It was not an extraordinarily long weekend but it felt that way because Speedy was home on a Saturday. He never is unless it’s a holiday. Where he works, Saturday is a working day. I wish it weren’t so, it has so ruined our old habit of driving north or south of Metro Manila during weekends, but that’s his work so I keep my peace. Well, most of the time, anyway. Sometimes, I do complain. More than sometimes, actually. I wish there was a law mandating that Saturday and Sunday are family days and companies that require employees to work on Saturdays should pay them double.
But this isn’t about Speedy’s work. This is about last weekend. About how we bought DVDs of horror movies and how we intended to spend all of Saturday night watching them. Speedy managed one and was snoring ten minutes into the next one. And this is about how I fell in love over the weekend — but not with Brad Pitt.
I’m talking about…
… Thai food. 
We were at the mall on Saturday because Alex needed new school shoes. It was lunch time when we got to SM Megamall and the kids wanted to have lunch at Jipan. Unfortunately, it was closed for the day. The Thai restaurant next to it was open though. I can’t even remember its name but I cannot forget the food. We had a salad of green mangoes and crisp catfish, a chicken soup with coconut milk and lemon grass, pandan chicken (with deboned whole leg meat), a pork dish similar to our lechon kawali and fried rice with lots of eggs. Everything was delicious, but especially the salad and the soup.
Me being me, the next stop was the bookstore and I got me a Thai cookbook that has recipes for both dishes. The great thing is that I don’t really need to learn new cooking techniques. It’s mostly stir frying, steaming, braising… all familiarly Asian. It’s the herbs and spices that make the difference. Heavy on the use of lemongrass; lots of cilantro, galangal and kaffir lime leaves; lime instead of lemon… most of which are already growing in my garden.
Nice, eh? I’m just psyching myself up, talking about the weekend and food, lightening up the mood as it were, for the writing task ahead. I have to write tomorrow’s column. The biggest news, of course, is the U.S. presidential elections but that’s such a headache to write about considering how the electoral process was subverted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 for political expediency. People need constant reminding that they ought to think hard before glorifying elections as the ultimate expression of the popular will. I really want to write about it despite knowing how it will upset me and drive me to put up Bush’s picture at the center of the dart board. Whatever. We don’t even have a dart board. Maybe, I will write about it. Or maybe I won’t. Depends on which way my cat’s tail swings. Yeah, that’s how I choose the topic for my column. I give myself two choices then I watch the cat’s tail. 
I wish that in pinoycook, there will be a section that details herbs and spices – cilantro, lemon grass, etc. You know my cooking is only limited to the basics – salt, pepper, soy sauce, patis and vinegar. I don’t know what effect would silantro do to a dish because I don’t even know what silantro is in the first place.
Or maybe the author of pinoycook would tell me that those had been detailed already so I could start looking where they are
I love cooking, and I’m thankful that I could do experiments with whatever I have in the kitchen and produce decent results that my wife would love but I still wish I have more knowledge of those others things so I could break out from the usual kusina ni nanay
ang drama no, parang halloween. hehehe
Hi Ms Connie!
I know which resto you’re talking about. It’s called Jatujak (read as Chatuchak)
Super favorite ko din yun – yung lechon kawali ay Moo Grob ata yung tawag. Favorite ko po yun at yung chicken in green curry – yum! You might also want to try the Thai Iced Tea. I didnt like the Thai Iced Coffee that much, parang walang sipa. Parang it tasted like the the toasted rice version. I read a post before related to this so you might like it.
Jatujak is one the largest (if not the largest) palengke in Thailand. It is also called JJ market in Thailand. Marami pong mabibili dun at mura.
Regards,
May
“I wish there was a law mandating that Saturday and Sunday are family days and companies that require employees to work on Saturdays should pay them double” …. or how about Mondays to Fridays are family days while Saturdays and Sundays are working days? Yey! Kaya lang siguradong lalaki lalo ang population sa Pinas, likewise, lalo hihirap ang bansa. But seriously, sana nga alisin na yung work on Saturdays kasi pag Sunday lang ang off, sobrang bitin.
The restaurant is called Jatujak
I love their food too!
yes please ms. connie- i agree with kotsengkuba. please come up with a section on herbs and spices.
i started planting lemon grass, dahon ng sili, we have malunggay tree also but i was a failure on cilantro.
i really love you site.
I’ve asked this question several times — sino ba ang nagdefine na ang Mon-Fri ang weekdays at Sat-Sun lang weekend, at bakit 5 days kailangang magtrabaho at di 3 or 4 days lang? How I wish we could have four-day workweeks; kahit 9-10 hours basta less number of days. Tutal, I actually stay in the office 9-10 hours rin naman talaga. :-/
We spent the Halloween weekend, and the week before that, watching Harry Potter 1-5 VCDs. Now my kids have memorized some of the dialogues. with English accents pa.
Kotsengkuba and Sheilah, there is. The Asian Pantry section. I just need to update more often. Minsan kasi tamad ako hehehehe Sige, sisipagan ko.
May and Hazel, yun, that’s the resto. I was so inspired that I’m going to seriously attempt to cook Thai.
Faye, “bitin” nga. Speedy does not even like going out on Sundays all that much because it’s his only rest day. Result is something like LIFE = work + rest. Eh what happened to recreation?
Nikita, naku, I agree. Four-day workweek and 10-hour workdays will save on transpo and might even ease traffic. And employees can go on rotation. Like Batch A can work Monday to Thursday; Batch B, from Tuesday to Friday; Batch C, from Wednesday to Saturday. That way, the office is operational for 6 days a week.
Ami, re English accents LOL We were Harry Pottering too the week before Halloween. Ako pa ang promotor hahahah Probably triggered by Order of the Phoenix on HBO.
Thai food is soooo spicey — it hurts to eat it sometimes.
My wife and I bought more chocolate candies thinking a lot of kids will be trick or treating. I guess the parents did not think it’s worth driving around burning gas just for some candies and chocolates. We felt sorry for the kids though – blame it on Bush and Chenny.
On the positive side, we called our friends to make a difference and vote for Obama …and no negative attacks from McCain can stop Obama on becoming the next U.S. President.
Miguk, not when it’s home-cooked hehehe
JMonreal, I think it’s going to be Obama and Palin. Fearless forecast hehehe
Hello Ms Connie! When I was in the US, I always ate at this That resto called ‘Tara Thai.’ It was the closest I could get to still eating Asian food. I didn’t like the Chinese food there because it was oily and full of MSG. I realized to myself that I had to go to the US to discover Thai food. I often see the resto you were mentioning as I am an SM Megamall frequenter. I’ll definitely try it one of these days.
Ayen, hay, you will enjoy the food. I’m making the chicken soup with coconut milk tonight hehehe
Hi, Ms. Connie!
I’m a fan of Thai food too. Loved everything I tried eating, from soup to main dishes and noodles, even their desserts.I already tried cooking the Thai fried noodle dish at home, got the recipe from an Asian food cookbook.
Enjoy your new cookbook and will wait for your posts about Thai dishes.
Thanks and more power!
Phynkee, I already posted one Thai dish in Pinoy Cook.