Mr. Lake's New Orleans Forum

Sawat dee pee mai kap!

Today is Songkhran, also known as the water festival, when people pour water on one another to wash their troubles away. Traditionally all the Buddha images in the temples were washed, and the water was saved and used to pour on people for luck. Nowadays it's become a free-for-all water fight, especially among youngsters and in tourist areas, but it wasn't always that way. Some years ago I was in Chiang Mai at this time of year, and put all my things in zip-lock bags before putting them in my pockets and leaving the hotel to walk the streets and take in the sights. I was touched when a little old man in a white shirt and black tie came up to me with an ornate silver cup and poured a few drops of water on my shoulder, saying, "Ekiss me sah, I want to wish you goos luck for New Year." I thanked him and returned the sentiment.

This evening at a local Thai restaurant I had chicken satay, yam thalae, and sticky rice with coconut sauce and mango. Chicken satay is marianated and grilled on a skewer, served with a light, spicy, lemony peanut based sauce. Yam thalae is a spicy seafood salad, this one with scallops, calamari, shrimp, and mussels, with chopped onion, mint leaves, fresh spinach, lettuce, and lime juice, a three on a heat scale of one to five chili peppers (as requested).

OMG, Chawlie! you gots me salivating. You and PNG must introduce me to Thai food. I don't know the first thing about it.

Chawlie, nice story & the food sounds great.

Cop Cop, I suggest we have a little celebration
in honor of your retirement & go to Banana Blossom.
It's my favorite Thai place.

Chef Pete also makes Thai from time to time &
of course you already know it's going to be great!

Banana Blossom consistently has the best and most authentic Thai food in the Greater New Orleans area, in my experience.

It looks like my stay up north will continue, so don't wait for me. Get together with Izza and go for it.

When dining out, unlike us who each order what we want and then share a little, Thai people order everything for the group. It's a great way to sample.

Lovely story, Chawlie. One of the great things about Beautiful Downtown Oakton, Virginia, is Kob Kun Fine Thai Cusisine, a very nice place that opened last year. It's probably our favorite place within walking distance. We both love Thai food, but we both love just about any food.

Chawie,
Your post brings back many memories. I was stationed in Thailand with the Air Force. It was a very enjoyable year. I learned some of the language and was able to get around pretty good. The Thai people were very friendly to us servicemen. I didn't eat in Thai sit down restaurants. We ate at sidewalk stalls where the food was freshly cooked in woks right in front of you. I can't remember all the Thai names for the dishes....it was a variety.....Thai fried rice....charcoal grilled Kobe beef and chicken....sautéed Thai vegetables.....Thai noodle soups....Thai sweets.....Singha beer...it was all good.

I went on a USO trip to the actual location of the railway bridge over the Khwae Yai river. This was part of the Burma Railway. This bridge was built by American/British/Australian prisoners-of-war during WW2. It was a very moving experience to visit the vast cemeteries of those servicemen who died while building this bridge. The movie The Bridge on the River Kwai was based on events that happened here.

It's time again for a Mr. Lake lunch.

Isabella, your suggestion for a lunch at Banana Blossom Thai restaurant is an excellent idea. I'm ready. Who is interested?

Ms. Frankie took me to Cafe Minh for lunch today. I forgot my camera, so no pictures. Our selections were like appetizers/entrees. Star of the day was a crabmeat/shrimp/watermelon martini with shrimp chips. We also had crab cakes and batter fried oysters and frites. We were treated like royalty and Cindi Tran supervised our every serving. (Helps if your girlfriend knows the Chef). Wonderful lunch, then we went to Jesuit and picked up the boys and went home.