Marita Says

This was my first proper attempt at a bag, a very uncomplicated messenger. I created it from scraps of old fabric in my mother’s fabric pile, dating back to seventies. The detailed print I top stitched onto the bag originally covered our living room couches when I was a kid.

This bag has traveled with me for the past ten months from provincial northern South Africa and through Nairobi onto Taiwan and then California and parts of the Southwestern US. It journeyed with me through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and was by my side when we finally settled down in our Bangkok apartment just over a month ago.

It served me very well and was the ideal travel bag and is still handy for trips to the weekend market or the next trip to the beach. But I needed something a bit more sleek, a little more funky and slightly more functional for urban living here in Bangkok.

And so one morning on the way to work, Bangkok Post clutched under one arm and bag slung over the shoulder, an idea began to take shape for a new shoulder bag. I wanted something with a special pocket for my morning paper and then some.

It’s been a couple of weeks of on and off sewing since I started the bag, but this week I finally ended up walking to work with a new bag on my shoulder. The idea changed a couple of times since I first drafted a pattern and sewed a mock-up of the product; the straps were lengthened and moved, the side pockets changed a bit and I decided to add a lining.

My favorite feature of the bag is the newspaper pocket, the other outside pockets include one for my i-Pod and one for my cell phone. Inside I added some additional fabric to the lining and divided it into two smaller pockets for notebooks, wallet and keys, which left a lot of space available for lumpier items.

It had an exciting first day in Bangkok. Alexander picked up the paper on our way to work so I can try out my favorite pocket and it was a perfect fit! Besides traveling to work on the BTS and MRT trains it also sped down the tiny Bangkok klongs to Banglamphu and later traveled back here by river boat taxi and again the BTS.

Thanks again to Alexander for the photos.

One more food related entry before I do one about the bag I’ve finished this week.

After spending a day at Chatuchak Market we decided to eat in tonight, rather than go searching for the mythical Ethiopian Restaurant on Sukhumvit Road. I felt like some comfort food inspired by Bangkok street food and so I picked satay and fried rice.

Fried rice is something I crave every now and then and recently I’ve been craving it quite a lot of it. We had it the other night at Suan Lum Night Bazaar and yesterday from a street stand near our school. For dinner I decided to make some myself again. It’s so easy to prepare, you can add almost any ingredients and it rarely disappoints.

To accompany the leftover satay sauce from earlier this week I grilled some chicken kebabs with pineapple, small tomato, and green chili like you find on the streets of Bangkok. Comforting and tasty!

Alexander is trying to create an autumnal feel in our apartment even though it is the rainy season in Thailand the chances of experiencing anything resembling fall besides gaudy commercialized Halloween parties is about zero.

But I enjoy the idea of creating an autumn experience and so after he made a very seasonal apple and pork dish spiced with cinnamon last night I tried my hand at this thick pumpkin soup recipe from lindamade.

I halved her recipe for the two of us and served it with a loaf of fresh bread and some cheddar.

I loved the soup. The ingredients blended well into a rich and creamy texture with subtle flavors. It’s a good thing I halved the recipe as the one mug of warm pumpkin soup was filling enough even for me.

Suggestions for Pumpkin Soup:

- I pureed my own pumpkin by cooking 250g of cubed pumpkin in a little stock, pouring off the stock and setting it aside for later use, then pouring the cooked cubes into my blender and puree.

- I only seasoned the soup with some coarse black pepper which worked very well, but I am certain you can add some cayenne pepper if you like your soups hot.

My friend Nicole’s visit was sadly cut short by one day when she realized yesterday afternoon that she was off to Greece a whole 24 hours earlier than she originally thought. It was a pleasure entertaining her at our new home and exploring a new island while she was here.

We visited tiny Koh Si Chang last weekend. It was the ideal weekend getaway, only 3-4 hours travel by boat and bus, not at all frequented by loads of tourists, fresh seafood and and a perfectly relaxed island atmosphere. My highlight food wise was the fried squid and cashew nut. A satisfying mixture of sweet and salty flavors and chewy and crunchy textures!

Monday night we finally got around to Suan Lum night bazaar near Lumphini Park. After finding out how to dodge the tacky tourist stalls we all left with new wardrobe items- a new T and funky work shirt for Alexander, a fall jacket for Nic and a T-shirt for myself.

We traveled by public boats on the klong (Bangkok’s canals) to Banglamphu on Tuesday, where we had yet another pleasing and inexpensive meal at Roti Mataba and browsed around the stores and shops on Phra Athit.

For great pictures and some more about the past week, Alexander photographed and documented our trip to Koh Si Chang and Roti Mataba.

On to cooking. We planned to go out hunting for a mythical Ethiopian restaurant last night and then I would have cooked for Nic tonight, but we had to change our plans a bit and so I decided to cook last night before she left. I had been planning a bit of a menu throughout the day, so i just had to pick up a couple of items from the store and I was ready to start dinner.

Unfortunately for me we got hit by an enormous storm last night and preparing dinner did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. Having the kitchen on the open balcony meant that the wind kept on dumping buckets of rain over everything and I had to wait until it was less windy before I could do anything. But finally I did manage to get the cooking done, even though I still got a bit wet.

Our dinner consisted of a grilled tofu salad with cashew and cilantro pesto (my own creations!) and chicken kebabs on lemon grass skewers with a satay sauce. For dessert we had ice cream with crushed sesame and peanut brittle.

It all came out lovely, even if I have to say so myself.

Grilled Marinated Tofu Salad with Cherry Tomatoes and Cilantro and Cashew Nut Pesto

There are kind of two recipes falling under the heading of this salad, first the tofu then pesto. In the end they all contribute to one salad. I’ll try not to make it too confusing.

Gather around:

a block of firm tofu

6 red cherry tomatoes

For the marinade:

juice of one lime

fish sauce

soft brown sugar

green lettuce leaves for garnish

For the pesto:

a handful of cashewnuts

3 small garlic cloves, minced

a bunch of fresh cilantro

olive oil

Make:

Slice the tofu into about .1 inch thick slices.

For the marinade- mix the lime juice, a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of fish sauce in a bowl or container (I believe it should be non-metallic) put the slices of tofu and toss to coat. Cover and refrigarate for about an hour.

While you are marinating the tofu, start on the pesto.

Put the cashew nuts, garlic and cilantro into a blender or food processor and chop lightly. Add a tablespoonful or so of olive oil and blend just a little more so you have a chunky pesto. Note that I made this on a whim and therefore did not take correct measurements into calculation. I just went with what I hoped would work and it came out pretty good.

Line a platter (or in our case a plate) with the lettuce leaves and slice the cherry tomatoes into rounds and set aside.

Remove the tofu from the fridge after an hour and grill quickly over low heat in a griddle pan, a couple of seconds on each side. Place the grilled tofu on a bed of lettuce, put one or two slices of the tomato on the tofu and top it off with a little pesto on each slice.

Not only did it look pretty, it was also very tasty and light.

Chicken Kebabs on Lemon Grass Skewers

This turned out to be a very easy dish, much easier than my first attempt using minced pork.

Collect:

500g chicken mince

1 long red chili

3 stalks lemon grass, trimmed to fit into a pan and halved lenghtwise

sesame oil

Make:

Seed the chili and thoroughly mince it. Mix the chili in with the chicken mince until it is well combined. Shape the chicken into 6 balls and place it on a cutting board, flatten the balls slightly and place the lemon grass stalks onto the balls, the chicken should be about at the middle of the stalks. Fold the chicken over the stalks and flatten the top slightly. Brush the chicken with some sesame oil.

Heat some sesame oil in a pan over a moderately high heat.

Put the kebabs into the pan and cook until ready to be eaten and serve on the lemon grass skewers.

What I love about this dish is that it is super simple and tasty, the meat really gets infused with the fragrant lemon grass.

Ice Cream with Chopped Peanut and Sesame Brittle

This dessert is really easy to make but tasted quite yummy. Sadly the ice cream was very soft, I tried to find a ‘harder’ ice cream at the grocer, but for some reason they were all really soft and not even my freezer helped.

You’ll need:

vanilla ice cream

peanut and sesame brittle

Make:

Break bits of the brittle off and throw it into a food processor or blender. Chop until fine but still a little chunky. Mix about 3/4 this with the ice cream and serve, sprinkled with the rest of the chopped brittle.

Yum.

Suggestions:

- adjust to your liking, add or subtract a bit here and there, have fun.

Bananas abound in Bangkok. Everywhere you go you can find giant fresh bunches of green and yellow bananas being sold. You can have it in pancakes, with French toast, peeled, skewered and barbequed on the street, in rotis prepared on the soi’s of Banglamphu, in desserts, shakes, muffins and bread.

Last weekend I found out that there are about nineteen banana varieties in Thailand, although I don’t want to be quoted on this as I may have heard wrong I could easily believe it. We even discovered plantains at the Klong Toey market we visited last weekend. I first had them prepared for me by Alexander in LA and am now looking forward to having it again now that we found it here.

Before we hop on the bus towards our weekend destination, Koh Si Chang Island, I thought of posting this banana dessert I prepared recently and thought a very decadent success.

Banana in Coconut Milk with Cinnamon

We prepared the very popular and seasonal fresh mango with coconut milk and sticky rice at the Thai Farm Cooking School in Chiang Mai and I decided to add some elements of this dessert plus one or two other ideas to my version of their bananas with coconut milk.

The original recipe calls for one cup of coconut milk, half a cup of water, one tablespoon of sugar, two ripe bananas- sliced into thick chunks, and a pinch of salt. Mine calls for some additional ingredients: an inch of cinnamon stick (thanks to Speedhakoo who supplies me with fresh sticks from Madagascar), half a cup of sticky rice, and vanilla ice cream.

Preparing the dessert is simple. Pour the coconut milk into a pot and heat it over medium heat until it begins to boil. Add the banana, sugar and cinnamon and cook until soft. Remove the cinnamon stick and add just a pinch of salt. Scoop some ice cream and a spoonful of sticky rice into a dessert bowl and pour some of the coconut milk sauce and banana over it and serve.

It turned out to be quite a decadently rich dessert, considering all the ingredients, but one has to go over the top every now and then.

Suggestions for making bananas in coconut milk:
- for two people I suggest halving the recipe, a whole cup of coconut milk could be a bit much.
- a splash of dark rum wouldn’t hurt!
- an attractive serving suggestion would be to add a piece of cinnamon stick to the dish.
- the sticky rice I picked up from a sweet lady selling Thai desserts in bags from a street side table on the way home. If finding sweet sticky rice is going to be tricky, you could probably also use tapioca.
- of course both the ice cream and sticky rice are optional, but it does add a little something to an otherwise very liquid-y dessert

I thought I would not get around to any writing while my visitor is here, but seen as I am unable to fall asleep again I might just as well spend some time blogging instead of rolling around in bed.

Nic is here from Taiwan and currently on a round-the-world trip that will take her to Greece, Turkey, parts of Europe and then Canada. I am jealous, even though I’ve spent most of this year living in foreign countries, Taiwan, the US, and Thailand, and have been traveling a lot I always feel a tinge of jealousy when I hear about other people’s travels.

I met her and after some initial problems with the airport bus we decided to take a taxi straight home. Alexander had fresh coffee and some delightfully delicious toasted sandwiches with tomato, mozzarella, and fresh basil from the balcony waiting when we arrived.

I suggested that we go to Ban Chiang for dinner. It is the same place I took Alexander on his first night in Bangkok and we decided back then that we should come back at some point in the future, Nic’s arrival seemed the perfect excuse.

We made a stop in Siam first to satisfy my craving for a tall, warm latte. Vanilla Industry in Siam Square seemed like the perfect option. This coffee shop/ bakery/ restaurant/ bake shop was a surprise discovery some weeks ago and is probably the most adorable and stylish coffee shop in Bangkok. There are many pleasant and nice places here, but this one takes first prize in my books.

My latte urge was pleasantly satisfied and I also convinced the others to share a brownie with me from the cake stand full of tempting goodies like sunken chocolate cake, banoffee pie, heavy chocolate cake and nine-layer vanilla cake.

We spent some time browsing around Siam Square and discovered It’s Happened To Be  A Closet. A store that mixes interiors, fashion, food, and beauty in a tiny space with a lot of creativity and style. Anybody with a love of food, design and style who ever finds themselves in this part of Bangkok should make a point of visiting these two establishments. Big must-not-miss places!

After Alexander picked up a sexy new T-shirt and Nicole and I contemplated some new wardrobe items we headed to Ban Chiang near the Surasak BTS stop. Tempting as it was we opted not to sit outside in the lush tropical garden but rather in the air conditioned comfort of the old teak house, pleasingly decorated with antique Thai furniture and old family portraits of the Thai monarchy.

The highlight on the menu on our previous visit was the minced chicken wrapped in kale leaves. But this time we opted for papaya salad, tofu marinated in lime and ginger, and fish souffle in a coconut shell. Everything was fantastic and this time the fish souffle was the highlight. A coconut shell gets filled with some shredded cabbage, fish and some aromatic Thai herbs and spices. The fish turns melt-in-the-mouth soft during the cooking process and the flavors spread throughout the fish, the cabbage and the coconut flesh. After we finished the dish Alexander and I scooped out generous helpings of the soft white interior until only the shell was left.

I would have loved to try some dessert, but the meal was satisfyingly filling and we so we decided to call it a night and return home.

I was a bit lazy last week and did not do too much in the kitchen. And it was good. Wednesday our first visitor is arriving and I don’t think I’ll be getting around to writing for a while. So, I’m going to post one or two recipes from the old ‘Marita’.

Perhaps I’ll experiment with something new for our visitor to write about after next week.

The following recipe was my first attempt at Fried Tofu with Cashew Nuts.

This was my first experiment with a dish we learned how to prepare at the Thai Farm Cooking School in Chiang Mai. It is a very straightforward and tasty Thai dish. The original recipe called for chicken and carrots, I decided to try it with tofu and asparagus.

You’ll need:
90 grams of sliced firm tofu
¼ cup of asparagus sliced into chunks
¼ cup of sliced onions
¼ cup mushrooms
¼ cup of cashew nuts
2 sliced chilies, lightly toasted
¼ cup chopped spring onions
1 tablespoon oil
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon mushroom sauce
2 tablespoons water

When you have all the ingredients chopped and ready, here is how to prepare it:
Heat the oil in a wok and add the tofu. Fry until golden brown. Add asparagus, onions, mushrooms and water. Continue stir-frying. When it is almost cooked, add the mushroom sauce, fish sauce, sugar, salt and spring onions. Stir-fry and mix well. Turn off the heat, add the cashew nuts and chili and you’re done!

Suggestions for Fried Tofu with Cashew Nuts:
- for more bite, do not seed the chilies
- if you cannot find fish sauce you could probably use soy sauce instead
- you can of course substitute tofu with chicken and the asparagus with carrot