Trick or treat!

This post about Halloween is a bit belated but I just only had time to download the pictures. Halloween was never a big thing for us when I was a child (in those days, I had my scary aunties so every day was Halloween for us!).

Here in Bangkok, the international schools do have scary dress-up day with some activities for the day. In the school that Sean goes to, we have had a Haunted House for the past two years. It was a lot of work converting our parent's room into a Haunted House. The children loved it! We get girls (and occasionally some boys) screaming their lungs out, some of the boys get violent and the 'ghouls' get punched and kicked at. For the past two years, I have dressed up as the Mummy. It required LOTS of strips of cloth wrapped round me which made me feel like an ad for one of those slimming centres where you are wrapped to death.

Sean as the 'baby" Mummy.

Outside the Haunted House. Of course it's not a hand!

Since we had time, decided to make a non-scary pinata for Primary students.

On top of what goes on in schools, I have friends who host Halloween parties. This year, was held in the 'moo baan' (housing estate) my friend lived in. They decided that instead of hosting individual house parties, they would combine and have an estate party. They children and even some adults dressed up. It was really fun as there was lots of food, drinks and games for the children.

Rush for sweets after breaking the pinata.

And what would Halloween be without trick or treating? The children went round collecting sweets/toys. When they were done, they put it in a huge pile and while the adults were downstairs, they started making inroads to the pile of sweets. We discovered it when the sugar rush hit them and they started bouncing off the walls! All in all, we had a fantastic Halloween. Till next year!

My whacky friends and their kids!

Visit to the middle kingdom

I have to admit that even though I am Chinese, I was in no great hurry to see the country of my ancestors. I used to 'pooh pooh' the idea of China and thought it had nothing much to offer.

My first experience in China was Shanghai. I was very disappointed as it looked a lot like Singapore with the high rise buildings and condos. The traffic was worse than Bangkok (if that was possible) with drivers honking like their lives depended on it. On top of that, the people were aggressive and loud. In my 5 days there, I saw 3 arguments (ie they just started yelling at each other). All in all, I didn't like it.

Lijiang

My brother-in-law has been extolling the beauty and serenity of Lijiang (situated in the Yunnan province). We decided to see what the fuss was about. When we arrived, I felt like I had walked onto a set for Chinese period drama with it's cobbled walk ways, old fashioned houses (they are built without a single nail) and clear stream with salmon swimming lazily.

We went in winter and it was cold (about 0 - 5 degrees). I was worried that Sean would not be able to withstand the cold but he loved it! I was the one who had one 5 layers oof pants and was still shivering.

The main attraction there is the ancient city. It is a huge place where houses there have been converted to hotels, shops and restaurants. You do have some locals living in the ancient city but not many. A clear water stream (can't call it a drain as it's too clean) runs through the entire city and locals use it to wash their clothes, vegetables etc. You can also find fish (mainly salmon) swimming in it.

If you are going there in the hopes of adreneline pumping adventure, forget it. I found it a place to relax. People don't rush, because there isn't anywhere to rush to. The locals are friendly and willing to chat. I find it hard to understand them because their Yunnan accent is very strong. That, coupled with my Secondary school Mandarin, makes it hard to hold long conversations.

Street in the ancient city. No cars allowed. Only horses!

I

On a cold winter's night, nothing beats a hot pot. We have had donkey meat hot pot. I didn't eat it but was told the meat was like lamb. This particular hot pot just had a whole bowl of live fish (still wriggling and bits of gut hanging out) poured into the boiling soup. The whole hot pot trembled as the fish flopped around before being boiled. If like me you are not adventurous, there is always vegetables which are wonderfully fresh and crisp. The soup is fantastic! Rich, flavourful and warms you to your toes.

Food is not a problem as there are many shops selling noodles and western food. If you still feel the need for fast food, outside the ancient city is a KFC.

The other attraction is the Snow Mountain. It is 4,500 m above sea level which means you could get altitude sickness. Our guide carried a small cannister of oxygen. It came in handy when Sean felt sick after he was running and sliding around the snow.

Lijiang is a wonderful place to relax and just enjoy the surroundings. We spent our days explooring the ancient city, drinking copious cups of hot chocolate/coffee/tea and just 'chilling'. We've been back twice already and would like to go again for the third time.

Tofu, Japanese style

I have to admit that I'm not very health conscious when it comes to food. I love fried, salty, greasy food. My friends will tell you that my ultimate favourite food is fried chicken, especially the skin.

Ever since Sean was born, I have made an effort to cook healthier food. Sean eats the healthiest in our family as he was fed steamed vegetables, meat and fish for the longest time. Even now, he'd rather eat spinach than chicken. I suspect that he is a closet vegetarian!

We love tofu. We love Japanese food. There is a ramen shop nearby that serves this cold tofu. I decided to make my own version. It is easy to prepare (no cooking required), tasty and best of all, healthy!

Ingredients:

1 tub of soft tofu (sometimes referred to as silken tofu)

3-4 tbs soya sauce )
3-4 sesame oil ) mixed

For garnishing:

Fried shallots
Spring onions chopped up fine
Tuna flakes
Ground dried shrimp (optional)

Method:

Cut up tofu into cubes.

Pour soya sauce and sesame mixture over it.

Liberally sprinkle garnish on top. Serve.

Chinatown

Chinese are everywhere. Almost every country has a Chinatown. Bangkok is no exception and I love the Chinatown here as it reminds me of the Chinatown of my childhood ie an assault of noise, people and smells (and what a variety of smells)!

Chinatown here is called Yawarat. It is divided into a few sections and if you are taking a taxi, you have specify which part you want to go to. The 3 parts I normally go to are:

Samphaeng which is the wholesale side. They sell everything from hair-clips, cotton buds, pens, costume jewellery etc. The stalls there also sell festive items eg as it's nearing Halloween, there are loads of Halloween decorations for sale. I go there for party bags for birthdays, Christmases etc.

Typical scene where pedestrians, cars and delivery men hauling huge boxes jostle for space.

There is also a small section that sells dried food. It is there that I buy my dried shrimp, ikan bilis (small dried anchovy) , dried mushroom etc.

One of my favourite stalls in the wet market section. They sell all kinds of snacks,biscuits, sweets (all at wholesale price). Owner told me that lots of Singaporeans go there to buy chewing gum!

The wet market across from Samphaeng that has ingredients that have disappeared from the Singapore market scene (so my aunts claimed when I brought them there). It is there that I buy my crab meat (steamed, peeled and in beautiful chuncks), fresh ground pepper (there is a spice shop there that will grind it fresh for you) and chye poh galore (sweet,salty, chopped, chunky, whole pieces)

Wet market

Pahurat which is the textiles street and sells fabric of all kinds. Wonderful for people who can sew, have a good tailor or are creative. A friend found fabric to tailor a dress for a jungle themed party (it was slightly furry with a zebra stripes). Stalls selling trims, ribbons, buttons and bows also boggle my mind and I try to get the creative juices going when I am there, but to no avail.

In Chinatown you will find many Thai-Chinese (most are first or second generation here) and are of Teochew descent. So I get to practise my very, very rusty Teochew when they realise I'm Chinese.

It won't be Chinatown if you can't find the touristy cheongsam.

Chinatown here is synonymous with good food. Only thing is you have to brave the traffic (it is REALLY horrendous) and on occasion I have been stuck there because the taxis are in the midst of a change in shift and won't take passengers.

I always try to go in the early mornings as it's not so hot and crowded. The crowds can be overwhelming especially during hot weather. I sometimes feel like I'm going through an obstacle course that not only includes people but cars,carts and trolleys as well. Do I love it? Definitely, YES!

Chicken rice

One of the things I miss most living away from Singapore is the food. You can take the girl out of Singapore but you can't take the longing for chicken rice away from her.

There is chicken rice here in Bangkok. They call it 'kao man gai' and they have the steamed or fried version. I have not found the roast version here yet. There is a chain of Singapore chicken rice stalls called Boon Tong Kiat but I found the rice bland and the they only sell steamed chicken.

I have had no choice but to cook my own roast chicken rice. The recipe is adapted from Periplus Malaysian favourites cooking book. Why adapted? I used the ingredients listed but tweaked it to suit my taste.

To me, the key ingredient is the chicken stock. What I normally do is boil a big batch of stock and freeze it for soups, porridge etc. The meat and vegetables from the stock I dice it up to make porridge for us or as feed it to my dogs as a treat. They love it!

Stock

Ingredients:

2 chicken carcasses
6 pork bones (optional)
2 carrots
2 big onion
2 corn
1 leek (optional)
2 stalks shallots
2 coriander roots

3 liter water

Method:

Wash chicken and pork bones.

Place all ingredients into big stock pot and boil, then simmer for 2-3 hours.

Strain the stock before packing and freezing it.

Chicken Rice

Ingredients for rice:

4 - 5 handfuls of rice. Rinsed.
8 -10 cloves garlic finely chopped
6 slices ginger
3 stalks pandan leaf (optional but it smells better with it)
3-4 cups of stock
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat up 4-5 tbsp oil in wok. Fry garlic and ginger till fragrant. Add in rice and fry till all rice is coated with oil and garlic.

Transfer rice (with garlic and ginger) to rice cooker. Add stock (I normally add the stock till it comes up to the first line of my middle finger when I place my finger on top of rice).

Add 1 tsp of salt. Add pandan leaves and cook.

Ingredients for chicken:

3 chicken thighs

Marinade:
3 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp 5 spice

Mix ingredients for marinade and pour over chicken. Let it sit for an hour. Sometimes I marinate it over night.

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Place chicken onto baking dish. Pour 1 ladle of stock into the baking dish. Cover with foil and roast for 45 minutes. Remove foil to let skin crisp. Serve.

Mum's chicken chop soup

My mum was a late starter when it came to cooking. I remember when she first started cooking for us it was so bad we used to dread meal times. She blossomed to be a really great cook and I think TH married me partly cos of mum's cooking!

This dish is one that I think she concocted and I love it as it is a one dish meal (has meat, veg and carbo). It is simple to cook and keeps well. The leftover tastes even better as the meat and potatoes absorb the soup.

Unfortunately, like most cooks of her time, mum did not swear by cookbooks and precise measurements. I cook the same way too sometimes. I have inherited recipes from her that have measurements going like this "20 cents of dried prawns" Huh? Some of these recipes are older than I am so how would I know what 20 cents of dried prawns is like in 2008? So I estimate or 'aga aga' (as they say in Malay).

So, if some of the measurements in my recipes are not 100% accurate, please bear with me.

Ingredients:

Chicken fillet (about 6-10 pieces)
Biscuit (pounded to small crumbs)
1 egg (beaten)
1 big onion
1 potato
2 tomatoes

Chicken stock (1/2 litre)
Soya sauce (2 - 3 tbs)
Salt

Method:

Dice the potato into chunks. Fry till outside is browned (doesn't need to be cooked all the way)
Take it out. Drain oil and lightly sprinkle with salt. Put aside.

Dip chicken fillet pieces into egg and then coat with biscuit crumbs. Pan fry pieces till brown (doesn't need to be fully cooked). Take out put aside.

Cut up onion and tomato into mid size cubes.

Fill pot with chicken stock. Add onion and tomato.

Add soya sauce. Boil and then turn down heat to simmer. Add potato.

If there is left over egg, to stir in when soup is boiling.

When potato is softened, add in chicken. Simmer till chicken cooked and before biscuit crumbs disintegrate. Add salt to taste.

Road trip to Chiang Mai

We travelled 1,714 km (it's like from BKK to Sin, return) in 6 days. Route took us from BKK-Chiang Mai-Pai-Chiang Mai-BKK.

Surprisingly, it was an pleasant though long (6 hrs from BKK to CM) drive. This was our first time driving to CM tough we have been going there annually for the past 7 years.

Before we left, I had many friends telling me how cold CM and Pai were going to be (7C at night). Since we were driving it made things easier as we could just dump everything in the car and not worry about excess luggage. Knowing how fickle weather here can be, decided to pack mainly hot weather stuff with 1 sweater.

We spent 2 nights in CM. There, I introduced my friend's son to one of my favourite Thai desserts banana pancake or banana roti. It's actually prata with banana (or whatever topping, but banana seems to be the best) inside and topped with loads and loads of sugar and condensed milk. It sounds very sweet but in reality, it's a wonderful mix of sweetness of sugar and banana mixed with the slight buttery/salty flavour of the roti.

Yummy banana pancake

We also visited the Night Safari which is as good as the one in Singapore but way cheaper, if you paid the local (ie Thais pay 1 price and foreigners a higher price) price. It was S$10 for adults and S$6 for children.

The trams here stop at every animal enclosure and spotlight the animals for people to see. This was my second time at the Night Safari but I still enjoyed it. It was really nice and cool too (about 17C).

Pai is only 100+km from Chiang Mai but because of the 700+curves in the road, it took us 3 hrs to get there. Had to stop along the way as the children felt a little quesy.

Pai is a small town (about 5,000 people) in the valley. Starbucks or MacDonald's hasn't made an appearance yet so it's relatively less commercial. There are many artists and hippies (leftover from the '70s) who live there.

Hotel called The Quarter in Pai. New and very nice

We went bamboo rafting. The children had a great time helping to row the raft and on one occasion almost capsizing it. Along the way we say beautiful bright blue and green dragonflies which I've never seen before.

After Pai, we headed back to CM. Had to visit my favourite furniture street (Hang Dong) to buy some furniture. I always love going to Hang Dong as there are many little shops along the way to stop and browse. The big market for teak furniture there is Baan Tawai. Over the years it has become very touristy and sells more knic knacks than furniture. But we had a really cheap and good lunch there. 360 baht (S$15) for 8 of us! That included 2nd helpings for adults and drinks!

No holiday of mine is complete without food. I must say that we had really good and inexpensive meals on our trip. I had my fill of Kao soy (which is the Thai version of noddles in curry) and I must say the best fried chicken in a small coffee shop in Pai. I was introduced to 'nam prick ong' which is a northern Thai dip. It's a little bit like salsa and eaten with vegetables and fried pork rind (totally unhealthy but sooo good).

Considering we were travelling with 4 children and 4 adults, I think everyone managed to have a good time .

Would we do it again? Yes. Already planning to drive up to Mae Hong Son next year.

Krisaradoi a small hotel that has a beautiful garden Went there for lunch

At the mae Sa elephant camp feeding the elephant

The Royal Rachapruek flora and fauna garden.




Go-karting is an activity that the kids enjoyed.