Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Pat Prik Gang Moo Krob Khai Dao – Red Curry Stir Fry with Crispy Pork Topped w/Fried Egg (AKA Star Egg) at a short order joint between my office at Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University and the National Sports University down the street. They serve the highest form of Pad Thai in the known universe, topped with crispy pork, only available at a couple restaurants I’ve ever seen.
I waited for the better part of a decade for sous vide equipment to become cheap enough for me to get into.
The verdict is that sous vide with a cast iron pan sear to finish is definitely the best way to cook chicken breasts. I’m basically trying different proteins each week. Last week was chicken, and this week is pork. The main issue I have with sous vide is the plastic waste it generates. Also, the cheapo Chinese unit I bought requires a press for each tenth of a degree or minute when setting temp/time, which means I’ve already pressed the buttons about a thousand times, as the pulled pork I did the other day had to be set for twelve hours LOLOL. The unit was around forty bucks, so I guess usability testing wasn’t a high priority for the manufacturer. It does work, it’s just unnecessarily annoying.
It has begun.
A local noodle shop came up with this killer concept of a sliced pork bowl with two eggs and nori, and it is fantastic!
The egg rolls are pretty damn good, too.
WP says it can post automatically to IG now… People of the Gram, can you hear me?
We hadn’t been there since it opened, and the food was much improved: Bombay Indian Cuisine Roi Et
Had some nice sandwiches at a new café called Nick on Soi Ruamrudee. Very chill place with excellent ingredients and no fear of salt.
Nam’s could have been better with feta cubes instead of tofu, but it was still pretty good!
Nick on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/PQmjByBNwtUHsUfv8
On our trip to the states last month, I had my first ever birthday on an airplane. It might have been my longest birthday ever because of the time difference (UTC +7 to UTC -7), although I didn’t even really think about it until a couple of flight attendants came up and started asking about my birthday – one in English, and one in Japanese. I was really surprised at first, but it ended up being very dope. Apparently, Nam had asked ANA to do something after Mina and I had checked in and went through the first security checkpoint at Suvarnabhumi. Mina knew about it since Nam had messaged her and she thought it was hilarious.
The dessert plate they brought me “from Business Class”:
The dinner that preceded it:
Mina and her soboro (ground chicken bowl) dinner:
All in all, a surprise birthday celebration on an ANA Dreamliner is a great way to chase away the boredom of a 10-12 hour intercontinental flight, and I highly recommend it!
Overblown dark images: The outcome of snapping food shots in dimly lit places, combined with the temptation to do too much in editing software.
Actually, I think this was a local hole in the wall in Prachuap Kiri Khan, but I’m too lazy to change the title. From our trip in April:
When Thais start getting hungry for lunch, get out the way, man! Or rather, get yours before it’s all gone!
At the beginning of our trip to Hua Hin last week, we boarded a plane for the first time since the pandemic started, and flew into Don Mueang. Nam’s older sister picked us up and we went to see a van we would pick up on the back end of our trip and have lunch. She took us to Tong Peng, a family-oriented Chinese restaurant in the Chok Chai area of Bangkok, south of Lad Prao.
As a sidenote, it feels good to blog about travels again – it’s been too long.
Google Maps link: Tong Peng ภัตตาคารตงเพ้ง
Just feel like posting some old food photos that have been sitting patiently in a folde called “blog” on my desktop for a couple years.
This is Yam Pla Muk, or Thai Squid Salad. I don’t remember exactly where we ordered this one. “Yam” is a type of Thai salad that’s spicy, sour, and kick-ass: Thai salads… These are among my favorite foods here, and we eat them all regularly.
This one is larb, which is also one of the Thai Salads mentioned in the link above. Specifically, it’s larb moo, or pork larb. Larb is also known as a meat salad (which is obviously the best type of salad). This plate of larb is from a restaurant specializing in it and other meat dishes in Sangkha, Surin. We visited there last year when Mina’s great grandmother passed. It was the first time we’d been to this restaurant, even though we’d been going to Sangkha quite often to be with relatives for new years. I’m not sure if we’ll visit there again any time soon, although some of Nam’s aunt’s are moving into her grandmother’s house.
A Thailand exclusive!
A trio of dubious sakana creations I found this very day:
Nam’s relatives live in Lad Phrao, and we have some upcoming stuff to do in BKK, so we are definitely going!
There is currently an explosion of CBD cafes and edible hemp products/companies all over Thailand. This is kind of the second wave of not-really-pot popularization. The first wave was semi-legal CBD oils and tinctures (although the most sought after ones were straight up black market products that claimed to cure cancer). Now we are to the point where the most popular pizza chain in Thailand, The Pizza Company (revenue over 7 billion baht in 2020 – half of the Thai pizza market), are using it in their ads… Mainstream popularization is a good thing.
A friend sent this to me. I don’t know who made it, took the photo, or ate it, but I want it.
I don’t know if I’d be more excited selling this or eating it – it’s damn near the perfect triple order of Thai Basil Stir Fry with Crispy Pork topped with Star Eggs. I spent a whole month perfecting this dish during lockdown, making the crispy pork from scratch with a different recipe each time. It was epic, and this is truly one of my top 10 favorite Thai dishes (of which basil stir fries occupy two or three spaces).
The food pictured is look chin, or Thai meatballs and hot dogs and other protein shapes on skewers, a common street food either grilled or steamed and sold for 5-10 baht. The darker meatballs are beef and the lighter ones are usually pork or fish. They often contain gristle or cartilage bits that add a crunchy texture.
