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Thailand is synonymous with idyllic islands of sparkling white beaches and crystal clear waters, tom yum soup, Singha beer, bargain massages and a thousand smiles. Along with Bali, it was our Pavlovian response for a ‘weekend getaway’ when we were living in Singapore, and remains so, despite being halfway around the world from where we are now. Although California has its fair share of sunshine and the exotic beaches of Mexico’s Baja peninsula are just south from where we are, beach getaways still cost a fair bit, making it challenging to justify spending the time and money equivalent to a trip across the US for a weekend jaunt to the beach. Unless its a special occasion of course.
So when we found ourselves back in the humid tropics earlier this month, it was pretty clear that a getaway was in order. Pranburi is a district in Thailand’s Prachuabkhirikhan province, consisting of seven districts in total, including Hua Hin, a popular holiday destination for Thais and the Royal Family. We chanced upon this town serendipitously four years ago when I was in Bangkok for two weeks on a work trip. With a weekend to kill, and a distinct yearning to capitalize on my time in a foreign land, we decided to head to Hua Hin, given the relative ease of access and prices that were much lower than other popular beach destinations like Phuket or Ko Samui. Well, that was the plan at least until a friend volunteered Pranburi as an alternative. Lured by the prospect of the peace and tranquility that a relatively unknown fishing village offered, and upon discovering this decently-priced boutique resort, we changed our plans for what was to become the benchmark of a true beach vacation for us. After all, when your biggest decisions for the day are whether to take a stroll on the beach or jump into the resort’s infinity pool, or if you should read the latest issue of Fast Company or have another massage, it’s kinda hard to beat.
Praseban resort is a cosy 14-room establishment nestled on a strip of land shared with private villas and nine other boutique resorts. Our first visit was so unforgettable, we were excited to go back this time around and it did not disappoint. The laidback atmosphere provided the perfect antidote to the hectic schedule that comes with a trip back home.
For the price, the resort is a steal. We stayed in a beachfront suite which boasted an expansive view of the sea and the occasional fishing boat anchored on the shore. Rooms are well-appointed, featuring dark hardwood floors and tasteful furnishings with ornate Thai details. Every bathroom has a rain shower, and the resort’s stand-alone villa and Praseban suite are each equipped with an open-air bathroom. Service was impeccable and the food, amazing. We had all our meals at the resort, opting for in-house convenience over cycling out to the main village, a mere 10 minutes away. The objective of the trip was, after all, to relax, and to do it with a single-minded purpose befitting a major examination.
The resort doesn’t have full-fledged spa facilities although they offer a variety of reasonably-priced massage treatments such as traditional Thai massage, deep-tissue and foot reflexology, which you can opt to have in the comfort of your room or at a pavilion on the beach. We enjoyed the treatments so immensely the day we arrived – deep-tissue for me, foot reflexology for M – that we sought out another round of massages the next day.
With the hordes of tourists that flock to Southeast Asia’s beaches annually, Pranburi is a real gem. Although we visited during the ‘rainy’ season which lasts from July to October, leaving us with the privacy and tranquility that we were seeking, it wasn’t very different from our first visit in the ‘cool’ season (November to February) four years ago. Beach activity was limited to the occasional couple strolling on the beach, a fisherman returning from a day out at sea or the random neighborhood dog gazing out to shore. Granted, I’d have to visit in the ‘cool’ (and therefore more popular) season again for an accurate comparison, but it was clear that Pranburi remains largely untouched from the shortfalls of mass tourism. There are no large-scale, regular connections to international travel, small boutique resorts rather than major hotel chains are commonplace and the local ‘downtown’ area is hardly urbanized, as compared with Hua Hin. The beach is sparkling clean, local agriculture and fishery continues to thrive and most significantly, we’re spared the painful encounters common to Phuket and Bali where locals ply the beaches and jostle with each other to sell their mass-produced ‘local’ craft items for a living. Whilst it is an idyll that I hope will last longer than other destinations in the region, I know that realistically, it’s only a matter of time before Hua Hin’s real estate market saturates and investors start scouting its surrounding areas for new (hopefully sustainable) opportunities. Until then, we’ll just have to make the most of our trips back to Asia to set aside time for this small village overlooking the Gulf of Thailand.
Praseban Resort
173 Moo 4 Paknampran, Pranburi,
Prachuab-kiri khan 77220,
Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 32 630590-1 | Fax: +66 (0) 32 630589
Getting there can be a little challenging given its remote location, but the resort now offers car transfers directly from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, saving the hassle of a bus and taxi journey from Bangkok. If you have time to spare, the train to Hua Hin is a good option, and you can arrange for the resort to pick you up directly from the train station.
It’s such a joy to return home after some time away to be greeted, not by a furry four-legged creature with a wagging tail, but these ruby gems of anti-oxidants and good health, all plucked and ready for the next meal.
We prepared them in a salad with a handful of garden-grown arugula, tossed in an olive oil, white wine and lemon vinaigrette. These tomatoes were sweet beyond belief, providing the perfect counterfoil to the spicy bite of the arugula. Delicious.
We leave today for two weeks in Southeast Asia, including a couple of days at this beach resort in Thailand, which we’re very excited about. I hope to have time to post on the trip, and will be thinking fondly of these little shoots of summer in our garden.
Tomatoes
Chili
Radish
I hope you’re having a great summer, wherever you are, and see you soon!
Strange as it may sound, I’ve never been a fan of cakes. Chiffon, pound, cheese, cream, you name it, I’m…..passing on it. They’re like that classmate who seems “nice”, who you’d interact with occasionally, share a laugh, a look, a meal with now and then, but with whom ‘friendship’ never went deeper than the shallow levels of acquaintance. At birthday parties, when faced with the inevitable “Cake?” question, I relied on either one of two tried and tested replies:
(a) “Yes, just a small piece will do” (if alone) or
(b) “Thanks, but I’m sharing with (insert name of partner)”
I could try to expound on the theories that would explain this seemingly bizarre and anomalous trait on my part, but I don’t want to bore you with an essay about the ‘Cultural Attitudes Towards Cake and What That Says About Our Society’. Plus, I’m sure you’re dying to get to the recipe. Suffice to say that I generally have a preference for foods that push the boundaries of satiety and umami-ness. Between a double chocolate fudge brownie and a chocolate cream cake, I’d go for the brownie, even if it came from a hole-in-the-wall and the cake from Tartine Bakery. I think you get the idea.
So when I met this particular butter cake on a kitchen table in April, I greeted it with the standard level of respect and civility that you would expect at a State dinner. Courteous and polite, but not overly familiar. Little I was to realize that just one bite would transform my perception of this unassuming dessert. My mother-in-law is a formidable baker (as is common among the French women of her generation), and while I’m generally partial to her patisserie, this, this Cake, is special. The use of nut flour (hazelnuts or almonds, or both, depending on your preference), gives it an earthiness, while the alcohol plays a supporting role, providing that subtle kick that your everyday butter cake wouldn’t have. It is at once both light and moist, deceptively humble yet mysteriously complex in flavors. The recipe below is pretty flexible in some parts – you can customize the cake to include whichever nut flour and/or liquor catches your fancy.
Butter cake with Hazelnuts (8 servings)
This recipe calls for vanilla sugar. If none is available, omit it from the recipe and measure out an additional 14 grams/0.5 ounces of granulated sugar and add 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. The cake will keep for up to 3 days, covered with plastic wrap, at room temperature, after which it should be refrigerated or frozen. That is, if you have any remaining.
250 grams/ 8.8 ounces all-purpose flour
120 grams/ 4.2 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes
145 grams/ 5 ounces granulated sugar
15 grams/ 0.5 ounces vanilla sugar
11 grams/ 0.4 ounces baking powder
50 grams/ 1.8 ounces finely ground hazelnut or almond, or a combination of both
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon white rum, eau de vie or grappa
2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C/375 F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and alcohol with a wooden spoon until the butter is fully mixed in and no lumps are visible. Add the lemon juice, then incorporate the eggs, one at a time.
Stir together the flour, ground nuts and baking powder in a separate bowl and add it to the butter/egg mixture, stirring constantly until all the flour is mixed in and you have a sticky paste.
Butter a 24 cm/ 9-inch round cake pan and pour the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly with a baking spatula.
Bake for 40 minutes or until the cake is browned at the top and starts to crack.
Leave it on a rack to cool for at least 45 minutes before dusting with confectioner’s sugar and slicing it.
Ahhhhh la brioche! Any cookbook with a brioche recipe has a guaranteed spot on my shelf. I cannot adequately express the depth of my love affair with this buttery cake-like bread, how I spent so many days and nights fantasizing about its airy texture and indulgently rich crumb, mentally walking through each step of Damien Pignolet’s formula, before finally making my first attempt 3 years ago. Armed with a wooden spoon and tons of elbow grease, I finally mustered the courage to bake my very own brioche. The resulting loaf left me wondering why it took me ages to ever try the recipe, and like any crush, left me craving for more. Yes, more. More of that continuous mixing motion to combine a crazy amount of butter into flour, more of that patient, gentle coaxing to shape the lumpy, stubborn mess into a glistening smooth dough, more of the whole rising and resting cycles (no less than 3), more of heating up the kitchen to an insane temperature in Singapore’s 98F, sauna-like environment. After that first bite, I wanted to do it all again.
Since moving away from the sauna and into California’s dry climate, I couldn’t wait to revisit the brioche recipe with our gas transplant from the ’50s. But it was not meant to be. After 3 dismal tries (there’s something about this number I tell you….) with the dough petulantly refusing to rise each time, I gave up. I blamed the oven, the house, the climate, everything, for banishing brioche (and bread)-making from my kitchen forever.
So it was with no small amount of trepidation (and excitement) that I decided to take on the BBA Challenge. As my experience with Anadama bread showed, the real problem behind my disastrous bread-making attempts were not the oven, but the type of yeast we had. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to revisit my beloved brioche with that discovery.
Reinhart gives us 3 brioche recipes in his book – Rich Man’s Brioche, Middle-Class Brioche and Poor Man’s Brioche – each differentiated by the varying amounts of butter used, with Rich Man’s Brioche calling for the largest amount (16 ounces) and Poor Man’s Brioche having the least (4 ounces). The choice was clear: Rich Man’s Brioche of course! If you’re going to make a calorific dish – go the whole hog, that’s my philosophy.
The vital step in brioche-making is in mixing in the butter with the flour/egg combination. It’s extremely important to ensure that the butter is folded in properly to produce a smooth dough, instead of a lumpy one with pockets of butter scattered throughout. If you’re planning to take the manual mixing route, all you need is a wooden spoon, mixing bowl and huge dollops of patience and energy to work 16 ounces of butter into the flour. Leaving your butter out overnight to soften (as Suzanne did) would definitely help. I opted for the Kitchen Aid this time, seeing as it was the height of summer.
Although Reinhart recommends using the paddle attachment to mix the sponge (yeast, flour, milk) with the rest of the ingredients (flour, eggs, sugar, salt) and the butter, I found that the dough hook was the far superior attachment to do the job. Trying to get all the ingredients into a nicely shaped ball with the paddle attachment was like watching a car stuck in the mud. With the dough hook however, the butter melded into the flour/sugar/eggs/sponge mixture in no time, producing an oily, stretchy, pliable dough the color of gold. Once ready, I moulded the soft, gelatinous mass into a flat rectangle and stuck it in the refrigerator to prevent overfermenting. Right out of the mixer, its texture reminded me of a soft belly…probably a sign of what I can expect around my waist if I make this too often!
After 4 hours, I shaped the dough into brioches à tête, comfortably filling 4 medium brioche flute pans, which proceeded to rise beautifully both before, and during baking.
Having had these wonderfully indulgent breads now, I’m not sure I’ll be attempting their less-buttery versions any time soon. It would be like settling for canned pâté after tasting pan-seared foie gras, know what I mean?
If the copious amounts of butter aren’t enough to convince you to try this recipe, check out this post from Bea at La Tartine Gourmande who tries to explain some brioche love and shares a recipe from her mother. Don’t forget to check out these other BBA bakers for their brioche stories too!
- Phil at Of Cabbages and King Cakes who made all 3(!) recipes
- Dianne at A Stove with a House around it (Rich Man’s Brioche)
- Jenn at Pete Eatemall (Almond-filled brioche)
