sieg Heil” choreography. It’s by a Thai music band named (I’m not making this up) Slur, the song is called “Hitler”, and there’s a disclaimer in the beginning about how they don’t want to “offend anyone” with this video, but, uh, count me (and my ears) offended anyway, which is why I’m not linking to it. What’s next, dressing up as “Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge Trio”? A dance routine in matching Idi Amin costumes? If you’ve done something really really bad and want to punish yourself, then by all means search for it on Youtube. It’s a mystery why people thought this video might be a good idea.

I’ve been busy pondering a lot of little mysteries lately. How can my body stubbornly cling onto its blubbery layer of flesh, regardless of the number of calories ingested? How do you make a lobster bisque using a coffee machine? Why does Winona Ryder go for Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites? Life is blooming with these puzzles, maybe because I’m on a huge Agatha Christie kick and have been reading one mystery after another (yet my Jonathan Safran Foer languishes unread. I go for the real quality stuff, I do).

But today I’m not in the mood to contemplate yet again the mysterious case of Bangkok Glutton and the Disappearing Ankles. I’ve got a new mystery to uncover, literally: What is in those intriguing lotus leaf-wrapped parcels sold streetside on Rama IV?

Lotus leaf-wrapped parcels, so mysterious!

Turns out it’s khao haw bai bua, or “lotus leaf rice” — wrapped in a convenient little package and steamed with gingko nuts, sliced pork, shiitake mushrooms, lotus seeds, Chinese sausage, dried shrimp and salted egg, a substantial hit of starchy flavor. There are two places along Rama IV (roughly across from the entrance to Sukhumvit Soi 22), a shophouse and a stand; the shophouse is the original and called “Khao Haw Bai Bua Lung Chu”.

The rice parcels are 35 baht each, and there are also Chinese-style steamed shrimp dumplings (kanom jeeb), 10 for 30 baht; flat stuffed rice noodles (guay thiew lod), 25 baht; and steamed white Chinese buns (salapao), 7 baht each or 3 for 20 baht. Atmosphere recalls a mix between an old-school Chinese restaurant and a nursing home, so I suggest calling in to take out.

What's inside

Khao Haw Bai Bua Lung Chu

2815 Rama IV Rd., 02-240-1812, 081-242-2533

Open: 8.00-24.00 daily

9 Comments

Filed under Asia, Bangkok, food, food stalls, pork, rice, Thai-Chinese, Thailand

by | 01/06/2011 · 5:46 am

Glutton Abroad: Downtown to Chinatown

Lunch at Crystal Harbour

After my last post, people could be forgiven for mistaking me for a rabidly nationalistic Australian (not true), or a grumpy chubby person (true). Things have changed in 2011. The rain in New Zealand has stopped, the sun is in the sky, swimmers are in the water, and rugby players are on the fields. All is right in the world. Well, except if you are trying to blog on an iPad, which is a bit like writing with a wet squid head (I had to throw one complaint in there. I am, after all, still me).

Yes, I am still in fabulously sun-shiny Auckland, but you wouldn’t know it from what I’ve been eating. Oh, let’s start from the beginning: my parents are here to visit. They are wonderful people, but also very old-school Thais when it comes to their food choices. Rule no. 1: there must be rice, at least every other day. Rule no. 2: chilies, somehow, every day. And rule no. 3: when in doubt, go for Chinese.

Not just any Chinese, mind you. For old-school people like my parents, it must be Cantonese, or nothing at all. I think Thais look to Cantonese the same way British people used to see French food — as the foundation of their cuisine and as the most noble embodiment of cuisine. Naturally, in NZ, there are plenty of Cantonese restaurants, in keeping with the many Asians who have come to live on the Island of the Long White Cloud in the past few decades.

If you are like many people and judge the quality of a chinese restaurant by the number of chinese diners inside, then Enjoy Inn (530 Great South Road, Greenlane) is the place for you. Packed to the gills with Chinese, the restaurant offers good-value dishes of frankly gargantuan proportions, with en emphasis on “crayfish” (basically lobster without claws) and Peking duck (delicious) which is served three ways: meat and skin with pancakes, minced meat with lettuce, and the carcass as soup.

In keeping with the restaurant’s reputation as THE go-to place for the local Chinese community, the waitstaff don’t speak much English, and much gesticulating is needed. Just like in the homeland! But they try very hard, are more pleasant and personable than they need to be, and are prompt and efficient.

Which is more than I can say for Grand Harbour (Pakeham St and Custom St West, Viaduct Harbour). Not to say the food is lacking — aside from the usual suspects, there are alarmingly large crayfish, stuffed with noodles; fresh abalone, sliced thinly and stir-fried with snow peas; and a personal favorite, geoduck. But communicating with the servers (in English) can sometimes be a bit like talking to a box of rocks. Just a wee, tiny bit.

For service that goes all out, look no further than Crystal Harbour (39 Market Place, Viaduct Harbour), distinguishable from its other Harbour neighbor by the flash dining room. Whatever your whim, be it SIX plates of ice cream Mochi (my husband) to an assortment of tofu-like treats (SpecialKRB) to Thai-Chinese flat fried noodles in gravy to finish the meal (my parents), it is fulfilled in the blink of an eye. A bit of a shame the cooking is characterized by, in SpecialKRB’s words, “gentle flavors”. Some real subtlety at work here, unfortunately going over the heads (and tongues) of chili-addled Neanderthals like us. Again, a shame.

This is my last post from NZ, mainly because I am not masochistic enough to post regularly from this #%*+ing iPad (hence the lack of photos for now, sorry SpecialKRB). Happy new year, folks, and here’s hoping 2011 will be great.

(All photos by @SpecialKRB)

Leave a comment

Filed under Asia