thai silk - beautiful imperfection

     Few weeks ago i bought thai silk for my mother in Bangkok then i proudly told my friends in Korat that i manage to get the price that quite cheap. Then suddenly they smiles and ask me, "Do you know where the Silk come from?".

     They ask to find the info myself and i starts to look for the info in internet. and then i know that most of the silk come from Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima). Yup, why should i go that far when i can it get here.

    So Pak Thong Chai is the place for me to look for more thai silk. From Korat's bus station u can go by bus less then 1 hr and 30 THB and asj them to stop you near Pak Tong Chai hospital.

    

one of the thai silk boutique

     There are more than 10 thai silk boutique here. and all of them is selling their own product which means they have their own facilities to weave their own silk.

silk.

     Thai silk is very different from other type of silk that i know. Most of the silk i know have satiny look as well as very soft and thin. Thai silk however is thicker, quite rough similar to cotton and most of them is not too silky.

     at first glance, you will not know that it is silk fabric (for me at least). then when you look closer, you will know that the lustre is very different from other fabric. The shimmering effect come from the prism-like structure of silk fibre. and for thai silks normally they will use two different tones of colour for each weft and weft so the sheen in exclusive.

plenty of choice

luv them all

   

too pale i think..

for my mom

for ....

for my mom

for my little niece

    

Most of people will feel a bit frustrated when they inspect the fabric as the will find it not flawless to their expectation. The original handweave thai silk is not perfect, some say the imperfect flaw on the silk what makes them really expensive and exclusive. it what makes them different with imitation silk. You can see the small flaws or joins bump between thread along the warp & weft.

white color thai silk cost about 6000THB

     there are a few ways to differentiate between real & imitation thai silk.

1. Price - of course the price is much higher that normal / imitation fabric. normally thai silk price cost       10 times more expensive compare with their imitation. using this method only will not help if you are not  familiar with fabrics.
2. The weave - there are flaws from the join between 2 thread. and different tones thread used for weft and warp
3. Burn test - burned silk will smell like burned hair and leave fine ash, as soon as we take the flame away from the thread, it will stop burning. the imitation will continues burn and it will drip.
4. wedding ring test - a yard of thai silk will be easily  pulled through a wedding ring

ตลาด จตุจักร @ Chatuchak market @ JJM

     Chatuchak market or also known as JJM is a "must-go" place for me. i can't describe why, i just love to be there. Even just for window shopping. it's only open on weekend (saturday and sunday) and known as the biggest market in Thailand. 

JJM from above. (courtesy of wikimapia)

     You can use MRT/subway or taxi to JJM. By MRT, buy a token to Kamphaeng Phet and u can see the market when out of the subway.

     By BTS / skytrain you might to change to MRT at Sukhumvit. if you're a bit confuse, don't worry, they have the route map at every station. You may refer to it when you confuse.. same goes to me. if you come with bunches of friends, taxi will be a better, cheaper & comfortable choice...

view when u out of subway. there u go.. let's shoppin'

No Smoking area

    Something about this place that i really like is its a "No Smoking Area" even its a open place. And the rule applied strictly, i even saw a police ask a foreigner to stop smoking. So, its not like some place that even the police act against the rule.     

Chatuchak Maps

      A very big place, consist of 1.13 kmsq and more than 5000 stalls. you can found just everything here, from food, souvenir, t-shirt, jeans, bag, shoes, kimono, tie, thai silk, porcelain, books, dogs etc. My Thai's friends did remind me that if you interested in anything, just buy it. Because its really hard for 1st timer to look for the previous stalls, unless when you are just a few stalls away. but if really need to survey something just take note the shop "address"

the shop address. memorize it if you can.

main pedestrian road around chatuchak

choose what u want

interested?

even tattoo available.

flowers. You can find real one too

ancient chinese porcelain (maybe)

cheap t-shirt.

     And the best thing.. there's a lot of food..! fresh food such as vegetables, fruits, juice comes with plenty of choices.

ais krim kelapa

lotus seed.. yummy..

fresh grilled prawn

teh tarik

      yes, its teh tarik.. even they spell it a bit different. In thai we call "teh ais" as Cha Yen. When i thought my "cha yen" pronunciation was ok, they easily detect that i'm not Kon Thai. suddenly he speaks malay then. nak Teh Ais ke? *aku rasa sangat malu. He mentioned that he worked in restaurant in Kampung Baru years ago, that's why he can speak malay fluently.
      For a proper lunch, you can find a lot of stall sell just anything you can eat. For Muslims, there are a lots of halal food here too. but i only show one of them for now. maybe i'll show another Muslim stalls after my next visit to Bangkok.

Kah Jak. Own by muslims and the tea maker can speak malay.

the menu

The Food : Phad thai..

    Others than food, JJM also offered you FOC entertainment.Give them 20 THB or more would be favorable. Our help might help them a lot. just look at them, at least they try to do something to gain what we going to give them. When there are effort, we should appreciate then.

groups of teenagers playing music instrument (sorry i don't know the music instrument name)

innocent faces

skills

cute little girl dance with sword....

    A lot of thing to spend on, and a lot of thing we could learn too. Look at some of them makes me feel how lucky am i.. regardless all the complain i made to myself i should be grateful instead.

Appreciate whatever "given" to us, as when the time comes, it will be taken away..

My very own Ovenless Cheese Cake

      12 Apr 2011. entah tiba2 aku dapat seru. i'm gonna bake my own cheesecake.. my very own. Antara sebab-sebabnya adalah aku teringin nak makan cheesecake kat Secret Recipe. Tapi sbb aku jauh di perantauan, maka the idea sparkled... sebab kedua (Primer cause) adalah, aku tersalah beli cream cheese, nak beli yang sapu kat roti, terbeli utk kek, n dalam bungkusan cream cheese ade resepi "rahsia".

    Ok lah, the list of ingredients begins..

Ingredient A

Butter, half, melted

melted

biscuit, 1 cup

crunched

melted butter mixed with biscuit

presses as thin base

then.. simpan dalam peti sejuk









* maklumlah pecahkan biskut pakai tangan je. so kasar2 lah.

Ingredient B

Cream Cheese - 1 box

 let it soften in ambient temperature.
 stir until soft.

Condensed milk - 1/2 tin (200g)

mix it with softened stirred creamcheese

*klu nak manis letak lah lebih

lemon - 1

half cup of the juice.
*nak masam letak lebih, x nak masam kurangkan.
rasa je masa tengah kacau tuh

Agar - Agar Powder - Two table spoon

mixed with 1/2 boiled water.

stir until all the powder dilute

let it cold down a bit

*resepi sebenar pakai 

gelatin powder

Mixture of Ingredient B

electric mixer will help. but i don't want to buy it for this once a year occasion. berpeluh gak mengacau mende ni. tapi cuit-cuit rasa cam dah sedap. (sedap la kot)

two become one

 pour in the micture of ingredient B on the hardened base. maaf, base nampak selekeh. then put it in refrigerator until the cheese mixture solidified. for my case, i let it overnight. as i planned to eat it for breakfast. maybe its not the right time, but who cares..







then.... tada.......! the cake is ready..

*messy.. coz the base is too thick.

my cake, missing 1/3 of the base

     preparing this cake manually (obviously) is very tiring and require a lot of energy, so i guess, i deserved those calorie in it.

and i want to complaint one thing, why these lemon is very expensive. never buy it before...

58.25 THB.. Pheng maag

this whole process make me think..

whether its easy or hard, its up to the level of hunger you are in.

*betulkan bahasa omputihku klu salah.

*the quantity mentioned in this recipe is halved from original recipe. so just double it 

tak jadi takpe, leh buat lagi.. rasa tak jauh lari nyer...

selamat mencuba..