Thursday, May 13

Wednesday was another hot day, so we left the house early to pick up some produce for the evening's dinner at the market off of Suan Phlu. Does anyone else feel I've done an inordinate amount of planning and shopping for a fairly simple meal for four people?

A view of Soi Suan Phlu through the trees

A neighbor's chow chow keeping an eye on us

We picked up some lunch on the way home, and after doing a little cooking and a little packing and a little Facetiming, we sat down to eat—Roman got fried chicken and sticky rice, and I got stir-fried kale with crispy pork and a fried egg.

In the afternoon, I got to cooking. I started by making a caramel sauce for the custards I made yesterday. As I mentioned, I didn't caramelize the brown sugar for long enough and I used artificial vanilla flavoring in the custards, and so they tasted a little flat and fakey to me. As a result, on my first try at the caramel sauce, I over-corrected for my mistake by caramelizing the sugar for too long, and it came out with a distinctly bitter taste. I thought I might serve it anyway—I could almost convince myself it was kind of French to burn your caramel just a bit, and besides, I didn't have enough cream to make a second batch (and cream isn't something you can pick up at any corner market here). But then Roman tried the caramel, and though he was very sweet about it, I could see the look on his face when the acrid aftertaste set in.

Roman suggested I could try making a caramel with milk instead of cream, so I started a second batch. This one turned out slightly grainy, but luckily I bought a very fine mesh strainer at the cheapy kitchen supply store. After I strained the caramel, it turned out much better than the first (burnt) version.

Once the caramel sauce was cooling, I started slow-cooking the cubed pork collar with cumin, oregano, cinnamon, chile powder, bay leaves, orange rind, garlic, onion, orange juice, and water for several hours. In the meantime, I prepared a spicy pico de gallo, a cabbage avocado slaw, and crumbled feta. I made whipped cream with a whisk (I had only ever used a hand mixer to make whipped cream, but I was inspired Sybylla, who whipped up some cream by hand in mere minutes at a dinner party years ago). Finally, I finished the carnitas in a hot wok with some oil, and Roman warmed the corn tortillas. It was similar to a dinner I made for Arica's family before we left Utah, and made me think of them as I finished the meal.

From top: feta, carnitas, pico, cabbage slaw

Roman heating tortillas in the background

It all turned out pretty well—especially the carnitas, which were crispy and delicious. The tortillas were a little dry (they came out of the package that way), but the pico helped. More than anything, it was nice to have another hangout with Sean and Emma. They are both interesting, thoughtful, and fun to talk to, and with the second hangout, I think we all felt a little easier with each other.

I served our dessert a little after dinner. I didn't get a photo of the finished dessert, but here is the caramel custard with a layer of the caramel sauce on top.

Just before I served them, I sprinkled each portion with crunchy peanut brittle, sea salt, and whipped cream. They were a bit sweet, but still pretty good. In the end, though, I'd rather have a piece of cake. Maybe I need to invest in a countertop oven, after all?

In the morning, we packed up all three levels of our shabby mansion in preparation for our move! I can't remember if I mentioned this, but our place is being rented out to someone else, so we're moving to another Airbnb that's managed by the same guy. It is a block away, in the next Soi over, so we won't have to get to know a new neighborhood, but Oh! we will miss our slightly ramshackle house. I will miss the little alley and all the neighbors we've gotten to know. I will miss the cool downstairs room where I wrote this blog, made my kombucha, and ate many meals with Roman. I will miss the second floor bathroom and the many geckos that populated its windows. I will miss our bedroom and the pretty brightly colored Thai bedding. I will miss the third floor bedroom and all the space I had for laying out my clothing, perfume, and jewelry. I won't miss the third floor bathroom though. Good riddance.

This Soi feels totally different from the last. Instead of single family homes and little old ladies drying their underwear on laundry racks, it's full of guest houses and washing machines, and no open doors or windows. Willy told us that back in the 70's and 80's, Sathorn was a kind of wild party zone, and the Soi we just moved to was full of reprobate foreigners, who had been paid by their wealthy families to stay away from home (Portland in the 1800's had its share of the same types from the East Coast). They might be drunks or drug addicts, Willy said (he ran a bar on the corner for a few years), but they all had interesting stories. But now there are few people out on the street, and it doesn't have the close-in family vibe of the parallel alley.

Our new place is a studio—we actually stayed in this building when we first arrived in Bangkok in 2018, and we were amazed at how clean and nice our room felt after all the cheap guesthouses where we'd stayed in India. The main area has a large bed, a desk, and a little balcony. It used to have a couch but is now missing it, which is a bit of a disappointment to Roman and his guitar playing.

There's a kind of wide hallway leading to the kitchen, which has a small dining table and a wardrobe.

The kitchen is simple but fine, as is the bathroom.

The kitchen window looks out on an overgrown lot and we can see the back side of our old house!

It's the shabbiest-looking one in the middle.

The place is nice, but small, and Roman and I are definitely always going to be in the same room. Until May 30, when we will check out and (hopefully) move into our new place.

For lunch, I fried up the leftover carnitas and served them with white rice, slaw, pico de gallo, and feta.

We walked to 7-Eleven and stocked our fridge with soda waters and Diet Coke, and then took it easy while the heat of the day came and went.

In the evening, we walked to Suan Phlu and picked up some pork noodle soup, which we ate at home on our small glass table (which is really not a very photogenic setting for meal photos).

And then we settled in for our first evening in our little studio.