Lost In Translation

Bangkok Spring 2013

Thai flower arrangements in a flower shop; these are very different from Japanese style.

The dogs of Bangkok look much healthier than they did 15 years ago.

A sculpture in front of the new Holiday Inn at the entrance to Soi 22 on Sukhamvit.

The reception area of the William Warren Library on the 4th floor next to The Jim Thompson House.

A dinner set with some of my Thai favorites: chicken satay, stir fried morning glory, and green curry.

What Will You Leave Behind?

These tiny ceramic skulls were created by artist Nino Sarabutra for her exhibition at Ardell's Third Place Gallery on Thong Lor Soi 10. I read about the exhibition in Bangkok 101 (a must have resource when visiting Bangkok).

Bangkokian Museum FAIL / The Jim Thompson House

I have a great appreciation for old Thai houses and I heard that the Bangkokian Museum was a fine example. It is quite off the beaten path as well.

However, it is NOT open on Tuesdays. So I decided to revisit my favorite old house in Bangkok.

The majestic pond at The Jim Thompson House.

A performer doing a traditional Thai dance. Since reading Alex Kerr's book, Bangkok Found, I find myself more curious about Khon masked dances. I'll have to attend a performance one of these days.

Flowers floating in water; Kerr's book has also made me more aware of all the different ways flowers are used in Thailand.

Sideswipe

Charles Willeford is a very engaging writer, technically his novels are considered crime or noir fiction, but I think those are reductive labels. I always feel like I learn something new when I read one of his books, and his characters are memorable and seem very believable and true to life as well. Sideswipe (1987) is a great example of this. This is the third Hoke Moseley novel and he is not your conventional hero: divorced, broke, balding, wears dentures, single father of two adolescent girls and at the onset of this novel is going through a nervous breakdown. His pregnant partner Elita Sanchez moves him into his father's house in Singer Island, his birthplace and his version of peace on earth. Moseley decides to retire from the force and manage a small long term stay hotel. During this time he befriends an entomologist, nicknamed "Itai," a professor who is on sabbatical writing a novel and whose speciality is the Ethiopian horse fly. The professor got his nickname from his colleagues after he returned from a year in Kyoto at a zen monastery and couldn't stop talking to people about it (by the way "itai" means "painful" in Japanese). Itai brings to his attention that his daughter Aileen is bulimic and Moseley has deal with that mess. But detective work is in his blood as he helps the local police solve a series of art thefts in an expensive luxury condominium. Here, like in The Burnt Orange Heresy, he can show off his knowledge about art and collecting have some fun at the expense of the art world. This can also be seen in his treatment of the primitive, non objectionist artist from Barbados. There is a parallel story taking place about a retired autoworker, Stanley Sinkiewicz, from Detroit now living in Florida who through a series of events meets a true criminal psychopath in Troy Louden. That's not to say that Troy doesn't have his charms, and manages to put together a crew with Sinkiewicz and the painter to make a stake on a big heist so that they can go to Haiti to get his grotesquely disfigured stripper girl friend plastic surgery,. Getting back to Sinkiewicz, he's no ordinary retiree. He has a cane in which he keeps cyanide pellets to poison dangerous seeming neighborhood dogs. The robbery goes bad and several people are needlessly killed in the melee and Moseley is called into action by his boss and end up solving the crime. Did I mention that humor abounds aplenty? This gives Miami Blues a run for its money as my favorite Willeford novel.

Soul Food

I read good things about Soul Food Makan, which is like a Thai-style izakaya in Bangkok. It is very close to Thong Lor BTS station, has several micro beers available (Dead Guy Ale, St. Rogue Red Ale, and Poleeko Pale Ale), interesting cocktails and an inspired menu. Above are the South Thai Samosa.

Tiger Prawn Satay.

Issan and Chang Mai Sausages with Prik Naam.

Update: On returning to Bangkok from Cambodia I visited again to try one of their signature dishes. I had to have the South Thai Samosa again though.

This time I opted for the Smoked Duck Larb, a mixture of slow-smoked duck breast and fresh duck in a sour/spicy dressing with toasted rice and herbs. It was the best larb I have ever tasted. Larb is always eaten with sticky rice and that was quite a bit of food for one so I couldn't finish it, but really flavorful. I also tried one of their signature cocktails, the Kentucky Mule, Heaven Hill bourbon, lime, mint, and ginger ale. It was quite refreshing.

SE Asia Spring 2013: Layover Hong Kong

This time around I decided to fly to Bangkok via a layover in Hong Kong on Cathay pacific Airlines instead of my usual route on Delta to save a little extra money since I am on spring vacation at the moment and have the time. I'm not sure I would do it again, although you arrive much earlier in the day than the Delta route you have to spend most of the day traveling, including getting up at 6 am. The personal entertainment system is more primitive and I ended getting seated next to the fattest person on the plane and couldn't change seats.

I slept through the lunch on the first leg and decided to get something to eat during the layover in Hong Kong. This minced pork with noodles in chicken broth was better than anything they can prepare on a plane.

Masa's Kitchen 47

Masa's Kitchen 47 is a modern Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood that has one of the more expensive menus, so I decided to try lunch there since they had some more reasonably priced options. After a little browsing I found out that they were awarded a Micheline star in 2011. I got the Tan Tan ramen, which is one of my favorites for ¥1400. it came with an appetizer of braised pork and steamed vegetable, as well as soup dumplings. All of the food was expertly made with fresh ingredients. I have never had such a smooth and oil free soup with Tan Tan ramen. I need to go back and try one of the lunch set menus, I was very impressed with my simple order.

Night Of The Iguana

After recently re-watching director John Huston's Criterion edition of Under The Volcano the third installment of Huston's Mexico trilogy (the first was The Treasure of The Sierra Madre), I realized that I haven't seen the second installment of the trilogy, an adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play Night Of The Iguana (1964). Williams is one of my favorite American playwrights and I was intrigued about the gossip about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor joining him there, during production after having read Jess Walter's novel Beautiful Ruins. The novel featured Burton as a minor character in the novel during the filming of Cleopatra with Taylor. In Williams' play, Burton is a defrocked priest giving religious tours in Mexico. He is struggling to survive with his dignity until a group of women, including a young nymphet played by Sue Lyon-she played a similar role in Lolita. It was a great location (Puerto Vallarta where Huston lived for several years), an interesting storyline, and some memorable performances from the cast with the likes of Burton, Ava Garner, Deborah Kerr, Grayson Hall, and Sue Lyon. I feel the need to read the play and short story that inspired the film.

Women

I've been wanting to see what all the fuss about Charles Bukowski was, so I bought a copy of Women (1978). However, before I got a chance to read it my father, a career postal worker, told me that he had just finished Post Office and really enjoyed it. So I decided to get a copy of that and read it first. And I quite enjoyed it since it was a detailed description of life at the post office and Henry Chinski's weaning himself away from that job into the world of a writer. Of course there was drinking, severe hangovers, and lots of dirty sex. Women is exclusively about Chinski drinking, giving poetry readings, picking up hot women and having dirty sex. And while enjoyable, funny, and occasionally enlightening; it was repetitive. I feel I know what Bukowski is about now and I don't feel the need to read anymore books, not saying that I won't, but I can see what all the fuss is about now and don't really feel the need to investigate any further. 

Mi Choripan

I am planning on visiting Argentina in May, so when I heard about Mi Choripan, a restaurant in Yoyogi Uehara that specializes in choripán, a baguette with chorizo sausage and a variety of toppings. The most famous is the chimchurri sauce, but Mi Choripan makes all of their zesty sauces and sausages from scratch. It's ¥700 for the sandwich and an additional ¥300 for access to the toppings bar (see below). It's worth going off the beaten path for one of these great sandwiches.