Some of my earliest memories take me to a restaurant that occupied the first floor of a midcentury building in the Silom area of Bangkok. I can see my family seated around a large round table as ceiling fans turned slowly above us and the traffic of older waiters in
My paternal grandmother hailed from the north country. That made her a descendent of the Lanna Kingdom, and in photographs from her younger years, you can see hints of that bloodline in her pale skin and elongated features, Chinese-like, but not completely. Years later, having moved to Bangkok and married
When I was young, going to the beach meant gorging on sweets. The drive south from Bangkok to the seaside town of Huahin took more than a couple of hours, and Phetchaburi, a small city that has established itself as a destination for traditional Thai sweets and snacks, lay at
Pad Thai is the most misunderstood noodle. Its best incarnations are difficult to find outside of Thailand, even as the basic ingredients are now readily available abroad. I think back to the Pad Thais of my childhood, freshly made at a Bangkok street stall and packaged to go in banana
One of my earliest memories involves a table on fire. I was no more than three or four years old, and I was celebrating some occasion with the paternal side of my family at a Bangkok restaurant. In the middle of the lunch, someone knocked over a gel-fuel buffet warmer
Every flea market has a bin of found postcards for sale. Some notes, however, wait to be mailed.
Bus lines across New York are being rerouted this summer, if not cancelled--and where buses go, so goes the city.
For people who lived near the World Trade Center, 9/11 can still be traced to debris that lingers around the neighborhood. A map of what the tourists don't see.
Bangkok's image as a city for sex, knife fights, and cobras is burnished to a shine. A trip home finds some of that, but mostly it's ghosts--real ones--and they're not quiet.
Barack Obama is riding a wave of enthusiasm, and though we sense his sincerity, there's little else we know about him. Considering the man everyone seems to think should be our next president.
Hundreds of miles of pavement and incredible real-estate prices may suggest that humans have placed an indelible stamp on New York City. But the wilderness is just biding its time.
As more of his contemporaries have become practiced in making international wuxia blockbusters such as Hero, the uniqueness of Wong Kar Wai's poetic and enigmatic Ashes of Time, released in the mid-'90s, becomes clearer. Artful without heightened, action-filled pageantry, Ashes is a non-linear meditation on memory
Harold Bloom is perhaps our finest Shakespeare critic and certainly one of literature's most passionate lovers. Who knew he's a big chili fan too?
Pocky, a coated stick-biscuit snack, is ubiquitous in Asia. Now that it's available at ethnic grocery stores in New York and other cities with Asian populations, U.S. youths can get hooked on a variety of Pocky flavors, from the original chocolate to banana to "Marble Royal
The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake is a collection of works by one of the best American short story writers you've probably never heard of. He was a young man, middle-class born, whose adopted mountain-man persona informed his dark, emotional tales of Appalachian life. Having published
When you find someone who can cut your hair right, get engaged. Otherwise they'll eventually leave, and you'll have to find someone new. Someone who, in our author's case, would love to see you with a high-top fade.
Tired of picking up an esteemed magazine only to see that it has turned into a disguised catalog of what to buy next? Well, consume Stay Free Magazine. It's more than just about skewering corporate marketing with hilarious mock-ads. It's more than just articles about employee
West of Lillie’s Bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn, is a weed-tattered lot, and south of that is the Erie Basin, slated to become the world’s largest Ikea. Presided over by its eponymous owner, the bar shuns the neighborhood’s crossroads status and sticks to being a place with
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we help a nervous tourist understand that mystery of New York City transportation: the unlicensed car that will drive you either to your destination, or to your death!
It’s art, it’s play, it’s political protest—no matter what it’s called, street art is all around us, changing the face of our cities when no one’s looking. So what is it exactly? We round up some of the legends of the scene to talk about the history of street art, and where it’s headed next.
A used-book store stocks its customers' tastes and perversions, and then sells them to their neighbors. A Brooklyn shop find life after New York's Book Row heyday by providing a service computers can't beat.
The White House has found trouble in recent weeks with its security appointments, so the president boldly takes a new approach. Our writer reports on Andy Warhol's installation as the ultimate (and silvery) homeland defense.
Wars rage nightly over New York City, and most citizens have no idea what's happening. Pitchaya Sudbanthad rolls out with a Brooklyn crew of pigeon-flyers, returning with a story and photos of an incredible game of catch and conquer played out over city's rooftops.
Wouldn’t it be nice, when you’re on the verge of a big mistake, to have a personal butler escort you home? Author Jonathan Ames thinks so, in telling Pitchaya Sudbanthad about his new book, what he’s learned recently, and what it’s like to write for TV.
When half of the world's Hasidim live within a subway ride of each other, the disappearance of two teenage girls is big news, especially when they've run away to escape.
Not many people can play the claviola, and fewer still can use it to accompany lyrics by Neil Gaiman or Margaret Atwood. Pitchaya Sudbanthad talks to Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp of One Ring Zero, band of a thousand authors.
Author and appropriately-named candyfreak Steve Almond talks to Pitchaya Sudbanthad about the best unknown chocolate bars in America, espionage within the big candy makers, and what it’s like to set off metal detectors with your mouth.
Spalding Gray’s body was identified this past Monday, having been pulled from the East River after he committed suicide. Pitchaya Sudbanthad remembers the actor and monologuist.
There's a good chance the New Jersey Nets soon will be playing ball in Brooklyn. There's also a good chance a lot of local residents will lose their houses to make way for Frank Gehry's dome.
What Jamie Oliver does for young ladies with his pestle, Nigella Lawson does for men who love a summer’s plump tomatoes. But, as Pitchaya Sudbanthad explains, what Lawson does with monkeys is a whole different story.
