Pattice

Being Puneites / Punekars, one of the memories both R and I have is that of the Hindustan bakery vegetable pattice. These were available only on Sunday, and due to high demand were usually sold out from the neighborhood bakeries by 9 am. Sunday morning breakfasts consisted of hot tea with vegetable pattice, accompanied by the Sunday morning newspapers and followed by all the Sunday morning shows on Doordarshan, well at least till the invasion of cable. I think pattice are available in Poona throughout the week now, but at that time, we used to really look forward to eating them and we still think of them on Sunday mornings.

Recently my brother in law R3 mentioned that he had a recipe for these pattice. I wanted to try the recipe immediately and I did.

1 packet of Pepperidge Farms pastry sheet (there are two pastry sheets in one packet. Each is folded into three parts. I could make around 6 decent sized pattice from one pastry sheet)
Potato Bhaji (I cooked this in the Maharashtrian style)
Kheema
Some water in a bowl

Kheema Recipe
1/4 lb Chicken Kheema
1 cup yogurt
1 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chili powder
2-3 tsps ginger - garlic paste

Mix this with some yoghurt, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of turmeric and 1 tsp chili powder.
Heat some oil, add some ginger garlic paste when it is hot, fry the ginger garlic paste for a minute and then add the kheema. Add some garam masala and let it cook till there is no liquid left. Let this cool down.

Leave the pastry sheets to defrost for 40 minutes as per the instructions. On a lightly floured surface, open the pastry sheets and cut them each into three parts along the folds and then each part into half. This should leave you with 12 pastry rectangles. Preheat the oven to 400'F. While the oven is preheating, place some potato / kheema mixture a little off center on each pastry rectangle and then fold them to cover the stuffing. I made 12 pattice of potato and 12 of kheema. Place these on a baking sheet and after the oven is preheated, leave them inside for 10 minutes. I made the mistake of using aluminum foil and had trouble removing them later. A friend suggested the use of baking sheets. After 10 minutes, we had hot, straight from the oven, flaky pattice!! Thanks R3.

The Elephant Safari

The Long Boat on the banks of the Maekong river

on the river


first sight of the elephant camp

Our elephant still searching for bananas and sugarcane
pieces even after we had finished feeding him all that
we had



Northern Thai style picnic lunch: those neat triangular
banana packages contain rice


Sticky rice steamed in banana leaves

the tsongtao

We had planned on doing an elephant safari in Northern Thailand for a long time before we actually reached Thailand. Earlier R was trying persuade me to sign up for one whole day of mahout training, at the end of which I would be riding alone on an elephant, and directing him myself! R wanted to add the Mahout certificate to his many accomplishments, however..... I was not very keen on spending an entire day of my precious vacation becoming a mahout. So we compromised by going on an elephant safari in Chiang Rai. We went to the main town of Chiang Rai and hunted down a tour company called Golden Triangle Tours, highly recommended by Frommers. After going through a variety of tours that they offered, we settled for this one which combined a long boat ride, an elephant safari, a northern Thai style picnic, a visit to three tribal villages and a famous local waterfall.

We started off from our hotel around 8 am, after a good breakfast and were driven to the banks of the Maekong river a little outside Chiang Rai where a longboat awaited us. I had thought that there would be some more people along with us for the tour, but was pleasantly surprised to realise that it was only us, which meant that we could spend as much or as little time at each destination as we liked! The upriver longboat ride was very pleasant in the morning hours, we saw some riverfront houses which obviously belonged to the very wealthy, some shrines and even a river front beach with small cottages built along the riverside where people could picnic and spend the day. On the way, our guide Natcha, who spoke excellent English pointed out the various types of vegetation prevalent in Northern Thailand. In an hours time, we reached the elephant camp village, Ruammit . The villagers of Ruammit are from the Karen tribe and Christian. As we ent on a Sunday, the village looked a bit deserted as most of the villagers had gone to church. It was right around a bend in the river and quite a sight.. 10 - 15 elephants sauntering along a river embankment, quite similar to an ' Indian ghat'. We spent some time with the elephants and talking with other guides and tourists, while the village organization decided which elephants we would get. My mother in law recently told me that R's childhood ambition was to work in a zoo or a circus. True to his childhood ambition, R immediately went about getting acquainted with the elephants. I was a little more hesitant, but utterly thrilled when an elephant I was photographing made a salute!!! We even saw a pregnant elephant whose baby could be seen moving inside.

After we were assigned an elephant, we climbed up to a 'machan' or elevated platform which made it easier for us to climb on the elephant (this was the part I had dreaded before I saw the machan, a previous experience riding a camel in the Jaisalmer desert had taught me that's the roughest part of the ride... when the animal stands up and one is suspended midair for a millisecond!) However this was easy and we also had the 'howdah', the elephant seat. I have to use Indian words as I never got to know the Thai words. The mahout sat on the elephants head , as cool as can be, his legs dangling on the elephants forehead, and thus he sat for most of the trek. We had a bigger elephant, clearly the patriarch of the tribe ahead of us, carrying an Australian couple. The patriarch barged ahead of other elephants , who rapidly made way for him as he trumpeted his arrival to his followers. Clearly, none was going to mess with him! We passed out of the village, the surrounding farmlands, and into the dense tropical jungle. At first, I hung on with some trepidation, clutching tightly to the the iron bars of the 'howdah'. R was enjoying it immensely , this was something he had been wanting to do ever since we decided to visit Thailand, his only regret was that he had to sit on the 'howdah' and not on the elephants back! Slowly we both got used to the elephants gait, though every downhill part of the trek had me clutching to the howdah for dear life. The elephant walked adroitly down narrow pathways, up steep hillsides and through shallow streams. I had to admire its dexterity in navigating this terrain, despite it's size (The Thai elephant can weigh anywhere between 2500 to 4000 kgs and the average height is around 2.5 m). After a little more than two hours through the tropical jungle, we came to the second tribal village camp on the other side of the hill. We had bought a bag of bananas and sugarcane pieces for our elephant at the first camp and fed this to him here. It was a delightful sight to see him munch through the contents of the entire bag in a matter of minutes. Elephants can eat 200 kgs of food and drink 100ltrs of water per day, so I guess it was just a small snack for him. He even examined the plastic bag to make sure there wasn't anything hidden inside at the end.

From here we went by tsongtao to a picnic spot in the hills, it was a very pretty location, by the banks of a stream in a heavily wooded area. Our northern style Thai picnic lunch consisted of sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, stir fried chicken, fried catfish, jackfruit steamed with red chili paste , stir fried baby corn and beans, and fried tofu, all this accompanied by a green colored peanut based dip and a red chili based dip. We were supposed to dip the chicken, or tofu or fish in the dip and then eat it with the sticky rice. The food was delicious and tasted even better, I suspect because we were having it outdoors! The steamed jackfruit reminded me of the 'fanasachi bhaji' (raw jackfruit )my mother makes, a great childhood favorite of mine. According to our guide, Natcha, the Thai version is made by steaming raw and chopped jackruit for a long time till it is quite soft, and then pounded with red chili paste along with some other ingredients. We made short work of the food and then lazed around the campsite for a while.

After a short ride in the 'tsongtao' through the mountainous countryside, we reached the Khot Korn waterfalls. We did make a quick stop at another tribal village, but perhaps because we have seen similar villages before, it was not a very unique experience for us. I t was however fun to ride in a tsongtao. Tsongtaos dont usually have air conditioning, to compensate, a pedestal fan was strapped to the seat near the front end of the passenger section. It was one funny sight! The Khot Korn waterfalls gave us an opportunity to enjoy some more of the beautiful northern Thailand countryside. Overall one of the highlights of the trip for us was definitely the elephant ride and the picnic lunch.

Steamed Fish

The salmon steaming in the new steamer wok

It's done!!

Recently I bought an enormous wok (it is called a jumbo wok!) with steamer equipment and a glass lid. I saw it in Costco. R was not around and therefore unable to stop me from buying it. Honestly, I dont know what prompted me to buy a cooking vessel so spontaneously, but it was one of my rare impulse buys. I still remember the days when my mother used to drag me to the kitchen ware shops in Pune. I used to be so bored, I think I used to go stand outside most of the time. And now.. I spend time with my friends discussing my love of Calphalon.. how times have changed!! Anyway, this is a recipe I tried out to inaugrate my new steamer wok.

1 lb salmon, cut into 1/2 inch fillets
1 can coconut milk, (400ml)
2 inch long lemongrass stalk
1/4 inch thick ginger piece
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 cup spring onions, cut finely
2-3 teaspoons of chilli paste
1/4 cup basil leaves
1 teaspoon turmeric
salt to taste
ground black pepper

Wash the fish thoroughly and sprinkle the salt, turmeric and black pepper on it.Rub the mixture into the fish gently and place it in the vessel in which it is to be steamed. Shred the lemongrass by hand and place in a small bowl filled with some water. Heat the water and lemongrass for two minutes in the microwave. Add the brown sugar. Cut the ginger finely lengthwise and add that to the hot water as well. Leave it standing for 10 minutes. Heat some oil in a pan and stir fry the basil in it, till it is a little crispy. Remove the basil onto some kitchen paper. Pour the lemongrass-ginger-sugar water on the fish and add the coconut milk and chilli paste. Mix the spring onions into this . Heat some water, 1-1/2 inchs below the steamer plate of the steamer. When it boils place the steamer vessel with the fish on the steamer plate and cover with the lid. I steamed the fish for 18 minutes at the end of which, the fish was done. Garnish with the fried basil. We had it with short grain Jasmine rice and Thai cucumber salad, and R can't say a word against my new acquisition!

Khantoke dinner

Thai style dance

I could not resist slipping in this photo of this ingenious 'chandelier' , a Thai paper umbrella strung with paper lanterns.

People sitting at dinner and listening to the MC.

Dinner

Before the dinner started

Khantokke Dinner

Since for this trip, R and I had decided to go with the flow, and not overplan, we did not have much planned for Chiang Rai other than the elephant safari. We did have some time on our hands and since both of us find it tough to relax too much in the hotel, we decided to speak to the concierge . The concierge, told us about the khantoke dinner, which combined Thai style theater/ dance with dinner. We signed on immediately and that very evening were taken to a large hall, which was open to the street on one side.

Khantoke is a Lanna Thai tradition. There was a stage at one end and low tables with low benches were placed on the floor of the hall before the stage. Big wooden trays ( or small wound wooden tables) filled with food, were placed on these tables along with bamboo containers containing the northern Thai staple of sticky rice, spoons, forks, etc. R and I were taken to one such table and in the manner of the Indian thali meal, attendants started serving us with food almost immediately. We were the only two non Thais at the event and therefore did felt a little lost in the beginning. A lady at the table next to us realized that and in the friendly manner of most Thais, she started speaking to us and explaining what was happening. Four or more people usually sit at a 'Khantoke' dinner , with individual plates and rice containers. Each serves themselves from the common curries, dips and other food placed on the wooden tray, which was replenished almost before it was finished by the attendant. Thais supposedly make balls of the sticky rice and dip it into the curries before eating it. There was a clear soup with some vegetables, 'Gai Tawd' fried chicken with a red chilli dip, Burmese pork curry 'Gaeng Hung Lay' pork curry in the northern style ( a little sour), chicken curry, some stirfried vegetables, boiled sweet potatoes with freshly grated coconut as the sweet dish, since dessert was served as part of the meal, and best of all, addictive prawn wafers (which tasted like the Maharashtrian kurdaya / sandge, which I just love). The food was hot and spicy, just the way I like it. I was still getting used to the texture of sticky rice, and the fact that it is so filling. Even a little amount can fill one up. After most people had finished eating, the theater started. First the MC made some announcement, (all in Thai) and then there were various Thai dances performed by a troupe of girls, like the long nailed dance, the candle dance, the shawl / scarf dance. In between these dances, the MC seemed to be cracking great jokes as the audience was breaking into laughter all the time. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves tremendously, especially a group which had a newly married / engaged couple, who were dragged on stage and introduced, much to the amusement of the audience.
It was quite a unique experience for us as otherwise we had been going to the more tourist type of destinations / events and this was the first time we had actually been with so many Thais.

Suvarnabhumi airport

Sunrise outside the Suvarnabhumi Airport

SagarManthan

A traditional Thai pavilion

The Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok , Thailand can only be described as IMPRESSIVE!!

The name "Suvarnabhumi" means Golden Land and was chosen to represent the Thailand Cambodia Laos Burma region which was traditionally called the Golden land. Its located 30 kms east of Bangkok and will be connected to the Bangkok Central Business District by skytrain in four years.

Designed by Murphy / Jahn Architects, the structure is chiefly glass and steel , letting in plenty of light into all the inner spaces. Some well landscaped inner courtyards and gardens provide a good contrast to the ultramodern design of the airport. The elements I liked best were the Thai paintings, statues and examples of Thai traditional architecture placed throughout the airport to give a visitor an introduction to Thai culture. I was a little apprehensive about taking photographs, as after the recent security issues involving airports, I expected someone to jump out from behind a column and confisicate the camera anytime. But, noone seemed to be bothered and after seeing other tourists happily clicking away, I also took some photos.

Back from Thailand

Back from an amazing trip to Thailand. R and I went for 10 days, had our fill of culture, nature, shopping and the beach. When we got back after a 5 flight, longer than 24 hours journey, our friend said we looked relaxed and happy.. thats the effect Thailand had on us.. how many times does one get of from such a journey looking happy and relaxed?

We started off with three days in Bangkok, then two days in Chiang Rai, two days in Chiang Mai and three days in Phuket before we had to come back. The highlights of our trip were the Grand Palace, Wat Po and Jim Thompsons house in Bangkok, going for and elephant safari and attending a khantokke dinner in Chiang Rai, shopping and going to the Royal Flora Ratchaphruck 2006 Festival in Chiang Mai and the great beaches and resort at Phuket!! We also ate the most wonderful food at every place.. fresh, spicy and loads of variety!!