thailand part III

day 5


we packed up all of our luggage and headed on to the bus for a long ride to Ayutthaya. we were only in Ayutthaya the equivalent of half a day and the idea was to see some of the temple ruins. before we stopped at the ruins, we were brought to the King's summer palace. we'd spent the four days prior in a congested city with nearly every inch filled with traffic and vendors. when we got to the summer palace it was expansive and open. of course tourists like ourselves roamed about but it was like walking in to a giant golf course rather than shuffling around a million pedestrians.

it was a hot day but they made us put on these shirts because we didn't have sleeves. you can't step foot in a temple without being covered from your knees up. it was like torture wearing that sweatshirt over my dress in that heat!

in the front of the King's summer palace there's a little spot where they sell refreshing smoothies and things of that sort. we got a pineapple lychee smoothie that was out of this world because the fruits were so fresh and ripe. we tried to get another one but this woman kept insisting "try banana special. it best." stefan felt obligated to get one and it just tasted like banana and honey. not refreshing. then she asked if we wanted to take a picture. sure, why not i thought. she then handed us a bunch of fruit and we took this pic. don't we look like some cheesy Asian ad?

then we headed to the ruins. it's kind of astonishing to first see their currently used temples covered in gold and intricate details and then to see versions of them them stripped down to brick and broken. i actually almost liked seeing the ruins like this more because there is a lot more history there. these ruins had more of a story. they were operating when Thailand was still considered Siam. sure, a big part of that story is war but it's amazing when you think about who has been in the very same place you are currently standing in at that moment in time. i imagined a ton of Burmese tearing away at the temples in Ayutthaya a few hundred years ago and then me peacefully walking around taking pictures of the distant aftermath. 

and then to the next ruins.....

the Burmese army came and cut off the heads of all of the buddhas 

i was definitely not supposed to climb up and do this but i really couldn't resist. 

as we headed back to the bus after the ruins, there was a street vendor making fresh roti!! roti was the one thing i had to get before leaving Thailand. in SF when i get roti at a restaurant they charge me something like $5. in Thailand it cost 15baht, or 50 cents!! i was SO excited when i saw her and it was SO good. 

on our way to the hotel we stopped on the side of the road to pick up some of Thailands version of cotton candy. it looks like colorful hair or noodles spun around each other. here they make it by hand and pull the candy to thin it out until it becomes as thin as human hair. they take some of the cotton candy and roll it in to a green crepe like thing. it's not bad, but not my thing. in Ayutthaya there are blocks of people selling this same cotton candy. i wonder how their businesses thrive. 

we got to our hotel which was crazy awesome. it was absolutely the best hotel room i've ever stayed in in my life! it was more like a one bedroom apartment including a bedroom with a king sized bed, a living room, a dining area, and a full kitchen and bathroom. there was even a washer/dryer in the room. it was super modern looking and bigger than the little studio i'm currently living in at home! too bad we were only staying one night.

with only the night to stay in Ayutthaya but tired from all of the days travelling, we decided to lay low. so Stefan swam and ran at the gym and i took a long glorious nap. then around 9pm we headed out to get massages. our hotel was far enough from the city part of Ayutthaya that we had to take a tuktuk to take us anywhere. we had the hotel call one and she asked them to take us to a massage place. the driver stopped at a sketchy looking massage place but a two hour massage was priced at 300baht, which is $10. seriously?? $10 for two hours?? you can't even get 15 minutes in SF for $10!! they twisted us, bent us, and pounded their elbows in to our backs for a solid 2 hours. the best part for me is always the head/neck/face massage. of course for $10 i wasn't going to complain about the woman talking on her cell phone for the first 10 minutes or the constant texting. or that someone new came to replace the first woman half way through without telling me. it didn't matter. ten bucks. my god that was awesome. 

it was already 1130pm by the time we were done with the massages. most of the tuktuks weren't on the streets anymore by that time but we ended up finding a guy who looked like he was done for the day and asked him to take us back to the hotel. we started driving and eventually i saw our hotel, only it was getting further and further away from us as we got on to what seemed to be a highway. we didn't take a highway getting to the hotel. i semi-freaked out for a minute thinking that we were going to another city and that he had mistaken the address we'd handed to him. i didn't want to be lost in a foreign country, at midnight, where not that many locals speak English. but then somehow we ended up near the hotel again and all was good in the world again. 

we walked over to a street about a block away from our hotel where only the locals would really hang out. we sat at one of the outside food vendors selling who-knows-what. but we sat down and he offered us a simple soysauce chicken over rice with soup for about a buck. yes please! there was a lizard crawling up the side of his cart but "when in Rome," right? food from the street...a good way to end the night!

salmon with lemon butter and capers

sounds basic? sounds easy, right? well that it is! whenever i feel like a home cooked meal but haven't prepped anything or don't have a lot of time to cook, fish is my go-to. it bakes up in less than 20 minutes and is easy as pie....eerrrr fish. this recipe is so simple, it's pretty hard to mess up. it's buttery yet still pretty healthy. the recipe calls for 3tbs butter but i only ended up using about 2/3 the sauce for two salmon filets. yum!!!

salmon with lemon butter and capers

ingredients:

-2 salmon filets

-3 tbs butter

-2 cloves minced garlic

-1/2 lemon's worth of juice

-zest from 1/2 lemon

-2 tbs capers drained and rinsed

directions:

for salmon:

1. heat your oven to 450 degrees F

2. line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick spray

3. season filets with salt and bake for approx 18 min. or until it just begins to brown and is browning on the bottom

for lemon butter sauce:

1. melt butter in a small sauce pan

2. once butter is melted add lemon juice, lemon zest, capers and garlic. add salt and pepper to taste. 

3. pour over salmon and serve with whatever you want.

cookies for a cure

a new friend of mine, Jessica, has proven to be a pretty inspirational person. she's delved in to more philanthropic gestures than anybody i personally know. recently she has decided to run a marathon with Team In Training. and as we all know, Team in Training's mission is to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, an organization i think everybody should get behind. initially i was going to donate some cash munnay to her cause but decided that if i put the money i was going to donate towards baking ingredients and throw in a little manual labor, i could probably make more. soooo i invite you to help out!

this saturday we'll be setting up shop at one of the picnic tables at Dolores Park in SF for a bakesale!! i intend on making a bunch of different things to pique  your palates in hopes that we can trade your dolla dolla bills for some delicious baked goods. get excited if you like smores brownies, red velvet cupcakes, salted caramels, furikake party mix (believe me, you'll fall in love!!), lemon bars, among other yumtastic desserts!

remember that all proceeds go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. any little bit that we can give to them could help find a cure or help those already struggling with these cancers. i don't personally know anybody who's had leukemia or lymphoma but i've met a beautiful young girl who wasn't even 18 fighting for her life. nobody should be in a battle with life at that age. it was heartbreaking to see her youth taken from her. if you know anybody who's been met with leukemia or lymphoma, please come by and help support. if you fortunately don't know anybody who has dealt with either of these cancers, please come by and help to make it so that your children will be just as fortunate. please help any way you can.

thanks in advance!!

-Reg



baking up a storm!!!

my coworker's son was turning 3 (Happy Birthday Ian!!!) and she asked me to make some desserts for the party. i immediately jumped at the chance and began thinking about what i might want to eat at a kids party. red velvet cupcakes were a must and requested by the birthday boy's mom. i then browsed over foodgawker.com to find inspiration for the rest of the desserts. as my mouth salivated while staring at the computer monitor, i found a recipe for banana caramel whoopie pies and then chewy toffee pecan brownies. and then i got excited to start baking up a storm! i decided i'd throw in a tried and true recipe for cobbler as well just because i'm ambitious like that.

red velvet cupcakes

the best red velvet cupcakes in life! you might remember when i made them before!!

banana caramel whoopie pies

banana caramel whoopie pies!

banana caramel whoopie pies  

honestly, i HATE buttercream with a passion and any whoopie pie pretty much requires buttercream or "merengue cream," which is pretty much the same thing. it always tastes like i'm just eating a stick of butter so "no thanks" on that. when we were at the party people asked what they were and i felt obliged to say "there is a TON of butter in this but if you like buttercream you'll like it. if you don't like buttercream then stay away!" the cookies itself tasted good and the merengue cream had a good caramel flavor after i added a whole cup of caramel (the original recipe asks for 1/2c).

ingredients:

for the caramel sauce:

1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
pinch of fleur de sel
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

for the cookies:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ cup mashed banana (about 1-1½ bananas)
½ cup sour cream
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp. vanilla extract

for the filling:
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1 tbsp. pieces, at room temperature
1 cup caramel sauce (above)

directions for caramel sauce:

1. put sugar, corn syrup and water in a medium sized pot on high heat
2. mix so that all the sugar is coated in water
3. let the mixture boil and upon boiling swirl the pot on the stove until the mixture turns a deep amber color
4. take the mixture off the heat and add butter and heavy cream
5. the mixture will violently bubble. put it back on the stove and stir it around for about 2 minutes.
6. pour caramel sauce in a heat safe container (a glass jar) to cool

directions for cookies:

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. in a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside
3. in a small bowl mix banana and sour cream
4. in a large bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
5. beat in egg and vanilla
6. on low speed alternate beating in the flour mixture and the banana mixture ending with the flour mixture until just incorporated.
7. pipe the batter on to cookie sheets lined with parchment paper in 1 1/4" rounds about 2 inches apart from one another.
8. bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms just barely begin to brown
9. let them sit on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to completely cool.

directions for filling:

1. combine egg whites and sugar in a heat safe bowl and place over a pot of simmering water
2. keep whisking the mixture until the temperature is 160 degrees F and the sugar is completely melted
3. transfer to a bowl and whip until the mixture forms high peaks when you pull the whisk out from the bowl
4. add salt and butter mixing in one piece at a time. make sure to beat well after each addition.
5. stir in 1 cup of the cooled caramel sauce until completely incorporated

toffee pecan brownies

Toffee Pecan Brownies

these brownies were so effing chewy good!! the addition of toffee and pecans are never a bad thing either!!


ingredients:

1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons boiling water
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons canola oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup toffee bits (I used Heath bits)
3/4 cup chopped pecans

directions:

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. line a 9"x13" baking pan with parchment paper (this step is important. if you don't then it'll be very hard to get the brownies out without them breaking) and spray with cooking spray.
3. whisk together cocoa powder and espresso powder with boiling water until fully mixed
4. add in chocolate and mix until competely melted and smooth
5. whisk in butter, canola oil and sugar
6. add eggs and vanilla and whisk until smooth
7. with a spatula mix in flour and salt until just barely combined.
8. fold in pecans and toffee bits
9. pour in to lined baking pan and bake for approx. 35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
10. put pan on a wire rack and allow to cool completely (about 2 hrs).
11. using the parchment paper, lift the brownies out of the pan
12. cut and enjoy!

blueberry strawberry cobbler

Blueberry Strawberry Cobbler-

it's not the most appetizing looking of desserts but it tastes really good, i promise!! depending on the fruit it can be tart or sweet. this one turned out to be kind of tart but i like that. served with some whipped cream or ice cream and it's perfect for a summer picnic or bbq!


(adapted from this recipe) -i've made the original recipe with strawberry and rhubarb and it was insanely good! i added an extra cup of each as the fruit content wasn't enough to fill the bottom of my pan.

ingredients:

1 c white sugar
4 tbs flour
4 c strawberries quartered
4 c blueberries (i used frozen)
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 c packed brown sugar
1 c butter (1 stick), melted
1 c rolled oats

directions:

1. preheat oven to  375 degrees F
2. in your baking pan, mix together strawberries, blueberries, white sugar and flour and spread evenly
3. in a bowl mix together flour, brown sugar, oats and melted butter until crumbly.
4. even distribute crumb topping over the berry mixture
5. bake for about 45 minutes or until the crumb topping is browned and crisp.



quinoa

if you base my diet on all of my Yelp reviews (i can't believe i've written over 600 reviews so far!), you would probably assume that i eat horribly and never cook. you must think that all i do in my free time is seek delicious foods and new restaurants. well that's only partially true.  with all of the food i shovel in to my face you probably wonder why i'm not a giant by now. but what you don't know is that during the week i eat pretty healthily. no, seriously i do! when i'm not out with a friend at a new restaurant i typically eat greek yogurt with fruit, salads, sandwiches, oatmeal and other things of that sort. last week quinoa made it's way in to my daily eats.

greek quinoa salad

ingredients:

1 c dry quinoa
2 c water
2 c halved grape or cherry tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 c sliced kalamata olives
3/4 c feta cheese
1 1/2 tbs olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

directions:

1. put water and quinoa in a pot and bring the water to a boil
2. reduce heat to simmer and let it cook until all of the water is absorbed
3. fluff quinoa and set aside to cool completely
4. once cool mix in cucumber, tomatoes, olives, spices, olive oil, lemon juice and feta cheese in a large bowl

it's a refreshing alternative to your normal salad!

thailand part II

day 4

this was our "free day" to go explore Bangkok however we wanted to. some people chose to sleep in or explore Bangkok by foot. there are endless options for shopping around the city. everywhere you go there are street vendors selling random things from shirts and knockoff CK underwear to electric plug adapters and fake purses. there are also various malls in the same area of the city. one in particular, MBK, is where the locals sell their goods. i'm told that the roof top has more street vendor type things and the basement is where you can get the really good stuff like wood carvings for cheap. we didn't end up ever finding our way to MBK, however we roamed around a different mall. the one we ended up at is called Center World. although huge, it was a lot like a western mall. in fact it had a lot of western named stores there so it wasn't actually that fun to walk around because it was like being in the US. something interesting i did notice was that they had a female DJ spinning in the middle of the mall and at the far end they were setting up a runway. here we also found a McDonalds where the statue of RonnieD has his hands clasped for a former "sawadee" (hello).

my eyes look all crazy and anime like. sawadee ka Ronald!

i digress, this day wasn't the day we actually went to the mall. that was actually day 3. but i have my days all jumbled up so i decided to throw that in somewhere.

soooo...our free day. instead of roaming about, we decided to pack it full of activities. the tour we were on offers excursions or activities that we can choose to do for additional costs. we chose to go to the famous floating market, take a bike tour through Bangkok, and then watch a muy thai fight.

after breakfast that morning we got on a bus and packed in to a bus with some fellow tour folks on an hour and a half ride to the Damnoen Saduak floating market. on the way there we stopped at a coconut farm where they were turning coconuts in to sugar. they had souvenirs to sell, including coconut lotion sold in a dried coconut for 20 US dollars. are you friggin kidding me? no thanks. we did however buy a coconut to drink/eat. where better than right from the farm? it was less than a dollar and it was the most refreshing thing i've ever tasted. i actually don't like coconut water in the form of VitaCoCo or O.N.E., but fresh from a cold coconut, yes please!!!

when we got off the bus we were immediately shuffled to a long speed boat that took us through the canals of that area. you think we'd already gone through some of Bangkok's canals but that trip was a bit different. this one had us speeding by more homes and different restaurants located along the canals.

alas! we made it to the floating market, one of the main things i wanted to see in Thailand. you always see beautiful colorful pictures of the floating market and i wanted some of my own. i'm no photographer, so i got what i got, but they're good enough for me. there were boats with people rowing by selling hats, knick knacks, fruit, food, masks, etc. there is also an area where you can just walk around along the canal to shop and that's where we stayed. i picked up a pair of what i like to call "Aladdin pants." they're made of something light like linen and are stretchy and baggy. they almost look like a skirt but it's not. everybody at these markets gets in your face and tries to sell you things you don't want. a little girl even approached Stefan and said something along the lines of "you buy. you buy from baby. c'mon. you want." they teach their kids at an early age how to sell. it's pretty sad to see, but at the same time, that's how the kid's parents probably grew up as well. they don't know any different. all they know is that you're not from there and you probably have more money than they do. you can, of course, bargain with these people because they absolutely mark up their things like crazy. but Stefan and i aren't very good at that. for my Aladdin pants i think i went from 400B (=$13) to 350B (=$11.5), which is not a great bargain. but i didn't care too much considering these people could probably use the money more than i could....plus i love the pants.

at the floating market we also found mangosteen, a fruit that we'd been seeking since the beginning of the trip. march is the end of it's season so the prices were high. we bought one and loved it! the external looks like a round purple eggplant but you peel that off and get a luscious juicy white fruit that looks like a garlic bulb. yum!

mangosteen

on our way back to Bangkok we stopped by a wood carving spot. everything there is hand carved or chiseled and takes a lot of skill. we saw things in their half finished state and it was pretty cool to see. their craftsmanship allows them to produce wood carvings with lots of intricacies.

after a long half day, we were ready to embark on our next adventure. we were running late for our bike ride around Bangkok so we got off the bus and rode a tuktuk to the hotel where the bike tour group was going to meet. never trust a tuktuk!!! the thing with tuktuks is that they'll take you in their "car" or whatever you want to call it and keep driving, adding to your expense. what you have to do to effectively get from point A to point B without paying a ridiculous amount of baht is give them the address to where you're going written in THAI (not English letters, in Thai characters. or else they'll have no idea how to read it) and make a deal with the driver for a set amount. if you don't do this, they'll charge you a different amount and take you to who knows where. so we got off of the tuktuk and paid the driver when he told us that we were at the hotel only to find out that we were not at the hotel. we then hopped on a different tuktuk and eventually found our way to the hotel. thank goodness! we had no time to spare. our bike group left at 2pm and we got there at exactly 2pm.

so...on to the bike ride. i have to prep myself for writing this part of the day out. can i just say first that this was a very stressful bike ride? and i ride bikes. i've done two metric centuries (62.2 miles) and one century (100miles) bike rides, so i think i'm qualified to say that i know how to ride a bike. the description of our bike ride was "a scenic ride through Bangkok's beaten path. think jungle and back ways." sounds great right? i saw "jungle" and thought i might potentially see some random animals that weren't those mangy dogs. i thought we'd see some scenic stuff like a lake of some sort surrounded by shrubbery. they said 95% of the ride would be traffic free, and if you've seen the traffic in Thailand you'd be scared for that 5%. pedestrians practically don't exist to a driver's eyes in Bangkok.

so we choose our bikes. i chose a cruiser because i normally ride a road bike and thought it'd be cool just to cruise. this is a third world country, so i'm not surpised that i have to press really hard in order to brake, or that my seat is rusty and won't go down low enough to accomodate my short legs. oh well, i'll go with it. so the first thing we do is leave the hotel on to the street where we are expected to cross over six lanes of cars with people going something like 40mph. riiiiiight. luckily the guide was able to stop the cars. i made sure to stay up front for most of the bike tour so that i wouldn't a) be a straggler and get hit by cars and b) be a straggler and get lost in Bangkok with a bike that doesn't brake well. we went through a few more streets and alley ways and i about nearly had a heart attack! with tuktuks coming right at you and motorbikes making sharp turns in your direction, it was a lot to handle. we were also supposed to stay in single file which i thought was a many-person-collision waiting to happen considering the amount of prior biking experience people had had and the conditions of Bangkok.

this is where i burned my leg. see, it's touching the motorbike!

we continued to ride through alley ways that were literally five feet wide with kids playing, dogs and cats roaming,  and people selling things while we rode through. i imagined it must be really irriating for the locals to halt their paths in order to let a group of 20 tourists cycle through their alley ways braking at abrupt moments to avoid running over their children. but the tour guide told us that the locals love having tourists around. and actually as we rode through Bangkok kids waved to us with huge smiles, eager to be noticed. the locals really didn't seem to mind us too much so long as we said "hello" here and there. and i made the stupid mistake of wearing a shorts romper that showed a lot of leg. men hollered from every direction. Stefan even heard "oh Vietnam look very nice," which he's certain was towards me, though i'm Chinese. i imagine the fact that my legs are uber pale is especially appealing as well. in lots of cultures the lighter skin is the better because it probably means your family didn't/doesn't spend their day outside working in farms/fields/streets. and the fact that my legs are uber plump probably is appealing because the more meat you got, the more money for food you must have, right? oh god, i really wanted the hollering to stop. it makes me really uncomfortable. anywhooo, back to the narrow alley ways. there was one alley way that was seriously like 3 feet wide and in that alley way was a sacred tree that they refused to cut down. so we had to make our way through about a foot and a half of alley way around some holy tree. at that point the stress and craziness of the bike ride just became comical. seriously? just squeeze my giant cruiser bike through??

it's hard to see but that's the sacred tree in the alley way

the last portion of our bike ride entailed us riding our bikes through their wholesale market. i'm not talking like an outdoor spread out kind of deal. imagine a bunch of people riding their bikes through your local Safeway or something. yeah, it was like that, except third world country style so it was just piles of fruits and fish and stuff in a big lot. at the end of our ride we took a ferry back to a spot close to the hotel and finally i was at ease. my tensions were high for those few hours on that bike. i can't remember how many times i suddenly stopped in order to avoid hitting a kid or to make a 90 degree turn in an alley way. oh, and somewhere along that ride, at one of the resting points i backed up in to a motorbike and burned my calf. i'm fairly certain i'll be left with Bangkok biking adventure battle wounds. hey, and where was that "jungle" i was so eager to see? at the end of it all, i took it all with a grain of salt and just chalked it up to being an adventure. sometimes the most stressful and trying things you go through are the memories you remember most.

after heading back to the hotel to take a quick shower and get out of that damn romper, we met up with another group of people and headed to the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium to watch muy thai. this is one of the things on our list of must dos. we got there and outside there were tons of people with energies high. we were lead inside to our seats, which were ringside. awesome, no? of course everybody who was sitting at the floor level were tourists because we are the only ones willing to pay higher prices for tickets. all of the locals were behind us. but i didn't mind paying more because it got us up and close to the action which alotted me the option to take decent pictures.

forreal? why not, damnit!!

the first couple of guys fighting looked like they were no older than 14, which was a little disturbing. but the last set of boys fighting looked like they couldn't have been past 9 years old, which just seemed wrong. i asked our Ekachai about it the next day and he said that they have to be at least 15 to fight in the ring, but i kinda doubt that.

it was interesting to see their pre-fight rituals and dance. it was also cool to see how restrained they were and how disciplined they are. it truly is a sport. there isn't any kind of stupid fake animosity towards each other to make the matches more exciting. it's all about technique and winning, but not about hating each other or getting angry at all. when one guy knew he was going to lose, the other guy let up on him. the point isn't to hurt someone, the point is just to win. at the end of the night we got a picture with the champ of the night.

so that's day 4 in a nutshell. a very long, very productive day.