On our way. . .

En route to Marrakech.

tuesday night dorkdom in wash square.

some people come for the tuesday night jazz in washington square park. others come for the jedi training. above, a young padawan in progress.

Woohoo! Mobile posting!

So I finally have an iPhone. Granted, it’s a hand-me-down, but it should help me with the mobile posting in Morocco.

holy shit. it’s the watchmen trailer!

i love alan moore’s watchmen.  i love it so much that i want this movie to blow, really suck so bad that it proves that some graphic novels really shouldn’t be made into films.

the watchmen trailer was one of the previews for the dark knight.  

holy shit.

two words: dr. manhattan.  from the transformation scene to dr. manhattan as weapon to creator of the castle on mars, i think zack snyder nailed it?

i’m still not feeling matthew goode as adrian veidt/ozymandias.  he seems like too much of weenie — he’s been a cuckold (match point), a wussy (some movie with mandy moore), and he’s doing brideshead revisited.  somebody bring me a crumpet.

but this trailer.  holy shit.  

it’s time for another adventure.

this time we’re gonna rock it out in morocco.  ten days of heat-heat-heat and eat-eat-eat.

the itinerary is simple — marrakesh, essaouira, somewhere in the atlas, fez, meknes/volubilis, casablanca.  the hotels are booked, the tickets are bought.

time’s a-tickin’. . .

bad haiku at 4:30 am.

4:30, jetlag.
and i have to go to work.
today will be rough. 

bangkok: wat wat wat

in our time in bangkok, we’ve been to four wats: wat phra kaeo, wat pho, wat arun, and wat ratchapradit. interestingly, most of the temples in bangkok were built around the late 1700s, 1800s. ancient style, not so ancient ages.

wat pho: bangkok’s temple of the reclining buddha.

reclining buddha

the buddha statue is about 15 meters across from head to feet. like most of the statues, it’s bronze, covered in black lacquer and then covered with a layer of gold.

it’s also home to the famous massage school — the art of thai massage was first taught at wat pho. we’re not talking about a patpong, rub-and-tug kind of massage, but the pressure point, stretching thai massage. near the temple that houses the reclining buddha is a gallery of paintings used to teach students the technique, along with herbal remedies to alleviate pains and aches.

wat pho is still a place to learn and become certified in thai massage. the program is either one month or one year. i can’t remember.

wat arun: temple of the dawn.

this is a crazy temple. the architectural style is khmer, but the details on the temple are created from thousands upon thousands of fragments of broken porcelain. much of the porcelain was donated by bangkok families during the building of the temple.

wat arun, as seen from the ferry boat

the other interesting thing about the temple is the steep climb to the top level. people literally haul themselves up the steps to get to the top two levels.

the last wat that we saw was wat ratchapradit. built by rama iv, known mostly by western audiences because of the musical the king and i. incidentally, the musical and the book that inspired it are banned here in thailand.

rama iv was pretty cool. he had 18 wives and 82 kids. he was also the first king of thailand to invite foreign (western) teachers and missionaries into thailand. his children were western educated — his son, king chulangkorn (rama v), would be the first to adopt more western dress, as well as the first true diplomat king of thailand.

back to ratchapradit.

given that this was built by a king, the crown of the king is prominently featured in the wat’s details. it’s hard to see because of the shadow, but you can see it here at the entry way and in one of the marble carvings.

there’s a statue to rama iv housed in a building that features the four faces of buddha on the roof. in thailand, royalty is revered, and this place is certainly no exception — offerings are left at the base of his statue.

at the back of ratchapradit is a chinese pagoda. it’s a guardtower in the royal garden.

at this point, we’re watted out. we’ve got to save ourselves for chiang mai. . .

bangkok: wat phra kaeo

wat phra kaeo is pretty cool. it’s the temple, or wat, located next to the grand palace. it’s also known as the temple of the emerald buddha. everything is gleaming, shiny gold and bursting with color.

i’m a little bummed that we didn’t hire a guide to explain all of the details of the temple, but we made up for it by sneaking into other people’s hired tours. . .

first steps into wat phra kaeo

temple skyline

there are demons everywhere, but these are the good ones that protect the temple.

protector demons

close-up of demon’s face

gigantic protector demon at a gate

oddly, there’s a model of angkor wat on one of the temple terraces. . .

in the halls that wrap around the temple grounds, there are painted panels of the ramayana, or ramakien as it’s called in thailand. the story comes to life in 182 (i think. again, we were eavesdropping) panels.

after all of this exploring, we finally make it to the emerald buddha. we removed our shoes and placed them on the racks and made our way inside:

detail of a pillar outside of the temple of the emerald buddha

underside of the temple roof

finally, the emerald buddha

more pics of wat phra kaeo and bangkok posted on flickr.

gobble, gobble.

happy turkey day.

i’ll be chomping on turkey, but i’ll be dreaming of this:

i’m waiting for the day when we can eat something other than the almighty turkey. i mean, if today is the day dedicated to caloric overload, i’d like to overload on the calories i think are worth consuming. if thanksgiving were at my house, the menu would probably look something like this:

appetizer: oysters. oysters. oysters. speaking of which, we had some pretty awesome oysters last night — the oysters sat on a bed of truffled mashed potatoes and were topped with a thin slice of beef carpaccio. in truth, we really couldn’t taste the oyster, but it was still pretty awesome.

first course: some kind of light salad with fresh greens. maybe a roasted squash salad with some goat cheese? or a beautiful lobster bisque. the lobster bisque at thalassa is remarkable. so are their scallops.

main course: turkey. but only if it were something like a peking turkey. i would love a nice roasted leg of lamb with lots of garlic and rosemary. some tzatziki on the side. if we’ve got to go with birds, how about a nice roasted guinea hen or a fat, juicy capon? of course, lechon is always a possibility, but i’d have to change my first two courses.

vegetables: i can complain about thanksgiving dinner all i want, but at the end of the day, are the sides really that bad? green bean casserole is pretty good. so are mashed potatoes when they’re done right. and corn pudding!

dessert: pumpkin pie is pretty good, too. maybe we could keep that on the menu, but i’d rather have fruit.

i love eating dinner at home.

things have a been a bit crazy. . .wedding is coming up in exactly 2 months from tomorrow. the entire week-end was spent with wedding prep. i never imagined i could spend 4 hours talking about freaking flowers.

i did manage to squeeze in time to make dinner on saturday. thankfully, saturday was beautiful. we picked up some oysters — 6 kumamotos, 6 new zealands. i love creamy kumamotos with a squeeze of lemon. the new zealands were better than i expected. brine with almost a fresh cucumber finish.

i also cooked up a batch of littleneck clams with some chorizo, garlic, and crushed red pepper:

3 chorizo sausages (picked up a pack of palacios), diced
6 cloves of garlic diced
2 dozen littleneck clams, cleaned free of any sand/grit
glass of white wine (albariño, save the rest of the bottle for drinking with the meal)
crushed red pepper flakes (as much as you want)

render the fat from the diced chorizo. cook long enough, until the sausage turns darkish red and the edges are crisp. probably 5-8 minutes. remove the chorizo from the pan leaving only the fat. sautée the diced garlic and crushed red pepper flakes in the chorizo fat for a few minutes, softening and releasing the flavor. throw in the glass of wine. let it bubble. throw in the clams. cover and let steam for about 4-6 minutes until the clams open. toss in some of the fried chorizo. freeze the rest of the chorizo — use it to flavor soups, veggies, or throw it on a salad.

enjoy with the rest of the albariño.

we ate the clams with some heirloom tomatoes dressed with a little bit of olive oil and salt. for dessert? a small cheese plate of piave, epoisses, and a sheep’s milk blue.