The red velvet cake's entry into popular culture can probably be traced to the 1989 film Steel Magnolias, in which the groom's cake was a red velvet cake in the shape of an armadillo.  There's something seductive about the color of a red velvet cake, especially a cupcake, at least at first.  But at some point, the red seems just a little too red, and it starts to seem a bit unnatural.  That's no surprise considering that a recipe will use up to several tablespoons of red food coloring.

Doing some research, I gathered that red velvet cake was originally not so red and the color came about naturally.  Cocao powder, a key ingredient, didn't used to be "Dutch process" and was less alkaline in years gone by.  When combined with the buttermilk and vinegar in the recipe, the chemical reaction caused the batter to take on a muddy red hue.  Unable to find cocao powder that isn't Dutch process here in Thailand, I stumbled upon a recipe for Natural Red Velvet Cake that, supposedly based on a traditional southern recipe, uses cooked beets for the color.

Intrigued, I had to try.

The ingredients: brown and granulated sugars, eggs, flour, cocoa powder, chocolate, buttermilk, butter, vanilla, salt, baking soda, cider vinegar, and roasted beets.

The mystery ingredient.  Instead of using canned beets, which the recipe called for, I roasted my own beets and then pureed them with a little bit of olive oil and water.

First step: Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water.  Chocolate doesn't figure in most red velvet cake recipes, only cocoa powder, so I was surprised by this addition.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda.  One of these days I'll have to seek out natural cocoa powder (i.e. not Dutch process) and see how that affects the outcome of the recipe.

Cream together the eggs, butter, and two types of sugars.  Most cake recipes are specific about the process - for example, whip the butter and sugars before adding the eggs.  No specificity here so I just dumped them all into the bowl and turned the mixer on.

The end result (after combining the dry ingredients and adding the melted chocolate and beets) had a vaguely reddish tinge to it, although that could just be a color correction issue from the light.

Cupcake liners filled and ready to bake.  Lesson I've learned: don't fill your cupcake liners so high because cake batter expands as it bakes.

See?  I told you that cake batter expands.  Now I have these muffin top cupcakes that would have been interesting if the crumb had held together better, but the structure was kind of weak.

The cupcakes pretty much crumbled when unwrapped.  I'm very curious why this is.  Maybe cake flour didn't have enough protein and regular flour would have been better?  Maybe just a little too much liquid in the beets?  Baking is a science and something didn't work out right here.

To frost the cupcakes, I prepared a butter-cream cheese frosting but perhaps didn't whip it enough.  That, or the opening in the frosting tip was too small.  The frosting bag actually burst on me so I had to instead spread the frosting instead of piping it.

The end results looked a bit rag-tag.  I really need to take a class to learn how to frost a cupcake properly.  As for the taste, the cupcakes were very moist and the beet flavor wasn't noticeable at all.  As for the color, though, there really was nothing red about the red velvet cupcakes.  Not in the least bit.

I guess if I want a really red, red velvet cupcake, I may need to reach for the food coloring after all.

There are plenty of stories written in the American media about how little Americans know about the world and how few can identify various countries on a world map.  Certainly such knowledge is important to have and as of late, quite a bit has been going on in the North Africa - Middle East - Central Asia area.  So it was with interest that I received an email forwarded by my father that linked to a map quiz from the RethinkingSchools.org website.  The results were interesting.

First off, the quiz (which is located here) is an easy drag-and-drop style quiz where you simply drag the name of the country to the corresponding space on the map.  If you are correct, the name sticks and the country color fills in.  If you are incorrect, a red "X" appears.  There is no timer and no score is given so there is no external pressure.

"Interesting," I thought, resolving to try the quiz.  I consider myself a bit more knowledgable about the world than the average American, although the primary arc of the Muslim world is not the corner of the globe with which I am most familiar. 

I started dragging names to places, beginning with the ones with which I was most familiar and then filling in around them based on the spacial relationships I know exist.  Of the 35 countries I was able to fill in 24 before I began to second guess myself.

I'll add a few blank lines and you can scroll down if you want to see which ones I knew.  Warning: If you plan on taking the test yourself, you should do so before you scroll down.  No cheating!

...

...

...

...

This was how far I made it.  The next two countries I guessed - Chad and Niger - I got correct.  But after that it was a bit of hunting and pecking.

The complete results are here.  A good exercise to reinforce that we rarely know as much about the world as we think we do and can always benefit from some more learning.

So far it has been a busy weekend, so much so that I haven't had the time to read subscriptions or to write any posts.  This one wil have to be a quick one, in fact, because there's a lot to do this Sunday.

This morning I'm trying a recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes that uses roasted beets instead of red food coloring.  Actually, it uses canned beets but I went ahead and roasted my own beets since that is easy enough to do.  I like the idea of not using the food coloring but I also think a beet cake should be very pleasant, in the same way that a carrot cake has a moist sweetness that comes from the carrots.  We'll see how it turns out.

I'll leave you with a photo I took last Sunday while riding through the park near the Queen Sirikit Convention Center.  In a shaded hollow there is a statue of Buddha, surrounded by trees and looking towards a large lake.  Beyond the park, condominium towers have risen and the scene struck me as being an interesting combination of both the peacefulness of nature and the intrusion of modern urbanity.

Anyhow, I hope you are having a fun weekend.

Checking my Gmail this morning, the daughter of a high school friend and his wife sent me a message.  "Hi!  Stuck with Chinese homework.  Have to write a poem."  I think she was using the chat feature as an excuse not do her homework.  "No worries," I replied.  "I can help."

After a few minutes of thinking, I responded with the following poem.  It is Chinese.  Kind of.

Chinese Poem

There once was a siu mai

All covered in sauce.

My brother didn't want to eat it

So I said, "That's your loss."

Picked up by my chopsticks

and dunked in some soy,

The tasty steamed dumpling

brought my tummy lots of joy.

That's all the creativity I can muster today.  Have a good Friday.

The final day we were showing our Singaporean guests around, we decided to pile into taxis and travel halfway across the city for some famous Chinese five-spice goose from Chua Kim Haeng restaurant.

This restaurant has been around for decades with two adjacent dining rooms on Pattanakan Road, which is what Petchaburi Road turns into as it heads east of Ramkhamhaeng.  They have recently opened another branch.

Jasmine rice.

Gaeng joot gradook muu - Slow-cooked clear soup with pork ribs and daikon radish.

Gapow plaa pad haeng - fried fish maw stir fried dry with green onions served with a sweet chili dipping sauce on the side.

The main course: braised goose, known as han paloh.  "Paloh" refers to the cooking a dish with Chinese five spice, but this is a general term in Thai.  Each restaurant has its own specific recipe for what those spices are and in what combination. 

Chua Kim Haeng is famous especially for its dipping sauce, a combination of vinegar, garlic, and yellow chili instead of the usual green or red chilies.  The sauce has a flavor almost of pickling spice and contrasts well with the rich flesh of the goose.

Goose innards.  Can you name the parts?  Liver, heart, gizzard... yummy!

The Singaporeans loved it.  Of course, this is a Chinese style restaurant so they must of felt right at home.  In fact, one of our friends ran into someone he knows, another Singaporean who was traveling with his family, sitting at the table next to ours.  Small culinary world, isn't it?

While our Singaporean friends were in town a week ago, I went with a couple of them to Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown, for a nighttime seafood dinner.

The streets are no less busy once the sun sets as impromptu restaurants - movable feasts, really - open up on the sidewalks.  Seafood is the specialty of the neighborhood, with several well-known sidewalk vendors offering the freshest seafood available in town.

A dozen river prawns, simply grilled.  The flesh was sweet, the only thing needed was some spicy homemade sauce of chilies, fish sauce, and lime juice.

A plate full of crabs, steamed and cracked for our easy eating.  The prawns, crab, and a plate of fried rice were all the three of us needed for a tasty and surprisingly affordable dinner.

As we finished dinner and headed back to the friends' hotel, I noticed the moon, just a day or two past full, lost amidst the bright lanterns of Yaowarat.

On my trip to the US in early December, my friend Mabel gave me a gift she had been holding for some time: a pair of banneton.  These wicker baskets are used by the French when proofing bread dough - after it is shaped and is undergoing its final rise before baking.  At some point in the past I had mentioned that I'd like to find some banneton and when she saw them, she purchased them for me.  Since December I've had the opportunity to use them a few time and thought I'd share the results.

The video is here, a nice, succinct two-and-a-half minute piece.  If you cannot view, pictures are below.  Link to the video is here.

The banneton is traditionally made of wicker, although some modern ones are made of plastic.  The purpose of the wicker, though, is that it wicks moisture away from the surface of the dough, making for a better crust.

Proper flouring is essential, otherwise the dough may not want to leave the cozy nest of the banneton once it is finished proofing.  After reading a few online baking sites, I decided to go with the suggested mix of all-purpose wheat flour and rice flour.  This worked very nicely and I've had minimal troubles with sticking.  It was also a neat way to use up some leftover rice flour.

After removing the dough from the banneton, you can see the lines left by the wicker.  A few slashes to help the loaf expand and then slide it into the hot oven and onto a baking stone.

The end result is very beautiful and, I must say, rustic-looking.  Not sure to what extent I can tell if the crust is really any better.  I create a steam bath in the oven with a small tray of boiling water, so the environment is going to be about as conducive to a good crust as this home-use oven will allow.  Nonetheless, Tawn and I have been enjoying the results, especially when it is time for panini!  Thanks for the thoughtful gift, Mabel!

After writing about some potentially good news for pedestrians in Bangkok, I have to strive for some karmic balance by writing about something else what is currently underway that is impinging on the foot-friendliness of a soi in my neighborhood.

"Soi" is a word in Thai that is often translated into English as "alley".  It means a smaller street, often not connecting, that branches off a major road.  The neighborhood I live in is in the midst of a veritable maze of sois, some of which have footpaths (sidewalks) and others of which don't.  One main soi on which I regularly have to walk has undergone some road construction this past week that ended up with a pedestrian unfriendly result.

This particular soi is called Thong Lor Soi 9, indicating it is the ninth soi off a larger street called Thong Lor - which is itself a soi of Sukhumvit Road, Sukhumvit Soi 55, to be precise.  (Confused yet?)  Soi 9 parallels a small khlong (canal) that is really more of a drainage ditch with some stagnant water in it.  There isn't much space and when you walk along it you have to be careful of passing traffic.  Thankfully, though, there is a wide dirt shoulder that you can step onto if you become concerned about the passing vehicles.

Two weeks ago when I saw workers shoveling gravel along the khlong side of the soi, I was optimistic that perhaps they would widen it just a bit, making a little more room for the many pedestrians who walk this soi from the residential area to the main street where all the shops and markets are.

Unfortunately, the plan was not to widen the street but instead to add a curb along the side of the existing street.  Not that I've seen it happen, but perhaps they are suddenly concerned about vehicles ending up in the ditch like some pilot of a South African 737.  Or, more likely, they are trying to channel rain water into the storm drains (concrete rectangles with metal grates in them in the picture below) instead of into the khlong. 

The net effect for pedestrians is that now you really have to walk in the street.  An easy step off the street now involves stepping over a curb and onto uneven ground, increasing the risk of tripping or ending up on your butt in the khlong.

From a pedestrian perspective, the best solution would probably be to install a wide pipe in place of the khlong and pave over that area with a wide footpath.  They did this on part of Sukhumvit Soi 38 (above) and it is beautiful.  Yes, there isn't as much greenery although that could be addressed in several different ways.  But you do have one of the widest, smoothest footpaths in the city, complete with ample curb cuts. 

I'm curious to see whether Thong Lo Soi 9 ever receives similar treatment.  For now, I'll just have to be that much more careful when walking along the soi.

Bangkok has a unique street-level culture.  Footpaths overflow with food vendors, hawkers, beggars, and motorbikes.  Sometimes there is even room for pedestrians.  This sidewalk chaos is simultaneously the charm of the city and the bane of its residents' efforts to get from place to place.  The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has announced big plans to move the pedestrians above the crowd onto a 50-km network of skywalks.

In the future, it seems we will all be computer animated!

Dubbed the "Super Skywalk", this network would connect existing Skytrain stations with nearby businesses, much in the way the Ratchaprasong shopping district is connected to both the Chidlom and Siam stations.  Ambitious in scope, the skywalks would not only follow all existing Skytrain lines, they would also trace new paths above busy streets like Thong Lo, Asoke, Ramkhamhaeng, and Whithayu (Wireless).

Map from the BMA showing the proposed Super Skywalk network.

The entire network is slated to be complete in four years, with the first portion, 16 km following the Sukhumvit line from Nana station to Soi Baring (Sukhumvit 107, end of the extension to the line that should open later in 2011), set to open within 18 months.  Interestingly, some of the sections such as Thong Lo and Ramkhamhaeng follow routes Bangkok's governor has proposed for a monorail line.  There has been no explanation if those plans are still underway.

The pedestrian bridge built under the Skytrain viaduct, heading east from the Asoke station.

I've written previously about various pedestrian bridges being built to connect to Skytrain stations and I'm certainly not the first person to think that a wider network of skywalks would encourage more use of the mass transit systems. 

There are many questions to consider, though.  Will these new skywalks be kept clear of vendors?  Some of the elevated footpaths near Siam Square often look like a repeat of the sidewalks down below, minus the motorbikes.  Also, will the skywalks result in diminished business for the vendors along the street or even for regular, fixed businesses?  Considering that the governor has also proposed creating designated spaces for the vendors similar to Singapore's hawker centers, perhaps this is part of a larger plan.

It will be interesting to see if and when this project actually is built, what the effects are.  Original article in The Nation newspaper.

This photo came as part of an email my father forwarded to me.  As a former employee at a major airline, many of the humorous emails he receives (and often forwards) are related to his former industry.  I didn't take the time to fact-check this one, but I found it funny enough to share with you as a bit of midweek levity.

According to the email, the pilot of this Boeing 737-200 (an aircraft that is pushing 30 years old if not older) was departing a small airport in South Africa during the night to ferry the plane back to Johannesburg.  The pilot got confused on the taxiway and reached a dead end without the room to turn around.  His solution was to engage the thrust reversers and back out of the dead end, trying to perform a three-point turn.

Unfortunately, he backed the plane into a culvert alongside the taxiway.  To make matters worse, he tried to get the plane back onto the taxiway by throttling up the engine.  The end result was that the engines ingested all sorts of rocks, dirt, and other debris since they were resting pretty much on the ground.  The damage was such that the cost of repair exceeds the airframe's insured value and so the craft will be written off.  No word what happened to the pilot.

Of course, silly things happen all the times.  Back in August 2005, a mechanic at United Airlines' San Francisco maintenance base accidentally retracted the main landing gear on a Boeing 747, resulting on the plane resting on its tail.  Fortunately, no structural damage was caused and the plane was back into service after a thorough check.  No word on what happened to the mechanic.

Whereas Saturday morning was spent at the Seagull Cooking Cafe helping break in their new cooking school, Saturday evening was spent at the house of Khun Nat, co-editor of the website catandnat.com where some of my entries are cross-posted.  After he started editing my pieces and discovered our common interest of food, he suggested we cook together.  Our first venture: Hearty Italian Sunday Gravy based on a recipe from Cooks Illustrated.

This over-the-top tomato sauce usually calls for six cuts of meat and half a day by the stove.  Thankfully, the CI recipe cuts that down to just three cuts (ribs, sausages, and meatballs) and just a few hours, most of which is in the oven.  In addition to preparing the sauce, spaghetti and a salad, Nat prepared an angel food cake.  Not wanting to waste the egg yolks, we also prepared two batches of ice cream: one banana and the other raspberry.

I did not go to the trouble of shooting everything, simply because I was being put to work.  But here is a video showing the highlights of the afternoon and evening.  If you cannot view the video embedded in this entry, the link for it is here.

Raised in New York City, Nat moved here in his mid-twenties and has been here ever since.  He is one of those fortunate souls who got to design his kitchen from scratch and it is perfectly laid out to have lots of people involved in the cooking.  Off to the left is a seating area where guests can relax and talk with the chef.  Very useful arrangement, if only I had another few dozen square meters in my condo!

Iron Chef New York prepares the tomato sauce after browning in the meats in a skillet.  The secret behind the rich flavor is that you sautee the onions until they start to brown and then add tomato paste and cook it until nearly burned.  While this may seem too far at first, it concentrates the flavors and nicely caramelizes the sugars in the paste, and it ends up adding an incredible richness to the sauce.

After adding crushed canned tomatoes and cooking for a while, you add the ribs and sausages to the sauce and let them bake, covered, in the oven for two hours.

Starting ingredients for the meatballs: Italian parsley, egg yolk, bread crumbs, buttermilk, chili flakes, salt, and spices.

Nicely shaped (golf ball sized) meatballs.

Nat has a half-dozen or more beagles, all of which are very cute.  They must have been tortured by the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen!

Fry the meatballs until browned.

Busy kitchen as Tawn and Cha handle the wine, Nat keeps an eye on the meatballs, and the angel food cake rests upside down on the concrete countertop.

The finished meatballs with nice browned bits on the outside, ready to add succulent flavor to the Sunday Gravy.

After the first round of cooking the ribs and sausages in the sauce, we agreed that it needed more liquid so added some water.  Then added the meatballs and let them finish cooking.

Beautiful angel food cake.  I really should make these more often.  They are fat-free and very showy and satisfying desserts, especially with some fresh berries spooned on top.  We went for homemade ice cream, but berries would have been nice, too.

Keeping with the Italian theme, a nice mixed salad with cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, salami, feta cheese, and olives.

The meat piled on a platter, ready to serve.  Too bad Xanga doesn't have a smell-o-blog feature.

The final product: whole wheat spaghetti served with rich sauce and three types of meat.  Oh, this was good.  I hate to rub it in, but you really missed out!

A slice of heaven.  Didn't photograph the two types of ice cream, but you can trust me that they were tasty, too.  Is there room in my kitchen for an ice cream machine?

Food in Bangkok.  While my blog covers a wide range of topics, "food in Bangkok" would be a fair summation of one of the major topic areas.  About the same time that I started my "Great Eats in Bangkok" video series, covering various types of food that you really must try while you are here, I had the fortune to be introduced to the author of the newly-released book, Bangkok's Top 50 Street Food Stalls.

Enjoying a pre-dinner drink as I waited for guests at Soul Food Mahanakorn, the owner handed me a copy of this book and asked if I had seen it yet.  Thumbing through the well-organized pages, each of which lists another great street food vendor, I expressed my admiration.  At which point, Jarrett introduced me to the author, Chawadee Nualkhair, who was dining at the table just behind me.

I know what you are thinking.  "If ever there was a book I would have bought Chris for his birthday, this is it."  Right?  Of course you would have.  No need, now, since I already have a copy.  You can get one from local Bangkok bookstores.

It turns out that Khun Chawadee is the person behind the useful foodie website Bangkok Glutton.  A Thai who was raised in western Pennsylvania state, she has split her time between the US and Thailand for the last fifteen years.  Bangkok's Top 50 Street Food Stalls grew out of her desire to eat great Thai food when here, combined with the usual apprehension most foreigners have when approaching Thai street food.  We're unsure what the food is, what the specialties are, how to order them, and how to eat them once they are served.

Khun Chawadee's book does an excellent job of laying all that out in the picture-rich pages.  There's even an explanation of the seating arrangements, what condiments and utensils are on the table, and whether or not there are restrooms at the shop.  Talk about handy information!

After a few email exchanges, Khun Chawadee invited me to join her for lunch at a Muslim restaurant in Banglamphu, the shady older area of the city located between the Chao Phraya River and backpacker headquarters Khao San Road.

After I arrived at our designated meeting spot more than a half-hour late (note: river taxis are not as fast as you might think), Khun Chawadee led me on a brisk walk down Phra Athit Road, around a few corners, and down the street.  Our destination:Aicha Rot Dii ("Aicha Good Taste") Restaurant, a literal hole-in-the-wall that many people would pass by, not realizing what good eats are inside.

From the street side of things, all you see is a narrow walkway passing a food vendor.  But if you walk in, you pass a long row of prepared food that opens into an interior courtyard, clean and relatively well ventilated.  The menu is Thai Muslim, meaning mostly southern Thai style food.  Much of the influence comes from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and India and beef is the meat of choice.

Our meal included an oxtail soup that was wonderfully gelatinous.  Unlike western-style oxtail soups, which are often tomato-based and very hearty, this soup had a clear broth with fried shallots and herbs and was very light but full of flavor.

We tried a noodle dish called guaytiaw gaeng nua, a curried beef noodle soup.  The noodles are hidden under this spicy curry broth but the beef was very tender.  The curry was very nice, too.

We tried two rice dishes, khao mok gai and khao mok nua.  The name "khao mok" implies "buried under a mountain of rice", so the dishes are chicken and beef, respectively, served with a heaping portion of a biryani-style rice.  Of the two, I thought the beef was better.  The sauce, which at first glance you might fear to be a horrendously spicy chili sauce, is actually made with cilantro, lime, and sugar and is very sweet and sour.  The rice itself was a little disappointing, lacking in flavor compared to other khao mok dishes I've had.  The beef, though, was very tender and flavorful.

The seating place is friendly to foreigners with large pictures of all the dishes on the wall with their names in both English and Thai.  You can pretty much just point and eat.  Beverages run the range of sodas, waters, and some Thai juices.  Be sure to bring your own napkins.

This was a pleasant discovery.  More pleasant was the opportunity to meet Khun Chawadee and learn a bit more about what drives her passion for Thai food.  Find out more about the book at Chawadee's blog. She's also on Twitter as @bangkokglutton.

Saturday a week ago, the one before Valentine's Day, was a full day spent cooking.  There were two separate events, both of which will get their own blog entry.  The morning event was the soft opening of the Seagull Cooking Cafe, a cooking school that the makers of Thailand's premier line of stainless steel cookware products have opened on Sukhumvit Soi 63.

The menu was Linguine Carbonara, Chocolate Truffles, and a mocktail called the Cinderella.  One of Tawn's cousins, Wan, is friends with the daughter of the family that owns the Seagull company.  In additional to inviting her two sisters, Wan also invited Tawn and me to participate.

Tawn comes from a big family - he is number 35 out of 38 grandchildren on his father's side of the family.  Keeping track of all these cousins is a bit of a challenge, especially those cousins here in Bangkok.  While I've met several of Tawn's Bangkok cousins once or twice before in passing and am connected with some of them on facebook, this was my first opportunity to spend any significant time with them.

This opportunity fit perfectly with my plan to build connections with the rest of the family, in anticipation of the day that Tawn's father, who regards me with something akin to a "don't ask, don't tell" policy, either changes his mind or is no longer a factor - to put it delicately.

The school is on the top floor of Seagull's headquarters in a large and brightly lit space.  There are fifteen working stations, each with stainless steel tops (no surprise there!) and all the other equipment you would need.  Tawn and his cousins were at the front of the class.

We started by making the chocolate truffles as these would need to be refrigerated.  Here, Tawn poses with Som and Wan as they squirt chocolate ganache from a pastry bag onto parchment paper.

My partner for the cooking was Pueng.  Despite her good humor and many talents, her ganache came out looking like little chocolate poos.

See?

After refrigerating the chocolates for a bit, we were able to shape them by hand, ostensibly rolling them into balls.  In practice, this didn't work out so well.

The end result of our efforts?  Some damn ugly and unevenly-sized truffles.

Som's two-year old daughter, First, was there as well, spending most of her time playing with her father.  Tawn was playing with her but she seemed a little shy.

While not officially involved in the project, Chef Ian Kittichai (who has several famous Thai restaurants in New York, Barcelona, and Mumbai) had chefs from his organization conducting the class.  Tawn has appeared on his local TV show before as a guest (just chat with the chef and help as he cooks) and also knows his wife through common friends.  Had a nice chat with him about the challenges of managing restaurants around the globe and he provided some assistance with our truffles.  All the ones that are actually round were rolled by him!

Next up was the Linguine Carbonara, which actually was not a Carbonara sauce since it contained milk and cream.  Nonetheless, Pueng practiced her technique of putting the pasta into the boiling water, twisting a standing bunch of dry pasta so is splays out.

Somehow, partners were swapped during the course of the cooking so Tawn ended up helping me finish the pasta.

Looks quite pretty, doesn't it?  I hadn't cooked the bacon as crispy as I could have and didn't salt the water sufficiently.  Nonetheless, it was tasty.

Pueng, Tawn's elder, feels compelled to help him eat his pasta.

I poked my head into the adjacent kitchen to see the cleanup process.  This being their trial run, they had tons of staff on hand and still seemed a little overwhelmed.  I think they didn't anticipate just how much counter space they will need to handle the cleanup from fifteen cooking stations.

It was a fun experience and I enjoyed the chance to spend more time with Tawn's cousins.  It is fun watching them interact with each other and I look forward to the day when I can be a part of family events.

Wednesday evening, Tawn called me.  He had just left dinner with a friend and a severe rash had appeared on his torso, so he decided to head directly for the emergency room.  He asked me to meet him there.

In the end, the doctor was able to treat the rash and suspects it may be a previously unrecognized food allergy.  Tawn is fine.  But while I was sitting in the emergency room, I realized that we've got to get serious about completing powers of attorney for each other as well as our wills.  Had a hospital stay been necessary or decisions of medical care been required, our marriage would not be recognized and we could not make decisions on behalf of the other person.

One more of those little details, little insults almost, that remind me on a regular basis how far we have left to go to be treated equally.

At the end of January, the Iowa House passed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.  Thankfully, the Iowa Senate is Democrat-controlled and is unlikely to pass the bill, but in the state where Tawn and I were married in August 2009, our legal right to marriage is under attack. 

Not a week later, the Iowa House started kicking around the idea of a bill that would open the door for businesses, organizations, and individuals to discriminate against same-sex couples on religious grounds. But this legislation would go far beyond gays and lesbians, opening the door for discrimination against any married couples, including interfaith and interracial couples!  Thankfully, enough furor was kicked up that the lead sponsor of the bill tabled it, citing concerns raised about the bill.

Forgive me if sometimes I seem a little defensive about my rights.

At the same time, perspective is needed.  On January 26th, gay Ugandan human rights activist David Kato was brutally murdered.  Uganda is a country where the level of homophobia and hatred is extreme.  Homosexual acts are punishable with up to 14 years of imprisonment and members of the government have recently lobbied to have the punishment increased to the death penalty in some cases.  While the Ugandan supreme court has ruled that homosexuals have a right to privacy, that didn't stop one major newspaper from publishing pictures of several people including Mr. Kato and saying they were gay, along with the headline "Hang them!" 

Keeping all this in mind helps give me more appreciation for what rights I do have, or at least for where I am in the world.  Being beaten to death for being gay is an unlikely outcome in my life. 

But don't think for a minute I'm going to wave that around like some flag of victory.  I still expect equality.

For the past several weeks I have been following the news from Africa and the Middle East with great interest.  First Tunisia, then Egypt.  Now protests against dictatorships and in favor of democracy have emerged in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Iran.  Other governments in the region have tried preemptive measures to appease potential protesters, although who can say how long they will be placated, if at all.  These are amazing times.

Photo courtesy New York Times

As I sit down to write my nieces letters about these events for them to open when they become adults, I find myself stopping mid-letter, waiting for the latest development, waiting to see how it all turns out.  Because of course by the time they open these letters in more than a decade, the outcome will be much clearer.

There are those who are fearful that majority Muslim countries are not fit for democracy, fearful that "Islamists" (the latest bogeymen of the media) will take hold and turn the countries into America-hating and terrorist-generating nations.  Maybe so, although that seems unlikely. 

In the grand arc of history, people seem more concerned with jobs, food, education, housing, and healthcare.  If they have those things - which, generally speaking, they have more opportunity to secure in a functioning democracy - they have less reason to turn to terrorism and violence.  Most terrorists have come from countries with repressive governments and Al Qaeda's initial grievances against the US were about American support for the Saudi monarchy and the presence of the US military in Saudi Arabia.

Sure, it is a gamble.  We won't know until many years how it all turns out.  But it seems particularly undemocratic to tell people that they aren't fit to have a democracy.  Shouldn't it be up to them to decide?  And in the long run, which side of history do the Americans want to be on?  The side that props up strongmen dictators whose regimes repress their population, or the side that supports the flourishing of democracy (albeit without invading countries to turn them into democracies)?

I'll place my bet on supporting democracy.  Twenty, thirty, forty years from now, we'll look back at these times and realize not only were they amazing, but they were the start of the renaissance of the Arab world and an era that saw increasing stability throughout the region.

Valentine's Day came and went in the Big Mango in a manner that would make you forget that the holiday is an American import.  On the Skytrain, ladies carried roses from their lovers.  In the mall, men swamped the chocolate counters, leaving shelves nearly bare.  This is one import that has grabbed the hearts of Thais.

Some celebrate the day, others deride it as "Singles Day".  I thought Val made a good point when she wrote on Sunday, "...I feel compelled to remind [everyone] that it was not meant to be a day for couples but instead a day to remember the love we receive from all quarters and in all forms and to return that love."

Amen to that!

For our Valentine's celebration, Tawn and I traveled to the old city to watch a film.  The annual French-Thai cultural festival la fête presented a screening of the French romantic comedy Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

The screening was held outdoors, on the lawn behind Museum Siam.  The setting was gorgeous, the weather perfect, and eating a picnic of salami and goat cheese sandwiches, grilled vegetables, olives, and chocolate cake with ice cream (the cooling wonders of dry ice!) was the perfect way to spend the evening.

A brief video to show you the lay of the land just as the show was starting.

Sorry that my posting (and reading and responding to others' entries) has been slower than usual as of late.  Many of my recent entries have required a lot more leg work.  Here's the latest:

Two Saturdays ago, as Tawn and I were driving along Ramkhamhaeng Road on an errand to the northeastern outskirts of Bangkok, we were taken by surprise when we saw the front third of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet propped up alongside the street.

This is neither an industrial area nor anywhere particularly close to the airport, so for there to be a pair of airplanes being disassembled in this neighborhood is downright strange.  While there is a fence along the front of the property, there is no proper gate along the entrance.

Curious, we headed back early the next morning, arriving just after 7:30.  A street sweeper sat in her small rest shack, more of an open-air stand, and Tawn chatted with her while I wandered around taking pictures and video.  "Sure, go on in," she said.  "The workers won't be up and working for a while still."

The result of the exploring is a five-minute video.  I think you'll find it very interesting.  I'm happy with the results.  For those of you without five minutes to spare, here are some of the pictures:

The entire site is probably four acres (16,000 sq meters), adjacent to a school, temple, and canal.  Condo towers and office buildings are visible in the distance and it is really a strange place to be disassembling airplanes.

The monk's dormitory (robes hanging to dry) is visible next door.  I guess this view reminds them of the fundamental Buddhist teaching about all things being impermanent.

There are two planes here, both from Orient Thai Airways, a local carrier that operates limited scheduled service and also does charters.  I like how the top of this plane looks like a whale surfacing from the waves.

You could be mistaken for thinking this was the set of an airplane disaster movie.  Every area that has been cut by a welding torch is scorched black and there also looks to have been a few small fires set.  Pieces are still very identifiable, though, provided you know your airplane parts.

The vertical stabilizer (tail) of the plane, being cut into smaller segments for disposal.  The red and blue color scheme, which was meant to represent the Thai flag blowing in the wind, has been deconstructed.

There were hundreds of oxygen masks on the property, most still stowed in the overhead compartments that had ben removed and stacked.

Near the front of the property, galleys and lavatories, which are modular units, were standing about, stripped of carts and other supplies, although with the ovens still intact.  Recalling his days working as a regional flight attendant for United, Tawn pretended to be setting the ovens to warm a meal.

Orient Thai had a fleet of about a half-dozen older model 747s.  Their only scheduled international service was to Hong Kong and Seoul, and they used their larger planes mainly for charters, especially during the Haj.  Note the lavatory signage in Arabic as well as in Japanese.  This plane's original operator was Japan Air Lines.

A two-door segment of one of the planes - basically, the front third of it - was intact and propped upright.  The street cleaner explained that it was destined to be sent somewhere to become an airplane-themed coffee shop.  "You can climb up!" she said.  The homemade ladder had very narrow and widely-spaced rungs!

Inside, the ceiling, carpet, and seats had been removed but wall panels were still intact.  This picture is taken from the nose section, the front of what would have been first class, looking back.  The opening in the floor is the access hatch to the avionics bay.  Looking at the wallpaper, I noticed it is identical to that which was on the Orient Thai 747 that I flew as part of an inaugural test flight from the Don Meuang Airport to the new Suvarnabhumi Airport in July 2006, about two months before the new airport opened.  I wonder if this was the same plane?

I climbed the stairs to the upper deck.  Used as business class for most airlines, both Japan Air Lines and Orient Thai had put additional economy seats up here.

The avionics had been stripped from the cockpit but it was still relatively intact.  The flight engineer's station on the right-hand side is a clue to the airplane's age: at least 21.  The last 747 with a three-person cockpit crew was a 747-300 built in September 1990.  Since then, they have been flown by just two people, with computers handling the functions that the flight engineer used to.

After working up a sweat and shooting some 250 pictures and 30 video segments, I finally decided it was time to wrap up and head home.  I felt a bit of nostalgia and melancholy, sorry to see planes that had been so technically sophisticated, and that had flown hundreds of thousands of people around the world, reach the point where their only value was for their scrap.

Edit: Found this link listing the history of all of Orient Thai's former 747s.  Looks like the plane that is completely scrapped was originally delivered in March 1979 to Japan Airlines and the one with the intact front third was delivered in December 1986, also to Japan Airlines.  From that website I was also able to confirm that, as of this past December at least, the plane I flew on the test flight to Suvarnabhumi is still in operation. 

Looking for a thoughtful short film to watch today?  I'd recommend "Plastic Bag", an emotionally evocative 18-minute short by director Ramin Bahrani which I saw on Roger Ebert's blog.  It is the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and eventually discarded it.

Along the way, it encounters strange creatures, experiences love in the sky, grieves the loss of its beloved maker, and tries to grasp its purpose in the world.In the end, the wayward plastic bag wafts its way to the ocean, into the tides, and out into the Pacific Ocean trash vortex — a promised nirvana where it will settle among its own kind and gradually let the memories of its maker slip away.

Is it perhaps some sort of sibling rivalry?  Listening to the leaders of Bangkok, one could be forgiven for thinking that they were feeling a little bit of envy of their better manicured regional sibling, Singapore.  Like listening to a youngster who both admires and despises his older brother, I chuckle each time an idea is mooted that seems to be chasing after Singapore: Let's build a giant Ferris wheel by the Chao Phraya River!  Let's relocate street vendors into clean, well lighted facilities!  Let's build an endless chain of malls from Siam Square to Sukhumvit!

Not that there is anything wrong with these ideas - well, except the Ferris wheel - but it seems that our civic leaders should find the confidence to just say what we all know to be true: We're not Singapore, we never will be, and that's perfectly fine.  After all, if we were so much like Singapore, we would lose a large chunk of our tourists: the Singaporeans on holiday from their overly-staid city state.

One area of the sibling rivalry in which we are making progress is the building of malls.  Singapore may well have its Orchard Road, but we have our (admittedly difficult for visitors to pronounce and often taken over by protesters) Ratchaprasong Shopping District, stretching roughly from MBK and Siam Square on the west to Central Childlom on the east. 

You could logically extend the shopping district along the same street (which confusingly changes names from Rama I to Phloenchit to Sukhumvit along the way), bypassing the rather frightening Nana district and ending up at Asoke and Phrom Phong, which are seeing the development of their own new malls.

Let's take a look at some of that development.

Phloenchit Area

In the Phloenchit area, which stretches from the Chitlom to Phloen Chit Skytrain stations, there are three new developments.  In addition to these new developments, the reconstruction of Central World Plaza, which suffered severe fire damage in the wake of protests that were broken up on May 19 of last year, looks to be proceeding on pace for reopening by year's end.

The largest new project, long discussed but finally announced this week, is Central Embassy, built by Central Retail Corporation, owners of the Central World Plaza and Central Chidlom properties, among others.

Built between Chidlom and Phloen Chit stations on nine rai (14,400 square meters) of land bought from the British Embassy, this 37-story multi-use development will contain 70,000 square meters of retail on eight floors along with a 222-room luxury Park Hyatt hotel.  Its design will feature a unique "twisting ribbon" that should add another landmark to the city's skyline.

A view of the Central Embassy project property looking west towards Central Chidlom (white tower on the right and the shorter brown and green building to its left).  Buildings on the British Embassy grounds are in the lower right of the picture.  The angle showed here is equivalent to looking at the model in the previous picture from the far right side of that picture.

When it is complete in late 2013, the Central Embassy project will have an integrated facade with Central Chidlom, including a bridge connecting the two.  Central Chidlom will reportedly be renovated so the two properties have a consistent look, giving Central Retail Corporation a second large mall (along with Central World Plaza) in less than a one-kilometer stretch of Phloenchit Road.

Also in this neighborhood, not 100 meters to the east, is a large stretch of empty land next to Phloen Chit station.  (Pardon the poor job stitching two photos together.)  This property has undergone fitful attempts at development over the years, with constructions workers coming in from time to time to clear the land of vegetation and put up construction fencing, only to do no further work. 

This week the process started again with the clearing of an old building at the front of the property which had served as the sales office for whatever project had initially been started before the Asian economic crisis more than a decade ago.  No signage has been posted yet indicating what the development will contain, but based on the neighborhood and size of the property, it seems likely that a mixed-use building with retail, office, and possibly condominiums or hotel rooms will be built.

Directly across the Skytrain tracks from this property is the Park Ventures Ecoplex, a combination office building and 33-story hotel that will be finished this year.  Once all these properties are complete, all the free land at the Ploenchit-Witthayu (Wireless Road) junction will be developed, baring the demolition of any older properties.

Sukhumvit Area

Follow Ploenchit Road east a few Skytrain stops and you get to the middle  of Sukhumvit Road, an area populated with expats and well-heeled Thais.  Since 1997, The Emporium, owned by the Mall Group (part-owners of Siam Paragon), has been the main shopping center for this area.  In fact, it was the first mall to have a direct connection to a Skytrain station, something that has helped it continue to be popular even in the wake of the explosion of malls around Siam and Ratchaprasong.

I have a love of stamps, especially air mail stamps.  There's something romantic about envelopes bearing colorful and exotic stamps, and the receipt of a letter in a red- and blue-striped envelope with "par avion" marked on the outside holds all the promise of great adventure in foreign lands.

Many of you know that I write letters to my nieces for them to save and open when they turn 18.  Along the way, I send letters from different countries I journey to and ask at the post office here in Thailand for the latest and most interesting stamps, so that when they sit down with the letters as adults, they enjoy a journey even before opening them.

I must say, though, that I've grown tired of the Thai Post Office "air mail" stamp.  I've recently thought about having a rubber stamp or two custom made with my own air mail logo.  Browsing the internet, I collected bits of clip art and sat down last week to create some potential designs.  Lacking Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, I instead used PowerPoint and SnagIt to create and manipulate these images.  Your thoughts and opinions are most welcome. 

1 

#1 - My initial design was very simple, perfect for a rubber stamp.  It features a plane that looks to be a Ford Tri-Motor and some simple text, with French, naturellement!

2

#2 - Advancing the design a bit, I decided to get more martial in my font choice.  This would certainly capture the attention of the employees at the postal service. 

3   4

I continued my experimenting with a new airplane image, one with a transparent background that let me lay the image over text and other graphics.  Design #3 was my first attempt with the circular logo, playing around with PowerPoint's word art feature until I figured out how to use it.  Design #4 introduced stars and saw the plane heading in the other direction, which gives it an altogether different feel.

5   6

The next two designs made use of rotating everything 270 degrees, which is a little silly considering that with a rubber stamp, I could just hold the stamp at an angle.  No need to design everything at an angle, too!  Anyhow, design #5 simplified the circular border and had the airplane's wing and propeller breaking the border, which is a dynamic effect.  In design #6 I returned the second circle and also introduced the Thai phrase for "air mail".

7

Feeling that I had neglected modern aviation, design #7 introduced the silhouette of a Boeing 737 Next Generation and a simple text box.  I played around with it to have the airplane's tail and landing gear break the border of the text box, giving it a little bit of dimension.

8   9   10

I started to wonder whether, instead of making a rubber stamp, I should just have the air mail logo printed as an adhesive stamp, an inexpensive prospect.  So I created a series of designs to explore that idea.  #8 has a nice "out of the box" effect.  #9 is similar but introducing color and moving the Thai to align with the English and French.  #10 played with the idea of inverting the colors, which is interesting.

11      12

Next, I decided to revisit the classic air mail envelope, but couldn't decide how to end the stripes.  #11 complements the angle of the italic letters while #12 has the 90-degree angle of a classic letter envelope.

13    14

My final two designs were a little more art deco.  #13 is an original and took some time to figure out how to make the airplane image come together correctly.  #14 is an homage to a classic stamp I saw online, with a few small changes.

So what do you think?  Which one(s) do you like and do you think I should go rubber stamp or self-adhesive?