Bangkok, part 8

If you’re a fan of Korean and Japanese cuisine, but you find yourself in Bangkok, Thailand: you’re in luck! For whatever reason, there’s a ton of Korean and Japanese restaurants there. So if your home country is in closer proximity to Thailand than either Korea and Japan, I reckon going to Bangkok for you is a good enough substitute - food wise. It’s probably cheaper, too (in the non wagyu category).

One of my evenings in Bangkok I was in the Thonglor district. A hip and trendy area for you night life party enthusiasts. As I was walking on the main thoroughfare towards the bar where my friend is having his post-wedding party, I noticed an endless parade of Japanese restaurants. There was at least one on every block. I adore sushi (raw fish on a thing of rice) as much as the next person, but this many Japanese restaurants in such a tiny area seems highly excessive for a place that isn’t Japan.

Good news for people like me, though. I’m not all that enamored with Thai food, so having other Asian options so readily available is a plus. Every morning in Bangkok I ate two 7-Eleven onigiris to start my day. You may think that’s crazy: going all the way to Thailand just to eat convenience store snacks, but I don’t think so. The 7-Elevens in the States do not sell onigiri (never mind the seedy and dangerous reputation). So whenever I am in Asia, I can’t get enough of those things.

Word on the street is that will be changing: American 7-Eleven is trying become more like the super awesome version they have in Japan. There’s a 7-Eleven less than a mile from where I live, so we shall see.

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How fresh is it though…

Acceptable substitute

One of my favorite fishes to eat is raw salmon. (Grilled on a hibachi is also acceptable.) Unfortunately, I haven’t the money nor the time to drive to a Japanese supermarket to buy fresh, “sushi grade” salmon. Therefore, the only time I actually eat salmon sashimi is when I’m at a sushi restaurant, or a poke restaurant. Shame.

I was over at a friend’s house, and I noticed in his fridge a package of farm-raised salmon purchased from Costco. I remarked the fish looked good enough to eat raw - I wonder if we can. To the Reddit! First things first: apparently, “sushi grade” is a bit of a scam. There isn’t any governing USDA rule that qualifies a cut of fish fit to eat raw. It’s all marketing, though I suppose a supermarket better be damn sure it’s absolutely safe if the package claims sushi grade.

Anyways, according to Reddit: Costco farm-fresh salmon should be fine to seat sashimi-style. The fish is delivered frozen to Costco, and the workers thaw it for retail packaging. The frozen part is important because that’s the procedure that kills the bad stuff. If you still have some apprehension, the best practice is to freeze it yourself for seven days after purchase. That should effectively (99% with an asterisk like a Clorox bottle) kill anything that can potentially upset your stomach.

Armed with this newfound information, I bought a package of Costco salmon last week. I cut up the fillets into meal-sized servings (for me, which is about 3/4 a pound), then put it all into the freezer section. A week later - that would be yesterday - I thawed a piece, sliced it up, and prepared the soy sauce for dipping. Verdict: it’s very decent, no worse than the cubed salmon served at poke places.

For a fraction of the cost of the truly fresh stuff from a Japanese supermarket, I can totally get used to buy Costco salmon for a long time to come. Proteins and omega−3 fatty acids, baby.

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Yes, my knife skills are poor.

That's not sushi

Jesus Christ is it cold. The weather app on my iPhone says it’s currently 40 degrees outside, though I bet it is actually colder still. Looks like for the rest of today the mercury won’t rise above 50 degrees. Just last week I was talking about a string of unseasonably warm weather here in San Francisco. Well, guess what: winter is back, baby! It even hailed last evening. My poor BMW M2 that’s parked outside…

I would like to switch gears completely and talk about sushi. Ever since I came back from Japan back in 2019, I’ve seldom had sushi here in the States. After I’ve tasted the real quality stuff in Japan, the sushi we get here is just depressing. There are some good spots here in the city, but man do you have to pay a lot for it. In Tokyo, any old neighborhood sushi place is better than most of the Japanese restaurants here.

Hopefully Japan - and rest of Asia - opens back up soon without quarantine restrictions.

When I say sushi, I am speaking of the type where it’s just a slice of raw fish on top of a piece of rice. Sometimes it’s wrapped in a piece of fried seaweed. That’s it. I would not classify the fancy rolls we get here in the States as sushi. Too many ingredients, too complicated to make. The California roll and its similar brethren are more of a fusion-style burrito with ingredients from Japanese cuisine. Not to say those rolls aren’t delicious, but it’s not what I’m getting when I’m craving sushi.

Obviously today would not be a good day for cold pieces of fish. Tonight’s dinner call for fresh rice, piping hot soup, and Chinese barbecue pork. Now to get through the work day to get there…

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It’s heated seats and steering wheel season!