Sidewalk eating: bangkok

Having a business in the fashion industry requires me to travel a few times a year. My usual haunts are Bangkok and Hong kong with an occasional visit to China. What I love about these places are the various things you find in terms of food.

Bangkok is a city full of food. Everywhere you walk you can see fruit vendors, and street food of all sorts. People here are very sanitary and you can rest assured that eating is quite safe. Once during our travel, my mom, like a typical chinese person bent over one fruit vendor and took a lanzones (duku in indonesia, lang-sat in Thailand)  and ate it. The old lady vendor eyed my mom. (chinese like picking vendor's fruits and tasting it). My mom, still pouring over the fruits threw the peel on the side of the road. The old lady grumbled, stood up and picked the peel my mom threw (this, while saying something in the native language.. w/c I am guessing would be cursing us for messing up her fruit and littering).

Most of the time, I stay in the Chinatown section of Bangkok. - food life here starts from  6pm onwards, when the stalls  come out and the people of Bangkok (sometimes you see a mercedes benz parked and the owner eating at a sidewalk stall) converge to eat. 

During the day, you can still satisfy your taste buds with the various barbeque you can pass by

this lady has no sale... thus the face

i love how they put the chicken between those skewers

I chanced upon this stall during lunch and there was a line of workers getting food. You can also get it with a side order of sticky rice

my "SUKI" BBQ guy

 My regular BBq guy usually sets up at about lunchtime. He sells the pork BBQ at 5 baht per stick (7 pesos or 15 cents) last time I was here, funny thing is, I took 3 sticks and gave him 20baht and he gave no change... maybe the price is now 7baht and he gave me a discount for being a good customer.
Communication is very simple. just point, get the sticks and then give excess payment and then wait for them to give you change.-- hahaha

they usually will point to the rice and inquire if you want some. or the chili sauce... (just tell them NINOY - for "only a little"... bec you wouldn't want to choke on too much chili sauce and believe me... a little goes a long way.)

I also saw a funky kind of fruit.. the first time I ever saw this kind - they call it SA'LA (short A)

It looks like a durian but red and smaller. I tasted it, it kind of tastes a bit on the sour side. My friend said they sometimes put in in syrup (to make it sweeter)

I also saw them roasting some bananas.... (didn't get to try it though)

All around you can also get FRESH orange or lime juice. This will cost about 60baht (90 pesos or $1.8) per 8 oz bottle. You can see them squeeze the juice right in front of you.

see the box of lime peels?

I highly recommend you try the juices. They help refresh you when you are tired from working and walking all day! I don't think we have anything like this here in Manila. 

I didn't get to take pictures of other street food around the area (I have my regular job to attend to--- you know!). There are still the juicy sausages, the various fruits, the grilled squid.... and I think I'll save that for a later post. 

The one thing you should always remember while traveling is-- keep an open mind, don't be afraid to try anything at least once, and see if the vendor has clean hands.

Happy Eating!

Come over!!!

Me and Candie- of Welcome to the Candie shop have started a new blog.!

Its one about one of our common passions. Cooking and Eating.

So, come on over and bring your appetites and you might get to taste some of the things we are cooking

http://twoladiesandaspoon.blogspot.com/

Bangkok Accessories

I finally had some free time to venture out on the side streets of Bangkok. More specifically, chinatown.

I have been staying here every time I fly into Bangkok. Chinatown is in YAOWARAT RD and the most convenient place to stay is at Grand China Princess Hotel.  It has the best facilities and is near to places to eat and shop. (the wholesale market)

If you walk across the street and turn left, you can see the whole street if full of wholesale shops that sell belts, ribbons, hair accessories. They will also sell you some (on retail) while other will ask you for minimun of 6 pcs.

one of the shops is this quaint one.. all the items I selected were 40Baht each (about $1.30 or 60 pesos)

crochet hair clips

sun flower crochet tie backs - nice for pony tails

flower crochet hairband

red hot chili pepper tie backs

an assortment of designs to choose from

some other shops sell other kinds of accessories

If you walk across the street, you will see a shop selling hats. The have all kinds they even have a huge cowboy hat as a logo.

After the Hat shop, walk further and you will reach the "main market road" its small walkway full of people- you won't miss it.

walking here, you can chance upon some shops where you can make your own charm bracelet..

choose your charms and you are good to go....

one of the nice stores I chanced upon was the OK station

Its a two part store, one part sells school stuff like pens, stationary and pencils. The other part of the store sells shirts. I found some nice ones like this Piglet shirt (sizes are small medium and large)

You have to buy at least 3 pcs (their minimum)for them to sell you the shirt-- - cost of the shirt range from 179B- 229B (about $6-$8)- you can get more discount if you buy more.

I find that even if you come to bangkok several times a year, you still will find something new to pique your interest.

happy shopping!

Dreamy pictures

I have been having fun with the photo application I got on my iphone. Hipstamatic. 

You can change lens, film, and filter. 

this one uses KODOT Xgrizzled film and buckhorst H1 lens

the climbing vines are doing amazingly well. 

These turned out pretty well I think. the close up shots looked better than one's a took from a distance. I think it make the area look more dreamy. It add to the character and flavor of the photo.

Thinking about taking my camera on my business trip and trying my hand at some travel photography. anyone interested in Bangkok?

Ascot 2011

This one is such fun. Maybe because we don't have anything like this in our country.

The Ascot races in England have begun. And you know what that means? Yep. HATS

Here some of the more interesting ones I saw on the web. These are so creative and fun...!

lady, you have a bug on your head!!

the swan looks so real....!

love this... very marie antoinette.......
just thinking how her neck would feel like the day after...

you want a raspberry tart with your tea??

I was just wondering how she put the tart on there... well, if she gets hungry, she can have a quick snack and tea right??

and my favorite shot is.......

looks pretty good on her... don't you think?? I love it!!!!

The running (wo)Man

ok. ok. So I am not one you can LOOk at and immediately think... RUNNER. (none of the sleek legs you might expect from an athlete of that caliber)

I myself had doubts about running. I previously classified myself as a social person, so running... (w/c you basically do by yourself) is not one of my top ten activities.

For now, I can only run 5K's. I did one 10k and I thought I would die.

I think I do a decent time. Well, that is, until lately when I got back from the long trip to the Holyland.

I think too eating too many bean filled food made me so sluggish and lethargic. I just couldn't RUN.-- add to this the fact that I have been signed up by a watch company to be in their running team and you have got some real pressure to perform.  One other thing is that I have seen the pictures of me running and by golly, they ain't pretty. (blob on the run is more like it). Soleus has a page on facebook and regularly posts pictures of our runs. *embarrassing*

The last run I did, I had side stitches.. the pain you feel on your side when you run (and did not train) and some pain on my shin. (my friend said it was the way I was stepping). All in all, the run was just so hard. My legs felt like lead filled logs. Ugh.

So, I have decided to train my ass off. So far, I have made two 3K runs and plan to add another tomorrow... maybe up my distance to 5k.

I have another run on July3 and I hope to improve my time. My goal for the next run is to make 32mins. My personal best so far is 34mins. so I still have some work to do.

Coffee wishes and Cupcake dreams

I have attempted to bake before. I have also tried my hand at cupcakes.

Some of my endeavors have been successful and some were a disappointment. You would think cupcakes would be the easiest thing to make right? Well, I was wrong.

Yesterday, for the sheer curiosity of what I was doing wrong and the desire to serve something people would want to eat, I enrolled in a cupcake class. I am so happy I did.

There are just so many things you don't learn from reading a cookbook.

#1- cream butter and sugar together. (i usually do it and finish in 2 minutes)... the instructor actually showed us that you had to cream the butter a certain # of minutes to make the cupcake more heavenly. WOW. big revelation.

#2- baking is a precise science. - you have to measure everything exactly. use a REAL measuring spoon and cup (not a table spoon you use for eating or a cup you use for drinking)~ i was guilty of doing this!!

#3- baking requires patience. (you have to wait for things to turn into a certain way before you can add more things)

#4- make sure all ingredients are ROOM TEMP. eggs, water, milk. BUT since we are in a tropical country... the room temp would be a little warm for the butter. and essentially, you want the butter to be a little soft... not melted. So we have to be careful with that.

VOILA'

cupcakes!!!

this is the smores cupcake... you have to use a torch to get that burn effect-- almost burned the kitchen down!!!

 -- the smores cupcake was topped with a marshmallow frosting...

tiramisu cupcake... with the cheesecake frosting!! yum!

tres leches- three milk cupcake... yummy !!
- tres leches with whipped cream topping....

Now, all I have to do is replicate what we did in the class in my actual kitchen.... gotta get my coffee machine going... have to have a cupcake.

My not so secret garden

One of the things I truly wished to have was a beautiful garden. One where you can wander. I had this vision of stone steps and vine covered walls. Flowers blooming all around while I enjoy the surroundings sitting on a big rock in the middle of it.


I also wanted a vegetable garden, something I can go in, pick up a tomato and then cook in my house. Maybe watching episodes of "the river cottage" kind of set me off this "english garden setting" kind of scenario. (see river cottage here)...http://www.rivercottage.net//


This is what I had in mind....

Mind you, I live in a TROPICAL country. we don't have 4 seasons. We only have two.. the WET and the DRY season. So planning something like this would take a lot of imagination. For one thing, not all the plans suited for this kind of garden would survive the weather. Another thing is that I live in  very populated city and of course, I don't have a rambling river behind my house to enjoy.


So I did the best I could with what I had. I asked my landscaper to make a stone pathway on one side of the house. (this is best as it rains half the year and it would be too muddy for a soil pathway all throughout the house). I also asked him to fence off the back part so I can make my vegetable garden. I think he made it look quite nice. (we have dogs and I was afraid they would get into the garden and dig up all the veggies)

as you can see, the ivy hasn't covered the whole of the arbor yet

I have planted some eggplants, tomatoes, beans and squash on my garden. I also have some herbs growing on some pots on the sides of the pathway. So far, I have harvested some tomatoes (about 3-4 pcs) from the garden. It isn't much, but it's something. (I find delight in such trivial things!... hahahaha)

my beautiful beans!

We have also added Mr. and Mrs. Chuk chuk to our growing family. (These are the geese we bought)
I kindda called them that when they arrived. Chickens go CLUCK CLUCK... so i figured, why not call them ? and the first thing out of my mouth was chuk chuk...  


As with anything new, we had to adjust.... the dogs had to adjust and we had to figure out how to keep both of them happy without them killing each other... LOL

so far, the geese have adjusted pretty well, taking morning baths in the fountain. I didn't realize they can DIVE under water. (they can go under pretty long too)

we still had water lilies here.... they have eaten most of them by now

We can't wait till they lay eggs and have little chuk chuks... as long as they leave my veggies alone that is.!

Inspirations

A bright Monday to all... and just to make the week start on a bright note, here are some pictures I took during a recent trip. 

and here is a poem by Henry Van Dyke--

Life by Henry Van Dyke

Let me but live my life from year to year,
With forward face and unreluctant soul;
Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;
Not mourning for the things that disappear
In the dim past, nor holding back in fear
From what the future veils; but with a whole
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.

So let the way wind up the hill or down,
O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,
My heart will keep the courage of the quest,
And hope the road's last turn will be the best.