Since the Tsunami hit the South of Thailand and many other countries on the Indian Ocean I have been putting of sending in my column about food. I had wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year but the big wave changed all that and I did not feel like celebrating.
 
          I felt so helpless because I wanted to go down south to help out but my son had just returned to Thailand from school in Australia. I had my children go donate money and clothing and dry foods but although I had wanted to give blood I felt frustrated because I had hepatitis when disqualified me as a donor! But I did send along E-mails requesting special blood type donation to all my farang friends.

         My office staff and I are going to wait until temporary housing is built for those in the affected area. Then I will ask for McDang Club members to donate money and join my office in buying cooking implements for household use such as pot and pans and charcoal stove.

          Buy them by the truck load and donate them to the Thai Red Cross or take them all down there ourselves. This is the first idea that came to mind. I also realize that donations will still need to be maintained in the long haul so I still will have the opportunity to participate and contribute to my countrymen, women and especially the children throughout the years.

        So what should we try at this restaurant. To start off with you need to get some fried appetizers, which were unusual and delicious. There was the fried seafood salad wrapped in edible rice paper, breaded and deep-fried.

       This is usually quite sweet in other restaurants but the filling was delicious and delicate. It tasted like they bind the filling in a white sauce with a little sugar and lemon juice. Batter fried stuffed lotus roots or eggplant was ver different from anywhere else I have eaten.

         It was not greasy, there was not too much stuffing for it to spill out as you bite into it. The eggplant literally melted in your mouth while the lotus root was crunchy. I dip them in the Chinese vinegar sauce but you can dip it in the fermented soy bean and chili paste as well.

          You might say that I only like greasy food but the three fried items were not really that greasy. You will need to remember that Beijing is a very cold city and you need fat in your diet and carbohydrate to keep you warm.

          We did have two dishes that were not fattening. Fish done two ways. One filet of the fish was cut into small slices, stuffed, rolled and put back into one piece and steamed while the other is scored and deep-fried and a sweet and sour sauce is poured over it.

           Both preparations were perfect. The sweet and sour sauce was not the same gooey sauce that you would get at other Chinese restaurants. It was delicate and very well balanced in taste between sweet, sour and saltiness.

          The other dish was a fish mousse formed on shrimps to look like birds. These little bird fish mousses are steamed and served with fried quail eggs in a bed of fried match stick potatoes. I liked the quail eggs more than the mousse but watch out for cholesterol!