Market Moment(s)

This past weekend, I got to go to a market and a farm stand with Madeline and her friend. Check out the feature on Madeline's food tattoos in the Statesman. We went out to Austin Farmers' Market first around 10 am and shopped there. I bought pomegranate and persimmons from Lightsey Farms. This is almost the end of Texas fruit season. Well, oranges are coming, but you got to get out there for your summer fruits. They have Asian dates, different kinds of persimmons, pomegranate, pears and watermelons. I bought some pomegranate and Fuyu persimmons. I like Fuyu persimmons the best because they are crisp and I don't have to wait for them to get jelly like before I can eat it. I probably finish almost two pounds before the day was over. Also, those Fuyu are the ones we find in Thailand but they are much bigger there. We get them mostly from China.

















Then we went out to Blanco to visit Arnosky farm stand. From Austin, I took 290 out to Dripping Spring, turn left onto 165 and at the intersection of 2325 and 165 on your left, you will see a big blue barn standing. I have known Pamela for a long time from Sunset Valley Farmers' Market back in 2005. I was excited I finally got a chance to go out there because I have been a big fan of her flowers. The flowers were as pretty as I remember. I bought some zinnias to bring home and Leo got to pick a pumpkin for his carving. He went into the field and helped Pamela pick it out. He was super excited about the whole thing.

We ended our trip at this brand new restaurant Red Bud at the square downtown Blanco. They had only been opened for three days when we got there. I had a salad and my friends shared a sandwich. I really enjoyed my meal. The salad was so fresh and it was pretty too. We headed back home feeling pretty energized from our trip.

Soon, I plan to visit Montesino Ranch and will share my visit here again.

the orange drink: Thai Iced Tea

This drink is the ultimate Thai drink. Everybody loves Thai Tea, whether or not they admit it. There are two kinds of Thai teas but the creamy kind is what a lot of people are used to. There are "Cha Yen" (iced tea), the creamy kind and "Cha Dum Yen" (black ice tea), the tea with just sugar in it. But why is it orange? Sadly, Thai tea mix has orange food coloring in the mix. I don't know why they started putting color in Thai tea in the first place. My assumption is that the color was intended to distinguish between Thai tea and Thai coffee. If you brew strong tea with spices, you will end up with delicious Thai tea that looks just like coffee.



As an alternative, you can brew your own Thai tea by getting 2 qt of water boiling, add star anise and cloves (just one star anise and maybe a few cloves) and let boil for a few minutes. Turn the heat off and brew green or black tea leaves in the spice infused water. Brew strong black or green tea using about a heaping 1/4 cup tea leaves. Add condensed milk while the tea is still hot if you are making the creamy tea or just sugar if you are making the black iced tea. How much sugar or condensed milk should you add? That depends on how sweet you want it to be. Refrigerate or pour over ice. Now you have it, the famous Thai Iced Tea.

Market Moment

This is the first time in a year that I have Saturday off. I forgot how fun it is to just spend the whole morning market hopping. Just want to share a market moment with you from this past Saturday. Leo always wants to eat ALL THE TIME at the market. This is one of the foods we got. It was pizza from La Boca. Fotini makes a variety of pizzas and empanadas at her store on Manor Road and brings them to both Austin Farmers' Market and Sunset Valley Farmers' Market every Saturday.



We got this piece because it has the most vegetables on it. It's a good way to add veggies to kids' diet. Leo thinks if it's on a pizza, it's good. We love her pizzas and empanadas. There are more than 20 kinds of empanadas and 15 kinds of pizza. Visit their store, you can dine in or take out.

a taste of yellow:super meyer lemon ice cream

I just came across a post about making food with yellow ingredient to promote cancer awareness on Winos and Foodies blog by Barbara. I saw it yesterday, on the deadline for submission but I am inspired that I would like to promote cancer awareness with this post. This is an event for Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Livestrong Day. I would like to dedicate this post to my beloved brother in law, Gary Barnes. Gary was diagnosed with lung cancer and fought it for a year before he left us. He was the brother you would ask for. He had so much love for people around him and he always brought us together as a family. Gary didn't smoke or drink, the doctor linked his cancer to his service in the Vietnam War and Gulf War. His body is not with us anymore but his soul will always be around. We miss him miserably.



I got this recipe from David Lebovitz' ice cream book, the Perfect Scoop. It's called Super Lemon Ice Cream. A friend shared with me Meyer Lemons that she had and I immediately thought of this recipe that I saw in David's book. So, I used those Meyer Lemons to make this perfect ice cream. These lemons are sweeter than regular lemon, it is lemon with a little touch of orange in it.

Here is the recipe

2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeeze lime juice
2 cups half and half
pinch of salt

Zest the lemons into food processor or blender and blend with sugar until fine. Add lemon juice and continue to blend until all sugar is dissolved. Add half and half and salt and blend until smooth. Chill completely and freeze according to your ice cream maker's manufacturer's instructions.



And let me tell you, this ice cream is just out of this world. Meyer lemons are just perfect because of that little sweetness. This is the first time that I finished the whole bowl of ice cream after taking the picture so early in the morning. This recipe is here to stay. We are making the ice cream for Thai Fresh too.

Texas Monthly Burger Trail continued

After trying out Parkside's burger, I continued my way down the list. I was in Port Aransas a few weeks ago for our first vacation since we opened Thai Fresh. Port A, as we call it, was more beautiful than I remember. The only time I went was 4 years ago and I didn't fall in love. This time around, the water was clean and the beach was pleasant. We had so much fun swimming and hanging out on the beach.

My mission in Port A was to try one of the burgers on Pat's list from Port Aransas Brewing Company. I didn't get a chance to go until the second day there. I ordered the Stopher Burger and I absolutely loved it. The meat was so lean but tender and very well seasoned. I do also like fatty meat, if you wonder. The best part of the burger was the bun that they make fresh everyday. I asked our server what kind of dough it was (not that I will attempt to make it or anything) and the answer from the kitchen was "it's a secret." It's the same dough that they make their pizza dough in house. It was a little salty, which I loved and it was so soft and dense.

So, if you are in Port A, give these guys a try. Order a beer or two to go with your burger.

fried chicken and sausage gumbo

yes I know, it doesn't sound very Thai. But here is my story. When I came to Austin in 2001, the only cookbook I brought with me was Muekdaeng's cookbook. His website is under renovation and the front page is down but the page for recipes is up. I use his vegetarian egg roll and satay recipe all the time. I was using this cookbook religiously for the whole first year to cook up some food for friends. Even the first dinner with my grad school boyfriend was from this book. I wish he published this in English to share with the world.

One night I was looking at what to cook for the next party and came across this recipe that uses okra. I love okra, I should try to make this. So I did. At the party, my roommate said, this tastes like Gumbo and I said, I don't know what Gumbo is. I went back and looked at his recipe, sure enough, there is a word "Gumbo" in the parenthesis. So, this has been my Gumbo recipe ever since.



The past month, okra is everywhere at the Farmers' Market. I bought a bunch thinking I wanted to pickle them after reading Pickled Okra recipe from Lisa at Homesick Texan. I'm still going to make it but I was distracted by this recipe for Gumbo that I haven't made for a while.

1 whole chicken (about 2-3 pounds)
1 cup diced onions
1 cups diced bell peppers
3/4 cup chopped celery
3 cups sliced okra
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
vegetable oil for deep frying
1 qt chicken stock
1 lb smoked sausage
1 tsp chopped garlic

cut whole chicken into good size pieces for frying. You can start by running your knife to split to breast and then go from there. Marinade chicken pieces with salt, garlic powder, paprika and let sit for at least 30 minute, in my case, I let it sit overnight. Mix all purpose flour, salt, garlic powder and paprika in a zip lock bag and shake to mix well. Add chicken pieces into the bag and shake until the pieces are covered with the batter. Save half of the batter to make roux later.



fill a heavy duty pot with oil about 1 1/2 inch high. Heat the oil up until hot, fry chicken until done, about 5-8 minutes on each side.





When done, save 1/2 cup of oil and discard the rest of the oil. Put the oil back into the same pot, scrape the bottom bits and heat it back up. When the oil is hot, add the leftover flour mixture into the pot and stir constantly for about 4 minutes until flour starts to turn dark brown. Be careful not to burn the roux. Take the pot off the heat, add celery, bell peppers and onions and stir fry off the heat until the roux is thicker. Return the pot to the heat and stir fry until vegetables are wilted. Add half of the stock to the pot and stirring quickly until the stock is dark and thick. Add the rest of the stock into the pot. Bring the stock to a boil, add sausages, chopped garlic and okra and simmer for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, pick chicken off the bones, add chicken to the pot, season with salt and pepper and it's ready to serve. Jasmine rice is always the best with everything. I'm a little biased, of course.

thai eggplants

Last week Maew from Simmons Family Farm in Lockhart brought over a basket full of Thai eggplants. Maew grows a lot of Thai vegetables and she brings them to Austin Farmers' Market every Saturday morning. She also sells Kaffir lime plants that she took care of for two years and ready to harvest at the market too. I was so excited to make curries with these little gems. These eggplants are my most favorite eggplants. You can stir fry with them or you can make curries with them. I made Green curry with these. I haven't had these in curries for a while so it really made me feel like I was eating my mom's cooking. They are easy to grow just like any eggplants. You can buy seeds at Kitzawa online. I bought a lot of my seeds from them. Many local nurseries also carry starter plant early spring. You can check at It's About Thyme or Natural Gardener.

Thai temple in Austin: nostalgic experience

When I first got to Austin, I went to the Thai temple with a friend and we bought a bunch of food. I am not sure why I never went back until recently. Wat Buddhananachat is at 8105 Linden Rd. in Del Valle, a 20 minute drive east of Austin. I was there last weekend mainly for the food. You name it, fried bananas, homemade sausage, grilled pork, meatballs on sticks, papaya salad and the list goes on. Foods that you don't see in restaurants, foods that you don't make at home, foods that only belong to street vendors in Thailand. I ate so much, more than I should have. I bought more food home to enjoy the next day because I have to wait until October before the next one. The schedules are published on their website. I want to share my experience with you through these pictures.

The lady was making papaya salad for me, Laotian style with Pla Raa or fermented fish. It was so spicy but I couldn't stop eating it. This is her first time to Austin. She lives in Houston and travels to temples for festivals. Her food was just unbelievable. If no one told me that this is Austin Texas, I would have thought these pictures are from the streets of Thailand.