Daily Archives: October 16, 2009

Acting Supreme Patriarch of Thailand

This morning in Samut Prakan we had the rare honour of a visit by Somdet Phra Phuttacharn (Somdet Kiaw) the abbot of Wat Saket in Bangkok. However, this is no ordinary monk as he is the Acting Supreme Patriarch of Thailand. He is effectively the leader of all Buddhist monks in Thailand. He came to Samut Prakan to open a new building at Thong Siang Vegetarian House. Tomorrow is coincidently the start of the Chinese Vegetarian Festival and for the next ten days there will be religious ceremonies here every day. I will be going there tomorrow for the opening ceremony and I will be reporting here and over at the Samut Prakan Forums and at our Samut Prakan Online News website. We have quite a few interesting news stories being published there recently.

How to cook… Crispy Fried Vegetables

It is that time of year when people are eating vegetarian food for ten days. So, I thought we should kick off the festival with this simple dish. You can basically use any vegetables that you like, but in the ingredients pictured below, you can see green beans, onion rings, mushrooms, baby sweetcorn and sliced carrots at the bottom. There is also a dish of flour.

It is very simple to cook. Just mix the flour with some water to make a smooth mixture. Heat up some oil in a wok. Dip the vegetables into the batter and then into the hot oil. Starting tomorrow I will be eating vegetarian for ten days for the Chinese Vegetarian Festival. I will be posting here pictures of the religious ceremonies at the Chinese temples as well as pictures of the vegetarian food markets and the food that I am eating. I will be posting a lot of pictures over at the Samut Prakan Forums and www.Paknam.com.