World Food Day

Today is World Food Day. I like to think that every day is World Food Day at True Thai Restaurant. It is not just Americans who borrow food from other countries.

True Thai is perhaps best known for its curries, but I have to admit that India invented curry first. Thailand just made it better, and Japan helped.

Japan? Now I know you are curious because the Japanese are not exactly famous for their curries. But kabocha squash originated in Japan, and so True Thai must share credit for our Red Curry with Kabocha Squash (#F) with Japan, as well as India.

Wikipedia also gives Laos co-credit for Panang curry (#32). And while most people do not think of Thailand as a Muslim country, our Masaman curry (#31) is very, very Muslim. Masaman curry has many Middle Eastern ingredients (cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, cloves, nutmeg) and the cardamom often comes from India or Mayalasia. But the potatoes (Peru), peanuts (Latin America), and bay leaves (Asia Minor) are anything but Muslim.

And that is just our curries! Here are some other True Thai items that did not originate in Thailand:

• Curry Puffs (#A): Malaysian/Singaporean/Thai
• Sweet Purple Yam (#B): The Philippines
• Plum Sauce (many dishes/dipping sauces): China
• Egg Rolls (#2 & #3): China
• Spring Rolls (#4 & #5): Vietnam
• Satay (#6): Java
• Imperial Fried Wontons/Wonton Soup (#7 & #17): China
• Tofu (many dishes): invented by the ancient Chinese and then immediately "borrowed" by every other Asian country
• Deep-fried foods (many appetizers): European and brought to Asia by the Portuguese
• Fried rice (many dishes): China
• Iced tea and coffee: France
  

So you see, every day really is World Food Day at True Thai. We even have food that is American in origin!

Well, OK, one item that is partly American. Imperial Fried Wontons (#7) with cream cheese. Cream Cheese was invented by an American dairyman from New York in 1872. His name was William Lawrence and to this day nutritionists hiss when they say his name. As a Public Health Nurse I cannot argue with them.

Cheese is very un-Thai. Cream cheese is very very un-Thai, but cream cheese wontons are very popular.

Old-fashioned chicken wings, True Thai style

A friend just forwarded me a funny story about chicken wings from the New York Times. Many restaurants are now selling "boneless" chicken wings. The funny part is that they are not chicken wings at all, but "a little chunk of chicken breast that is fried and sauced."

Chicken wings are messy to eat and the cheaper ones have little meat on them. That is why they have traditionally been very inexpensive. But because they have been so cheap, restaurants have worked very hard to make them tasty. We have them in our lunch buffet every day, and some customers fill up their plates with just wings and sauce. Hey! Vegetables are good for you, too!

I think restaurants have been too successful at promoting chicken wings. Wings now cost more than chicken breasts! If that were not true, no one would be selling fake "boneless chicken wings." Not that this is a new thing. One famous chain whose name I will not mention calls their batter-fried boneless pieces of chicken "nuggets."

I do not think True Thai will be selling boneless chicken wings any time soon. We are very happy with the jumbo chicken wings we get from our suppliers. Our "Yummy" wings are covered with a delicious house sauce, and our "Fried" wings come with a spicy chili dip. Our wait staff can always bring you a finger bowl and a towel if you find the sauce to be a little messy.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Anna the Public Health Nurse blogging today, reminding you that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

One of my relatives in Thailand came home one day and her dog jumped up on her, scratching her breast. She went to her doctor and while treating the scratch he discovered she had breast cancer. She was lucky. Thanks to her dog her cancer was found early and she responded well to treatment.

Not everyone is so lucky. Early detection is your best defense against breast cancer but as Americans like to say, sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

You are less likely to get breast cancer if you:

• don't smoke or use any kind of tobacco products
• limit your alcohol intake
• maintain a physically active lifestyle
• watch your weight
• avoid menopausal hormone therapy
• avoid certain foods

A healthy diet is important. Cancer experts suggest eating no more than four ounces of red meat a day, and avoiding processed meats (bologna, sausage, etc.) entirely. Non-starchy vegetables and fruits are good. Sweetened drinks and juices, desserts, candies, refined breads and chips are not so good. [link]

Thai dishes have lots of ingredients that are thought to help fight cancer. Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, chili peppers, kale, garlic, mushrooms, nuts, oranges, papayas, tofu, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes are all thought to be helpful. Turmeric, which is found in most kinds of curry, has also gained a reputation for its cancer-fighting qualities.

Anna could have opened a hot dog stand or a pizza parlor, but why? Why go to the trouble of preparing unhealthy food when there are so many healthy dishes that taste good and are good for you?

Once people have Thai food, it seems they are hooked for life. And, if they keep eating Thai food, that might be a very long life indeed. Don't forget that Anna's great grandmother Mai lived to be 107 years old! In Thailand, even our desserts are healthy!

Share the secret to long life with all your friends, especially the ones who eat hot dogs.

Fitness trainers' True Thai favorites

I cannot tell you that if you eat True Thai's Southern Thai Bean-Thread Vermicelli Salad (#25) you will lose weight, be stronger or fitter. But I can tell you that it is our most popular dish with the fitness trainers over at Los Campeones Gym. Full of quick energy carbs and lean protein, this "salad" is served at room temperature and can be served with as few or as many Thai chili peppers as you like.

At $8.50, it is also an inexpensive and healthy meal that can help you lose weight while building muscle. If you are a vegetarian, you can substitute tofu or mock duck for the usual pork and shrimp. Another dish popular with the Los Campeones folks is our Tofu Laab (#26).

Both dishes are great for get-togethers. More and more often I have people ask me about vegetarian dishes not because they are vegetarians but because their friends are. When you have a party and vegetarians are coming over, you can either label everything or just go meatless. In Thailand our vegetarians are very good at telling dishes apart but in America it seems wise to use labels or tent cards.

If you would like True Thai to help you plan a party, email me your contact information and I would be glad to help.

My first birthday party

I never never never celebrate my birthdays, but a friend has convinced me that I should be like everyone else and admit to having one. But because I'm way, way behind, this year I'm celebrating my 24th birthday.

I didn't celebrate when I turned 24 because I was in Thailand on vacation and caught the Bangkok flu!

So this Sunday I will have a birthday cake to share with some of you. No gifts please.

And please do not come if you have the flu — I'm not scheduled to get my shot for another week!

And do not ask me how old I am. I will only admit to having been born in the 20th Century, and that's all I have to say other than to say point out that Anna shares her birthday with Rachel Leigh Cook, Alicia Silverstone, Russell Simmons, Armand Assante and Susan Sarandon.

Setting the mood

The art of flower arranging is to accent the space you're in. If you are sitting at a table in a restaurant, a small vase and a flower or two can help set the mood, but a bigger display gets in the way of both verbal and nonverbal communication.

Maybe you have noticed this, but it often seems that True Thai's happiest customers are the ones who do the least talking and the most looking, as in looking at each other.

I discourage wait staff from gossiping about customers, but I do not object to hearing comments like, "oooh, table eleven is sooo in love!" Restaurants are all about romance because with romance comes the reservation for "the table in the corner by the window." And sometimes maybe some catering for weddings and receptions, not to mention big tables for groups celebrating special anniversaries and birthdays.

The top picture shows some of the smaller flower vases I've been using at the restaurant. You should know that not everything at True Thai is Thai. I bought these vases at the State Fair because they were just the right size for our booths and smaller tables. The larger arrangments are for larger tables and window ledges.

Because I did not run a picture in the last post, I will run two pictures today so you can see a close up of these Minnesota-made vases (click on the picture to see a larger image):


I think they look better with flowers in them. I bought lots of them so yes, if you like the flower vase on your table and it's one of our State Fair vases, we'll be glad to sell it to you.

Fishy business

There is a new scam going around. Con artists pretend to be deaf so they can use the Internet Relay Service. I'm not exactly sure why they do this unless it is to confuse the merchant a little bit and "Dyer" was very confusing to deal with.

Dyer called on Saturday night when we were very busy, and said she was getting married on Tuesday and needed 200 orders of tofu Pad Thai. It is not uncommon for people to order some food from many different restaurants so that did not seem very unusual but I was very busy and asked Dyer to please use her email to make the arrangements. That is when things got very confusing.

Hi,
Thanks for the conversation via phone here is my order Okay fine,I have a wedding coming up on the 30th of Sep and I have some In-laws from my Hometown in Japan so I will like to order for Pad thai with Tofu for 200 peoples as well and this is a picked up order so it will be picked up by a Private shipper I can give you the card to charge through and I will have my private shipper pick that up at your shop at 3 pm on the aforementioned date.
I awaits your responds back with the total cost of all the order plus tax.

This was not really very confusing because Dyer obviously did not speak English as a first language, and I thought it was possible she was using online Japanese-English translation software. I sent her back a quote and got this reply:

Hi
Thanks for getting to me back Am so glad having your letter here with me and I like how you have selected the dishes for me and I will say The total price sounds good but before I can get you my credit card to pay for the grand total of the order,I would like for you to add $750 plus the total price of the order so that you can have all that charged on my credit card now and you will have the $750 sent to the private shipper agent in cash via western union Money Transfer as it is the fastest and safest way to receive Money and for them to be able to come for the pick up with their warmer truck so can you add it all and let me have the total price inclusive of the tax fee all together so that I can get you my credit card for you to have the total cost charged on it I will also like to know maybe you accept discovery credit card as payment.
I awaits your responds back.

OK, now it was starting to get kind of weird. $750 for shipping? Even if Dyer was getting married in outstate Minnesota I could not imagine the delivery costing that much. 200 orders of tofu Pad Thai is a lot of Pad Thai, but it would easily fit in the trunk of a car without having to stack any of the containers. I tried to get more information from Dyer and got this very strange email:

Hi
Thanks for getting to me back and sorry its takes me so long to reply back all i mean in the last mail was I like the price you putting down for me and am pled with it and I know U don't deliver thats why am setting my shipping my self with a private shipper and I would be glad if u can run the extra charges for me for the shipper to be able to come to pick the food and the total charges will be run on my credit card and as soon as my card is Thru with you the funds for the shipper will be wired them via western union money Transfer then they will get the funds cleared in western union near them so they would able to come to pick the foods up.
I awaits your responds back.

Like the stretch of highway between Chantaburi and Bangkok where all the fish sauce factories are, this was starting to smell very fishy to me. I asked Dyer for more information again.

Hi,
Thanks for your e-mail How are you doing How was your day like and hope all is well with you there I agree all the cost of all the amount you want to put on my credit card and you will have the card run manually Here is the credit card information for you to run for the total cost of the shipper fee as well here is the card info below :


Name on Card : Dyer XXXX
Card Type : Discovery Card
Card Number : XXXXX
Card Exp : 01/2013
Cvv:173


As soon as you run the credit card and it approved for the total cost of the towing and the storage charges with the shipper fee I will want you to go ahead and wire the 750$ to the Shipper via WESTERN UNION so they can be ready to pick the cars up from Texas and shipped them down to you also here is there info to send the money to below:

Name : XXXXX
Address : XXXXX
City : Rosharon
State : Texas
Zip Code : 77583


As soon as you wired the money you e-mail the MTCN NUMBER AND THE SENDER'S FULL NAME AND ADDRESS so i can forward to the shipper so they can get the money cleared off the way and get the food picked on the event day by 3pm.


I awaits your respond..

I read this, saw the Texas address and thought, "good, this is not Anna's problem. Dyer thinks we are the True Thai restaurant in El Paso!" 200 orders of tofu Pad Thai is a lot of business but I was getting very tired of dealing with the very confusing Dyer. I wrote her back and told her we were in Minnesota and I was sure she wanted to put her order in with the True Thai restaurant in El Paso.

Hi,
Thanks for contacting me back Yes I Understand they are already in Minnesota so they will be moving the foods in days time to Texas.

There is fishy, and then there is the smell that comes from the garbage dumpster behind the fish sauce factory. This did not smell like any kind of fish I wanted any part of. Tofu Pad Thai does not travel well, at least not when you drive from Minneapolis to Texas!

I did not reply to Dyer again. Instead I called the Discover credit card people who found Dyer's story to be very interesting and similar to other stories they have been hearing. It was a valid credit card number, but the name did not match, the expiration date did not match, and the CVV number was wrong.

I do not think I just ruined a wedding reception in Rosharon, Texas. And even if they had tried this scam on the True Thai in El Paso, Rosharon is just south of Galveston which is 677 miles away from El Paso! I do not think the other True Thai restaurant's tofu Pad Thai would travel any better than ours.

But this was not a total loss. At least I got a blog post out of it!

Lime time!

Some time ago I mentioned lime leaves and how important they are to curry. Did I mention I have nine lime trees growing in my backyard? No? Then I probably did not tell you that my sister Som started these trees at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus many years ago. She has a Ph.D. in Soil Science and was trying to get Thai lime trees to grow in Minnesota.

Som did a very good job with her lime trees, but we still make sure we get them indoors before the first frost. I do not know of anything from Thailand that loves ice, not unless you are talking about a cold beverage!

I cannot imagine serving Thai food without having lime leaves in the kitchen. When Heavy Table's Susan Pagani interviewed me (link), lime leaves came up in our conversation four times! Even back in 2003 when Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl interviewed me for her first review of True Thai, we talked about lime leaves.

Lime leaves are an important part of True Thai's menu, and you enjoy their flavor when you eat many of our curries. But you never actually eat the lime leaves because they are too hard and would not digest well. Fortunately, their flavor infuses any food they are cooked with.

We make our curry stock downstairs but even then the lime leaves' distinctive odor makes it all the way upstairs through the kitchen and out into the dining area. Customers smile when they smell it because lime leaves smell as good as they taste.

If you go to Asian grocery stores and are lucky enough to find some lime leaves, wikiHOW has a good tutorial on how to use them.

Food Safety Month

September is Food Safety Month but it is Anna's job to make sure that every day is Food Safety Day at True Thai. Minnesota requires restaurants to have a Minnesota Certified Food Manager, so at True Thai you not only have a Public Health Nurse, but a Certified Food Manager as well. Our Food Manager makes sure all our food is properly handled and stored and that all our kitchen staff understand the rules for proper food handling.

Here are some professional tips to help you prepare safe meals at home.

1. Wash your hands with soap and warm water before beginning to prepare food. Anna is very strict about hand washing at True Thai!
   
2. Always use fresh ingredients. This is one reason why a busy restaurant is usually safer than one that is not so busy. The longer meat, eggs and produce sit around, the more opportunities there are for mold, bacteria and germs to work their mischief.
3. Make sure you cook eggs, meat, poultry and leftovers at a temperature of at least 165°F. (Stir fry using a wok heats food to very high temperatures.)
4. Avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish due to high concentrations of mercury. The best seafood for low mercury is shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish.
5. Use most meat within a day or two of opening the package (processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, luncheon meat are OK for a week but always keep meat refrigerated)
6. Keep fruits and vegetables separate from meat, poultry and seafood in your refrigerator.
7. Wash fruit and vegetables even if you are going to peel them.
8. Keep your refrigerator set at 40°F, and your freezer at 0°F.

Another tip is to try to avoid overstocking fresh produce and meats when you go to the store. It is tempting to buy a week's worth at a time, but it's healthier to do your shopping 2-3 times a week. If it is convenient for you, shopping daily is best. When you really get to know a store it's easier to be a better shopper.

I was shocked to learn that Minnesota is the third most dangerous state for dining out. It is difficult to find information about restaurant health inspection reports in Minnesota, but I am very happy to say that a Google search for "True Thai food poisoning" pulled up no reports of anyone getting sick from our food!

Anna's 100th Post!

877 days ago I wrote my first blog post ever. I did not know it at the time, but April 25, 2007, was also the 500th anniversary of the first time anyone ever referred to "America" in a book.

I had a very good reason for posting. Dara Moskowitz (now Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl) had just named us the Best Thai Restaurant in City Pages' Best of the Twin Cities for 2007. Dara is very special to True Thai because her review of our restaurant has been quoted many, many times by bloggers and online restaurant search sites.

Since my first blog post I have learned a lot about a lot of things. It is one thing to think you know something, it is another to write about it. Thanks to Wikipedia and Google I have learned a lot of things I did not know about food, Thailand and even my old church in Chanthaburi.

Spending time on the internet has led to many new discoveries. I have now seen what my family's farm looks like from a satellite. For one terrible moment I thought the Bishop for whom I made chili sauce had died, but then I realized he had only retired. Whew — that was a close one!

When I did not post very much, hardly anyone ever read my blog. Now I can count on about 40 visitors every day. Mostly you are here in Minnesota, but Anna has readers in Thailand and other places as well.

I think this blog is best if you are here in Minnesota. That way if I write about something that sounds good, you can come in and order it to see if you like it too.

I like blogging. My next goal is to write another 100 posts before True Thai's eighth anniversary on December 1, 2010.

Something to perk you up

The other day I confessed that I do not drink beer or wine, even though True Thai serves very good beer and wine. Today I am writing about Thai iced tea and coffee, which I do drink.

Now.

When I started working out at Los Campeones, my trainer Carla told me that I needed to start drinking tea and coffee to "speed up my metabolism." Caffeine certainly does that.

Before I started drinking tea and coffee I wrote about 30 blog posts over two years time. Since I started drinking tea and coffee about ten months ago, I have uploaded another 70 posts! I think I better understand now why tea and coffee are so popular.

Thai iced coffee and iced tea aren't really Thai. Many people think of them as Vietnamese, but they aren't really Vietnamese creations either.

They are French, a legacy of their colonial years in Southeast Asia. The French are gone but you can still find French style coffee and iced tea throughout Southeast Asia. And croissants!

Most people enjoy our Thai iced tea and coffee after a meal because it is very sweet. (More proof it is French and not Thai!)

My favorite fruit

Asian pears, like Anna, aren't very big but do not be fooled by their size — they are one of the best fruits ever!

There are two kinds of Asian pears. Japanese or Korean pears are big and round and they are OK, but the pear I am holding in this picture is a ya pear, or Chinese white pear. They are soooo delicious!

Eat them like you would an apple. They are often quite green when you buy them, but still flavorful. Let them ripen and they get even better but watch out for mold as they go bad very quickly once you see spots on them.

We did not grow pears on our farm so ya pears are as exotic for me as they are for you. Their name in Chinese means "duck pear" because the Chinese think they look like ducks. The important thing is they do not taste like ducks.

Sadly, ya pears are almost out of season now, but the good news is that I've seen pomegranates at the warehouse. Still too early for them, but even unripened pomegranates are very good for you if you can get past the very sour taste. If you wait until early December, then they should be good to buy.