Sausage and Roast Pork Over Rice Either I’ve become extremely good at picking the wrong places to eat or there’s a dearth of decent eats in Siem Reap. In any case, save a summer roll eaten on the sidewalk outside the Royal Gardens, I was pretty underwhelmed at all the street stalls, market breakfast stalls [...]
Mixed Fresh Fruit (Bai Dom Neub Song Chien) I’m not much of an adventure eater. I’ll eat what might taste good. I’ll eat what I’m served. At my age, I don’t really need to eat on a dare. That being said, I’ve had a few misadventures in eating these past few days. For my first [...]
Rice Noodle Vendor Psar Chaa, the Old Market, in the center of Siem Reap has what any other market in Southeast Asia might have – meat, produce and early-rising locals catching breakfast – but like every market it has its own personality reflecting the everyday needs of the locals. Things get going between 6:00-6:30 a.m. [...]
Stacked Pomelos in Siem Reap’s Old Market (Psar Chaa) The pomelo I bought at the border between Thailand and Cambodia seemed to have a vague fishiness. I don’t know if it was pesticides, the pomelo itself or my imagination, but it was the only thing I had to eat and we still had another few [...]
Deep-fried Beef on Silom Soi 5 After leaving the immigration lawyer’s office, where I was picking up paperwork for my Cambodia visa trip, I was starving and still a bit fuzzy-headed from yesterday’s marathon of drinking and smoking that started with lunch at the British Club Bangkok and ended at midnight with four night caps [...]
Sai Grog Issan When a menu mentions meat in Thailand, it doesn’t always mean that you’ll get a hulking center of the plate protein as would be expected in the U.S., sometimes it just refers to a few small bits or bones, expertly used to flavor the rest of the dish. Sai grog issan, above, [...]
Phad Thai to go on Arak Phad Thai reminds me of the pizza situation in New York. It’s everywhere, but you really have to know where to go to get a good one. Otherwise you’re relegated to the high likelihood of getting a dull, unsatisfying version. You might think that Thailand’s eponymous dish would be [...]
On one of the final nights of the World Gourmet Festival, there was panic in the kitchen. The distinguished guest that night was HRH Princess Soamsawali and, as the chefs had just found out, she was observing Thailand’s annual Vegetarian Festival (also known as the Jay Festival). Planning for the World Gourmet Festival begins 6-12 [...]
Khanom Krok After speaking to Michael Laiskonis about vegetable desserts, I started thinking of a few I’ve seen in Thailand. Sometimes it’s fairly straightforward, like grilled sweet potatoes or stewed pumpkin served in warmed coconut milk. Other times it’s been palate-rattling, like the time I had fried garlic sprinkled on top of a sweet egg [...]
Michael Laiskonis setting up his signature dessert – The Egg – for the World Gourmet Festival at The Four Seasons Bangkok At 8:30 a.m. when we arrived at the Pak Khlong Talat, my noodle soup vendor had cleared out, the fried chicken lady was nowhere to be seen and the grilled bananas I usually bought [...]