Starting a new project...

Just an update between too infrequent posts. Despite very supportive family and friends (thanks, everybody), the stress, disappointment and frustration of job searches and whatnot is getting to me. Because of that, I haven't had a lot of money to spend eating out lately.

Nevertheless, I am starting a new project to get the stress of this allegedly-finished recession and underemployment off my mind. Every week or two, I will try to acquaint myself with the cuisine of a culture or region that I am mostly unfamiliar with. I will be seeing how little I can spend while teaching myself more about the foods of the world. I'm calling this "Food Ethnography on a Budget". It's the least silly name I could think of. Sue me. Scratch that - don't sue me.

Stay tuned later this week, as I start to acquaint myself with the cuisine of Cambodia.

Thairish

I don't know why I haven't stopped in Thairish before. It's not easy to miss, but it is easy to notice in passing while you're on the way to bigger, more fabulous establishments - it's neighbor is the Helmand, one of Baltimore's (and my) favorite restaurants, plus with My Thai, Indigma and Akbar all in a stone's throw from it, plus a dozen other restaurants, clubs and gay bars just a block or two northward on Charles Street, you're probably not going to be stopping in.

Well, you should save yourself a few bucks and stop in. I did last night. It was quite by accident, really. I had originally planned to go to Dukem, but there was no parking and I didn't feel like walking, so I circled Mount Vernon a dozen or so times and finally landed a space, right across from Thairish. It was fate.

Perhaps one thing that deters people is the supertiny space Thairish occupies - literally, three tables and a counter on the side wall with stools. Really, I've seen "restaurants" in the Towsontown food court that are bigger than Thairish seems to be. But despite the late hour - 9PM, an hour before closing - there was a never-ending stream of people coming in for food. Not out the door, but it didn't exactly seem like business was bad on a Saturday night. Note, of course, that a good portion of their business is take-out.

I skipped the entrée and ordered a few appetizers, not realizing how much food I would be getting (but still for such a low price). I missed trying what some reviewers on the Web seem to say is a pretty good pad thai and an even better masaman curry

I ordered the tom kha gai soup ($2.25), fried shrimp satay ($3.75), vegetarian spring roll ($1.95) and the Thai iced tea ($1.50) Most everything I had was very good, and I'm already looking forward to going back for more of it and then some.

The Tom kha gai soup was, well, different than I've had elsewhere. Every other order of it in every other Thai restaurant has been rich, creamy, especially coconutty and tangy, with mushrooms, little bits of chicken and pieces of bamboo shoots and (for flavor) lemongrass. If those are all the "cream of tom kha gai" version, then Thairish's is the consommé version of the dish. The broth is pretty light but distinct on the coconut flavor, but I really couldn't taste any lemongrass at all. The veggies tasted especially fresh, and the chicken, though a little stringy like most chicken I have had most everywhere (it's just not my favorite bird, alright?) was not in little pieces but in a large chunk. You could interpret that either of two ways: "Wow, nice, crisp veggies and a big ass hunk of chicken!" or "Wow, they kind of threw these in at the last minute, didn't they?" The veggies didn't really absorb any of the flavor of the broth, which is what gives that impression. But note: this will be both the biggest and cheapest tom kha gai soup you will probably find in Baltimore. This isn't the itty bitty Dixie cup size portion that usually costs about $4. Just remember the pluses and minuses of Thairish's tom kha gai. I probably won't order it again, but I won't dissuade y'all from ordering it for yourselves.

While I wouldn't call the soup a low point, it was the lowest point of an overall delicious meal. Maybe it's my propensity for fried things, but the spring roll and satay were just wonderful. Though a tad greasy the vegetable spring roll came out wonderfully crispy and flavorful. It was filled with carrots, celery and bean thread noodles - lots and lots of bean thread noodles, which made it especially filling. I would go back for it. The sweet and sour sauce that went with it was a nice complement.

Same with the shrimp satay. On my plate were four fried shrimp with tomato slices, a little lettuce and a peanut butter curry sauce. I don't think there was any coconut in the dish, but the flavor still seemed a little coconutty to me. Maybe I still had a little left in my mouth from the soup? Anyway, the fried shrimp were hardly greasy and wonderfully crunchy, with a nice overall flavor that I liked both with and without the sauce. Hopefully I can find a recipe for a similar sauce online. For a change, I wrapped up one of the shrimp in the lettuce with a tomato slice and some sauce. This was the piece I enjoyed the most.

I can't forget to mention the Thai iced tea. Not overly sweet like most Thai iced teas I've had, but sweet enough and a little more than that. Very refreshing, although it wasn't exactly warm out last night.

Overall I paid almost exactly $10 for my meal before tip - that would've been more had I gotten an entrée and a drink, since veggie and tofu entrées cost $8 and meat or seafood entrées cost $9. Still, unless you over-order you probably will have a difficult time going much over that $10 limit per person. It's a cheap eats establishment with food that doesn't taste all that cheap. And it's doubtful that I will just be passing it by all the time again.

Recession Watch: Should I add ads to the blog?

As I have Tweeted earlier, I've been leery of adding ads to this blog. For me it has always been a hobby and nothing more. A somewhat pricey hobby at times, but still a hobby. As some of you know, I am on the hunt for a full-time job. In the meanwhile, an extra source of income might not be bad. But I know that it won't bring in very much if any revenue, so is it really worth the trouble to clutter the site with ads when it won't make more than a handful of coins a month?

BTW, if you plan to spam the comments, my email or my Twitter feed with "revenue-making" "offers" I will eagerly delete them without a second thought. Sometimes I don't even read it, and I never click on links in unfamiliar emails sent to me.

Victory Gardens? Hmmm, now THAT'S an idea...

I'm surprised at how many food articles one can find on political websites. Take the Huffington Post, for example. This site founded by former "also-ran during the 2003 California recall" Arianna Huffington occasionally posts things about food, usually tied somehow to politics. Buried somewhere under a tidbit about the First Lady's plan to promote healthy eating is a post about fighting the recession the Greatest Generation way: by starting your own Victory Garden! The crop to start out with: strawberries. This is a phenomenon that has been going on for a while now. Look what I found just by Googling "modern victory garden" just now! My ex-landlords, who up and moved from Redlands, CA, to somewhere off the Great Cherokee Lake in Oklahoma have a gorgeous garden growing on their lovely lakefront property. And since I have more land than the typical apartment renter in Baltimore City, I think I may have to try this. The Dallas News did a story explaining how.

Cooking with Clara

The Depression-Era craze that's sweeping a recession-strapped nation of YouTubers. First up, nonegenarian Clara whips up pasta with peas, Depression style.

Starbucks INSTANT?

Apparently, the falling Goliath that is Starbucks is kind of desperate in this new economy: they're introducing instant coffee. They say it'll taste the same. It's doubtful that I'll ever find out. I'm just not a Starbucks kind of guy since I can't stand coffee - especially when it carries as many calories and fat as a Whopper and costs as much as three of them. I only drink coffee once in a great while to stay awake (though it's nice to sip a cappuccino once in a while, which I still haven't done at Starbucks). So anyone out there who is obsessed by Starbucks: just let me know if the "instant Starbucks" thing works.