Friday, May 7

Today we went out to Phrom Phong to get a whisk and it turned into a whole outing.

I wanted to buy a whisk because we're having the foreign couple we met—Sean and Emma (he's Brazilian-American and she's Thai-British)—over for dinner next week and...well, do you wanna hear all about my dessert plans?

I wanted to make dessert because I love dessert, but since I don't have any kind of oven, baking is not an option. Since Roman loves salted caramel, I decided to attempt this luxe butterscotch pudding. Except I am thinking of it as caramel pudding with a salted caramel topping, because the word “butterscotch” just conjures up artificial lifesavers flavoring (which were, incidentally, my favorite lifesavers as a kid—still, as an adult I don't want to eat them in dessert form). Actually, the word pudding also has negative artificial flavoring connotations for me, too, so maybe I'll call it caramel custard with a salted caramel topping.

Anyway, sheesh. I wasn't going to make any whipped cream to put on top since I don't feel like buying a hand mixer just yet, but then Roman got all sad faced about it, so I decided, well, I can buy a whisk.

Which finally brings us to Friday. Roman took me to a cute little baking shop he'd discovered in Phrom Phong. It's in the same building as a baking and cooking school, and in a tiny space they sell an amazing array of inexpensive baking supplies—fine mesh sieves and cup measures, cake and pie and muffin tins, cheesecloth and oven mitts, fancy cake boxes, and decorative metal tins. They also sell sundries like nuts, dried toasted coconut, flour, bread flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar, many kinds of chocolate chips, sprinkles, and lots of others things that aren't that easy to find here (and often cost quite a lot more).

I imagined taking Sybylla to this place some day. The many very cute things (chocolate molds in the shape of tiny penguins! tiny brightly colored foil liners for miniature cupcakes!) kinda made me want to buy everything, so it's probably a good thing I don't have an oven. I managed to leave with a few supplies for the, uh, caramel custards, plus a whisk, a bag of rolled oats, and some toasted coconut (because it looked like Samoa Girl Scout cookies and I couldn't resist).

Then we looked around at a nearby grocery store selling mostly Japanese products (as well as some Korean stuff). At first, we wandered the aisles happily, staring at the Japanese candy, the packaged sushi rolls, and the packets of kimchi. But then we started to get indecisive and overwhelmed, and realized it was time for lunch.

We picked up a couple of Japanese filled pancakes—one with ham and cheese, one with custard. It was, we agreed, the kind of safe and happy food that kids would like, but it saved us from a hunger crash.

Then we headed to the nearby (fancy) Emquartier mall.

We wandered around the empty mall, and I picked up some cardigans that I can wear to cover my tattoos when I'm teaching.

And then Roman led me up a few escalators, until we reached a part of the mall that had been transformed into a jungle! The whole floor had been built as a kind of garden, complete with lots of fish ponds, shaded pathways, and views of the city beyond.

It was pretty damn cool. But by that point, all the walking and mall time had worn us out, so we headed home to chill.

We were kinda curious about this apartment directly across from the BTS Station, but the whole building is being rented out

For dinner, we picked up papaya salad, sticky rice, fried chicken skin, and sausages, which we laid on our dining room table, which is probably becoming a too-familiar sight to all of you.

Roman drawing attention to the most important thing--fried chicken skin