acpgee Member

I couldn't resist picking up some exorbitant mangosteen at the Asian supermarket. Delicious though.

I am throwing a dinner party next weekend and tonight I tried out some recipes for that. Planning to cook Thai. I wanted to try out some new types of Nam Prik, namely Nam Prik Makua and Nam Prik Gapi. The first is eggplant based but quite hot and the second is very hardcore, being primarily flavoured with fermented shrimp…

Welcome home to the high stress job. I got home at 20:30. Hubby did the quick meal of tomato sauce and chicken meatballs that were in the freezer. A courgette could be roasted in the air fryer in the time it took to boil bucatini.

Western food. The hubby in particular has been wanting potatoes after two and a half weeks in Asia. Tagliata di Manzo and a side of roast potatoes.

Tip for pancakes when using a nonstick pan. Melt a tablespoon of butter in the microwave and stir it into the batter. No additional fat needed.

Here’s a version of the same dish at a fancy Thai restaurant in London from a celebrity chef. Now that I know an ordinary roadside restaurant in Bangkok created a version just as tasty I need to google the recipe and make this myself.

We got back home today. Dinner was a 5 minute meal from a batch of pork capeletti I made several weeks ago and froze. They take about 2 minutes to boil from frozen. We had a little leftover serrano ham from pre-vacation so the sauce was some of that crisped up in olive oil and sprinkled with grated cheese. Also did a…

An extraordinarily fragrant pork larb that points out all the mistakes I have been making when I try to do this at home. I need to use more shallots, kaffir lime leaf and rice powder toasted quite dark.

The prawn and bean vermicelli photo didn’t attach.

Prawns with baked bean vermicelli. I have only eaten this at a fancy Thai restaurant in London and found it extraordinarily umami. The version in an ordinary Bangkok lunch spot was just as good. Must learn to make this. A smoothie of banana and crushed ice was remarkably good and had an elegant taste.

The BBQ platter and some stir fried cabbage.

@SafariGalNYC I make this at home though usually covered in a sauce instead of on the side, if I can find whole fish at the supermarket. Splitting the fish through the stomach cavity and removing the spine is easier than I thought. I googled for the butchery technique. About a half inch of oil in a wok is sufficient for…

Pad thai and pork and kale stir fry.

Deep fried sea bream and Thai seafood sauce. I need to start making that sauce.

Seafood congee from the Asian section of the hotel breakfast buffet.

Lunch may have been lousy but dinner at a random restaurant catering to locals was excellent. Salt BBQ’d fish with Thai seafood sauce, green mango salad, grilled aubergine and rice.

Salt BBQ’d fish with Thai seafood sauce and side of green mango salad redolent with lemongrass.

The worst airport food we’ve had in Thailand. In the past I’ve had a terrific Lanna meal in Chiang Mai airport. I think it must have been at a restaurant prior to security.

Cambodian beef lok lak. Skip the optional rice but include the optional fried egg. Can be made with chicken or prawns. https://www.marionskitchen.com/cambodian-pepper-beef-lok-lak/

BBQ river prawns and Japanese seaweed salad.

We went to a famous Lanna restaurant with notorious queues for a late lunch. At 15:30 we could get a table without waiting! We had nam prik naam puu, mashed aubergine salad, steamed chicken, charcoal grilled pork neck and sweet vegetable soup with dried fish. Nam prik are chilli dips served with raw and blanched veg. The…

Shrimp and glass noodle salad.

We skipped hotel breakfast and went to a Lanna Thai restaurant for brunch. Lychee and mango smoothies. Hubby had a beef kha soi. I started with nam prik noom which was spicy on the way in but painful on the way out. Followed by mango sticky rice.

Another Khao Soi. The local chicken curry soup.

Finally got a Lanna Thai meal. We are at Aroon Rai last visited 25 years ago when we visited Chiang Mai when I was still in grad school. Nam Prik Ong, Som Tam and stir fried mixed vegetables as well as an order of Khao Soi.

Dinner at the touristy night market in Chiang Mai.

Grilled fish at the night market in Chiang Mai.

Surprisingly good airport food at Krabi International. The green is melinjo leaf, a local foraged vegetable.

Took a moped sidecar taxi to the village 10km away from the resort. My lunch at a local market stall was $2. My dinner order at a roadside restaurant near the resort was $8 with a dollar extra for a mango smoothie. I ordered grilled prawns but got deep fried. That’s a little taste of hubby’s chicken green chicken curry…

This is likely to be my last seafood post as we are heading inland tomorrow. I ordered grilled shrimp but got breaded and deep fried. Language problems.