Dancin' down them dirty, dusty trails...: 2011

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Wat Thai of Los Angeles, one day I will go there.

Some of you know I was accepted into both Columbia University and University of Southern California's Master's in Social Work program. USC was low on my list and financially made less sense than Columbia, so I declined their offer. But I just found this beautiful Wat in LA that makes me kind of regret my decision!!!

Wat Thai of Los Angeles is the biggest Thai temple in the United States! Let me tell you that the 3 temples in the New York City area look nothing like this. I continue to believe that I live on the wrong coast.

Photo from here. One day I will come here, this blogger did exactly what I would have!

A video I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzHbNFzL7UE

And it sounds like they have some really delicious, kind of cheapo foods in the Thai food market style food court!!!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/wat-thai-of-los-angeles-north-hollywood-2

Friday, June 17, 2011

Searching for Southeast Asia in New York City!

Well, well. It's been a few months. I have been thinking about Southeast Asia, of course. It was only recently that some friends have begun to ask about my trip. Most people don't know what to ask, I mere "How was it?" is impossible to answer about my adventure! But if you have something you want to ask, please do! I am dying to talk about it. I am dying to relive it! Everyday there is a tiny piece of me that wishes I didn't care for graduate school, and went back to Thailand to teach (and get paid! I had the opportunities!).

In an effort to continue living my trip, I have decided to update this blog to "Searching for Southeast Asia in New York City"! I am very excited about this. I have already found a few Thai temples in the area that I want to visit. I'll include restaurants here and anything Southeast Asian I can find: Thai, Lao, Khmer, Vietnamese, Malay...but also Burmese and Indonesian. I miss that corner of the world, and this is my way of finding it in my present corner.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestion for where I can go to search for Southeast Asia, please let me know. Do you want to come with me? Let's do it!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Mango Sticky Rice!

Exciting to purchase any Product of Thailand....even if it's distributed by California (my other favorite place).

I fell in love with mango sticky rice in Thailand. What a delicious dessert!! It's not even that difficult to make, as I learned! The hardest part is just the amount of time you need to soak the sticky rice. Preferrably over night, but I soaked it for a couple of hours. It's fun to see how much water the rice absorbs!

Ingredients: Sweet Rice, Mango, Coconut Milk, and sugar (not pictured). I would say don't use the lite coconut milk, it does not have the same sugar count you need for this sweet dessert. Geez, treat yourself!

Lettin' the Sweet Rice soak in water. It should soak over night ideally, but 2 - 3 hours is good too.

I do not yet own a bamboo steamer, but you can use cheesecloth over your regular ol' steamer!

The finished product! Yum!

Soak the sticky rice for 2 - 3 hours minimum, but preferably over night. Then, you must steam the rice either with a bamboo steamer or by placing a cheesecloth over the steam section of your steamer. The rice takes about 15 - 20 minutes to get sticky, it will also be translucent when finished. .

Heat the coconut milk in a pot over medium heat. Stir constantly and let the coconut milk simmer. Hard boiled coconut milk will curdle. Add sugar and salt. Remove from heat. Pour 3/4 of the hot coconut milk over the hot sticky rice. Let it sit for 5 minutes. The hot sticky rice will absorb all the coconut milk. The rice should be a little mushy. Spoon the rest of the coconut milk on top of the rice at serving time.

Delicious!

Credit: http://www.thaitable.com/xxxthai/recipe/mango-on-sticky-rice

Mmm, mango sticky rice in Nong Khai.

Mmmm, mango sticky rice in Krabi Town! How do they get the rice to be such crazy colors?!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Just call my name, and I'll be there.

I wound up having to surprise all of my family members separately (all 3 of them - the Thais were so greatly saddened by this), this is the first one (if you don't know Russian, you may be at a loss). Also, apparently my Russian accent comes out when Im on camera about to surprise my family....

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Kuala Lumpur (Malacca for a minute), Malaysia

On the almost 24 hour ride from Krabi Town to Kuala Lumpur, I met Yu - he may come through NY in the early fall and I hope we can meet up =) He is a part of the Rainbow Planet Project - you can see my wonderful drawing for the project on my lap.

I stayed with Andrew and his family in KL. (Remember Andrew from Koh Samui and Koh Phangan in December? If you tell me I can come stay with you, I will make it happen!). We are eatimg Indian food here: Banana leaf!