Vacation is never about healthy food!

When on vacation, forget your diet and just dig in.

The best way to experience the culture is to do as the locals do. Eat what they eat is the best advice I have ever received and I have never refused it... to an extent.

My favorite places to eat are not high-end restaurants but hole-in-the-wall eateries and street carts that line the main road and the small sois in the CBD.

One such place is Hai Som Tam restaurant on soi Convent. The locals simply refer to it as Som Tam Convent. This is where I had my first (and so far, the best) som tam. I loved it so much that I repeatedly mentioned it in many of my posts.

I arrived the night before Songkran so the Pinoys were on holiday and had a couple of days of get-togethers involving mostly Pinoy food. Not bad, except I was here to escape all that! Durnit.

Babawi ako, shempre! So yesterday, I had a feast with Momsie and Popsie on the last holiday this week. Thank heavens Hai was open.

Thai-philes, drool away!

 

Tilapia roasted while encased in salt - juicy and not salty at all!

In Thai, fish is pla. So you can say this dish was salt-encrusted tilapla. Ay, corny... Uhurm! Moving on:

Thubwan (sp?) - barely-cooked pork liver. Those are mint leaves.

Kha moo yang - roasted pork neck.
Sinfully delicious. That green dip is AWESOME!

Squid and shrimp with ramen-like noodles. I don't like this one, but Mom and Pop scarfed it down.

som tam kai-kem - papaya salad with salted duck eggs.
This is LOVE!

khao niew - sticky rice. On the background is that insanely delicious dip I will most certainly be copying!

Heaven on earth: Roll some khao niew into a ball, dip in som tam dressing, LAFANG!
 

Tonight, I'm going out in search of Khun Chao and his lovely roti - with camera in hand - on soi Phiphat 2. Wish me luck!

What To Eat in 8 Cities - all in a day

I kind of like being here in BKK with Momsie and Popsie. It's my chance to pretend I'm their only child, harhar!

The three of us went to Terminal 21 yesterday - for a photo shoot, what else? Oh yeah, and to have some late lunch too.

Terminal 21 has a food court on the San Francisco Pier area (5th level). It sells most Thai street foods in a sterile mall environment.

kway chap (sp?) - roasted pork, offal, boiled egg, and sheet noodles in pork broth

 

oyster orsuan - tiny oysters cooked in what feels like gawgaw mung bean sprouts and egg

 

I forgot what this is called but it is essentially boiled and fried pork skin - think unpuffed, soft, and tender chicharon

One word: meh.

Mas madumi, mas masarap. That's not to say street food is dirty (really, now?) but I do think the flavors are more alive and robust when you eat it in the grottier places. There's more culture in it, too.

The saviors of this meal went unphotographed: the slushies. Momsie had a berry-banana blend, Popsie had two(!) glasses of ma muang (mango) shake, while I had a guava-grape tomato-strawberry-carrot and God Knows What Else shake. It was gooooooood!

Tomorrow is another day of hitting the streets with my baht in one hand, and a camera in the other.

Market Day!

Because you can't take the market monster out of the Pinay, Popsie and I stepped out this morning to the nearest little market a couple of blocks from the condo.

It's the last day of Songkran so most establishments are closed but some stalls in the talaat were open.

If I were vegetarian, I'd love it here - the food choices are awesome and very affordable. Heck, I'm not vegetarian but I love it here!
 

Lovely vine-ripened tomatoes

 

Mushrooms for the fungophile

 

Mung bean sprouts, katuray flowers, and young corn

 

Sawtooth coriander, coriander/cilantro, parsley, and a bunch of other things I can't identify

 

Spices and dried herbs

 

khanom tweh (sp?) - made from rice flour, it is steamed in those tiny cups. It is a symphony of sweet and salty.

 

Unripe mangoes (40THB/kg), longan (80THB/kg), and giant makopa (wax or Java apple)

 

Mangosteen - 40THB/kg. I ate a whole kilo by myself this afternoon!

 

Rambutan (80THB/kg) so fresh I swear the green spikes were moving (hehehe)

 

Our veggie stash

 I also made a "healthy" omelette for breakfast.

 

Garlic, onion, organic eggs, diced tomato, thinly-sliced asparagus stems

 

Hello, breakfast

Don't be fooled, though... Popsie, Momsie, and I - we had some Bacon Spam with this omelette. =)

Pinoy Fiesta in foreign soil

When Pinoys get together, there are three things that are consistent in those gatherings - regardless of location. This is true even in foreign soil: karaoke, inuman (imbibing alcohol), and food.

Lots and lots of food.

To wit:

pansit bihon chock-full of sahog

 

sweet pork barbecue

 

calderobo - the bastard (and yummy) child of adobo and caldereta

  

lumpiang Shanghai - na wala naman sa Shanghai

There was also sinigang na ulo ng salmon at hipon. Or maybe I should have written HIPON. Do you agree?

 

Major major hipon! The orange thing, not the girl in white =P

There were also not-so-Pinoy stuff but I have no complaints. Everything was awesome!

apple and raisin crumble - so good!

 

grape tomato, basil, mozarella, and prosciutto bites - I had five of these. Not sorry!

 I also stuffed my face with five servings of my favorite Thai dessert: khao niew ma muang!

mango with sticky rice: sweet, salty, sticky, juicy, and extremely satisfying

I am SO glad I have six more days here in Bangkok. I will attack street food next... if only going out didn't mean getting wet and having to wash out chalk from my hair!

How To Make Popsicles the Thai Way

It starts with this contraption. Underneath is a steel drum filled with ice and salt.

 

To the mothership!

 

The popsicle mix is poured into the molds:



Chocolate is the best-seller

 

Tuhog the stick into the center of the molds:

 

Christian makes tusok-tusok the sticks

Cover the contraption and shake, shake, shake it!
 

Popsie and Momsie do the Popsicle Shake

Unfortunately, we didn't have enough rock salt for the ice so the temperature never got low enough to freeze the damn things... but we have incredible desserts and two cakes to satisfy our sweet tooths (teeth?) so this utter failure was quickly forgiven and forgotten.

Better luck next time!



Khun Chao's Roti - three years after

I was ecstatic to be able to have the roti with egg I was (still am) obsessed with.

After three years, I saw Khun Chao and his roti cart in front of his usual spot in Phi Phat 2 - in front of Popsie's former condo.

Of course he does not remember me from 2009, but I remember him. I even wrote about his magic roti powers in 2010 and I'm pretty sure I wrote about him in one of my entries from 2009.

No matter, I got my roti (now 20 THB from 18 THB in 2009) and ate it on the way home - it was hot in my hand and made me forget I was soaking wet from the Songkran craziness with chalk streaked on my face and hair.

No pictures, as I decided not to bring electronics for fear of them getting either soaked or stolen.

More food pics on the next post. :)

Memories of Bangkok - Brain Freeze!

Its not only on the street that good food is found in Bangkok. While I usually steer clear of food chains (I am guilty of succumbing to Burger King once, though), I can't help but wander into shops within the malls.

Gelate's display case

Especially when they sell ice cream! Or in this case... gelato!

Gelate is (was) in Central World, in one of the upper floors. On my first visit, I took my two sisters where we pigged out on Ferrero Rocher, passionfruit (my favorite), and kiwi.

a trio of gelate: Ferrero Rocher, kiwi, passionfruit

They were awesome - creamy and tasted of what their flavors called them! Think of it this way: if you smooshed up Ferrero, kiwi and passionfruit (separately, of course) and then froze them up... you'd get these three scoops of heaven. The Ferrero was chocolatey and hazelnut-ty in a VERY good way. The cleansing, sweet and acidic taste of the passionfruit vacuumed up your palate in preparation for the shy kiwi flavor. Both fruit flavors has their own little seeds (not-so-little in the case of the passionfruit) that I loved crunching down on. This was win-win-win!

Raspberry and vanilla gelate

Being the pigs that we were (my two sisters and I are not called The Three Little Pigs for nothing!), Sissy and I made a return trip a few days later to assault our taste buds some more. This time, we had raspberry and vanilla. The latter was pure perfection: creamy, smooth and flecked with vanilla dots. The raspberry was good too: fruity-sweet, lip-puckering tart and cleansing.

My only quibble: too many seeds. These were not the crunch-able type either. So Sissy and I would scoop up some of the gelato, work it around our mouth - smooshing it against the roof our mouths with the tongue - then unceremoniously spit the seeds out on some tissue. Tsk tsk...

You think that was the end of it? Heck no! The Two Little Pigs (the littlest one opted to stay home and miss out... harhar!) spotted Ete at Silom Central. Ete, the lady at the counter informed me, is French for summer. Makes sense! Hot weather = cold gelato. Bring it on!

We had wanted to try their cookie dough ice cream but they ran out. So we settled on some Rookie Rocky (kind of like Rocky Road meets Cookies n Cream) and Mint Chocolate. I remember the Rookie Rocky more - due mostly to its high chocolate content and the marshmallows. The mint chocolate tasted of Vicks vaporub on chocolate but it's a minor quibble. I know I'm being unfair comparing Ete to Gelate... but I liked Gelate more.

Mint chocolate chip and Rookie Rocky (road)

On my last day for that BKK trip, Sissy and I returned to Ete to have: Banofi (the banana component too artificial, the coffee flavor alive - like my morning cup of joe frozen up and scooped), Mocha Crunch (think a Stabucks Mocha Frappucino with sweet-salty caramel shards - delicious!), Nutella (mix a cup of cream with a jar of Nutella, stir and freeze - a masterpiece), and Green Tea (slightly astringent, cool, smooth - the way green tea ought to be). I never wanted to leave and I wanted to kick myself for not discovering it earlier! Plus, I kept missing the cookie dough.

Top: Banofi and Mocha Crunch
Bottom: matcha (green tea) and Nutella

But on my next visit to BKK, I finally tried the cookie dough! What can I say... spectacular! I daresay it was much better than Sebastian's! Heehee...

I also had countless DQ blizzards. I couldn't help it. It's WAY cheaper there than here in Manila. 1 pint in BKK = a 12 ouncer here in Manila. Can you blame me for indulging?

The last ice cream find is Swensen's. From my POV, methinks it's a local brand. Thais are big patrons of their local brands and every Swensen's branch I've been to (five of them) have been packed! I don't doubt the reason: the ice cream is fantanstic! We bought 1 quart each of Midnight Brownies and Rum Raisin. I know I gushed about these in my other blog... but good God! They were amazing!

Swensen's: rum raisin and midnight brownies

So on my next visit, I made sure to grab a two-scoop cone: berry yoghurt and midnight brownies. Win-win!

Memories of Bangkok - Street Food

Whenever I am at extreme emotions, my first thought is "I need a vacation". The first place on my mind? Bangkok.

My first plate of authentic pad thai/phat thai

No mystery there. I love the food. I love the city. I love the trains (but I love Seoul's more), I love the A/C buses, I love the street food, I love the shopping, I love seeing my Dad, I love the malls... did I say I love the food?

These days, I find myself looking back at all the great chow I came across and stuffed in my gaping maw while I was in that beautiful city. Most of the time, I could not resist cracking open my picture files and salivating at all the food pics. Yes, I am masochistic that way.

A feast of kai yang (roasted chicken), som tam (papaya salad) and kao niew (sticky rice)

So... a stroll down food memory lane. This is going to get quite lengthy so I'll stop myself when I see you, dear reader, struggling to keep your eyes open. Yes?

I have professed my love for somtam in other posts on this blog (and elsewhere in cyberspace)... and no surprises. It was part of my first meal in BKK on my first visit. Who can resist the symphony of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy? Certainly not me, as I ate every bit of papaya on the plate. I even used up all the dressing, soaked into the plate of greens (raw cabbage, basil, and raw young string beans or yard-long beans - a revelation!) then into my belly. Yaawwrrrrr!

Left: som tam; right: plate of Thai basil, raw cabbage, raw water spinach/kangkong/morning glory

I love all things chewy, so it's no surprise that I stuff myself with kao niew every chance I get. It's stickier than the stickiest sticky rice I have ever tried here in the Philippines. Stuffed in a woven basket, this resilient bunch of grains are warm and fluffy - practically begging to be picked between fingers, rolled into a (big, in my case) ball, dipped in somtam dressing, and stuffed in my mouth. I was always happy to oblige.

kai yang and kao niew

Another dish that captured by heart is kwai chap (not so sure of the romanization but it sounded that way) - thick ribbons of rice flour noodles (methinks) blanched in a rich broth. Tossed in a bowl with slices of pork liver, fried firm tofu, a boiled egg, slivers of what I think is porcine kidney, chunks of pork blood, and God knows what else - it's then doused liberally in very meaty broth (pork and MSG, my pedestrian palate, says) and served with a metal spoon. No chopsticks here but I don't mind. Slurping (not too much of the broth, though. Too much MSG = migraine) is the only way to go... and then chased by a bottle of black sesame soymilk (13 baht at any friendly neighborhood 7-11 or Family Mart). Boo yeah!

Left: kway chap vendor on Convent; right: a bowl of special kway chap

On the street, one will find a plethora of eats. I never got a picture of the gai thot (fried chicken) guy but I did capture Khun Chao, our resident roti man, in action. He opens shop at around 6PM in front of my dad's old Condo on Phi Phat 2. At around 9pm, he moves on to Silom corner Convent.

He works his magic like so: 1) He grabs a ball of pre-measured dough, 2) flattens it on the table, 3) raises it and whacks it on his greased metal work surface until it is paper thin and wider than a serving platter, 4) sets it afloat in hot oil, 5) cracks an egg in the middle (by request, which I always do) 6) allows the dough to get all crispy and brown on the bottom, 7) folds the dough into a neat square, 8) cuts it into 8, and 9) liberally douses the whole creation with granulated white sugar (nit noy, kha - only a little, please) and condensed milk. Yowzah!

Left: takoh cakes and other sweets; right: all this, for twenty baht

Other stuff on the street are: 1) takoh cakes (20 baht for 8 pieces! Manila restos are ripping us off!), 2) deep fried dough things (I dunno their name), and 3) kamote flour balls fried in very hot oil. My non-love affair with kamote is well-known but this is one form of kamote I will eat!

Left: my sisters buying deep-fried dough-y snacks; right: deep fried kamote-flour balls

Oh, woe is me! I need a vacation... who wants to come with me?!?