My continuing obsession with succulents

One of my favorite warehouses in Berkeley.

 Life lessons via trail signs along Richardson Bay.

The often overlooked Richmond-San Rafael bridge shows her colorful side.

Movers have come and gone, bags are almost packed (last minute shoving), dogs are permitted for export, a last dinner at one of our most favorite places, and fittingly a lightening and rainstorm.  Goodbye Bangkok!  It has been an amazing adventure!

*I will write about Phnom Penh and a last trip to Vietnam and Sukothai soon!

I spent my first morning wandering around the Royal Palace grounds.  Sadly, a lot of the grounds are closed off to the public, but the buildings that I was able to see were beautiful and the most amazing yellow color. 

amazing flowers at the Palace

It was uncomfortably warm and I was starting to really feel my really early morning flight, so I headed to the Foreign Correspondent’s Club for a tasty lunch of beef lok-lak.  Yum!

beef lok-lak

The Central Market Dome

Phnom Penh has several large markets, so the next day I hit two of them, the Central Market and the Russian Market. Both had a good amount of the usual tourist wares, t-shirts, scarves and Buddha heads. They each had a “wet” market area of meat, seafood, veggies and fruit. I spent most of my time in these areas, absorbing the sights and smells.

dresses for sale at the Central Market

fruit vendor at the Russian Market

Another photo of the spotted dog, since he seemed to be quite popular.

I am off tomorrow to Phnom Penh (that’s Cambodia) tomorrow morning for a couple of days.  I’m meeting up with D, who is there for work.  I’m excited to check out the Central Market there, and chow down  on some more delicious Khmer food.  (Lok lak, yum!)  Photos and stories upon return!

D caught an annoying cold in the past couple of days, on top of being overworked and totally stressed.  I offered to make my vegetable miso soup, which is D’s favorite when sick.

I think this recipe started with some vague instructions from my mom.  She had read a recipe in the LA Times or someplace, and rattled off some instructions one night to me over the phone.  It all started with those cryptic notes, and it turned into a darn good soup

The nice thing about this is that it isn’t your typical miso soup.  There is no dashi, or bonito flakes, or thousands of years of tradition to screw up.  It’s totally easy and you can throw just about any vegetable into that you’d like.  The secret lies in what I have dubbed “the flavor pack,” that gets mixed in at the end.  Plus, its got udon noodles in it, what else do you need?

Ingredients 

Soup

3 cups water

3 cups chicken or vegetable stock

*1 carrot, diced

*8 oz mushrooms, sliced

*1 red bell pepper, diced

*1 zucchini, diced

*1 big handful green beans, chopped into spoon-fitting pieces

3 green onions, sliced

1 block firm tofu, cut into spoon-fitting pieces

4 oz cooked udon noodles (you want them almost done, since you add them at the end)

1 handful cilantro, chopped (optional)

*These are the vegetables I used this time around, but you can throw in whatever suits your tastes, what looks good at the market, or whatever is hanging out in your fridge.  I’ve used asparagus, yellow summer squash, napa cabbage, and different types of mushrooms.  I usually aim to keep it pretty colorful.)

Flavor Pack

3 tablespoons miso paste (I tend to stick to the yellow or white for a mellower flavor)

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced or grated on the small holes

1 tablespoon chile paste, or to taste (I use chile garlic sauce typically)

Method

In a large soup pot, bring water and stock to boil.  Begin adding vegetables, order dependant on what you are using, and cook to desired level of doneness, 2-3 minutes per vegetable.  While vegetables are cooking, mix together ‘flavor pack’ ingredients in a small bowl.  To soup, add in green onions and tofu, stir to combine.

When vegetables are cooked, pour in ‘flavor pack,’ stir to combine.  The soup should go from clear to cloudy from the miso paste.  Add in cooked udon noodles; simmer until noodles are warmed up.  Garnish with cilantro, if desired!

This past weekend D and I headed down to Hua Hin (Pranburi, if you want to get technical) for a little weekend escape to the beach. Hua Hin is about a 3-hour drive from Bangkok, so we rented a van and driver to take us down. D had suggested stopping for lunch on the way at this seafood restaurant that we had lunched at on her staff retreat this past summer. I practically shouted “YES!” since the place was sooooo good, and it was the first place that D and I had plah neung manaao, fish steamed with lime and chili, which became one of our favorite dishes.

Madame Green’s sign

We pulled up around 1:00, to a buzzing restaurant. Madame Green’s is an open air place, right on the beach. The sea breeze blows in and just adds to your appetite. D and I stood awkwardly at the entry, not sure where to go or what to do. A server walked by, arms loaded down with trays full of crab shells and dishes, saying something in Thai. My Thai is pretty limited, but one word popped right out, “farang,” (which means ‘foreigner’). I turned to D and asked “did I just hear what I think I heard?” She told me yup, and we got a pretty good chuckle out of it. We speculated that he was calling over one of the English speakers in the restaurant to come and deal with us.

We were seated and placed our order for plah neung manaao, stir-fried morning glory in oyster sauce, and squid fried with garlic and pepper. The fish arrived first, much to our surprise. The thing that is so wonderful about Madame Green’s version is that the fish is swimming in delicious, tangy and spicy broth, versus just hanging out on a plate like we’ve had it since. The broth keeps the fish really moist, and is so flavorful I could drink it!

digging into the fish

The morning glory was quite good, thankfully missing the MSG aftertaste predominate in some. The squid was wonderful, and not quite what I had envisioned. It was whole, small squid deep fried with tons of garlic (good for keeping mosquitoes away!). D and I remarked how you almost never see whole squid served at home, which is a shame since they were really good!

the squid with garlic

As our dishes were being cleared away, the server told us that we had to have dessert, that it was very good and we would like it. I missed what he said it was, and then it arrived! Mango and sticky rice! (I should have known since there is a small counter serving it in the front of the restaurant…) I’ve eaten my fair share of mango and sticky rice since being in Thailand, and I’ve become convinced that it’s all about the rice. 9 time out of 10 the mango is good, but bad sticky rice can really blow the dessert. This, however, was some of the best sticky rice I’ve had. The server was totally right, we loved it!

mmmm….sticky rice….

Since coming to Thailand, I’ve had the opportunity to sample several new fruits: rose apple, mangosteen, rambutan and some different guavas (I’ve not braved the famed durian yet) and last week I had the opportunity to try another new one, marian plum.

D brought home some small orange fruits that she had been seeing on the street near the office, and had been told to try by Khun J (the head of the office here). They are about the size of a chicken egg, maybe a big longer. They taste somewhere between a plum and a mango. The skin is a little thick and takes a bit of getting used to, I gotta say…