Don Giacomo

Don Giacomo e signora

Most people in and around Nongkhai know him as Jimmy the Shmear, but in the New Jersey and New York area he is known as Don Giacomo, a title of great deference and respect. The Don's late wife was a Siciliana and as a result of marriage he was, somewhat involuntarily, associated with all things Sicilian. We are told that he was a house painter (hence the nickname "the shmear") but that was only part of the truth because, together with his in-lawed Sicilian family, he was widely reputed to shmear various other things as well.

As was the custom for men of his status, the Don wore a ring but his Protestant upbringing precluded any kind of imitation of the Catholic practice of kissing the ring. Instead, he would tell supplicants simply to kiss his ass. Few people actually did, but the ATTITUDE  he used to make the suggestion was quite intimidating and inspired great fear which pleased the Don very much.

Now recently, Don Giacomo acquired a new villa here in Nongkhai and I called on him to pay my respects and to wish him bona fortuna in his new digs. He seemed happy to see me. After diplomatically declining to kiss his ass, I was received in his usual gracious manner and we munched on olives and prosciutto (i.e.cheddar cheese) and sipped grappa (i.e. beer Chang) whilst having our usual on-going discussions about philosophy and the meaning of life.

It was right about then that the Don suddenly said, "Brashule!"

I said "What?"

"Brashule," he repeated, but this time with the ATTITUDE. "It's a wonderful dish that La Siciliana used to make and that you should do at Milford's Corner."

Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about but knowing his fearsome reputation and concerned about being shmeared, I moved quickly and did a Google search. Neither of us knew how to spell it, so I searched phonetically and came up with braciole. "That's it!" said the Don to my great relief.

It turns out that braciole is the italian version of rouladen, a German dish mentioned in one of my previous posts. It is basically a piece of beef stuffed, rolled into a cylinder, braised in a tomato sauce and served over pasta. Some people refer to it as the food of the Godfather and Don Giacomo has now made an offer I cannot refuse. Friday, 19 August (after 5pm); be there.

Chicken Parmasan

I don't remember where or when I first discovered Chicken Parmesan. It might have been in one of those little inexpensive restaurants that catered to students on Columbia Road in Washington DC. Or, maybe at a similar such place in Boston's Italian North End. But I do know two things for sure; I had never experienced anything like that coming out of my mother's kitchen and it was absolutely fantastic. It quickly became one of my favorites.

It took many years of experimenting in my own kitchen to get the recipe correct. But eventually I learned to cook a fairly decent one. My version uses both chicken breasts and, with a nod toward the vegetarian version, aubergine. This is a bit of a departure from convention, but I assure you the outcome is absolutely delicious.

This will be the first time that I offer Chicken Parmesan as a Friday special which happens to be appropriate since this Friday, 8 July will be a very special day indeed. Come on by and find out why!!

Irma's Pork Pot Roast

Irma used to be my mother-in-law. I liked her a lot, indeed as it turned out, a lot more than her daughter.

Like her daughter, Irma was born in Germany and an offspring of the Third Reich from which in some ways she never recovered. She spent the war years living in a commune deep in the Wald with other children who had been evacuated to protect against Allied bombing. It was in the commune that she learned to be frugal and also where she began her lifelong love for cooking.

 "Do you know how much egg is wasted,"  she would ask in heavily accented English as she ran her finger around inside a broken egg shell to extract every bit of albumen, "In the camp, we could save enough egg white to feed another person." Irma was like that.

With her ex-POW husband (Luftwaffe, shot down over Scotland) and first-born daughter (my ex), Irma emigrated to Canada as a young woman and began her career as homemaker and --eventually-- mother of three girls. But, as I was to find out, it was in the kitchen where she reigned as both queen and, for me, inspiration.

It was over braised pork pot roast that we first connected. She had fixed it for us on a holiday visit to Toronto and I was genuinely effusive in my praise. She seemed pleased by my appreciation, so much so that she started upon a year-long tutorial, including mandatory trips to the market with instructions on how to pick just the right piece of meat, what kind of equipment to use and strict cooking techniques.

"Now, you must WORK with it," she would say while I watched her brown the roast, "you MUST be patient." Her tone was commanding, made somehow more so by her accent.

On birthdays and Christmas she would always give me something to advance my German cooking skills. Soon, if I say so myself, I learned to do a pretty good pork pot roast, although it must be said I could never quite do it as well as her. In the end, it was always a matter of that 'right touch'.

Irma eventually extended the lessons to potato salad, sauerkraut, potato pancakes, cabbage rolls, and rolladen. But it was braised pork pot roast that was always the star in the repertoire and for which I will always remember her.

It saddened me to learn recently that Irma is suffering from Alzheimer's. I suppose she would not recognize me today but I'll bet anything she would recognize the wonderful smell of a good pork pot roast.

This Friday's special will be my feeble attempt to duplicate Irma's wonderful pot roast. I only wish she were here to join us.

Coming to Terms with Thai Beef (contd) - Beef Brisket

As part of the continuing challenge of cooking Thai beef, this week's Friday special will be beef brisket. As many of you know, brisket is one of the toughest cuts of beef; it is so tough the Thais say it even makes the tiger cry when he chews it. And yet, when cooked slowly over low heat it is also one of the most tender and flavorful cuts. Needless to say that is how we do it at MC.

Now, I have not done brisket for a while; in the past I have cooked it in a sort of British/New England style with onions and gravy. This Friday, however, I am going to try my hand at a more Texas style, which to say smoked over the barbeque.

So y'all mosey on over to MC on Friday to check the latest episode of coming to terms. Y'a hear?

Comfort Food - Pork Rashers

One of the things that amazed me when I first arrived in Southeast Asia some thirty years ago was the similarity between here and the sub-culture of my upbringing in America. There was, for example, the great respect accorded to elders here just like in my community at home. Or the games I saw children playing being almost identical to those games I played as a child back home.

The similarities on the economic front were also very obvious to me. In my day, parents frequently left their children behind in small villages and towns to seek employment opportunity in the big city. I, for example, spent the first four years of my life with my maternal grandmother on a farm in North Carolina while my parents worked in New York City; only joining them when I started school.

Like the great migration to Bangkok here, hundreds of thousands of poor people from rural areas in the US migrated to big cities looking for opportunities. And yet, unemployment remained high and those who were fortunate enough to have employment often lived from paycheck to paycheck, not unlike today.

The food I found in the markets of Southeast Asia also amazed me for much of it was identical or similar to the foods from home. From sweet tubers to green leaf vegetables to pig's feet and intestines, my trips to the markets here were often a nostalgic return to the kitchens of my boyhood. And, like here, rice and chilies were staple foods in our community.

Both here and there, these are fundamentally cultures of survival. With respect to food, one aspect of survival is that nothing is ever wasted. Whatever can be eaten will be eaten and that which cannot be eaten will somehow be recycled to produce more food.

As a tribute to these cultures of survival, this week's Friday Special will be pork rashers (bellies) with collard greens and rice. This is a variation of a dish made by both my mother and grandmother and resembles several dishes found in this region using almost the same ingredients. Ours is made using strips of pork bellies roasted in a tomato-based sauce flavored with molasses and honey.

While it is true that this just happens to be my personal comfort food, it is my hope that you will enjoy it as much as I do and perhaps even adopt it as your own comfort food.

Here's to eating low on the hog!

The Secrets of Le Chateau de Bouesse

My friend Harry, an Englishman, once owned a castle in France. I suppose by medieval standards it was modest, but to my modern day eye it was very impressive indeed. It stood on a parcel of land of about 5 acres in the middle of a little village called Bouesse, southwest of Paris in Joan of Arc country, you know the place of witches and magic and all that stuff. The stone walls of the castle were over a meter thick in some places and the original part of the castle dated back to the 12th century. It was an amazing place, and after 800 years of history you can imagine that the walls had lots of stories to tell. After spending a few nights there even I came away with a strange one.

Harry and his wife, Jacqueline, had decided to buy the castle, renovate it and turn it into a first-class hotel. Jacqueline was a French national originally from New Caledonia but wanted to live back in France metropole. One of the things they wanted to open at the hotel, of course, was a restaurant.

Jacqueline was a great cook especially of French country food. During one of my visits prior to the opening of the hotel she interrupted her renovation work to fix a very simple but elegant boneless beef shank in my honor. I was so delighted I asked for the recipe which she happily gave me. Later, I was to learn that when the restaurant opened they hired a real chef, so Jacqueline no longer cooked. But I still have the recipe and have treasured it all these years, using it many times, always with great success.

For this Friday's special, I have turned once again to Jacqueline's time-honored recipe, except this time it is with Thai beef. It is interesting, however, that traditional French beef is raised in a similar manner to Thai beef, that is, free range. But can one get the same results?

Come on by on Friday and find out...oh, and while you are at Milford's Corner, ask about the strange events that take place in Room 5 at the Chateau de Bouesse.

Crispy Roast Loin of Pork

At Milford's Corner, we try to offer our customers a unique Nongkhai dining experience. Many of our dishes will not be found elsewhere in town and we take pride in being a little bit different.

Hope it  will look like this!!

This week (Friday 20 May) however, we are going to offer a dish that is found frequently around Nongkhai: crispy roast loin of pork. There quite a few folks around town who can do this dish the way it should be done, which is to say skin puffy and crispy on the outside; meat moist and tender inside. I must confess that I have attempted this dish many times but have never quite measured up to the standard. While the meat was eminently edible, the roast lacked the flair and elan of a properly done pork roast. Never mind, I shall try again.

Drop on by on Friday and weigh in whether we have yet hit the target.

Burgundy Country

Burgundy is a province of France which lies to the south and east of Paris. It is a place renowned for its food and wine and the place where I enjoyed what was perhaps the best meal I ever had. 

I was traveling back to Montreal from Geneva with a connection in Paris. Normally, I would have taken the short flight to Paris but this time decided to take the train which ran right through Burgundy country. In those days one could buy a ticket to Paris but overnight anywhere along the route then continue on the next day. My Michelin guide recommended a place called the Hotel St.  George in Chalon-sur-Saone. It turned out that both the hotel and restaurant were at the train station and both were absolutely first class. Burgundy was like that...full of pleasant surprises, including the waiter at the restaurant informing me that I was no longer in Paris…but in France!.

This week at MC, we are going to offer a dish inspired by the country stews of Burgundy: a pork stew cooked in white wine. I was actually introduced to this dish by the Lao wife of an American friend of mine. She formerly worked for L’Alliance Francaise in Vientiane and spoke the most beautiful French. She was also clearly influenced by the French country cooking so exemplified in Burgundy.

So drop on over on Friday, 13 May for a culinary excursion to the French countryside. Santé!

Cinco de Mayo

Today is Cinco de Mayo (5th of May in Spanish) celebrated in Mexico and now in a large part of the United States as the day in 1856 an outnumbered Mexican army defeated a larger and formidable French army. The Mexicans went on to lose the war but took heart from Cinco de Mayo and eventually expelled the French from Mexico.

As you can imagine, the holiday is celebrated with music and dancing and, of course, lots of food. So, for our Friday special at Milford's Corner we will be serving tacos and refried beans. Our tacos are made from hand rolled tortillas filled with our own salsa and minced pork mixture. If I can find some tequila,well........

Although we will be a day late, it should still be good fun and good food. Arriba!!!

Lasagne al Forno

Milford's Corner has been open now for about seven months and until now I have avoided making one of my favorite -- and most time consuming -- dishes: lasagne al forno. Since we were closed last week for Songkran, I took advantage of the break to start making the various components of that wonderful oven-baked pasta casserole which will be this Friday's special.

Like many casseroles, there are about as many versions of lasagne as there are cooks. Our version has three main ingredients, each of which is home made separately over a period of days and then assembled for final baking. First, there is the sauce, made with fresh tomatoes, red wine and ground pork simmered slowly for a while until the sauce is thick and flavorful.

Then there is the homemade cultured dairy product which is processed to separate out the whey and yield a thick creamy consistency. Finally, there is the egg pasta.

Now there is a lot of debate about homemade pasta; some say that it must be made with durum semolina, other say regular all purpose flour will suffice. For me, the issue is very simple: use the momma mia rule. Momma mias always use regular flour and make the best pasta in the world. In my view, it is not the flour but the love which goes into the pasta. Hence, we use regular flour and lots and lots of love.

Whenever possible, the final assembly and preparation is always done the day before serving. This allows the flavors to blend to the maximum into the pasta and gives you the best tasing results.

So, if you want to experience a delicious lasagne infused with momma mia's love, come on by MC on Friday and Mangia!

Pre-Songkran Weekend

On order from a very high authority,  Milford's Corner will be closed for the entire week of Songkran. Specifically, we will be closed starting on Sunday, April 10th up to and including Monday, April 18th, reopening on Tuesday April 19th.

To warm up for the holidays, I thought it would be interesting to do something a little different for this final weekend. So, tonight for our Friday special we will have roast leg of lamb  with roast potatoes and pumpkin together with asparagus.  Tomorrow, for our weekly BBQ we will have our usual barbecue ribs, sausages, and  pork chops  but we'll also offer  some Indian style grilled chicken.  Plus,as part of our coming to terms with Thai beef  project, we will grill up some beef fillet steaks.

 So come on out and join us as we get ready to celebrate another Thai New Year. Sawatdee Pee Mai!

Kalahari Pulled Beef

For this week's special, the Thai beef challenge takes us to southern Africa and the Kalahari Desert. I have previously blogged on beef from the region but this week's focus is on the Desert culture itself.

The Kalahari is a vast arid area located in the southwest part of Botswana, the northwest of South Africa and the eastern part of Namibia. Although rainfall is scarce, the region is surprisingly green owing to subterranean water which seeps in from rivers emptying into the desert from the north. The green, mostly scrub brush, supports an amazing variety of wild life with herds of giraffe, springbok, wildebeest, and zebra together with birds like ostrich as well as smaller game like wild boar.

The Kalahari is the traditional home of the Basarwa (or San) people, more familiarly (and pejoratively) known as the Bushmen. The San were the indigenous people of the region and survived for thousands of years hunting and gathering in the bountiful desert. Unfortunately, today the culture of the San, like so many other aboriginal people in America, Australia  and elsewhere, has been almost completely destroyed from a combination of government confiscation of their land and resettlement in villages. Here, cut off from their traditions, their spirit atrophies and they descend into the familiar pattern of alcoholism and abuse so pervasive in indigenous communities elsewhere.

But despite all this, two of their culinary influences have been adopted throughout the region: biltong and seswaa, the latter being what I call Kalahari Pulled Beef. Biltong is dried meat; the San would hang meat from a successful hunt to dry, both to preserve it and to make it easier to carry back to the group campsite. Upon arrival at the campsite, assuming water was available, the dried meat would be boiled, sometimes for hours, until it literally fell apart. The result was seswaa.

When I first encountered seswaa, I scoffed at the idea of boiling meat until it fell apart; the concept was somehow offensive to my notions of flavor retention. I was sure the meat would be overcooked and tasteless. I was wrong; it was delicious and to this day I cannot explain why the flavor is so well retained.

In any event, this week's Friday special is Kalahari Pulled Beef. Our version is made with fresh (not dried) beef to which I have added an onion, a little garlic and seasonings and then boiled until it falls apart -- in the true style of the Basarwa.

Tilapia Flambeed in Sang Som

The continuing cool weather has played havoc with my sinuses so for this Friday I was searching for something simple and quick, but elegant and delicious. Perhaps nothing fills those specs better than tilapia (pla nihn) flambeed in Sang Som. This dish was first offered at the old New York Bistro and was my attempt to use all local ingredients to create a true haute cuisine expeerience.

A fillet of tilapia is first gently sauteed in butter and oil, then flambeed with local Sang Som rum. Finally, the dish is finished with a light butter sauce and served with a mound of fried rice and a green salad. Simple. Quick. Elegant. Delicious. 150B.

Come on out and try it!

Coming to Terms with Thai Beef - Part Two

The beef stroganoff of Friday before last was so well received that I sold out leaving some customers feeling rather disappointed. In an attempt to remedy this, stroganoff will be back on Friday hopefully better than ever. Yes, as before, we will be using local beef from the market and I thought I would share with my readers some of the prep that goes onto making our beef so tasty.

Now in Europe and America, stroganoff is made with fairly tender beef; not so with our local beef. But all one has to do is make a few adjustments and the outcome is in my opinion even better than Western beef.

First, the beef is aged, unwrapped or hung, in the fridge for as long as possible, but a minimum of two days. This dries the meat out a bit and makes it easier to see and work with. After aging, any silver skin, excess fat or gristle is trimmed out as much as possible and the meat cut into strips.

The next step is an idea incorporated from Thai cooking: I "dehd diow" the meat. This simply means putting the strips of beef in the sun for one day in much the same way one would make South African biltong or North American jerky. This step dries the meat out in preparation for the actual cooking.

We begin the cooking by browning the meat, which is why the dehd diow is so important; wet beef will not brown. Poorly browned meat will affect the taste and color of the final result. After browning, the met is set aside and seasoned. Meanwhile, in the same pan, we brown our onions until they are golden, using the moisture in the onions to scrape up all the coagulated juices. Finally, we add back our beef and some liquid (wine, stock, water etc.). Cover and let cook slowly until tender. This could take as much as two or three hours. Patience is the key.

To finish we add a flour and butter roux and some sauteed mushrooms and cook only until the flavors blend and the sauce thickens. Sour cream is added at the end for additional flavor and texture. Et voila! The best Beef Stroganoff this side of Vladivostok.

Liver and the Russian Tea Room

Growing up, I hated liver. Normally my mother's cooking was superb, but I guess no one can get it right all of the time, not even her. Her liver was sufficient reason for an impromptu fast; 'sorry Mom can't eat tonight, going swimming tomorrow'. Never mind the logic, any reason not to eat shoe leather which tasted and smelled like it had already walked a thousand miles.

But then fast forward about fifteen liver-less years away from New York and I found myself working back in the City; in midtown Manhattan. One day, a colleague suggested we take lunch at the Russian Tea Room, one of the most famous eateries in town. The RTR is down the street from the renowned Carnegie Hall and is one of those places frequented by actors, musicians and celebrities.A place where the cast of a new Broadway show would go to await the morning papers and the make or break reviews.

Although I was almost a native New Yorker, I had never eaten in the Tea Room and was excited to do some possible celebrity watching. I was not disappointed, for as soon as we walked in, there were three or four faces I immediately recognized seated in the plush red upholstered booths. The walls were adorned with photos of stars of screen and stage and I suddenly felt that this was a really cool place to be.

But then we were seated and the menu came out; my reverie instantly vanished as I tried suppress a gasp at the prices. It would take about two or three month to recover from this one meal. Not to worry, said my friend who could see my distress, the special of the day is always reasonably priced. The special of the day, of course, was LIVER! So now, the choice was simple: go bankrupt or eat liver; I chose the latter.

Mind you, this was not my mother's liver. This was calves liver sauteed in butter with onions and new potatoes. But to me at the time, liver was liver and I hated it all. It could not be rehabilitated; it could never be made palatable. I am not only not embarrassed, but happy to say that I was dead wrong.To this day that meal ranks as one of the best I have ever had. And of course since then I have been a devotee of liver.

I know I can never duplicate the succulence of RTR liver but this Friday 19 February 2016 we will be serving beef liver with bacon, onions and baked potato with sour cream. I can personally attest that liver is one of those things one either likes or hates. But if you are in the latter category, come on by and give us a try. Maybe Milford's Corner will become your Russian Tea Room.

Coming to Terms with Thai Beef

 Ever since I've been in Thailand my Western friends and acquaintances have had nothing good to say about Thai beef. There seem to be three major criticisms: first, it is sold too fresh. Due to the traditional lack of refrigeration, Thai beef is not aged but tends to be sold on the day of slaughter; sometimes it is still warm and twitching. Second, the butchering tends to be random; the cuts we are familiar with in the West are generally not recognizable. And third, of course, it is chewy. All of these criticisms are valid.  However, I believe there are things one can do to make Thai beef not only more palatable but positively delicious.

My home sits in the middle of the rice paddy. These days, development is coming to the area but has not yet quite arrive. So in the meantime, what used to be rice paddy is being used by cattle to graze. They eat good grass (and other stuff like my mangoes) and look strong and healthy. This led me to think that maybe we are getting spoiled. Beef from home is grain fed, marbled and super tender. That’s what we are used to and that’s what we demand. But what about good grass fed beef; that which most of the world eats? Maybe we simply have to treat it a little differently. Ok, it will never taste quite like home, but it is good, fresh and flavorful. So in pursuit of these ideas I am undertaking the challenge of coming to terms with Thai beef.

Last Friday’s special was the first salvo in the mission: roast beef au jus. There were certainly a few tricks involved in preparing it, including meat selection, aging, trimming, and final cooking procedures. Most important of all though was patience; some things just take time and you cannot rush mother nature. I must say however that I thought the roast beef came out rather well as did my customers for there was none left. In fact, I thought it surpassed imported beef in terms of taste and overall flavor.

The special for Friday 12 February 2016 (after 1700hrs) will be a continuation of the challenge, this time with beef stroganoff. This is a dish I have never prepared with any beef, so it will be a bit more of a challenge than it might otherwise be.

Come on out and judge for yourself!

Veal Scallopini

Once in awhile one of my customers makes a recommendation. Again and again and again. So, out of respect for his good taste and judgment (and persistence), this week's special is one that I could no longer resist.

Mind you, it is a wonderful dish: scallops of veal dusted and fried to perfection; topped with olives and mushrooms in a demi glaze sauce served over tagliatelle. All for only 190B.

So come on out tomorrow and let us know if it was a good recommendation.

Ahan Bohran

I like to watch old Thai movies; those made in the day when actors really looked Thai and when the location scenes of Bangkok and rural Thailand were prior to the age of concrete and plastic. But most of all, I like the classic, simple but elegant storylines in those old movies.

Since food is such an integral part of Thai life, there is always a scene in these movies involving a meal. But rarely is it clear exactly what the characters supposed to be eating. So for many years now I've been on a quest to discover what might be considered traditional Thai food: ahan bohran.

Now in Isan things have not changed that much. It is still very much the food of the field, stream and rice paddy: hardy peasant food. But in the central part of the country, fields and streams have given way to housing estates, factories, and high rises. Traditional ways and, along with them, traditional foods, have as a consequence, virtually disappeared.

Lest we forget, at Milford's Corner this Friday, 22 January we will feature a traditional Thai dish I call Fish in Tamarind Sauce. This dish has strips of tilapia lightly floured and deep fried to a golden brown then mixed with vegetable, cashews, and a tamarind-based sweet and sour sauce. I have to confess it is one of my personal favorites. So come on out and enjoy it after 6 on Friday. See you then.

Pinoy Chicken

For a foodie, it does not matter where your thought process begins it always winds up somewhere in the vicinity of food. So it was when I began to think about December 31 2015.

Now, among other things, this is the date that the new ASEAN Economic Community is supposed to have come into being. The idea of course is loosely based on the European model and I have grave doubts that the ASEAN project will ever really get off the ground. But that is not really what is this st  ory is all about for this story is about Khun Mauralee.

Mauralee was the wife of a Thai diplomat who traveled throughout Southeast Asia and beyond with her husband in the sixties. One of her duties as the ambassador's wife was to host parties of various sorts always involving food fixed in the Thai style. In Southeast Asia, it was not so difficult to find the ingredients she needed, particularly since she could always import food from Thailand through the embassy. Elsewhere in the world, however, getting the right ingredients became a challenge. Her rising up to the challenge ultimately became a cookbook that she wrote especially for the Thai diaspora to assist them in finding (or substituting) ingredients for making Thai style foods in foreign locations.  Her book was a great success and it was Mauralee's cookbook (written in both English and Thai) which in North America first introduced me to the Thai kitchen.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Mauralee proceeded to write a second cookbook , this time based on the foods of the entire Southeast Asia area; the ASEAN cookbook. In this sequel, she gathers together recipes from all the ASEAN countries , including the Philippines. And so 31 December became ASEAN; ASEAN became Mauralee and the food of Southeast Asia, then the Philippines. Then chicken adobo.

Chicken adobo is considered to be the national dish of the Philippines. Of course, like many national dishes there are as many variations as there are cooks. With its Spanish colonial heritage, there are also disputes about the origin of chicken adobo; some people say that it is a fusion dish, a blend of local, Chinese and Spanish influences. Others say it is a dish which originated in the Philippines long before the Spanish arrived.

Whatever side of the discussion one happens to favor, there is no question but that the dish is delicious. Our version is made with chicken thighs, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce, ingredients which everyone agrees on but then we go on to add mushrooms and other ingredients which give it our particular signature. It is served with black beans and rice.

So come on out and enjoy our special for Friday 8th January 2016. Chicken adobo the national dish of the Philippines. 140B. A warning: this dish may be considered spicy to some people.