The Gravy Train

cuckoo for coconut ice cream

After my brief four-day visit to Taiwan, the hubby went back to making the donuts (i.e., working) in Kuala Lumpur while I traveled on with my parents and their friends to Bangkok and Pattaya, Thailand.  Tourism was down over 60% in the area because of the red shirt protesters demonstrating in Bangkok.  We didn't really see much action as it's been reported in the media.  It turns out that the protests were limited to certain parts of the city, and we spotted just a few tire barricades scattered about and a truckload of protesters on their way to a demonstration. 

Politics aside, I continue to enjoy Thailand more every time I go, even just for the simple things.  At one of our stops on the road from Bangkok to Pattaya,  I happened upon some fresh coconut ice cream.  Rest stops and roadside stalls in Thailand often serve up this refreshing treat in an empty coconut.  Salted, roasted peanuts are the standard topping, and after you finish your scoops, you can use your spoon to scrape out the fresh coconut flesh from the inside of the shell.  It's the most brilliant roadside treat.  Beats a couple of Slim Jims any day, in my opinion. 

fresh fish in phuket: tom super-yum

This recipe is derived, to the best of my knowledge, from the nice Thai family who served me the most delicately flavored fish in Phuket:  

Take 1 fresh red snapper, caught locally in the waters of the Andaman Sea.  Clean and steam whole.  Slice garlic, green onion, fresh chilies and lime and garnish.  Serve to weird kind-of Asian lady flapping her hands and laughing with excitement in the front of the restaurant.  Shake head incredulously as lady eats entire fish by herself and refuses indignantly to share with travel companion.  Back away slowly as she tries to lunge towards you for an "American-style hug."  

Repeat at your own risk.

Kwong Shop Seafood |Kata Beach Road | Phuket | Thailand

  

little plate of happiness: with a pad thai and a smile

 While my college friend was in town, we took a quick jaunt to Phuket, Thailand, for a couple of days.  On our first day, we stopped by a little roadside stall serving up pad thai on the recommendation of our hotel proprietor.  It was lunchtime, and the stall was filled with locals lining up for banana leaf-wrapped packets of takeaway.  

Since pad thai is a fixture on most menus in Thai restaurants in the U.S., I can't say that eating it in Thailand has ever been a revelatory experience.  The basic flavors are the same.  That being said, pad thai in Thailand is generally really, really good. Nothing ruins my day faster than a gummy, overcooked noodle, and no pad thai noodles I've had in Thailand would even approach the level of gumminess required for my smile to turn upside down.  

enjoying larb, loving massaman

In Bangkok earlier this month, my friends and I followed the advice of a commenter on Chowhound and visited Khrua Rommai, a quaint little outdoor restaurant tucked away in an alley a few Skytrain stops from our hotel.  The restaurant specializes in cuisine from Isan, a province in northeastern Thailand.  

Isan food is characterized mainly by the accompaniment of sticky rice along with the meal, and previous diners' raves all mentioned the larb, a ground pork dish with Thai basil, chilies and other delicious bits.  The dish is accompanied by fresh greens, and eaten together with the pork the larb makes a tasty salad-like dish, except that anything resembling salad dressing in this case is actually pork juices (and really, how can that be bad?).  Isan cuisine adopted larb from the Laotians, and I've seen it on menus in Thai restaurants in the U.S.

thai tote giveway winner!

Heavy lobbying and desire to be a winner aside, I entered all of your comments (excluding my own, of course) in a random number generator over the weekend, and Stephanie has won the tote giveaway! Congratulations Stephanie, and thanks to all of you who entered!  I'll do another one soon. 

gravy train giveaway: thai grocery tote

I'm back from our adventures with our friends from the U.S., and for the next few weeks, I'll be interspersing stories and photos from our trip with our usual day-to-day here in Kuala Lumpur.  I'm very excited to share!

But, first things first: free stuff.  On the last leg of our trip, I visited the Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok, the largest outdoor market in Thailand, with over 5,000 vendors.  While there, I fell in love with one vendor's handmade cotton tote bags printed with vintage Thai advertisements, and I brought one back to give to a lucky reader of The Gravy Train, just because I wanted to share a little piece of Southeast Asia with you.  Imagine what you'll look like with this stylish tote on your shoulder, sauntering in to your local H.E.B. or other grocery store.  When folks stop you and ask what it says, you'll be able to respond confidently, "I have no idea." 

Details on how to enter the giveaway, after the jump.