Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Max can’t get enough of this old series on TV called Art Attack, and gets a lot of inspiration from it. One of his recent creations was made from items found in the kitchen, and he proudly announced he had made an elephant sculpture:
I’ve been keeping it in my shower for a while now, and the green algae growing on the sides only adds to its charm.
I somehow seem to park in this exact spot hundreds of kilometers away from our home every year around new years. It is near some ancient Khmer ruins, and I really just like this tree.
The uniquely Thai combination of “goodbye” and “seniors.” I’m at a farewell party for our graduating class.
After years of experimenting with the tough meat of Bos primigenius indicus (commonly known as Brahma or Brahman, the breed of bovine originating in India that eventually spread to the rest of the world to be enslaved, robbed of milk, and mass-consumed – why oh why did they ever leave the land in which they were worshiped?), I have found the best cut of meat for general purposes:
This is what is referred to as the “neck hump,” or more disgustingly, the “neck boil.” Here is a good photo of one, if you can keep your eyes off of dangling distractions:
This cut of meat is not tender enough for steaks, but is great for stews, curries, and the like. I have never had a good beef steak in Thailand, and it is my belief that, generally, the tenderness of beef runs inverse to your current proximity to India, with a few exceptions (Japan being the most notable). That’s fine, since it’s a trade off for good quality of other meats, fish, and fowl.
I used the neck hump above to make an excellent batch of Japanese curry a couple months ago. When we went to buy it from a roadside stand, we were lucky to get it very fresh:
One of the best dinners I’ve had this year, at a friend’s house a few weeks ago.
Right on the heels of the Best Product Name of 2013 comes a damn fine contender for Best Marketing Campaign, but I forgot to take note of the brand of jeans using it. I’ll have to check it out next time.
UPDATE: The brand is Maximus Roma Jeans, who do’t have much of a web presence but apparently put a value of 110 baht on each of their individual asses.
