Beautiful Sunday: I treated myself to Thai sweets at the Old Siam Plaza.

Life has suddenly become quite stressful as temple cats got abducted and killed by a psychotic woman during the evening. I tried to keep my balance and be mindful of all the emotional stresses. Life and practical reality had to run in parallel to the surreal and cruel reality at the temple. I had to get my solar panels’ sockets modified so I took the bus to the weekend market opposite the Old Siam Plaza.

My plan was to treat myself to my favourite Thai sweets at the food court in the Old Siam Plaza. But I had to get the practical things done first. The bus ride was much more enjoyable than last time as the traffic was light along Chinatown area. From the bus, I had the chance to take photos of the renovated shophouses near my old house.

More old shophouses were still under some renovation project by a tycoon investor. But I thought he was overly optimistic about the returns on investment. The real estate development would be under a lot of stress in the near future as global kinetic conflicts became widespread. But he’s a billionaire with countless investment projects globally, so he knew all the exogenous factors and we wouldn’t be privy to his hidden agenda. All things kept on changing!

I had a disappointing result at the weekend market as most spare shops closed on Sunday. I couldn’t find any spare parts for the small solar panels. But I had a good walk around this electronic spare parts market. Most vendors were quite helpful except the big store which wanted customers to buy their new sets of solar lamps. The market seemed so sad and quiet with only me walking around as vendors prepared to close their stalls. So, I took a short cut to the Old Siam Plaza to enjoy life in the afternoon.

The atmosphere at the food court was much more lively and optimistic than the electronic weekend market. It was late afternoon so many sweet stalls almost sold out their sweets. After an hour’s walk around the old part of Bangkok, I was ready to treat myself to three of my favourite sweets. I settled down for a bowl of mixed grains stew with coconut cream. I had to pay a bit extra ti have two types of sweets in one bowl, but it’s worth the experience.

Then I walked around hunting for the old Thai sweets made of several ingredients concluding roasted tiny coconut slices and sticky sauce. We called this old Thai sweet ‘Meang Kam’. The customary way to take this sweet: using one or two leaves as a base for filling in all the ingredients, then top up with a spoonful of sweet coconut sauce. You would have to be quite skillful in wrapping the leaves up with all the fillings and eat it in one take. I would usually spill something out of the leaf wrapping.

The taste was just exquisite as you could taste four or five sensations at once. You would taste the sweetness of coconut sauce, the fresh lemon slice, the roasted peanut with sliced ginger, a bit of chili and shallot including the sharp and slightly bitter green leaf. If I wasn’t lazy I would buy a whole set to be enjoyed slowly later. But it’s more convenient to get the ready wrapped up pieces on stick to eat while walking around the food stalls.

I had to walk up and down those stalls searching for my third choice of sweets. I was glad that the vendors hadn’t sold out the rice flour with coconut cream ‘pancake’. The Thai name is ‘kanom kroak’ but foreigners called this sweet Thai pancake which was recently voted as the fourth best pancake in worldwide ranking. The traditional kanom kroak would have only one kind of topping: shredded coconut meat.

Nowadays, vendors have gone too creative and created over ten kinds of topping for this tiny cup of pancake. These tasted best when they were still warm. So, I got a small box of nine pieces. I finished the whole box while sitting at the bench. I really overdid it this time! What an excellent treat I gave to myself! I needed this treat to console myself about the deaths of my four favourite cats at the temple and my failed attempt to repair two solar panels.

Life has been tough but I could still survive and gained some lessons too. I was so lucky to have rediscovered this old market place by chance. The newly renovated Old Siam Plaza would attract more customers who like old classic Thai sweets, pickles and cooking pastes made from shrimps. There were other snacks and traditional Thai food available, these wouldn’t interest me as I preferred vegetarian snacks and food. The few tourists who stumbled on this place were so lucky to experience delicious snacks and sweets inside the food court. I saw less than five tourists inside this place during my visits.

All gun shops were closed on Sunday!

I was glad that I stuffed myself with three kinds of sweets. I soon realized that I would use up all the energy bin a few hours later. I had a short walk to get to the bus stop to be back at the car park on the opposite corner of Bangkok. Then I decided to drop by to feed those temple cats which took me almost three hours. There were matters to discuss with the skinny monks and I had to spend more time feeding stray cats around the temple; they were very reluctant to come out as if they were still frightened by some bad experience. The money spent on those sweets was very cost effective as I made every bit very worthwhile.

Perhaps I would visit the Old Siam Plaza once a month. I still would like to look at those gun shops; they were all closed on Sunday so I could only take photos of closed gun shops!

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#beautifulsunday hosted by @ace108