BumBum Miscellaneous Blog

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Thai Desserts

4 Gold for My Sweet (Thai Dessert)

Three eminent Thai sweets which are related to gold are “Thong Yip”, “Thong Yood”, and “Foi Thong”. “Thong” in Thai means gold in English. The main raw materials for cooking these three sweets are egg yolk and sugar syrup.

Actually, “Thong Yip” will be very delicious if it is cooked by pure egg yolk. Unlike the past, people now put some starch in egg yolk when they cook “Thong Yip” to make some more profit. Egg yolk is stirred well before putting on warm sugar syrup. When it is done, it will be placed in a small bowl and it is managed to have curves.

“Thong Yood” is made mainly by egg yolk and some particular starch. Sellers are very keen to cook their “Thong Yood”. They have to have high skills for producing small ball while throwing into warm sugar syrup. When it is cooked, it will be placed on banana leaf.

Similarly, “Foi Thong” is made from egg yolk. The shape of “Foi Thong” is different from both “Thong Yip” and “Thong Yood”. It comes from putting egg yolk in a cone with a small hole. Swing this cone over warm sugar syrup. Then egg yolk will be in small lines like noodle and it is piled up.

These three sweets are considered as sweet for high socio-economic status persons in the past, and people will cook them for particular occasions such as cerebrate birthday, new home, marry, promoting rank, or religion days.

These three sweets are considered as gold representative. Gold is considered as the value property of Thai. Especially in the past, only red tape or high rank persons can buy gold. Servants, workers, or slaves cannot because they had no money. Of course, these sweets, in the past, are offered for former. Fortunately, nowadays, things change and are changed because of forces such as science and technology, economy, politics, or education so Thai people either rich or poor, high or low rank can buy and enjoy these sweets easily.

Traditionally, Thai believe that people who are the host will be luckier and richer when they serve their guests with these sweets. It is also the honors of the host to serve the high class sweet to their guest. At the same time, the guests will be happy and glad when they eat these sweet because they know they are honored and they might be lucky and rich too after eating them.

To sum up, if people want others to treat them well, they need to do what they want to others first. Then others will do the same thing in return.

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Image Sensor

Image Sensor and their size, Size does matter!

What is image sensor? image sensor act like film in the film camera era. It capture the light that pass through lens and then convert those light into digital format. Image sensor can be considered as the heart of the camera and also all the camera in the market usually define class by its sensor size (other feature also used in define the class range but not as important as image sensor size). The picture above show the size of the image sensor. As you can see that the biggest sensor is medium format, camera fall within this class include camera from Mamiya or Hasselblad. These medium format cameras usually use in studio. The megapixel of them normally spend around 40 megapixel. This kind of big image is use for large printing such as building wall paper or billboard advertisement.

The smaller size of sensor is 35 mm or full frame. The name was derive from the size of the film in the previous era of camera which the length of 35 mm. Full frame camera usaully considered as professional or at least semi-professional camera. The notorious or bad-ass camera in this range are including the famous 1D series of Canon and single digit series of Nikon (D3, D3S).

The APS-H sensor size is the sensor that exclusive for Canon 1D series but this sensor size is now discontinue as Canon will release their new 1D series - Canon 1DX which featuring full frame sensor.

Continue to APS-C size. This size contain all of the enthusiastic or amateur DSLR camera such as Canon 60D, Rebel T3i or Nikon D7000, D5100 as well as the newly release Sony A77. The different in size between the two most famous brand (Canon, Nikon) is show above in the picture. The size difference is so slim that many people consider it is the same.

Four third system or micro four third system size. This sensor size has been used by Panasonic and Olympus for quite sometimes. Although its size is significant smaller than APS-C in most DSLR its size still big enough to produce good images compare to the compact camera. Compare to compact camera sensor size - four third system has about 8 times area of light capturing sensor thus yield the better image. The famous camera that belong to this class including Olympus PEN Series and Panasonic GF and G Series.

The sensor size that smaller than four third system is occupied in all compact camera, Canon S95 or Sony T-Series for instance. There are a little variation between size of the sensor for each brand but we can consider it as the same size. For camera in mobile phone, they use even smaller image sensor size than compact camera. So the image from mobile phone is usually has the worst result when the man behind the camera is the same man and shoot in the same condition.

Why size is matter you ask? Imagine image sensor as the basket for capturing light. If they are big they will have space for capturing light right? Also if the space between light is wide enough the light that they kept will yield the better result. Bigger sensor also come with depth of field or background blur. Have you ever notice that no matter how hard your try to make a background blur in mobile phone camera or compact camera, it rarely happen as you wish! This is the physical limitation of sensor size (also there are some other variable to be consider). The larger sensor also produce the high dynamic range of the pictures. What is dynamic range you ask? dynamic range is the range of color in one picture. When you look at picture you took from mobile phone you often see that the picture is kinda dull right? the range of color (dynamic range) is rather limit or so limit that picture is like the black and white color? This is the other limitation of sensor size.

In summary, larger sensor usually yield better result of photo in all aspects. So when you try to choose a camera you choose consider this factor before commit yourself into a new one.

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Thai Breakfast in Thailand

Thai Breakfast in Thailand

Presently, Thai breakfast is different according to socio-economic status (SES) and working.

To begin with, people who are in the high SES may have fried eggs, bacon, bread & butter, coffee, and orange juice for their first meal of their hard long day. Some even have salad in order to maintain their nutrition. This group use head and heart to work rather than hands or energy. Thus, their breakfast is light and like Americans or Europeans whom are considered as civilian. Most of this group also has high education, and some studied or spent part of their life in the western countries. Of course, they are white collars of Thai society and considered as elite group.

Some Thai have boiled rice with minted pork for their breakfast. This style has been adapted from Chinese. Rice is boiled until it become liquid. Then pork, a slice of pork stomach and liver are put in. Eggs may be added to increase taste and energy. Before serving, ginger and green onions are place on top.

Secondly, the middle group who is in between the high and low SES, mostly, has their breakfast differently from those two groups. This group lives far from their work place because it is cheaper either to rent or to buy a house. Most of them have to get up early, 4:30AM or 5:00AM and then rush to their office by public bus or van. Some may be lucky to have their own car and drive to their office, but they have to rush anyway because they want to avoid traffic jam. They do not have time to prepare their breakfast, so they just get up, get dress, and go. Their breakfast is waiting for them at their cafeteria in their work place. They can choose what they want to eat and drink in a very reasonable price. For examples, one plate of rice with two top is only 25 Baht (about 1$) or one plate of rice with three top is only 30 Baht (1 Dollar). A variety of cold drink is offered such as juice (orange, gava, lungan, or bawbk), tea, or coffee with low cost 7 Baht/glass. Some may eat sweet in early morning in order to accumulate energy for fighting with their work.

They are so good such as sweet sticky rice and banana inside tie with banana leaf, called Khoa Tom Mut. Bean either yellow or black ones care also cooked as sweet. The former, called Toa Suan, is boiled with water and sugar, and put coconut milk on top. The latter, called Tom Tua Dom, is boiled with coconut milk and sugar. Some may eat with sweet sticky rice or small balls of starch, called Sakoo. Some may want fruits, and there are so many kinds of fruits, vary to seasons, for their choices such as mangos, papaya, orange, cinnamon, rambutan rose-apple, mangosteen, lungan, and lychee. This group is salary man or woman. Students either school or university are also categorized in this group.

The last group is the low SES, most of them lives in the remote areas and works as farmers, gardeners, or workers. They have their breakfast differently according to their hometown location. Those who come from the north or the north-east eat their sticky rice with fired pork, fried fish, or fried beef and chilly source. Their chilly source is cooked with garlic, red onion, fish source, tomato, and lemon. The main purpose of their breakfast is to have a lot of energy in the morning for a hard tough day. They eat just for their living; they do not live for eating.

To sum up, Thai breakfast are consumed differently according to the class of consumers. When having breakfast or any meal, you should think of people who have nothing to eat. Thus, eat them all, do not leftover and throw it away.

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Camera Lenses

Lenses can divided roughly into 2 format fixed focal length or zoom lens. The first one is the traditional lens that have been used since the birth of the camera while the later one were just create in roughly 20 years ago. Currently zoom lenses have now dominate the market because of it relatively low price and usuability

Zoom lenses, as the name suggest, permit cameraman to adjust the focal length of the lenses. So the first advantage of zoom lenses is people don't need to move the position when they taking photo , well, if the target is within range anyway. The second advantage of zoom lenses over fix focal lenses is they usually occupied image stabilization(IS) function. This function make a physical movement to compensate the handshake occur by photo taker. Some excellent zoom lenses or pro lenses can yield up to 4 stops for their IS feature. By the way the name of this feature vary from brand to brand for Canon it's IS, for Nikon it's vibrate reduction (VR) and for Sony is optical steady shot (OSS) and so on. Just keep in mind that all of this is the same feature.

Although Zoom lenses have been prominent lenses for most users but fix focal length lenses are preferred by enthusiastic or professional users. Fix focal length lenses have many advantage than zoom lenses. I think that the difficulty of taking photo with fix focal lenses (photographer need to move their feet instead of their hand) make beginner or most users prefer zoom lenses over them.

The first advantage of fix focal length lenses over zoom lenses is weight and size. Fix focal length lenses that don't fall into pro-grade lenses are very compact and light in the same relative aparture (F Value). Canon 50 F1.8 weigh only 200-300 gram and its size is very minimal compare to Canon 17-55 F2.8 which has 1/2 stop darker in light transmit but weigh twice the Canon 50 F1.8.

The second advantage is, generally, image quality produced by the fix is better than zoom lens. This also the consequence of the physical properties of the lenses as the fix have room or space for engineer to place the glass in the more proper position and more glass to diffract the light. Some people consider this advantage so much that they not even lend their hands on zoom lens at all. Professional photographer especially wedding photographer usuallly have a collection of fix focal length lenses and use them one by one depend on the situation.

The third and last advantage (that I can think of or I think it's significant enough) is its relative price to F (aperture) ratio. F value represent the amount of light that can transmit through lens to the sensor. The lower, the brighter. Low F value lenses are useful in low light ambience and bokehish image(out of focus blur). The lowest F value that zoom lens currently produced is F2.8 compare with F0.95 that the fix lenses can go. You think that this value is insignificantly different? You are wrong! F0.95 can capture light about 3 times the F2.8 and that's mean 3 stops.

In conclusion, if you plan to buy yourself a good new lens. Please considering these factors before you buy. Actually you better try it and you will know what type of you are, fix guy or zoom guy. For me I kinda fix & zoom guy.

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Khoa Jee (ข้าวจี่)

Khoa Jee (ข้าวจี่)

One of the most favorite breakfast or snake, especially in winter season, of Thai who live in the north-east, Isan people, is Khoa Jee. Khoa mean rice, and Jee mean grill. Weather brings about ways of life and of culture.

The weather in Isan does not support Isan people to live and earn well. The winter is very cold and windy. The temperature in the winter is about 7-10 degree Celsius in the winter; whereas temperature in the summer is about 30-35 degree Celsius. The area in the northeast is high land, so the weather is very dry too in the winter. This causes people to shake, chill, and be ill because some Isan people do not have enough clothes to warm them up either during the day or night. Moreover, in the rainy season, there always heavy flood which is heavy enough for farmers to lose their rice, but earn more debt (they have to loan their banks for rice seeds and fertilizer). Therefore, weather leads Isan people to be tough.

Isan people, mostly, are poor and low educated, but they are smart and civilize in culture and tradition. Cooking Khoa Jee is one example. Khoa Jee is made from sticky rice and put a bit salt in before molding it into a small circle (3.5-4 cm diameter) which is 1 cm thick. Then put this Khoa Jee into stir egg before placing on stove. When one side is done, then turn over to the other side. Finally, Khoa Jee is delicious and ready for Isan people to eat.

To summarize, warm air and warm Khoa Jee help Isan people to warm their body, and some look,

While Isan people are waiting for their Khoa Jee to be done, they also get the warm from Bonfire. Moreover, during they cook their Khoa Jee and get this warm air, they do not do alone. People either old or young who live nearby will come and join this festival. They will talk and transfer their ritual, myth, story, or belief from old to young generation. Thus, this way their culture and tradition are transferred from generations to generations.

To conclude, poor or rich, high or short, or black or blonde needs to help each other. They should be generous and sympathy to all human who live in this world, the same world.

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Northeastern Thai Food

Northeastern Thai Food

Northeastern Thai food (E-sarn or Isaan if pronounce in Thai) is probably the second, if not most, favorite type of food for Thai people. You can find Northeastern Thai Food from street vendor carts to luxury restaurants. The characteristic of this food is its spicy and variety of herbs. The dishes usually come in a tiny plates and require 2-3 plates for one people to make him/herself full but this kind of food is rarely eat alone. So you can usually see 5-6 plates for 2 people in Northeastern Thai restaurants which make a variety of food for people to indulge themselves.

Most, if not all, restaurants first serve fresh herbs for their customers similar to Italian or French restaurants that serve bread as an appetizer. These herbs, also like Italian and French, can order for more without cost. The other dishes in the meal usually not necessary serve in order and usually come when the dishes are ready. The example of food are grilled meat, papaya salad (Som Tum), spicy soup (Tom Sab) and spicy herbal salad (Larb). Like general Thai food that require rice to eat with the food, Northeastern Thai food has sticky rice(Kao Neow) or Thai vermicelli (Kanom Jeen) for its companion. People usually don’t order dessert after the main dish so most restaurants even don’t have the desserts in their menu.

Northeastern Thai food restaurants are usually crowded during the prime time (lunch , dinner). Office employees may prefer Thai one dish food as their primary meal due to its quickness but I can say that Northeastern Thai food also standing tall in the second place without doubt because of the cost and quickness of preparation. For dinner, when people are off their work, they usually hang out at Northeastern Thai food restaurants because of the atmosphere, price(especially beer or alcohol which quite cheap) and ubiquitous of these kind of joints.

Northeastern Thai food is represent various characteristic of Thai food. Full of herbs, various dishes in one meal, spicy yet delicious. The two latter characteristic may not suit foreigner but I suggest that if you have a chance to taste it you should try and you might falling in love with it like everybody in Thailand do.

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Various Type of Food in Thailand (Part 1)

Various Type of Food in Thailand (Part 1)

Street Vendors

    I would say that Bangkok is not Bangkok if streets of Bangkok are not full with street vendors. Most people live themselves with these kind of food due to their variety, cheapness and easy to find. You can find many kind of food from these vendors - grilled food (Ping Yang) such as grilled meatball, grilled sausages, grilled chicken or papaya salad (Somtum) or one dish food such as stir-fried meat with holy basil (Pad Kaprao) or even variety of dessert.

    Some vendors are so famous that people have to line up for an amount of time before buying their food. Some vendors make food so delicious that they can open their own restaurants afterward. Some vendors have so much customers that they sell in only short time, 2-3 hours per day.

    Crowded district is crowded with the street vendors. Famous districts are Ramkumhaneg road, Silom Road, Lung Suan and many other districts. If your budget is limit this kind of food might be your choice. Even your budget is not limit I suggest you should try one for the experience that can’t find nowhere else.

One Dish Food

    One dish food in Thai food may represent as the food of life for Thai people. Most Thai people have this kind of food at least one meal for their routine day. One dish food can be divided roughly into two categories, rice and noodle. Famous rice dishes are chicken steamed rice(Kao Mun Gai), braised pork with steamed rice(Kao Kha Moo) and Stir-fried meat with holy basil on top of rice (Kao Pad Kaprao). Famous noodles dishes are Pad Thai, noodle (Thai style) and stir-fried flat rice noodle(Pad See Eiw)

    You can find this kind of food from street vendors to the most luxury restaurants. From 30 baht per dish to 300 baht per dish and you can find it everywhere. Some joints that sell one dish food are so famous that people may travel for quite distances for trying some. The example of those would be Kao Kha Moo Troke Sung, Pad Thai Patoo Phee for instance.

Thai Noodles (Kuay Tiew)

Thai noodles characteristic is more similar to Chinese style noodle than Japanese style noodle(ramen). Noodles joints in Thailand usually offer customers to choose their own type of noodles - flat big noodle (Sen Yai) , normal (Sen Lek) , slender (Sen Mhee) , vermicelli (woonsen) or no noodles in the bowl at all (Kao Lao). Thai people usually add their desire ingredients into their bowls. At least 4 kind of ingredient must be provided by the joints - sugar, pepper, chili and fish sauce for instance. One joint usually sell one kind of meat in their noodles such as pork, beef or chicken. Although it’s a one joint one meat policy in most joint, they usually have the variety of preparation of that meat instead such as lean meat, braised meat, internal organ or even dry skin of pork.

Customers can order the noodles specifically to their desire. One can order “Sen Yai Sod Poey Mai Krueng Nai Mai Puk” which mean flat big noodle with both lean meat and braised meat and no internal organ and vegetables. As you read along you may feel that Thai noodles has its individual characteristic of being variety. There also have a wide variety of stir-fried (non-soup) noodles in Thai food. The famous one would be Pad Thai that you must accustom to. The other delicious stir-fried noodles dishes would be stir-fried flat noodle with soy sauce (Pad Sea Eiw), stir-fried flat noodle with bean (Kuay Tiew Kua Kai) as well as spicy flat noodles with minced meat (Kuay Tiew Kee Mao)

From my experience, delicious noodles usually sold by noodle joints that open their shops in the commercial building adjacent to the street. Even some street vendors are so good that people drag themselves to get there. So if you need to try a real and delicious Thai noodles I suggest you save your money on the luxury restaurant and find some good joints from our websites instead. The big Thai noodles universe is waiting for you to explore!

Thai Seafood

    Seafood in Thailand got so much influence from Chinese food. Most seafood in Thai and Chinese restaurants are almost the same, vary in just the minor details. Thai seafood tend to have more herbal and spicy than Chinese seafood (of course you say?). From my opinion I can even say that Thai seafood even have more variety of preparation than Chinese seafood itself. When compare to the variety of fish use in Thai seafood, Japanese seafood is have more variety without a doubt but the limited choice of fish in Thai seafood are broaden by the various way of cooking as I state previously.

    The famous species of sea, freshwater organism use in Thai food are sea bass, cuttle fish, sea mud crab, blue crab, garoupa for instance. Most of Thai restaurants contain these kind of food in their menu. In the remote area or remote province of Thailand have more kind of fish to choose from, usually the exotic freshwater fish. One organism can be cooked in variety of way some restaurants even have 10 plus ways of cooking for just one organism. The popular cooking method would be steamed in soy sauce(Nueng Sea Eiw) and deep-fried with garlic (Tord Gratiam)

There is one kind of seafood (or I can’t say it’s seafood) that is unique in Thai food, grilled river prawn. From my humble experience as I travel to Japan, USA or even Europe I can’t find this kind of food there at all. So I can say it’s an unique experience that you can find in Thailand only. River prawn in Thailand may weigh up to 500 grams and usually weight around 300-400 grams. Ayutthaya, province near Bangkok, is popular with joint with big and delicious river prawns. If Otoro is the most expensive and be representative of sushi. I can say river prawn in Thailand is an otoro of seafood in Thailand too. Price per 1 kilo is around 1,000 - 1,200 baht in the moderate joints(other food in the menu usually price 100-200 baht). So if you want to have an unique experience that can’t find elsewhere in the world I suggest you should try grilled river prawn once.

To be continued on part II

Overall Score /10
Taste /5
Ambiance /5
Service /5
Value /5

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