Bangkok Food Tourism

I am a food tourist. Cultures have a lot to teach our taste buds. Bangkok is a dense sensory onslaught. Monks in rich saffron, tuk tuk drivers hanging, packs of students among hoards of international tourists and feral dogs weave and twist, elbow to elbow among hundreds of food stand lining every street, river, sidewalk, and corner during the daytime.  Stand in one spot, stretch out your arms and youd be able to reach 5 different food carts all with several versions of some incredible dish you never knew existed. Its exciting. Mix with an enormous sweet icy Thai coffee and blast off.

I count 16 trays of... something.... curry? The variety is immense. And whats in each? Tens to hundreds of ingredients. You could spend a lifetime eating everything in Bangkok. 

Here is a great example of what the heck is that? I think its a banana leaf bowl with white congee looking stuff with more meaty brown good stuff. I didnt eat it. I want to go back and get it though.

Everything is neatly wrapped in plastic bags. Plastic bags may be an environmental scourge but they act as plates and bowls here. Its totally normal in Thailand (and here in Taiwan) to eat a bag of noodles. In hot subtropical climates plastic is reliably resistant to humidity, leaking, bugs, bad weather. Im not sure whats in all the bags up there, but check out tiny white egg plants that look like eggs. 

Thai people are really laid back, and it makes eating strange and unusual foods all the more delightful. 

Food stand set up, functional, movable and interchangeable.

So lets look at what I ate. I woke up in Thailand after a late flight and 4 am hotel check in. I went straight for lunch finding a row of food stands between hotels and temples along a narrow river canal. Ordering food in Thailand is much easier than Taiwan. Only pointing is required where in Taiwan some questions usually need to be answered before you get your hands on the grub. I got this lovely bowl of fish stew adorned with scallion, steamed vegetables, rice and broth. Next to the food counter is usually a stand of 5-10 different condiments. I took some spicy soy sauce (the spicy table salt of Asia) and some brown sauce that turned out to be fermented peanuts. There are a ton of flavors to experience all at once. Due to the high quality and freshness you can pick each and everyone out. Sensory overload is no joke in Thailand. 

Most Thai menus state-side begin with pad thai. And it can be found everywhere in Bangkok, but mostly on the streets. Its a very casual food. Again it comes with a ton of stuff. What you have up top is noodles, cucumber shreds, bits of tomato, bean sprouts, and whole dried mini shrimp with a layer of scrambled egg on top. It is a perfect food. It also came with an entire scallion on the side, which I didnt know how to handle. Do you just chew it? See that lime? Its is not like any lime you have ever know, maybe. Its is the hulk of limes. It just dances sour and tingly lime flavor in your mouth. Oh that lime! I would tell you what this meal cost me, but youd probably punch me.

A beautiful display of sushi. I will say the sushi in Taiwan champions this Thai sushi. But Thailand gets high marks for creativity, variety and presentation. From left to right, back to front: seaweed, tuna salad (with mayo, hey why not), something fishy covered in roe, salmon toro, squid, and quail eggs with mayo and row. Love egg sushi, its adorable.

Green papaya with tamarind and chili. Sour, salty and sweet flavors. It was okay. The long thin wood stick stands in as a fork.

This was a "Chinese style" meal, roasted duck over rice. I dont know why the rice is different in Thailand but its often larger, puffier and less soft with more of a ridgy texture. It reminds me of styrofoam. This meal came with some sauteed greens, pickled cucumbers and soup. The soup is just out of camera on the left. It was the simplified essence of what all soup should be. Hot clear water with animal fat, slices of onion and garlic. Thats it, and grand it was.

Fried shrimp cake. Its 95% dried shrimp. Tastes great, but texture was gritty and dense. Came with pickled cukes. Always finish a meal with something pickled.

Its hot in Thailand. Cold drinks are needed. Here is a typical beverage cart with Thailands typical 100 options. Lime juice and a tamarind drink are in the big containers. Did you spot the dog?

And Thailand makes great beers. Really nice pilsner and ale type beers. Refreshing and affordable. I fell in love with Leo beer not just because of its cheetah logo. It did have a smooth great taste. Thailand also makes Chang beer which might be the most popular. 

Club soda in a glass bottle. I inhaled it. Club soda I missed you so much. Taiwan needs to start making some Chang trade deals. 

More juices in squeeze-it style bottles. They sell a deep purple drink made from indigo colored flowers. Flowers can be seen in the bag at the right. It looks like kool-aid but tastes like fruity coconut water. Its hard to describe, but it was nutty and not too sweet. 

Food is constantly happening in Bangkok. Not just meals and snacks for sale but the actually ingredients in the said dishes too. Here you can see some chilies drying in the hot daylight. Who knows these chilies may be in a little glass bottle in your kitchen some day soon.

 

Ditto with the drying fish which is an important base ingredient in lots of Thai dishes is being made in the middle of a market. A little "street" flavor in every bite.

A first-timer in Bangkok I stayed in the Khao San Road, which is a popular backpacker neighborhood. Its a great place to meet other travelers while drinking beers on the side walk. This area is really touristy, and you will be bombarded by vendors trying to sell you embroidered bracelets with obscene phrases, fried insects, silly hats, LED toys, tailored suits, and passes to the ping pong show. The food in this area is not very good. Its only a 5 minute walk in any direction to quieter areas with less tourist oriented stands. Do not be afraid to eat off the streets and from open air restaurants. I have a sensitive stomach, and had zero problems. Be sure to carry some Imodium just in case.

Video Break Cooking Minute

Kudos to videographer and blogger Aaron Fuks for creating this most awesome cooking video of me in my Brooklyn kitchen. I made a winter pizza with my csa goods. You can see the full recipe on his website: www.cookingminute.com

Messy Cables into Not So Messy

Date:  Oct 11, 2015

I have this on my study table.  It has 5x 2.1A charging USB ports. 

You see the problem?  

All the charging cables are so long (1-2m long).  So, even when you coil up it does not looks so elegant.

And placing this at my study table seems too bulky.  This is the very first product I see from the market couple years ago.  And it still serve the charging purpose, and I get to coil all the cables behind and hide it.  So, this one, I place it in my bed room.

So, after searching around, the only way is to get “shorter cables”.  That’s it.  

So, I got these from Amazon.  I make sure it is both USB sync and charge cable.

It is about 20cm long and it is just perfect.

I used to get a lot of these cables from China, it is cheap, but the quality of the cable is sometimes inconsistent.  So, I decided to buy it from Amazon, and at least these are tested by QA, and also made from China for most of it, but better.  A few bucks more thrown in to the cables management nicer and colourful.

It does not look so messy.

This is a charging cable.  For multiple interface.

so, now I am very happy to look at the charging cables on my study table.  Looks more neater.

Dont Play iPad Lah! Play Forbidden Island

Date:  April 30, 2015

I have started to play board games, card games and dice games with the kids.

The kids love these games.

However, kids are still kids.

When they lose, sometimes they will “Beh Song” and start to cry, and tears drop.

Well, let’s look it from another angle, the cries and tears will make them stronger in future, and help them to grasp the ideal of “It’s just a game!"

Forbidden Island

Today, let’s look at another new game that we played.

It is called “Forbidden Island”.

The aim of this game is to work together to find 4 secret treasures.  And run to the helipad (a.k.a Fool’s Landing) without being eaten by the island.  Take note, the island will be flooded from time to time.  Thank goodness, you have the magic to make it un-flood (a.k.a Shore Up).

Wait a second!  What do you mean by “Work Together”?????????

A-ha!  This is a “Co-operation Games”.  That means, all the players need to work together, hand in hand to accomplish the task, finding the 4 secret treasures.  There is only the Human Players win or the Forbidden Island Wins!”.  Each of the players are NOT competing against each other.  

I think co-operation games are very cool game indeed.  It cause lesser conflicts and it actually provides lots of fun.  And all the players have a common target and enemy.

To learn more about how to play the game, please watch the following video links.  Hosted by Will Wheaton.  He will teach you everything about this game.

Here I will provide some basic of the game play.  My kids love this game!

The setup of the game

There are 24 island cards.  You shuffle the cards and first form a 4x4 squares and then place each sides additional two cards.  

This is your island.

Because you shuffle your cards, so, the island will always change for new game play.  So, it will provides different fun and elements to the game.

There are 4x treasures.  Each treasures can be found on 2 island cards.  So, all together there are 8 cards that has the treasure marker on it.

Since you can play either 2 or up to 5 players.  So, there are 5 cards for each coloured pawn.  (i.e. red, blue, green, black and yellow).

You cannot let the Fools’ Landing (Helipad) island card sink.  If Fools’ Landing sink, the game is over, and the Forbidden Island wins.

The 4 Treasures

These are the treasures you need to get.  You can place these 4 treasures on four sides of the island.

Every turn, after you have done 3 actions, you can draw 2x treasure cards.

And you start to collect the treasure cards each turn.  If your hand has 5 cards, you will need to discard additional cards.  Choose carefully what card you need to keep.

You will have to work together with each players and examine the timing and capture the treasure.  Your teammates can give you their treasure cards during their turn and both your pawn and his/her pawn happens to be on the same island tiles.

Except for Messenger (Your Job & Role), a messenger can pass the treasure card to any one from any where and it does not need to be on the same tile as the person who is going to receive the card.

Once you have collected four same treasure cards, you can try to move your pawn to the island tiles that has the same treasure symbol (only 2 for each treasure).

Take note, you must not let the island tiles that has the treasure on it sink.  You can sink 1 but do not let both sink before you retrieve the treasure.

I have 4 "The Crystal of Fire” cards and I happened to have my pawn at the Cave of Embers or the cave of Shadows which carry the treasure symbol.  So, during my turn, one of the action can be to retrieve the treasure.  And place the treasures cards at the discard pile in front of the treasure cards.

Adventurer Cards

At the beginning of the game, each player will have to pick one adventurer cards.  This is to decide what “super power" you can have.

If you are an explorer, you have special power to move and/or shore up diagonally.  Beside Explorer, NO ONE can move diagonally.

You will love the engineer.  Because he can shoe up 2 tiles for 1 single action.  This comes very handy when you have way too many cards to shore up.

This is the most wanted adventurer card.  To be a pilot, you can fly to any tile on the island for 1 action.  ONCE per turn.  (I think me and the kids played wrongly for the first few days as we can play it 2-3 times per turn.  HaHaHa… no wonder we won the first two games)

A messenger can give treasure cards to a player anywhere on the island for 1 action per card.

From time to time, the island tile will sink.  If you need to swim across a part of the island that has NO TILE, that means you will need the Diver to do the job for you by swimming across it.  There rest of the player CANNOT swim.

The navigator can move another player up to 2 adjacent tiles for 1 action.

 

Treasure Cards

To start the game, you give 2 treasure cards to each player.  If you draw a “Water Rise” card, then, you need to put it back and shuffle the cards.

The coloured pawns

Place your pawn in the corresponded island tiles.  My blue pawn happens to start from Fools’ Landing.

To Sink The Tiles

Every turn, you will need to draw the flood card that is equal to the Water level.

Every flood card, you will need to turn over the island tile, and the blue colour card will sink the island half way.  You have to sink the island tile again to REMOVE the tile.

A missing tile is no good as it might block the way or path from one side to another side.

To start the game, you draw 6 flood cards to make the island sink first.  As you can see, it just happened that all the 6 cards I have are all stick together.

Water Level

This is the water level card.  We started from the Novice level, and each time we draw a Water Rise card.  You will increase the water level here.  And then you look at the water level to decide how many flood cards you draw.

Now, every time a Water Rise card was drawn, then, you take the flood cards from the discard pile (those cards that you have sank the island in earlier rounds), shuffle them and put it on top of the flood card.

I think this is so brilliant the game play is.

That means that you have high chance to open a flood card on any tile that has already been sank for 1 time.  If it sank the 2nd time, then, the island tile is removed.  That means the part or tile is completely gone.

Water Rise! Card

There are only 3 waters rise card.  If you draw this card, the water will rise.  And all the previously flooded location risk to be flooded again and become missing tile.

Helicopter Lift Card

This card is important.  Because after you and your team mates collected all 4 treasures.  All the players’ pawns must go back to the Fools Landing.  And then make use of this card to fly away from this forbidden island.

Sand Bags Card

This card is cool.  At any time (not even your turn), you can shore up a tile with this card.

The rest of the game play

It is easy.

Every turn, a player will need to

1) Take up to 3 actions.

     a) Move (not diagonally except for explorer)

     b) Shore Up (adjacent tile or on the island tile you are on)

     c) Give a treasure card (when you are on the same island tile with your other player)

     d) Capture a Treasure (use 4 treasure cards of the same treasure to capture)

2) Draw 2 treasure deck cards

3) Draw Flood cards equal to the water level.

Conclusions

This is a very simple game to play.

It is all about co-operative.

All players must work together.

So it is fun game and there are a lot of interactions between players.

It is amazing that the game play is so good.

Don’t play iPad lah!  Play Forbidden Island!  Play together with your kids.

Leaning Composition Using Dictation

Date:  Sep 19, 2015

Dictation

Stupid me!  I went and buy a dictation app from Apple Store (i.e. Dragon Dictation) where Apple IOS itself has the most powerful dictation feature of all.  HaHaHa….

My previous posts on Learning Composition using Dictations...

“Updates: Chinese Composition & Jay”:  http://miniliew.blogspot.ch/2015/09/updates-chinese-composition-jay.html

“Learning Chinese - Composition ??”?  http://miniliew.blogspot.ch/2015/08/learning-chinese-composition.html

“Learn Chinese Compositions”:  http://miniliew.blogspot.ch/2015/05/learn-chinese-compositions.html

 

Why Do We Need Dictation For Our Kids

Learning how to write words is one thing they have to learn in school.  But learning “what to write” is more important.  Sometimes, if the kids is doing both at the same time, learning what to write and at the same time, learning how to write, that will waste a lot a lot of the time, and the impact is great.  Somehow, they will develop a blockage and fear in learning Chinese.

So, to make learning Chinese fun!  Especially when doing Chinese composition, we need a better way to teach our kids.  So, we do what we do the best, divide and conquer.  First, teach them, how to form correct sentence in their mind.  And once they figure out what to write, they simply “speak it out” and the Dictation software function will transform your speech into writings.  They can correct it all the time, by simply saying it out.  Like this, they don’t have to slow down by figuring out how to write.  That is another task.

By doing this exercise, it also correct their Chinese speaking, and so to make them more accurate when pronounce the words.  Later you will see that the dictation do sometimes record wrongly what I said because I was not speaking so clearly.  

 

How to Turn Dictation On

I think both IOS8 or IOS9 has this.  For Android or other OS users, you have to find yourself a way that is equivalent to using Apple iPad or iPhone.  Sorry.

Go to Settings -> General

Go to "Keyboard"

Under DICTATION, “Enable Dictation”, that’s it.

Now, you might want to turn on Predictive too.  Just in case you say something not clear and the dictation software can predict what you are really trying to say.  

Sometimes, some parents may think it is not good as the kids might not learn their mistake if the computer is doing all the correction for them.  Up to you.

So, launch Notepad or Word or Pages, etc.  And start using dictation by pressing the MIC button.

And you can change the language the same way.  By pressing the Globe button.

 

Videos

This is how you setup.  

And see me in action.  Speaking to the iPad and the dictation carefully jot down what I said.  I am impress with the accuracy.

Oh ya… You can toggle into English keyboard with English dictation too.

So far, I have been having a lot of positive results from teaching Jay Jay how to write compositions.  He is getting better in terms of forming the correct sentence with correct syntax, instead of direct translations from English and direct jot down from speaking.

Hope you have fun with your kids too.

Learning should be fun!

weekend projects

now that were out in the country and I have room to let my 6 yr old daughter outside to play, I had to make good on my promise to build her a tire swing in the front yard.
Gena and I had been out driving around and we stopped into a small garage/tire shop and I asked if they had any old tires they needed to get rid of. One of the mechanics pointed to a shed near the garage and said "go for it, take all you want".

I picked out a nice big "bubba truck" tire. a 36" mud tire. Ive been making alot of trips to Lowes since we bought the house so i told my daughter "Babygirl, we have to go to Lowes" she does her best horror movie type scream and says "not againnnnn". Once I told her we needed to go and get parts to build the tire swing she had a whole different attitude.

I picked up a u-bolt, a snap swivel and 50 of poly rope and we were in business.
I drilled two 1/2" holes in the tire and installed the U bolt then drilled two more in the opposite side for water drainage.

We cleaned the tire up with some bleach and the garden hose and I hung it from a nice big branch in a tree in our frontyard. Shes been having a blast swinging on it all weekend and it was "the best xmas present ever"

Dirt Talk 3 Post OWS Grass Roots Organizing

Dirt Talk Three: Post-OWS Grass Roots Organizing
with Sustainable Flatbush (Anne Pope + Kady Ferguson) and Compost for Brooklyn (Louise Bruce + Rachel Schragis)
Advice from experienced Brooklyn leaders on founding, motivating, and evaluating for grass roots organizations.

Tuesday April 17st, 2012
8 - 9:30 pm
Downstairs @ Sycamore Bar and Flowershop, 21+
1118 Cortelyou RD, BK (Q train to Cortelyou)
Free
Hosted by Meera Bhat

Event on Facebook.

About

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to mobilize, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in their Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond and is founded by Anne Pope ?www. sustainableflatbush.org/

Compost for Brooklyn In March 2010, the corner lot on Newkirk Avenue and East 8th Street was vacant, unused, and full of trash. With no funding and a single shovel, neighbors and friends came together to tackle the project of transforming the space into a community composting project. In 2011, Compost for Brooklyn composted 50,000 pounds of food scraps and yard waste from about 200 households, welcomed 4,500 visitors, and formed lasting partnerships with numerous organizations from the local level to the international. www.compostforbrooklyn.org/

Louis Bruce began Compost for Brooklyn while a member of NYC’s Department of Parks and Recreation’s Green Apple Corps, where she became certified as a master composter. She received her Bachelor of Arts in China and Asia Pacific Studies with a focus on environmental issues from Cornell University and is currently pursuing a Master of Urban Planning at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

Kady Ferguson is a Community Ninja / Rotten Food Enthusiast / Volunteer Engager / Sustainable Communities / Sustainable Business of Sustainable Flatbush

Rachel Schragis is an artist, educator and native New Yorker. Best known within OWS for her flow-chart visualization of the movements declaration, she works primarily with the the Arts & Culture working group and Anti-Racist Allies working group. As a compost educator with Compost for Brooklyn, Rachel represents c4b in schools. She is also a teaching artist with Wingspan Arts.

Meera Bhat is part of the team at Prospect Farm (www.prospectfarm.org), a neighborhood growing initiative in Windsor Terrace that is working together to grow food in a formerly vacant lot. She lives in Prospect Park South and works as a project manager at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University. She also leads a girl scout troop, if youre looking for cookies.

Cantaloupe Alone is the creator of this event and a food blog for people with garlic breath by Kensington, Brooklyn based Naomi Donabedian www.cantaloupealone.com