カヤトースト ・ Kaya toast

カヤトースト ・ Kaya toast

カヤトースト ・ Kaya toast

ビーフレンダン ・ Beef rendang

シンガポール朝食 ・ Singaporean breakfast

パッタイ ・ Pad thai

タイの豚煮物 ・ Khao Kha Moo

タイレッドカレー ・ Thai red curry

時代がかわる。このブログを始めてからずっと、自然光で撮ってた。朝と昼は窓から入って来る光。夜は天井の電気。そして、その天井の電気の光の質はもううんざりだ。立体感のかけらもない、つまらない光。だから今日から、オルビスのリングフラッシュで照明する。カメラはもちろんRのチビのPowerShot G12のまま。

End of an era. Since I began writing this blog, I've been only using natural light. Breakfast and lunch were lit up by the light streaming into the window, and evening meals — by the light of the ceiling fixture. And it's that ceiling fixture light that I'm completely fed up with. Utterly lacking direction and depth, boring light. So starting today, I'm pulling out the Orbis ring flash to light dinners. The camera is, of course, still R's little PowerShot G12.

パッタイ ・ Pad tai

レッドカレー ・ Red curry

富士山の形のご飯に、タイレッドカレー。今使ってるカレーペーストは辛すぎますから、新しいのを探さなきゃ。ただ、このペーストの一つ良いところは、油のほとんど入ってないこと。今まで使ったペーストはいつも油が多くて、作ってから余分をスプーンで表面から細かく取らなきゃいけなかった。

Mt. Fuji shaped rice with red curry. The curry paste I have now is way too spicy, so I'll need to find a different one. The one good thing about this paste is that it's pretty dry, while most others I've used have a lot of oil in them. I end up having to carefully skim the oil off of the surface of the finished curry.

カヤ ・ Kaya

もう半年以上カヤトーストを食べたくて、どうしよう！日本に帰ってから、インポートショップに入る度に、「もしかしてここにおいてる」と思っちゃって、探す。いつもない。日本語で「カヤ」を検索しても、何も出てこうへん。今日も、ネットで買えないかと思って、検索してたら、たまたまレシピーのページにたどり着いた。

作り方は、びっくりするぐらい簡単で、早速今夜試しました。卵１個を砂糖４５gとよく混ぜて、ココナッツミルクを１００ml加えて、湯煎でゆっくり、混ぜながら、暖める。８０度になったところで、カヤは固まり始める。よく混ぜ続きながら、後２、３分温めると、出来上がり。

おいしい！久しぶりな味！

I've been craving kaya for more than half a year now. Didn't get any in SF, and ever since coming back to Japan, every time I pass an import shop, I search the shelves for kaya, yet none is ever available. Searching for kaya in Japanese yields no results, either; for some reason this product just didn't make it into the Japanese market.

Today I tried to see if I can find somewhere on the web that sells kaya and ships to Japan, and stumbled upon a recipe. It turned out so simple that I decided to try it out as one of my midnight cooking experiments.

To one egg thoroughly mixed with 45 grams of sugar, add 100 ml of coconut milk, and slowly heat on a double boiler for about 8 minutes, whisking constantly. Once the temperature reached 80 degrees (I stuck a thermometer between the wires of the whisk), the mixture started thickening. Probably the ovalbumin denaturing; good to be able to verify the temperature in practice. I kept it in the 80-85 range for a while, and once no more change was visible anymore, raised the temperature some more. At 87, another round of thickening happened. Cooking for Geeks doesn't list any proteins in eggs that should denature at that temperature, but perhaps there are some in coconut milk, though it's not supposed to have much. I don't imagine that diluting the egg should do anything to the temperature at which proteins denature.

Anyway, this must be the most rewarding thing I've been able to do in the kitchen in ten minutes, ever. I was really happy to eat kaya toast with tea.