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!

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?!?

Bangkok Eats: The BKK Food Trip

Popsie works in my favorite Asian city (so far): Bangkok, Thailand. He lives smack dab in the middle of the CBD (central business district - think Makati or Libis or Ortigas).

I love it here! What's not to love about living in a condo on the top floor with breathtaking views of the city, food all around and around the clock, fresh fruit and vegetables for a few baht (THB 1 to Php1.3 threabouts), wonderful shopping, a few minutes walk from the nearest BTS (similar to our LRT/MRT. In BKK, the MRT is the subway), and did I say the food is great?

My favorite Thai food is not pad thai, kai thot, or tom kha gai. It's that salad of grated unripe papaya, carrots, long beans (sitaw) dressed with nam pla (fish sauce aka patis), lime juice, sugar, a bit of water, grated lemongrass, sliced kaffir lime leaves and dried shrimps. The one food that haunts my dreams and one I ate everyday during my recent visit to the city.

Enter the som tam. Oh, and did I mention this usually costs just 30 baht? I told you food is GOOD here!

Clockwise from top: (1)plain som tam from Som Tam Convent (Day 1), (2)som tam from the kai yang place on Phi Phat 2, (3) on my last day, a plain one also from Som Tam Convent, (4) Another one from Som Tam Convent ,this one with salted duck eggs for Day 3,

I love the harmony of flavors as they crash into each other on my tongue. All at once it's salty, sweet, sour, spicy - even when I request "mai sai prik, kha!" (Please do not put chili). It's inevitable that some of the chili from the last batch will make its way into my serving.

I kid you not when I say I ate for four days straight, sometimes more than once a day.

Of course it's not the only thing I ate. I had the freshest and juiciest rambutan I have ever had in my life. Their "hairs" still green, their skin a vibrant red... all to the tune of 30 baht (about 40 Php) per kilo. I also stuffed my face with the sweetest, most luscious mangosteens this side of Asia, an absolute steal at 35 baht per kilo (around 50 Php). Try getting THAT here in Manila. Popsie has several suki in the talat (market) so he can pretty much count on a discount when he goes to the market Saturday or Sunday mornings.

There is also a sweet-salty-sour-spicy pork rib soup that we enjoy at Som Tam Convent (Convent road runs perpendicular to Silom). I like this with the sliced pork liver with mint. The liver barely cooked, the mint complimenting the creaminess of the "meat"... all paired with kao niew - sticky rice stuffed in a woven basket. This is best eaten with bare hands - roll into a ball a and dip into the sauce of either the pork liver or the som tam. Pop in mouth and enjoy!

som tam, pork belly with mint, pork liver with mint, sour spare rib soup

I got my sweet tooth from Momsie so it comes as no surprise that we sugar coma-ed with each other - with my scoop of berry yoghurt and midnight chocolate from Swensen's and my mom's favorite: McDonald's vanilla twist dipped in chocolate.

More sweets: there are vendors that sell very thin crepes to be filled with fairy floss. Et voila! Tuck in!

Buy two bags of crepes and a pack of fairy floss, place on plate, fill crepes with floss, roll up and eat!

I will need to go back again before the year is over. My July stay was only four days (so hard to go on leave), whereas I was there for three weeks over Christmas/New Year 2009. I want to take Jeni there... maybe in time for Song Kran.

Happy Eating!