my flogging lunch ...

as you may have noticed, all 2 of you that monitor this flog, i have been working on its layout and content all day today. so i had to have lunch to keep me energized and perky. i had some leftover chicken from the "khao man gai", ข้าวมันไก่, i bought yesterday, a rib of celery and some bermuda onion. i minced that all up, added 2 spoons of mayo and some chopped parsley, fresh ground black pepper and a smidgen of salt. assembled it all on some "khanom-pan-ping", ขนมปังปิ้ง, toasted yamazaki whole wheat bread, with the ever-so-necessary-over-abundance of iceberg lettuce. "a-raawy-thee-soot", อร่อยที่สุด, tastiest and most delicious

why the asian bakeries do not make a loaf that has a face large enough to produce good sized slices for sandwiches is no mystery to me, but it is a source of aggravation. i just like to have a broader surface for the filling, which makes for a slightly thinner profile on the sandwich of my desire, and it is easier to handle whilst i am feeding it into my neck.

also see here a second in my series of tools and technologies i find useful in the kitchen: the dipped edge sandwich knife from f dick, of germany. it has a great serrated edge, is just the right stiffness for a blade of this type, and it allows you to slice over-stuffed sandwiches with ease. this one has been in my tool box for years. note that someone who does not respect cutlery has broken the tip of the knife off. wherever you are, i hope someone casts your first borne into the abyss like the societies of old used to do.

please note: i use a computer generated translation for the thai, so if its wrong, ask these guys.

i think a sandwich like this needs some kool krunch
to compliment the soft mayo texture of the chicken,
thus the minced celery and the over abundance of krispy iceberg.
my personal taste is never to use tomatoes, i find they fek-up the toast.

i have had this knife for over 10 or 12 years now.
f dick dipped edge sandwich knife.
good for tomatoes too, if you are not going to put them on my sandwich that is.
mine is so old it has a wooden handle,
the cataloge only shows them with sani-safe handles now.
practical in one sense,
but hard on the hand by the end of a long deli-day if you ask me.
for home use they should be ok,
and dish washer safe for all you prats
who break the golden rule and put tools in your dish machine.
shame on you and not very safe either.

now if you are really into tuna sandwiches, check out mike's.

the 1st in a series of posts on the tools and technologies i use to prepare food for myself and friends

the most basic thing i must have are knives i trust. by trust i mean they will get me where i want to go effortlessly and safely. over the years i have collected or been given 100's of knives. i may have about 30 of them left. seems folks like to "borrow" (read: pilfer) good knives. most folks think it is senseless to pay good money for good knives, but when they see one unattended ... where did it go?

each knife was acquired for a specific task that it can complete, how good it feels in the hand, and how well it is expected to perform. i have knives for chopping, slicing, carving, boning and all myriad of tasks, but if i do not have all of these great tools at my disposal, and i have to settle on just one, it almost always ends up being this one shown below. a very basic 8" chef's knife.


i bought it in budapest, hungary in 2002 at a massive ikea store. my friend jamie, from manila, was with me. we used to fix the most awesome meals in his apartment. the handle is some sort of new-tech-rubberized-sani-safe-no-slip-grip-shit. the blade is your basic grade japanese stainless. not to thin, but not so thick it bludgeons rather than cuts. i can work for hours on end and my hand never tires of it. and, other than a few seldom needed cuts, this nondescript blade will always cut the mustard when i am in a jam (or is that pickle?).

if i recall, it cost me just a few dollars. i should have purchased the entire set.

that great knife from ikea

TGIF, didn't cook for anyone, ate out twice ...

once or twice a week i do not cook lunch for myself or the the others, and we order in or i pick something up. today i went out to the street vendors and picked up some "khao man gai", khao = rice, man = fat and gai = chicken, basically it is chicken and rice thai style.

the chickens are boiled or steamed in water with very little added, usually just some winter melon, but not much else. the rice is twice cooked in a special preparation making it very tasty and glossy. the chicken is boneless breast meat, smacked with the broad side of a knife and then thinly sliced. the broth is served on the side, and the "nam chin" or sauce, is a "siew", or soya based sauce with chili added. it is not a fiery hot chili, but a mellow tasty one.

one true testament to the popularity and the simplicity and elegance of this dish is how many links i discovered when i was searching for stuff to tie into this article. here are four good reasons why this is such a popular dish:

1. http://www.bangkokrecorder.com/magazine/bangkok-life/cheap-eats---khao-man-gai-487.html
2. http://www.thailandmusings.com/thai-food-recipes/khao-man-gai-thai-chicken-and-rice/
3. http://www.simply-thai.com/thai-food-recipes-khao-man-gai.htm
4. http://importfood.com/recipes/tchickenandrice.html

i picked up mine on pridi soi 3 in the phra khanong district, an awesome street for true thai tastes. phra khanong being a middle or working-class neighborhood has an abundance of good, cheap thai food of every variety. there are a few random vendors during the day, but as the afternoon shifts into evening, they come up and line the street for blocks in 4 directions. 'n' the bes' thang is, they are open until early morning in order to cater to the night workers who drift back into the neighborhood after all the entertainment venues shut down around 2 am.

khao man gai.
usually for just 30 thai baht/$1 usd
this is an order that was made "pee-set", special.
it contains 50% more chicken and double on the broth.
and, the rice is simply "khao suay", steamed, i'm trying to cut down on the fat.
i paid 40 thb/$1.30 usd - right, 30% more cost, yet 50% more food.

we also get off work a tad early on friday's, so after i had enjoyed a few beers with a good friend i was feeling a bit hungry again. so i trapsed on over to sukhumvit soi3/1 and had a bite a sherazade, an egyptian restaurant that i think ranks so high on my list, that none other actually comes close. and that is regardless of cuisine, meal time, service, ambiance, or any other factor you would care to apply. if you told me i could only eat in one restaurant for the rest of my life, it would be sherazade.

tonight i had a fantastically moist bar-b-qued leg of lamb, specifically it was the rear shank or lower leg portion. some perfectly prepared garlicky babaganoush, and a plate of egyptian feta cheese. what sets the cheese apart form other fetas available in bkk is the fact that it has the texture of marscapone, it is not too salty, and it is packed in a uht type paper and wax-coated box. not a tin or plastic. i think that, in and of itself, helps this cheese be all that it can be. i swiped all of the lamb from the bone and the cheese and the 'noush with my fingers and 2 light-as-air chapatis that were made to order.

again, simplicty and elegance, and all for just a little over $12 usd.

sorry, i was in such a rush to eat this delicacy i started before i thought to take the pic.
check out the texture of the cheese.
granted i added a tablespoon of olive oil to it, but still, creeeeeeeee-mee!
note the pocket in the chapati, perfection. nothing beats fresh bread with any meal.

the all important fire.
anything cooked over this pit that burns locally pressed charcoal is dee-lish.
the tikka and kofta are also highly recommended here.

chili, yes, i ruined it with beans ...

well today we had leftovers, and great leftovers they were. actually, i made a massive amount of the chili last week with the intention of freezing for a later time, so technically, not leftovers, production work that i socked away. it was a re-heat.

in the past i have always made chili from scratch, and i have always used ground beef. this time i bought a great piece of heavily marbled (read: fatty) chuck and sliced into small, not too thin, pieces. i also did not have the time or the inclination to go through the whole bean trip, yes i chose to f*ck it up with beans, so i used canned ones. i have recently discovered the s & w chili beans in sauce, and they are great for when you need a short cut, are lazy or just want to try them. they really are good.

so i sautéed 3 large chopped onions, 3 large diced shallots, 2 chopped japanese leeks (white part only) and way too much chopped garlic in olive oil. While the onions and gar were sweating away i got to rummaging around in the frig and i spied a lonely ‘makhuraa-yao’. that’s a thai eggplant that resembles the long skinny purple japanese ones, but these are green. so i diced it up and tossed it into the pot.

then i added the beef slices, again, more than a reasonable person would use, it was close to a kilo of meat. then i cooked it all until the beef was seared and the fat was rendering off nicely. knowing i was using the pre-seasoned s & w beans, and wanting the finished product to be a bit more heavily seasoned, i added some very good chili powder and ground cumin to the pan and let that jive for a few minutes before adding the wet stuff. now why chili is ground and cumin is powdered, i have no fekkin’ idea, but that is the way they are always labeled, go figure. maybe because one is a chili and the other a spice.

after the spices had melted into the beef, veggies and fat i then added three cans of the s & w beans, one can of some local kidney beans (no sauce, just beans and that viscous water that they are packed in) and two cans of chopped up whole tomatoes in juice. now if you are asking, how big are these cans, they are the ones for suzy homemaker, not institutional sized #10s. OK?

once it is all simmering away nicely, i taste, and then i add freshly ground sea salt, and black pepper, fresh chopped oregano, and one fresh bay leaf. cover, and let it simmer away for a few hours.


while that is cookin’ i make some jiffy brand corn bread in the toaster oven - but first i squirt some good honey into the mix before baking it. i also steam some local thai brown rice in the rice steamer, and grate up some cheddar and some pepper jack cheeses for garnish. the jack cheese cost almost as much as the beef did! will someone please get some of that cheese over here that is reasonably priced.

the first time i served it, last week, that was all we had, this time i added the salad greens and tomatoes. i also threw a big spoon of sour cream on top of it all as i love that stuff with most anything that is tex-mex/Mexican/southern what have you.

oh yeah, btw, this served up 10 very large bowls in total.

this menu below is from the texas state line bar-b-que in atlanta, ga,
the guys who impressed upon me that thang 'bout chilli havin' no beanz.

ain't no restaurant
just a good bar-b-que joint.

if it's to be called texas stateline,
why is it in downtown atlanta?

see! it sez, texas style chili
ruin it with beans - no extra charge

second day, am i already bored wth this gig? NAH, just gettin' started.

today was actually all day breakfast day, don't-cha just love all day breakfast. i can smell the denny's grand slam and the international house's big ass stack from here.

today's lunch was supposed to be an easy and fast one, but i do this not just for myself, but also 3 others. and they be up-stairs and down the hall, so 3 out of 4 of these get packed-up, trekked-up and then assembled on premise. took an hour's time to produce and serve. i guess the years of catering off-site are paying off finally. i say finally, cuz not many of my former employers ever really came across with the dough for all that work and injun-nuity.

anyways what we gots is a 3-egg fluffy omelet, or is that omelette? i never could get that right. nor brocolli and recipei either. i guess the former is correct as the spellchecker in this flog's control panel is puttin' that dotted line under the later. they were stuffed with a saute of shrimp, leeks (yes again), bermuda onions, garlic, red capsicum peppers, tomato concasse, fresh thai basil and curly parsley. all set to sweat in extra-virgin olive oil and de-glazed with thai sherry. the shit costs about two dollars a bottle, can not be drunk, but works great in the pain, i use it for most dishes that need wine.

on the side was some great local thai bacon rashers, a baked potato grown in china and dressed with sour cream. whole wheat toast from the yamazaki bakery, and a cup of nestle's instant 3-in-1 coffee. disgustingly sweet and full of powdered creamer, but it goes down alright and cuts the bacon fat quite nicely.

the eggs here in thailand are not like those back home state-side. the yolks tend to be much more orange in color than the very yellow ones i grew up with in new england, organically grown, and they are tasting just great too. further, i have never seen bermudha onions in the average thai market, and they were actually priced quite cheaply.

the potatoes that are available have vastly improved since i first started cooking here 16 years ago. these were nice and starchy and had a great fluff to them. the bacon is belucky brand. cut just a tad thicker than most and always more meat than fat. and, it actually is packed in a wrapper that allows you to see the bacon.

the bread, as i said, came from the yamazaki dudes. a japanese style bakery that is all over town, and the world for that matter. most of there products are too sweet for me, but the whole wheat and the 7 grain are spot on. i always spread it with olive oil margarine now, tastes great and better for us all. it really does have the taste of olive oil. i used to mix whole butter and olive oil in the pan, thinking i was cheating the cholesterol thing, so now i actually can, or at least kid myself that i am.

missing, a surprisingly not too sweet danish from yamazki.

i'm now trying to figure out what to have tomorrow, but no idea, maybe tuna sandwiches, i do have three cans of nautilus chunk white tuna packed in water, just like my my mom taught me. NO TUNA IN OIL! and i always do what my mom says when i am in the kitchen, after all, she and her mom got me started on all this food insanity by feeding only the best home-cooked foods i ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

what inspired me to start this damn' blog in the first place ...

well, actually it wasn't a what, it was a who. my good friend mike from back home. on big difference between me and mike, he has a blog, i have a flog. i was sending him, and every other person in my address book, who i think likes to eat, my lunch pix for lack of much else to do whilst i was consuming my lunch. he suggested i start a blog, post the lunch pix and explain how it all got onto the plate. so, that is how i chose to start this flog. the rest, i am afraid to say, will be histrionics.

so that is what i will do.

i guess i will also post some lunches and other meals i have constructed in the past, and provide little tips and antidotes for these recipes. i do warn you all, i have a low-grade of sophomoric humor that is heavily basted with puns, sarcasm, bad jokes, run-on sentences, and innuendo. and for some reason, i never, if at all possible, use the caps key and prefer an ' to a g.

well, i guess it's time to get cookin' and show you all what i had for lunch today.

baby sea bass moistened with sweet clams in their broth with leeks, celery, sweet butter and lemon juice. accompanied by parsley boiled potatoes and green beans vinaigrette.

mike asked me why every lunch pic i have sent him this past week or so has had green beans on the plate, simple mike, they're in season.

not shown, fantastically chewy oatmeal raisin cookies.