Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Whatever happened to Tyson Wong Ophaso?

October 3

People obsessed with the New York food scene, of whom there are more than is reasonable, might be glad to know that Tyson Wong Ophaso, the good-natured Thai-born former executive chef of Chinatown Brasserie, has landed on his feet in Los Angeles, where he is corporate chef for the Domaine Restaurant Group.
A press release that landed in my e-mail inbox says his first task was to rework the menu at Red Pearl Kitchen to make it more reflective of Southeast Asian street food, although the new menu items it mentions are mostly Cantonese, and the editor in me must point out that China is not part of Southeast Asia, which comprises 10 countries that I’ll list below for the curious.
Menu items include steamed and pan fried dim sum, shrimp har gao, pork shu mai (that’s the Japanese spelling of a Cantonese dish, although it is a popular snack in Bangkok, where it’s called khanom jeep), and a bunch of dishes in pancakes that come from farther north in China.
Noodles (which are Chinese but common enough everywhere else) and Thai curries are available as well, however.

And now, the countries of Southeast Asia in alphabetical order:
Brunei
Cambodia
Indonesia
Laos
Malaysia
Myanmar
The Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Vietnam

Thank you.

2 comments:

JB said...

You are soooo smart editor boy.

Bret Thorn said...

I simply benefit from having lived in Southeast Asia for a number of yearts. It doesn’t take a genius to have a general familiarity with the region where you live.
But I get sent all sorts of misinformation that puts countries as far flung as Japan and India in Southeast Asia. I figured I might as well write out a list for those who might be curious.