Makro!

It's funny the things that get me excited. Kind of strange, actually. But I guess at heart, I am a shameless capitalist consumer.

Today was another hot day, and I've been fighting a sore throat which I think was caused by sleeping directly under the air-conditioning vent. I solved that problem by changing the position of the bed and the sofa in my room, so now the air-con blows on the sofa, which I don't use.

I wanted to take it easy today but also needed a reason to leave my room when the maid came to clean. I didn't want to see her shock at the rearrangement of my room (I did inform the front desk). So I decided to continue my search for dried galangal and kaffir lime leaves so that I can make some decent curries and soups in SF.

I headed to Sukhumvit Road where I used to stay when I first started coming to Bangkok. I remembered a pretty big supermarket there where I knew I bought dried galangal and kaffir lime leaves before. I knew they also had a food court where I could eat lunch.

I took the sky train and got off at Asok station. The supermarket, Tops, was a short walk from there in the basement of Robinson Department store.

As I entered, I wasn't sure where to go at first because they had remodeled. It seemed much smaller and I knew right away that they wouldn't have what I wanted. It was even smaller than the Tops in Silom Center, and if they didn't have what I needed, this one wouldn't either. This was the third supermarket I'd been to in my quest.

Not sure what to do I decided to head to MBK and try the supermarket in the basement of the Tokyu Department Store. I got some pandan flavoring there last time I was in Bangkok and none of the other supermarkets I've been to on this trip seem to carry it, so I figured they might have these other two things I'm looking for.

I first went to the 5th floor of MBK to the International Food Court. They had Indian, Vietnamese, Thai Fusion, Vegetarian, Italian and a bunch of other choices. After walking around, I decided to try the I-san food. Though they spelled it E-saarn. I ordered fried chicken with herbs, fruits som tom and sticky rice.

The food looked great but I was a little disappointed. The idea of a som tom which is normally made with green papaya, made with different fruits was really intriguing. I couldn't wait to taste it.

It looked beautiful when I got it. It had grapes, pineapple, green apple, pomelo, tomatoes and maybe some red apple. It was sprinkled with chili powder. But the sauce was way too fishy. They had put too much fish sauce. I'm going to try to make it myself and use only a sprinkle of fish sauce (if any) and lime juice and fresh chili and maybe some cilantro. The chicken was pretty good. It was fried and sprinkled with lemon grass and other herbs.

From there I went up to the 6th floor and got some sticky rice with mango. I figured I won't have much longer to eat it so I better enjoy it while I can.

After my big lunch, I went to the basement of Tokyu.

A very annoying foreigner was asking one of the clerks questions about all of the Thai packaged spices and things. "Is this spicy?" "What is this?" "How can I use this?" Since she was answering him, I knew she spoke English. So I asked, "Do you have dried galangal?"

She gave me the same quizzical look the woman in the Tops on Sukhumvit gave me. Only since then I learned that the package of Tom Ka Gai paste I had had a picture of galangal on it. It was for that that I wanted galangal. Tom Ka Gai is a soup made with coconut milk, chicken and galangal and kaffir lime leaves. It's the galangal and kaffir lime that give the soup its bite.

So I pulled out a package of Tom Ka Gai paste I bought at the other Tops (this supermarket also turned out to be a Tops) and showed her.

She said, "fresh or dried?" I was hopeful and said, "dried". She said they only had powder.

I was disappointed but ready to try the powder, but I asked her, "where can I buy it?" and she said, "Fourth Floor, Tokyu". It seemed the Tokyu Department Store had a supermarket on the fourth floor.

So I made my way back upstairs hoping she hadn't sent me on a wild goose chase because for some cultural reason it might be better to give an answer than to say, "I don't know". But to my delight, the Tokyu did have both the kaffir lime and galangal. I bought a few bags of each plus some more curry pastes.

I came back to my hotel, laden with shopping bags and escaped the taxi drivers comments somehow. Usually when they see me with a bag they say, "oh, many shopping". These are the guys who hang outside of my hotel.

On the way home, I had stopped at Senses Spa and made an appointment with Mr. A for another foot/thai massage combo at 3 p.m. I had a little time to take a nap before my massage.

The massage was as good as yesterday. The stretches are really good for me, and Mr. A really knows how to stretch me to my limit without making it painful. I left feeling very light on my feet (again) and headed over to Silom to pick up my laundry.

By the time I got back to my hotel it was just about time for me to meet my friend Ken in the lobby. He was waiting there for me at 6.

We came up to my room and chatted a bit and waited for traffic to die down before heading out. He took me across a new bridge to another province outside of Bangkok. It was dark so it was hard to see, but he tried pointing out the fact that there were a lot of trees as opposed to the urban sprawl that is Bangkok. It was kind of hard to believe that a short drive across a bridge we were in an area that looked very rural. How had it escaped the massive development that is Bangkok?

We drove around a bit looking for a place to eat. At one point we got out and walked and I felt like a curiosity (something I do not feel in Bangkok). A group of high school girls smoking cigarettes by the river called out, "hello!!!" I ignored them because they looked like bad girls (smoking by the river and all that).

We couldn't find any food so we returned to the same I-san place we went the other night. It was again as entertaining as it was before. There were only a few foreigners there (all accompanied by Thais) and the rest were Thai people, and the dogs, and the vendors that stopped by - the little girl selling cookies, a mute woman selling little plastic key chains that buzzed and lit up, and a guy on a bike selling dried squid. A Thai soap opera was playing on two large TVs and a few guys were getting really drunk.

When we finished dinner, Ken took me to Makro.

I had told him I needed a mortar and pestle for making Som Tom (green papaya salad). The mortar you use is ceramic and the pestle is wooden. I have a stone mortar and pestle I got on my last trip here.

Makro is a huge bulk type place kind of like Costco or Jumbo or the many other big bulk places I've been to on my travels. I was like a kid in a candy store. Probably because as we entered, all there was were cookies and candy. We made our way to the back where they had a big bag of dried galangal (that I didn't buy and will now regret) and eventually found the ceramic mortars and wooden pestles.

The whole time this military type theme music was playing, M-A-K-R-O, Makro!!! It had us marching through the aisles singing along. I think it was signaling they were closing. We were the only ones I saw still shopping.

I asked Ken if I could use my stone mortar and just get a wooden pestle and he said yes. The thing about Som Tom is it is too delicate to use a stone pestle, but it seemed to me the thing you crush it with is more important than the thing you crush it in. And I didn't want to carry a big ceramic mortar and then have to figure out where I was going to store it, especially since I would probably make som tom once or twice per year.

So, I just got the wooden pestle, which looks kind of like a mini baseball bat, paid for it and as we were leaving the turned out the lights.

Unfortunately, Makro requires a membership, so if I want to go back, I'll need to go with Ken. I don't think I need to go back.

And so it was another full day in Bangkok, eating, shopping, getting massaged, and being driven around by my new friend who has a car.

But the one thing I will remember about today was my visit to Makro!