Currently viewing the tag: "thailand"
Sripraphai in Woodside, Queens could be the best Thai food in New York City. And I’ve eaten a lot of Thai food through the years. At Sri Pra Phai, named after the owner, you’ll find Thais dining in, as well as countless other ethnicities within the melting pot that hugs Roosevelt avenue. You’ll find a huge menu with colorful pictures with descriptions in Thai and English containing a full selection of authentic Thai dishes. This isn’t fusion; this isn’t cookie-cutter, lunch special 1-2-3 Thai. It’s the real deal.
Besides authenticity, they have a full vegetarian menu. And after an all day trip to the American Museum of Natural History with a hundred kids, I needed a huge dinner. Luckily my friend lives in the area and supplemented the delicious meal with in depth analysis on the Kubrick/Illuminati conspiracy theory. For an appetizer I got the fried shredded tarot and peanut with a sweet chili dipping sauce. The little birds nest-looking fried delights were wonderful.
For an entree, a medley of heat, sweetness and salty: a spicy shredded papaya, utterly divine coconut rice and a pile of sauteed mushrooms-accompanied by that succulently sweet chili sauce. It was a well balanced plate and perfect for the diner who plans to order dessert. The papaya salad was sinus-clearing hot at “medium spice.” 
Time for dessert. My favorite: kow dom mat! Though they had a slew of coconut milk sweet bites just like I ate for weeks in Thailand, I knew it was the banana staple that I had to have. 
Remember that cooked banana turns pink! How pretty.
Next time I’ll go just for dessert and buy everything vegan. This place (with a location on Long Island in Williston Park) is certainly worth the trip off the beaten path.
Remember, faithful reader, my obsession with Kow Dom Mat, the local dessert I lived off of for two months in Thailand? Save for Sookk on Manhattan’s West Side, I have basked in memories of the street delicacy since then. Surface perusal of Asian bakeries in and about New York’s Chinatown were fruitless and, well, geared towards Chinese confections. But there was one lead I hadn’t pursued in my quest–a website bookmarked in subfolder “To Go & Eat”: Bangkok Center Grocery–a website that had been past on by a roommate-hopeful in my last search over a year ago. I was full of optimism as I set out for Canal Street in the sweltering heat.
Bangkok Center Grocery is located on Mosco street, a narrow little curve connecting Mott and Mulberry streets. Inside I was met with part confused-part amused glances from patrons and store employees, just like it had been in my Thailand travels. Unfazed, I was immediately mesmerized y the hum of the refrigerators. I knew I was onto something. I saw right away the bright, gelatinous confections I had once loved in Thailand! {See here and here and here} I think I started talking to myself and my nose was certainly on the glass when a young Thai women walked towards me, delighted in my delight. I conjured up my best Thai to ask for my beloved Kow Dom Mat. With an immediate spark of understanding, she hurried me to the freezer where there lay Kow Dom Mat–in banana and in tarot. I immediately began babbling on about how I loved them.
Here they are. Four big, frozen Kow Dom Mats or “Frozen Banana Dumpling”, exported by Sethachon or “Food Hut” and distributed in the states by the Maryland-based Eastland Food Corporation. For four big ones, I paid $4.00, far better than Sookk’s $6.00 for one.
Two babies wrapped up tight in banana leaf pose for a picture for a minute in the microwave.
The glistening coconut milk creeps from the folds of banana leaf as my first sits waiting on a doily. I broke out the fancy plate for this occasion.
Unwrapped. Remember the steamed banana turns pink… and those little black beans add some texture. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into the sweetened coconut milk infused sticky rice.
Exactly how I remember it. Taste sure holds onto memories.
Perfect. Now I have a place to satisfy my Kow Dom Mat needs.
Along with the Kow Dom Mat, I just had to pick up some other sweet treats. These simple, sugar-laden Thai desserts use minimal ingredients and are all about the coconut. The green Kanom Chan is made of the highly-glutinous Chan flour (tapioca starch and sweet potato flour), coconut cream and sugar. These beauties are locally made in the Bronx by “O Thai Dessert”. $3
These are almost exact replicas of ones I ate in Sukhothai.
I also picked up “Cassava Dessert” made from cassava (tapioca), shredded coconut and sugar. These I bought because they reminded me of the coconut dreams pictured here my host Urai whipped up for me when I stayed in Bangsai. Here is Urai with some of the kids I met while I was there, from some Canadian guy’s Flickr photostream.
What a wonderful discovery! I will be returning to Bangkok Center Grocery real soon. And someday, back to Thailand to attend their Vegetarian Food Festival… but until then…
If I blogged even 1/4 of the times I’ve eaten Thai, my blog would explode. I eat it at least twice a week. So much do I love Thai food that I am often half-way through a dish before realizing my camera is right there next to me. That I could have captured the glistening sweet drizzle on my saturated spring roll… the shreds of tarot and bean sprout… the sloppy broad noodle drenched in sweet soy sauce… is a regret lost by the next bite. So, though I rarely blog about it, Thai is one of the cornerstones of my food life. Of course I also feel less inclined to blog about Thai food here in the States because I blogged daily from Thailand for two months. Taking advantage of the favorable exchange rate, I feasted like a princess on sought after “Jai” food in countless eateries and bit off more than I could chew on the regular at the street markets. I may have blogged enough Thai to last several lifetimes, but… here I go, blogging about more Thai.
After catching a glimpse of Sookk‘s dessert menu, I recruited my pal CP for another tasty Tuesday expedition. Why would we treck all the way to 102nd street and Broadway? I’ll tell you why: kow dom mat. Kow dom mat was my obsession when I was in Thailand. And I have never seen it on any menu here. (Maybe because it’s referred to as Kao-Thom-Mud, like on Sookk’s menu?) Anyway, we made it all the way up to the Upper West Side and battled the posh spot’s lukewarm service for a taste of the authentic Thai sweet treat. Here are the details:
Dumplings are a must. Always. Sookk’s veggie dumplings (or Green Leaf dumplings) were delicious, stuffed with hearty vegetables. The thin skin of the Thai dumpling makes them my favorite kind of all the Asian cuisines, however tears and holes and a flood of hot water is always a risk. A big plus is a Thai joint that garnishes with dried garlic. Bring on the heat.
Two days in to an already hectic week, CP and I split the Detox drink for two. It had sake, other tasty things and, obviously, lychees. It was potent.
I ordered the Tamarind Dish with a nice firm tofu. It had great flavor and texture: sweet tamarind-chili sauce with sweet peppers, crispy broccoli, scallions and cilantro. Very good but a bit tofu-centric. I wanted more crisp veggies to balance out the huge, firm chunks of tofu.
There is the kow dom mat! Sweetened sticky rice encased banana wrapped in banana leaf. By the time it was served, the lights in the restaurant were dim, draining the photo of some life. But this sweet thing was absolutely amazing. The taste, like nothing I’ve had before or after my brief obsession, transformed me. It was magical. I may soon have to return…
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Book II of my Thailand travels is now published on Blurb! This second installment of my words and photographs was a long time in the making. Sorting through 586 MB of photos and proofing 17,559 words was a huge task. The book, showing all of my March 2008 travels in Northern, Northeastern and Southern Thailand, is double the size of Book I. Feel free to preview the book here! Special thanks to Wok Man, who edited my horrendously high quantity of comma omissions.
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The KZ/WM/CP Homebrewed Holiday Spiced Winter Ale is officially bottled! Giving the yeast one more big meal of sugar to start carbonation, the bottled beer will age for the next few weeks. I will miss seeing that gurgling carboy on my closet’s floor.
The label for my yuletide ale is also finished and ready for the presses! Considering only a few lucky souls will receive my “winter warmer” in its fancy liter bottle, I’ll show off my finished label here. Next Christmas I may make things easier on myself and maybe give all gifts of home-brew.
The label for my yuletide ale is also finished and ready for the presses! Considering only a few lucky souls will receive my “winter warmer” in its fancy liter bottle, I’ll show off my finished label here. Next Christmas I may make things easier on myself and maybe give all gifts of home-brew. 
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Raw food week has started! The past few days I celebrated, enjoying my last cooked meals for 8 days. Below: perfect pancakes with a river of Earth Balance and a Kombucha, Fruity fried rice at *erb in Greenpoint (i.e. fried rice sauteed with pineapple, mango, grape, green apple and cashew nuts), sweet turnip in sticky rice encasing: the delicious Thai crepe, use-all-the-cilantro-before-it-goes-bad stir fry on quinoa, and Boneshakers‘ Bob Roll. 
We hit the Red Hook Fairway today, racked up a 3 foot receipt of raw goods and spent some long hours prepping the week’s food. 
Alfalfa “burgers”
My lunch: Alfalfa “burger” on greens topped with herbed tomato sauce and sliced avocado, mock crab meat salad with a sprinkle of paprika, raw apple pie, orange and raw chocolate bar.
Half a year later, I finally got around to organizing and formatting my photos from Thailand. After 8 weeks of travel and hundreds of miles of wonder, I wound up with a grand total of about 2,500 photos. Wanting to display this great adventure with some style, I decided to publish them through the fantastic new bookmaking software from Blurb in a bound, hardcover series of three. Book I, February 2008, has finally been finished! Preview (and purchase if you so desire) the book here.
This is Thai money. Color and size differentiating the denominations.
“Well known”? That must mean something more derogatory in Thai?
The drunkard at Western Bar in Ubon Ratchathani who was asked by the owner to stop talking to me.
Black sticky rice, mango and banana in sweet coconut milk from May Kaidee’s in Bangkok. The only dish I ordered that they got right. I am surprised they offer cooking classes.
My blank iPod.
Reflection self portrait that captured the elusive mirror face. We all have our own.
Thee grossest thing I ever tasted… in all my life. Durian fruit gummed in a thick gelatinous cyclinder. An impulse/when in Rome purchase.
Thailand had the prettiest blooming puddles.
The charming mahout (elephant trainer) at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai holding a large piece of elephant dung.
Whole pig head, a staple at local markets.
Proud of my own curry.
More fun with reflections.
The overprice tofu and avocado salad at Samurai Japanese restaurant in Silom, Bangkok.
Breakfast of champions and me: coconut milk porridge with dried and fresh fruit from Ethos Vegetarian & Vegan restaurant.
This thing was in my room in Kanchanaburi.
For scale…
Freckled and unkempt Barbie Karen.
The sweets table at the market.
Strange fruit.
Interior shot of strange fruit.
Thai lcandidate poster. “Yeah, I guess I’ll run.”
In Thailand men are double the size of women.
Typical Thai city street.
Will the real “Thai crepe” please stand up. I am only saying that because last night I had a dream about Eminem.
The bilingual keyboard.
This man insisted, through a serious of hand motions, that I take a picture of his family. So I figured I’d publish here for the world to see.
On deciding I wanted to ride a roller coaster I headed an hour or so outside Bangkok to Siam Park City, escaping the streets of Bangkok and their non-stop ambushes of clay and water. I would be that weirdo you see at the amusement park riding alone with an undirected smile. Being sort of a roller coaster aficionado (nerdily), I get the crave for this type of amusement now and again. But tri-state parks are way too crowded and very expensive even with an empty Coke bottle. Purchasing a full-day pass, I rode all the rides in the small but colorful Siam Park City within a couple of hours. No lines and no wait, I rode the first car on all the coasters. Surprisingly, the Thai youths steered clear from the front and back. Fearless farang! Gratified quickly and not feeling the need to stay the entire day to justify the ticket price, I fled the scene after witnessing some disturbing goings on in the park’s Adventure Island (caged animal “adventure”). All in all, it was a nice diversion from the many natural attractions I’d been checking out in the country and finding a bus back to Bangkok was a breeze. The park also contains a waterpark which is more popular. But I wasn’t interested in that. There’d be plenty of water on the bus ride home (buckets throw in the windows and as the doors open for a stop) and throughout the evening… it’s getting a bit old at this point. And I have some concerns about water conservation.
Below are the exciting shots of the Jurassic adventure, a jeep tour of the park’s motorized dinosaur land.
Escaping the relentless heat of Bangkok, I spent the entire day at the movies theaters in the gigantic malls that surround Siam, the city’s shopping hub. A triple feature! Though I intended to sneak into my second and third films, they do things a bit different in Thailand. When you buy your ticket you have to choose your seat, like an airplane, and then the theater’s ticket-takers show you to your seat. The door is guarded by an employee the entire duration of the movie. Oh well, evil scheme nipped at the bud. Films 1 and 2 put me out 100 baht each, about $3US. The third, in a newer even taller mall building, was 120 baht. Before each film and after the previews, you’re asked to rise and give respect to the nation’s King during a brief montage of pictures and music. In Bangkok the majority, if not all, films have English subtitles although American film seems to dominate the theaters. I wanted to write reviews for each of the films I saw but put it off like a homework assignment. So let’s just call them my general impressions…
My Blueberry Nights: A master at his themes, Wong Kar Wai has made yet another tale of love, regret, time and the broken heart. Though a bit watered down by the familiar faces of Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz, his first American film is pure Wong Kar Wai. This adjective describes a style so distinctive I, film neophyte, could pick it out immediately in a line-up. Saturating color, precise and effective use of music and silence, slow motion, time-elapsed film, the voyeuristic placement of the camera, the languid and telling focus on the small details that reveal so much so easily, all very much reminiscent of his earlier films… 2 of which who grace my all-time top 10, creating an instant bias. But I didn’t love My Blueberry Nights… mostly because of Nora Jones. Flat and Neo-ian (This is a reference to Neo in the Matrix, a main character with background pizazz that focuses you more to plot and supporting characters.), she’s the springboard for much richer performances from David Strathairn (who I know more as Pierce Patchett) and Rachel Weisz, where the majority of the film’s emotional depth springs from. Natalie Portman does an good job as a gambling vixen with some Daddy issues but it is getting tiresome seeing her as this provocative, wild girl (It takes more than cleavage to convince wildness.) Chan Marshall (a.k.a. Cat Power) plays Jude Law’s heart’s pang, and convincingly, too. Only a cuckoo like Chan could walk away from the ever-charming and expressive Jeremy (Law). Law is scruffied up in the film at an attempt to achieve cafe owner middle class man status… but there is no hiding that man’s exceptional good looks. All in all, it is a tender love story… of the extent you sometimes have to travel to see what is right in front of your face: (spoiler warning!) Jude law kissing blueberry pie off your lips.
The Kite Runner: I feel a bit hesitant to write my impressions of this film because I want to articulate them precisely and do it justice. But wanting to post this blog today, and not next year, I’ll simple say that I highly recommend the film. That is was richly layered and heartbreaking. That the big, painful eyes of Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, who plays young Hassan in the film, have not yet left my memory. That I still can’t type, in a tangible form, my response.
The Dream Team: This was just what I needed after The Kite Runner. Some nice, formulaic, simple movie about kindergartners. The movie is based on the true Thailand event, the kindergarten Olympics, but focuses on a class of underdogs in the kindergarten tug-of-war competition. The typical struggles of a hard-edge soccer coach, manipulated into prepping the class of adorable 5 year-olds, provide the film with your standard conflict-resolution. The humor is potty, expectedly, given its main characters. And what do you know, a happy ending! What was unexpected was just how much the Thais in the theater got a kick out of the fart sound effects and the outward, unexcused, sound-projectile burping of the pregnant lady sitting next to me.
Today marks the official start of the Songkran Festival (which I found out has an official website). Buckets, hoses, bottles of water sold by the gross line the curbs along with bright orange and green arms dealers. Walking the few blocks to catch my bus I was within the battleground fighting to keep dry. Being totally dry elicited a few water gun squirts (along with smiles) in passing. Idleness also gets you wet as I learned when I briefly stopped to delete some pics on my camera (a cup of refreshingly frigid water was poured down my back). But mainly, if you have a water gun in your hand, all’s fair. The streets are also enlivened with traditional Thai dancers, many of them squirted themselves. Passengers on buses, taxis and tuk-tuk participate in drive-bys while pedestrians stand on curbs dumping buckets and squirting hoses at open car windows.
Learning another Songkran tradition the messy way, other pranksters walk with small buckets of wet white clay and smear passerbys’ faces. It dries quickly and makes a minor mess of your clothing, skin and hair… but it is a wonderful time to be in Bangkok! Everyone is soaked and happy and covered in clay.
After some deliberation, I decided I’d hit Bangkok’s Patong area and take in some of its vibrant nightlife options. Being settled on Khaosan and quite bored with its offerings, it makes no sense that be stricken to its boundaries in the evening. But a venture into Patong, the city’s red light district, would be a risk on my part, uncertainty the loftiest of obstacles. But I was determined. After combatting the chains and buckles of comfort and laziness, I fought through the water fights already in full swing on Khaosan and jumped in a taxi with only a few drips of battle wounds already evaporating.
The ride was quick and far cheaper than negotiating with the tuk-tuks or motorcycles. They’ve been ripping me off in Bangkok since I arrived under my assumption that the cold blaze of an air-conditioned taxi costs far more. The opposite is actually true. My driver dropped me in front of a market area crawling with tourists: older Westerners of the fanny pack/camera amulet variety. Thick ankles in Tevas, men with hats not on their heads but placed atop… this was Patong?Yes, the red light district, given its tourist draw, is nothing but a market surrounded by bars and clubs. Some seedy looking and named after small cats. Some silly and gimically farang. But hardly the den of sin I imagined. I smiled at the prejudgements that may have kept me away, as if Thai silk and handicrafts were not the fuzzy mossy overgrowth in every attraction I’ve seen thus far.
The bars and gigantic themed clubs are aggressive with a street team of staff shoving drink menus in your path, prices are showed for both single cocktails and… buckets. There are an abundance of Thai women with older white men everywhere but it seems more pathetic than anything else. As I strolled determinedly to my destination, Radio City, I realize that maybe the red light district is a dangerous place… for alcoholics and men. Being blessed to be neither, I was a fly on the wall in a playland for middle aged men and their young Thai girlfriends; a witness to a Peter Pan world where filling in the gaps of your desirability is possible with a lucrative exchange rate.
I found Radio City easily and thankfully and grabbed a seat in front of the stage. Oh, what brought me here was the bar’s nightly performances: Elvis Presley and Tom Jones. Impersonators, of course. It’s been on my Thailand to-do list since well before I left America. Arriving about 30 minutes before the King’s 11:15 showtime, entertainment would be ample as I waited, with the house singer belting out such hits as “House of the Rising Sun”, “Black in Black”, I Just Called to Say I Love You” and “LaBamba”. Beers weren’t cheap so I stretched my two out the 3 or so hours I was there, the performers both intoxicating and hilariously talented (surprisingly). The sets were long and were not just the standard hits. Both of these men do what they do well, their voices spot-on, and I was thankful I had the chance to see them.
Ladies and gentlemen, the King of rock ‘n roll:
And Tom Jones, the midnight show. What this man lacked in image he more than made up for in voice and mannerisms. In that second picture note the “granny panties” on the microphone. Tom, looking a bit perturbed, let them hang on the microphone after the Thai woman who fed off attention removed them and threw them on stage. They would later be thrown around the bar like a hot potato.
I’m Back in Bangkok… but this time for an unprecedented 5-night stay. My flight leaves early morning Wednesday and here, in this bustling maze of tuk-tuk exhaust and street vendors, I will stay til then. I have some goals for this last hurrah, mainly to combat my fear of straying too far from my accommodations. Bangkok is a massive chunk of sinking metropolis. One that, so far, has proved hard to traverse. A big city girl myself, I think back to the days I used the same subway stop (West 4th) for all Manhattan destinations… when the idea of boarding a city bus, in all their mystery, was dismissed immediately. Bangkok looms intimidatingly like New York City used to. These next 5 days will be urban therapy and a test of my recently honed skill of acclimation. A spatial spazz, this ought to prove interesting. My sites and destinations mapped on a silly cartoonish tourist map, tonight I simply rest. With the recently released toxins of my Swedish massage swishing about my body, it’s a night of internet, laundry and strolling aimlessly.
I feared finding a cheap room during the Songkran Festival, the Thai new year, but I got a bed at the cheapest place in town (120 baht a night!) with no problem. Songkran is a festive time akin to Halloween in its good-natured street ambushes. But no shaving cream or eggs, the 3-day celebration is all about water. Water is believed to wash away bad luck. What began as a Buddhist tradition to honor elders is now an organized street celebration, complete with closures, sponsors, fines for pegging moving motorists, initiatives to stay sober, etc. Flags and decorations are all around my guesthouse’s vicinity, the ol’ Khaosan road, where the festival is celebrated with much vigor (although apparently second to Chiang Mai). I’ve already had a Super-Soaker playfully aimed in my direction at the bus station this morning and was squirt by a young woman in her vintage clothing/records store but the festival officially begins tomorrow. I look forward to this fitting end to my journey here in Southeast Asia. Within the first couple of days of the Buddhist calendar year 2552, I head back to Gregorian times. Back to America.
Vegan Reporting By Location
