Wednesday, October 6

Tomorrow we head to Pattaya for our six day beach vacation! I’ll report more soon!

But back to this last week...on Sunday evening, we headed down to Chinatown to eat dinner at a Bhutanese restaurant Emma had recommended. 

We ordered ema datshi (our favorite meal from Tibet Kitchen, the Tibetan/Bhutanese restaurant we visited daily in Dharamshala) made with dried chilies, instead of fresh, which our server said was the traditional Bhutanese preparation, and pork momos:

The datshi was delicious. After dinner, we wandered around the area, which is known as Little India.

It was mostly shuttered, but we peered into stores selling incense and icons, and at closed samosa and chai shops.

Then we made our way back to Yaowarat, walking through the rain-soaked and mostly-deserted Sampheng Alley to get there…

 

Although I considered getting one of those cold sweet Thai desserts I have yet to try (you know, ginkgo nuts in ginger soup, or tapioca balls and cantaloupe in milk, something like that), but Roman was getting doughnuts, and I knew nothing I got could compare to the best doughnuts ever, so I skipped the cold dessert and we walked to Pa Tong Go Savoey, our fave doughnut cart. Unaware of what was to come…

We picked up a bag of doughnuts and some pandan cream, and sat on our usual stoop down a nearby street. 

Oblivious to what we were about to encounter...

The first bite was so good—perfectly fluffy, just-fried doughnuts, dipped in a well-made pandan custard. And then I smelled my doughnut…and got a huge whiff of ammonia.

The smell was overwhelming. Roman’s doughnut smelled the same, and there’s really no misidentifying ammonia. We each had another bite…the doughnuts had no weird taste, but...that smell. It took me right back to bleaching my hair in the bathroom at home as a teenager. We couldn’t eat the doughnuts.

To make sure we hadn’t ingested poison, I googled the issue, and found that pa tong doughnuts are still traditionally made with baker’s ammonia, a leavening agent that predates baking powder. It produces a lighter, crunchier crumb, and the ammonia evaporates off when baked. Or it’s SUPPOSED TO. Unless the product is underbaked, which is apparently what happened to us.

Oh, it was such a disappointment! We couldn’t forget that ammonia smell for the rest of the night. It wasn’t such a big deal to have a bad experience, but we loved that doughnut cart, and now we’re afraid it’s been ruined for us. Nooooooo!

Otherwise, the week has been pretty good...we've been swimming in our newly-opened pool almost every day/evening!

And, you know, we've eaten a lot of food so...here are some pictures of meals! Here’s a lunch we ate at home—fish curry cooked in banana leaves (bought from a cart near the American embassy), som tam, and sticky rice…

And here's a meal we had delivered on a stormy night: stuffed pork bun and gyoza, eaten with kim chi (also, please observe the tablecloth I bought at a small street stall near Platinum Fashion mall for 100 baht)…

And here's one of our weekend breakfasts…French toast with cinnamon apples and dulce de leche (I made it properly this time)…

And here's one of my favorite Thai meals to make at home...omelet larb with sticky rice...

Here 's a plate of vegetables I got at Pier 21 (pumpkin, cauliflower, and morning glory with woodear mushrooms)...

And here's a lunch we had at Immigration (I meant to order chicken khao soi but got a chicken leg with rice and cucumbers, and Roman got pork tom yum)...

And that's it for now...hopefully my next missive will be sent from the midst of a relaxing beach vacation!