Green Tea Blizzard with Almonds

When I’m waiting for a flight out of Suvarnabhumi, I’m usually going to someplace much more remote and much less comfortable, like Burma.  That means that Suvarnabhumi is my last goodbye to all of the comforts which I can enjoy in Bangkok, and I have a little tradition at Suvarnabhumi of paying homage to the various airport royalty.  I go see the Burger King and eat a Whopper.  Then I go see the Dairy Queen and enjoy a blizzard.

This time around, I noticed that they were offering green tea blizzards.  Now, I’m sure I’ve mentioned recently that I don’t LOVE green tea, but I thought it might make a good entry to this blog, so I went with a green tea almond blizzard as one last hurrah before returning to Myanmar.  Here it is, folks!

Snacking on Samples in Suvarnabhumi

I love going to Suvarnabhumi.  I’m not usually flush enough to actually BUY anything at any of the shops there, but I do love to walk around and sample all the various things which they’re selling.  My favourite thing that I like to sample is these coconut cookies.  They’re called coconut crispy rolls and they come in three flavours: original, green tea, and coffee.  I can say with certainty that they are all delicious, and if you ever end up passing through Suvarnabhumi, you should think about picking some of these up as a gift for your loved ones back home.

Another thing which I simply ADORE in Suvarnabhumi is their dried fruit.  I bet you’re thinking, “SO what?! It’s not like I’ve never had dried fruit before” and I’d say you’re probably right, but I’d also be willing to bet that you’ve probably never had dried pomelo peel before, and I’d say you’re definitely missing out.  Unfortunately, the only photo I got before the sales girl came over and told me photos were not allowed was this extremely shiny photo, but at least it will give you something to think about: DRIED POMELO PEEL!

RESTAURANT REVIEWS: Anne’s Sweet

So, it’s my last day in Bangkok, and I decided to treat myself (and I mean REALLY treat myself) before heading back to Myanmar, so I stopped in at Anne’s Sweet on Pra Arthit Road.  I’d been in Anne’s Sweet before and bought a brownie, and it was really good, but I stopped myself from going back because my budget just doesn’t allow for me to go and eat a 150 Baht piece of cake ever day.  But before I go back to Burma, umm, yeah, I’ll buy TWO 150 Baht pieces of cake, OKAY?!  I have to say, I was super impressed with the girl who works at Anne’s Sweet.  Here is roughly how our dialogue went:

Me: Which is better, the mango raspberry mousse or the strawberry cheesecake?
Girl: Ummm, it would be hard to say.  They’re both really good.
Me: Yeah, but one has to be better.  C’mon… which one is better?
Girl: Really, they’re all very good.
Me: Yeah, but which one would YOU choose?
Girl: I guess I would take the mango raspberry mousse…
Me: I’ll go with that, then!
<literally, about three minutes later>
Me: Can I also order the strawberry cheesecake?
Girl: You’re finished the mango mousse already?!
Me: Yeah, and now I’d like to order the strawberry cheesecake now, please.
Girl: I really don’t think that’s a good idea.  I think that’s much too much sugar.  It’s too rich after what you just ate.  IT’S TOO MUCH!
Me: Oh, I’m going back to Burma tomorrow, though, and I want to have a lot of nice things before I go!
Girl: (doubtfully) Okaaaaayyyyyy….

Which, I think everything about that exchange is incredible.  Normally, I’m not super impressed when someone at a café or restaurant tells me that EVERYTHING on their menu is good.  I always assume that they’re lying or they haven’t tried everything or something.  But in this case, the girl was telling the straight-up truth.  The mango mousse and the strawberry cheesecake were EQUALLY good, and that means they were fucking delicious.  I also actually LOVE the fact that she tried to talk me out of buying the second dessert.  In North America, it would be like, “Some idiot gonna eat much too much and we gonna make some money off it” but here she actually CARED about the state of my health, even if it meant not making a 150 Baht sale and I was the one who had to talk her into letting me be extremely unhealthy.  And that impressed me to no end.  It impressed me so much that I think absolutely everyone should find it in their budget and go try the cakes at Anne’s Sweet.

Deep Fried Bananas

I went to Silom to pick up my new Myanmar visa the other day.  I planned it a bit early so I could walk down to the post office and mail some presents to my family before heading over to the embassy to collect my passport.  Well, walking down the street where the Myanmar embassy is, I came across a guy making deep fried bananas.  It was a beautiful thing.  I stopped, wanted to take a picture, realised my camera batter had just died (I think it’s time for a new camera), said I was going to go to the post office but would be back in 20 minutes, but by the time I got back to where the deep fried banana vendor was, he was gone!  I tried not to sweat it.  I mean, the bananas would have made a beautiful photo, and the also looked pretty delicious, but after all, they were just bananas.  So I went to the embassy to get my passport.  But what happened was that there was a super long line in front of the embassy for the visa collection to open up, and I didn’t feel like waiting in the line, so I went for a walk instead.  I just went and walked up and down the street in Silom (but in the opposite direction of the post office), and lo and behold! there was my banana vendor!  He had switched locations on me, that slippery little banana vendor!

When I realised that this banana vendor was the SAME one as the one who had been in front of the embassy, I pointed and said, “IT’S YOU!” and he replied with a big friendly grin.  He was also just in the process of starting a new batch of bananas, so I stood around and watched him make his deep fried bananas.  he was really kind.  He let me sample one of the deep fried bananas that was left from a previous batch, and then he told me about the other sweets he had.  He had deep fried potatoes, some kind of deep fried ball with sesame seeds, and a deep fried ball made with coconut milk.  And as I stood there watching him make his deep fried bananas, he let me sample one of everything he had.  What a sweetheart!

Fish Pad Thai

Okay, so I’ve got a little confession to make.  After my exciting green curry / fish cake find at 7-Eleven, as I was leaving the store, I noticed the key-maker man outside of 7-Eleven was sitting next to his cart eating his lunch, and it looked WONDERFUL!  I asked him where he got it, and he pointed down the street, so I kind of set off down the street on a mission to find whatever it was he was having.  Finally, I found a vendor that was selling what looked like what the man had been eating and you know what she told me it was?  You guessed it: pad thai!  But clearly not the pad thai that tourists are normally used to seeing because this pad thai did not have noodles in it.  Instead there were massive chunks of fried fish.

I’m kind of a believer in the notion that your cravings are your body’s way of telling you what it needs, and I don’t think I’ve been getting enough fatty acids lately, because as soon as I saw that fish, I realised that ALL I wanted right then and there was some fish.

This vendor fried the fish with some egg and eventually added some bean sprouts, green onion, and other pad thai fixins like peanuts, sugar, dried chili flakes, and vinegar with jalapeno peppers in it.  When it was all said and done, she scooped it all onto a banana leaf plate, which I thought was muy exciting.  Ever since my Lao food adventure, I’ve started developing a mini theory that the banana leafier the plate, the street foodier the food.  Whaddyathink?

7-Eleven Meals in Thailand, Curry Edition!

On my way back from Sathorn Pier after applying for a new Myanmar visa at the embassy, I was feeling a little thirsty, so I stopped in at the 7-Eleven just before the pier and I noticed something INCREDIBLE: ready-made meals in RED trays!  Now, I’ve seen their ready-made meals in black trays (usually a fried rice or minced meat-type mixture with rice, but always involving rice), I’ve seen their meals in beige trays (my beloved soy protein option), and I’ve seen their meals in orange trays (no clue what the orange signifies– maybe rice dishes that are not Thai?), but I had yet to see the red trays.  Well, I just had to stop and inspect this situation.  I found rice with omelette, rice with omelette with red curry, and this little number which I ended up making mine: rice with green curry with two playful little fishcakes.  I mean, what is not to love about any of that, no?

Oh, it was heavenly!  The green curry was everything it should be, and the fish cakes were pretty near as good as the ones I got form my street vendor the other week.  All in all, a pretty darned amazing 7-Eleven meal!

Oh, and also, I LOVE the checkerboard tables that are all over the place in Bangkok, don’t you?

Collon Cookies

I wonder who the genius is who invented a tubular chocolate cream-filled cookie and thought it would be a good idea to name it “Collon”.  Whenever I see this on the shelf here in Thailand, I always imagine their thought process to go something like, “But, I bet if we spelled it with TWO L’s, nobody will ever make the connection!”

I posted this photo to facebook quite awhile ago, and one of my friends made a funny observation that  Chocolate Collon’s promiscuous homosexual cousin was standing right beside it.  That’s right folks, Cream Collon!  You’ve gotta respect Glico’s commitment to diversity!

Green Tea Ice Cream

I’ve been in Asia for long enough that I really should have known that this would be green tea ice cream (usually not my favourite, unless we’re talking about the green tea ice cream with poppy seeds which I had the other day at Gourmet World in Siam Paragon, which was pretty amazing), but I somehow managed to convince myself that those darling little leaves depicted on the lid of this ice cream were mint leaves and that buying this ice cream would definitely be a good idea.  Well, they weren’t and it wasn’t.

Spicy Basil with Chicken and Egg

I’ve written already about pork with holy basil.  I think this is basically the same thing, except occasionally, at certain restaurants, when you order this, it comes with a fried egg on top.

Sweet Beef

Even though this post is titled “Sweet Beef” and there is, in fact, plenty of sweet beef available in Paragon, it’s actually pork pictured here. Same same but different, ya know?!

Another thing which you can get in Gourmet World at Siam Paragon is sweet beef.  It’s sort of like beef jerky, but a little bit sweet.  And you can choose either pork or beef.

Since I spent a significant portion of my childhood in a meat packing plant, these types of artisanal products really interest me.  You see, my dad was a small business owner, a butcher, and an artisan.  He created the most locally-sourced, highest-quality meats I’ve ever seen in my life.  He really had a real skill and was running a business that was about two decades ahead of its time.  If he ran the same business and produced the same products nowadays, I’m pretty sure that would be a million-dollar company, but back then, nobody was interest in buying local or in high-quality, locally-made cured meats and my dad was forced to compete with Safeway as far as pricing because otherwise nobody would have bought our meats.  My, how times change.

I always tell people that the reason why I don’t eat much meat as an adult is that I grew up in a meat packing plant.  Everyone always assumes that what I mean by that is that I saw how gross the process of, well, processing meat can be, but what I actually mean by it is that the quality of the meats we produced at our meat packing plant ruined me for all other meat.  I could go to a fancy restaurant and spend $100 on a steak and be disappointed because it doesn’t come close to the 21-day aged meats we used to make.  I can’t order, I don’t know, honey garlic porkchops because they will not come close to the tender, saturated-with-flavour creations my dad used to make.  I don’t even like buying coldcuts (even the ones that are supposedly hand-made and high quality) because I just know that salami will not be as good as the salami of my childhood (am I the only one with a mind in the gutter who is slightly creeped out by that sentence I just wrote– the sentence was meant with the most innocent of connotations, I swear).  The only thing that’s still the same is bacon, because bacon will be good no matter what.

But every now and then, I get a craving or feel compelled to sample some locally smoked meat.  This one did not disappoint.  It was really impressive, actually.   I sent some to my dad who, in my eyes, is the god of meat, and when it arrived in Canada, even he agreed that it was pretty wonderful.  The god of meat approves!