Seward Market donations tallied

If you google the Seward Market shootings now, you won't find any recent links. Crime happens and then people move on.

But not in Seward. Here our thoughts are still with the families of the victims. I am proud to say that True Thai's customers donated over $600 to the memorial fund set up by Seward Redesign.

I think of you as my family now, and I am very proud of how we responded to this terrible tragedy. This is a good neighborhood, and recent events have proven that to me. The people of Seward did not hide in their homes after the shooting. Hundreds of you came out for the candlelight vigil, and hundreds more dropped money into collection boxes for the families.

I thank you on behalf of the victims' families, and I thank you on behalf of True Thai Restaurant where we are proud to be a part of the Seward community.

Eggs: not just for breakfast anymore

Anna with a plate of Thai Eggs

When I had our kitchen staff come up with an egg dish to put on the menu, everyone told me that Minnesotans would not eat eggs except for breakfast. Wow, were those people ever wrong! Even our vendors have commented on how many eggs we've been going through.

True Thai's Thai Eggs aren't quite like anything I've had in Thailand. There are many Thai egg dishes, many of which use eggs that do not come from chickens. I think maybe our most famous recipe would be the infamous Son-in-Law Eggs (Khai Look Koie). They are very round, and there is a reason for that.

“The mother-in-law will cook these for her son-in-law if she thinks he is being unkind to her daughter − it will remind him that his family jewels could well end up fried on a plate if he doesn’t clean up his act,” laughs Cecilia Brooks Brown, author of “World Vegetarian Classics” (Pavilion, $24.95). “But the dish sure is a treat to eat!”

I suppose I could put these eggs on our menu as well, but I'm not sure the story that goes with the eggs is appropriate for mealtime reading.

The story of True Thai's Thai Eggs is that you should do what you think is right, even when people disagree with you.

True Buffet!

Each day from 11 until 2 True Thai serves a lunch buffet. Did you know that you can pick buffet items for your group?

If you are planning to bring a group to True Thai for lunch on a weekday, email me two days in advance with your buffet preferences and we'll do our best. No, you can't pick out the entire buffet, but with your input we'll try to serve as many of your preferred dishes as possible.

True Thai has always focused on quality, not quantity in our lunch buffet. Less than a dozen items, but each one given the same careful preparation as an a la carte menu item.

My suggestion? If your group is daring, ask us to prepare some off-menu items. If your group is not so daring, pick a couple of dishes you know they'll like and we'll do our best. And if you'd like something really spicy, we'll make sure to make a dish or two that will meet your needs.

True Thai is Thai the way you like it.

Seward Market reopens

The Seward Market reopened Thursday. I walked over about eight to do some shopping and to show some support. There were seven guys behind the cash register. I was the only customer. It was very sad. I even cried a little.

I know that it is not easy being in a new country and trying to make a living. But I know it is good to have a community to support you. I don't think there were seven guys working at that market last night. I think there was one guy working at the market, and six friends showing their support.

There are many ways of showing your support. The jar by our cash register is stuffed with donations. Or you can do like Bob Olson did. He was a long time Seward neighborhood resident who recently passed away at the age of 82. He left his money to his neighbors, the City of Minneapolis, and the University of Minnesota's libraries.

When you invest in your time and money into your community, everyone benefits. Right now the families of the three shooting victims need our help.

Seward Market Memorial Fund
c/o Seward Redesign
2619 E Franklin Avenue
Minneapolis MN 55406

Thank you for whatever you can do.

Seward Market Memorial Fund

I just wanted to share with you the official memorial fund announcement for the families of the Seward Market shooting victims:

Seward Redesign and the Seward Neighborhood Group have established a memorial fund for the immediate family of the three individuals killed at the Seward Market on January 6, 2010.

You may contribute to the fund in any of the following ways:

1. Drop donations in collection jars at local businesses.
2. Drop off donations at Redesign's office .
3. Drop off/deposit donations at the Wells Fargo at 2600 Franklin Avenue.

Checks should be written to Seward Market Memorial Fund.

You may call Amy at Seward Redesign with any questions, 338-8729, x101.

We have a donation jar by the cash register and so far True Thai's customers have been very generous. Thanks to those who've donated, and those of you who will be making a donation next time you come in for your favorite Thai food.

By popular demand

I continue to be amazed at how much curry sauce we've sold since offering it as a take-home purchase. You add the protein and veggies of your choice and our sauces help to True Thai-ify your kitchen. (True Thai-ify? OK, maybe that is not a word, but I think you know what I mean.)

In addition to Red Curry, Green Curry, the peanut-licious Rama Curry, we are now able to offer you yet another True Thai staple: TRUE THAI STIR FRY SAUCE.

Just add a little to some of your home cooked stir fry and watch in amazement as your kids eat their vegetables!

Because it makes Anna happy to know you eat well at home, just like Anna does.

•••••

I thought I should also mention that there is now a memorial fund for the victims of the recent shootings. You can send your donations to:

Seward Redesign
2619 E. Franklin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN. 55406

Checks should be made out to Seward Market Memorial Fund

A suspect has been arrested and the other perpetrators should know that the entire Seward community is working with the police to solve this terrible crime.

Tragedy comes to the Seward neighborhood

I like the Seward neighborhood. Lots of old hippies and young immigrants make for an interesting place to live and do business, but last night tragedy struck our peaceful community.

Early in the evening armed thugs shot and killed three men, all members of the Somali family that owned and operated the Seward Market & Halal Meats just east of True Thai Restaurant. From the Star Tribune:

Police said they don't know the motive behind the killings but believe it was an apparent failed robbery at a south Minneapolis market.

The shootings shocked residents of what a police spokesman called "a pretty good neighborhood" and brought the city's 2010 homicide count to four just one week into the year.

Police did not identify the victims of the shootings at Seward Market and Halal Meats, on E. Franklin and 25th Avenues, but Abdirizak Bihi, director of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, said they were Somali immigrants, cousins who had pooled their money to buy the market.

"They come from a well-known family in the Somali community, a hard-working family," Bihi said. "This is very shocking."

One of the victims, he said, has seven children.

Everyone in the neighborhood is shocked and saddened. I understand that there are Americans who do not like Muslims, but there are many Somalis in the Seward neighborhood and we all get along just fine. Some in Seward have lived here all their lives, some are immigrants, and some of us just do business here, but we all consider ourselves a part of the community and what hurts some of us hurts all of us.

I do not know why grocery stores are victimized by violent crimes when sit down restaurants so rarely are. Maybe it's because grocery stores are sometimes mostly empty but restaurants always have lots of customers and staff (eyewitnesses) around.

KARE-11 says police are asking eyewitnesses to come forward:

City officials are asking anyone who witnessed the incident to come forward with information. Calls are being taken by Minneapolis Sgt Kjos at 612-673-3085 and Sgt. Porras at 612-673-3572.

I hope they get lots of good leads because Seward will not sleep well until these killers are caught.

(You can see pictures from last night's memorial service here.)

My old church

My old church got quite the facelift this year. I have told you about how eight Catholic families fled Vietnam a hundred years ago and came to Thailand to raise their children. The Catholic church in Chanthaburi has gone through many changes over the years but this year they went all out.

This is the church I grew up in. Our house was a block away, right behind the Cathedral.


It's changed quite a bit this last year thanks to many donations (including one from Anna!) and a lot of hard work. So much so that I even found a blog post about the renovations written by an expatriate Brit living Chanthaburi.



I grew up thinking it was the most beautiful church in the world, but after seeing pictures of the newly renovated cathedral I cannot wait to go home and see it again. At first I could not believe my eyes. It was as if my church had been replaced by Disney's Church of Tomorrow!


The celebration of the unveiling of Mary was spectacular!


Even from behind our new Mary is quite impressive. Her apparel is made from precious stones.


All I can say is wow. This all began with eight families who grew to be 38,000 Thai Catholics. Speaking as one of those Thai Catholics, I am very proud of my new old church.

Happy New Year's!

Happy New Year from Anna!

Remember, True Thai is open for New Year's Eve, but will be closed on New Year's Day.

Have fun, drive carefully, and watch out for the other guy!

Anna's Christmas Story (part 2)

Christmas in Thailand means it's time for daughters to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with their moms. Our household was no different except the Prasomphols were even busier than most families. In addition to all the traditional dishes and special desserts for our family and friends, we would put together baskets of food for the prisoners in the local jail, which was less than a mile away from our home.

It was not a very big jail, but it held 800 prisoners. Thai jails and prisons are not like the ones in America. In Thailand they give the prisoners broken rice, and not much else. Your relatives and friends bring food to the prison for you. If not, you get very skinny.

Because my parents came from families who had been refugees from Vietnam, my mother felt that we had an obligation to help feed these prisoners at Christmas time. But 800 prisoners is a lot of mouths to feed so a tradition began in which we would get a water buffalo from my cousin and then make it into dried beef.

One water buffalo makes a lot of dried beef, and we would spend a full week preparing and sun-drying the meat before packaging it up with sticky rice to take to the jail for the prisoners.

Last August I told you the first half of my Christmas story about the crocodiles. Now that you're done with your Christmas holiday I think maybe you are ready to hear the rest of this scary story.

To recap, Little Anna was awoken by her mynah bird Koon Tong and then went downstairs to eat breakfast only to find that the house was flooded and there was a crocodile in her living room!

Because of the flooding there was no electricity and we didn't know what was going on. We did not learn until later from the radio that a crocodile farm upriver had been flooded and all the crocodiles had escaped. We just knew that we had a crocodile in our living room.

We could not cook, but we did have all the dried beef we had made for the prisoners. One of my brothers snuck down to the kitchen after the crocodile left and brought back a bag without any other crocodiles catching him. Then, as we were held prisoner in our own home for three long days, we ate the dried beef we had made as a Christmas gift for the prisoners in the Chanthaburi jail.

Later, after the waters receded and the crocodiles were all rounded up, we took the rest of the dried beef to the prisoners who were still glad to get it even though Christmas was over.

It was not the best Christmas ever, but it was the one I remember best because it was the only Christmas I ever celebrated with a crocodile.

TRUE THAI IS CLOSED!!!

We will be closed on Thursday, December 24th, and Friday, December 25th, for the Christmas holiday. We will be open again this Saturday and Sunday, and look foward to seeing everyone in their new Christmas clothes.

Please accept our best wishes for a very Merry Christmas! Drive carefully, watch out for the other guy, and remember the point is to get there safely and in one piece.

Best Thai!

Thank you to the editors of Mpls-St. Paul Magazine for naming True Thai Restaurant their Best Thai Restaurant award for 2009! I am doubly grateful to them because the ads we ran in their magazine shortly after we opened helped establish us with Twin Cities' foodies — so much so we stopped running ads this year and yet we are still winning awards thanks to all our loyal fans.

I think this should help put an end to the myth that food critics only give awards to people who advertise in their publications. This is our seventh "best of" award in 2009, and our fifth from a publication we did not advertise in this year.

I'm afraid you'll have to buy a copy of their annual Best of the Twin Cities issue to read about our award, but it's on the newstands now and is filled with great suggestions for where to go for any kind of food you're interested in. And isn't it good to know that there are magazines that give out awards for being best, and not just as a reward for running paid ads?