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Thai and Vietnamese food porn, Part I

Hiromi: I may be repeating myself, but I choose travel destinations based on how much I like the cuisine. Real Thai food is my favorite by far - by "real Thai" I mean street food bought in Thailand. Here're some examples:


A collection of goodies I collected at Dalat Aw Taw Kaw, an outdoor market in Bangkok. There's curried fish, an eggplant dish, and I can't remember what else, but it was just heavenly.

Dalat Aw Taw Kaw is a kind of "upscale" outdoor market, so the quality is just unbelievable.		An amazing variety of fresh fruit.

In addition to these stands, vendors with carts are ubiquitous. There was one fresh-squeezed tangerine juice vendor near my hotel. I must've drank like a liter of that stuff per day.
Jellies! Served on shave ice with syrup (you can see a little baggy of syrup in the first photo next to the bag of jelly) and coconut milk - God I miss these things. The people at the market were so sweet - they gave me the ice, a bag of syrup, and a spoon. They then explained how to eat it.		 Close-up of durian. Durian is made up of individual lobes. I talked the saleswoman into selling me one lobe. The first bite will freak you out, but it gets better and better. The texture is like custard. The taste is somewhat sulfur-y - hints of onion and garlic to me.

These photos were taken during winter break 2003, when I went to Bangkok and Cambodia alone. I love solo travel. You set your own agenda and you never know what will happen next. There's no one to tell you they're tired or don't want to eat what you want to eat. I've met the most interesting people on my travels alone - a Japanese antiques smuggler, a Dutch entrepreneur, a retired Australian who loved to go on safari - it's the best kind of adventure.

Also, it's extremely safe in Southeast Asia. I never felt in danger, and no one ever treated me with disrespect. I did go to Hanoi with my sister, though, since she also loves Vietnamese food. For some reason, I never got up the nerve to cook Thai food. I have however, mastered a few Vietnamese dishes. I plan to post a recipe for Vietnamese egg rolls, or cha gio (pronounced "cha zo" - don't ask me what the tones are; I have no idea). It's a lengthy process, so I'll just post the creation of the dipping sauce alone for now, and post the actual egg roll making later this weekend. My cha gio is much better than anything you'll get in Austin, at least.


Before you make the egg rolls, you have to make the dipping sauce. First, you make pickled daikon and carrots. These pickles can also be used in Vietnamese baguette sandwiches - I may post something about those heavenly things some other time. You garnish the dipping sauce with the pickles. Anyway, here goes:

Ingredients for the pickled daikon and carrots. Rice vinegar, sugar, salt, daikon, carrots.
Matchstick the daikon.
Do likewise to the carrots.



Mix them in a bowl. I avoid metal bowls on general principles. Sprinkle about 1.5 teaspoons of salt, mix, and leave for about 20 minutes.
Drain, then squeeze out excess water. Pat dry with paper towels and put in a jar.
Add 5 tbsp of sugar to 1 cup of rice vinegar, bring to boil, cool, then add to the jar. This'll keep in the fridge for about a month.



Ingredients for the dipping sauce: 5 tbsp fish sauce, 1.5 tbsp fresh lime juice, one or two garlic cloves, three Thai chilis, 5 tbsp sugar, and 2/3 cup warm water (not shown).		If you have a mortar and pestle, grind up the garlic, two of the chiles, and sugar. Otherwise, chop them very finely with a knife. Dissolve the sugar in the water, add the fish sauce, and mix with the garlic/chile/sugar paste. It's best to use it right away, but it'll keep in the fridge in a jar for several days.
To serve, pour it into individual bowls and garnish with the pickled daikon and carrots. Slice the remaining Thai chile into rounds and use that as garnish as well.

Tomorrow, I'll do the egg rolls.

721 words Posted to [ Food | Travel ] by Hiromi on January 20, 2006 11:14 PM |

Comments

Drain then squeeze? As good an excuse as any that I've heard for owning a salad spinner ;) French fries are easier to make too.
I'm clipping this one :)

1. Posted by Darkneuro on January 21, 2006

the durian scares me.

2. Posted by Karl Elvis on January 21, 2006

I keep telling people, food is better than sex...if you do it right.

That looks awesome.

I'm lousy at traveling alone. I always think I'll enjoy it more...no kids to take into account, no spouse to negotiate with on where to go and what to eat...and then when I do go, my shyness takes over and I become a boring shlub and don't do anything interesting. It's even worse if I'm alone in a country where I don't speak the language well enough. Even though English is pretty ubiquitous in many places, I still hate starting out every conversation with "Sprechen sie English?" or whatever.

3. Posted by Ray on January 21, 2006

I LOVE DURIAN!!

It's the king of fruits here in malaysia. My grandpa has a durian archard. Every season we have to go get the durian that have dropped down to the ground (harvest). I used to like it but lately there are too many mosquitoes.

4. Posted by FLUFFYbunny on January 21, 2006

Food porn indeed. I just ate a huge breakfast but I am so eager for those rolls.....
Yum. I'm going to try that.

5. Posted by Goose on January 21, 2006

Brutha Ray Say: I keep telling people, food is better than sex...if you do it right.

Get the fuck outta here. The best sex I've ever had and the best food I've ever had - there's no contest, sex wins.

The worst food I've ever had and the worst sex - the sex still wins, 'cause I didn't barf after.

Now the best food and the worst sex - there we're getting closer.

6. Posted by Karl Elvis on January 21, 2006

Karl, you didn't barf after the worst sex? I know this girl . . .

7. Posted by Whirly on January 21, 2006

Kickass.

Looove it.

8. Posted by TheChef on January 21, 2006

Oo, surprised to know that durian were a fruit!? I thought it looked a bit like a pastry with a ....pip in?.... yes, I *am* blonde.

xxB

9. Posted by boudica, baby on January 22, 2006

Durian is amazing, I'm addicted! My mom makes this amazing durian pudding out of it .. i think it's just the durian boiled with low-fat milk - replaced the coconut milk, so it won't give you a heart attack since durian is high in fat. It's heavenly on it's own or as a dip (with "roti jala" like your Malaysian guest panties mentioned or even crackers).

I do draw the line at durian ice-cream or other such things because it seems like a travesty to use them that way. With durians either you love it, or hate it.

10. Posted by lena on January 22, 2006

bahn mi! bahn mi!

11. Posted by big daddy love on January 24, 2006

i just have to say.....if i had to choose between sex and a prime durian, tasty, ripe, organic, strait from the tree....maybe some raw chocolate sauce to dip it in......
id go the durian. a girl can get sex any day. getttin a fine durian is not so easy. and durian never fails to get me excited. frankly speaking, some sex leaves me more bored than anything else. of course...thats some sex. not all.
now...sex combined with durian. thats the answer. as all of the true durian lovers know. peace outxxxx

12. Posted by amy henderson on January 20, 2007

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