Jeow Bong

On August 10, 2025 3 Comments - Cooking

What is it?

Jeow bong (or jaew bong) is a Lao chili paste used as a dip or seasoning. It is powerful and complex: full of strong aromatics and potent citrus and fruit flavours, all tied together with fermented fish sauce.

One summer at the restaurant we had a food runner who’s mom was from Laos. We became pretty good friends and her family ended up visiting for a meal a few times. I had fun preparing interesting veggie dishes (off menu) for her vegetarian dad and sister.

Afterwards, on more than one occasion, her mom sent me homemade Lao beef jerky and other little snacks. One time I even got a full dinner-set of larp, sticky rice, sides and, of course, jeow bong! This was my first experience with Lao food and I was hooked.

Sometime before our food runner left to go to university, she brought me my own bamboo sticky rice steamer and pot set with a couple of little rice baskets. This was such a thoughtful gift and I use them often. Thanks Tounie, Émilie and famille Desrosiers!

Jeow bong recipe:

This is a very good recipe. I am always surprised at how incredibly delicious it is every time I eat it.

First let me say that although I am a professional chef, I am no expert at Lao cooking. I have learned to make a few dishes because I like them so much but I am still learning. When I looked around the internet for recipes, I found many different recipes for jeow bong. I pulled from a few of them, combining ingredients that I can easily get in my neighbourhood. Many recipes include pig skin as an ingredient but I left it out of this recipe only because I didn’t have time to pick it up. This recipe turned out very well without it but next time I may try with pork included.

Ingredients

  • 10 cloves garlic
  • 4 medium shallots
  • around 25 grams fresh galangal (one thumb-size chunk)
  • 20 grams dried chilis
  • 60ml (1/4 cup) of water
  • olive oil for frying (1-2 tablespoons)
  • 30ml (2 tablespoons) fish sauce
  • 6 kaffir lime leaves
  • 25 grams tamarind paste (a little less than 2 tablespoons)
  • 1 teaspoon MSG or Aji-no-moto (same thing, different name)
  • 1 tablespoon palm sugar (or use regular white sugar)

Process

jeow bong ingredients
Raw ingredients.
chopped shallots and garlic
Slice shallots and garlic into uniform smaller pieces…this will help them to brown and cook evenly and will make them easier to crush with a mortar and pestle.
chopped galangal and kaffir lime leaves
Slice galangal into smaller pieces, rough chop lime leaves (you don’t have to do this but it keeps them from bouncing out of the mortar).
grating palm sugar
Shave palm sugar…you can probably just cut off a tablespoon-sized chunk if you don’t have a rasp.
In a hot dry pan, toast the shallots and garlic. Keep them moving.
heating shallots and garlic in dry pan
When they start to get brown and soften up a little, they are done.
heating galangal and lime leaves in dry pan
Dry roast galangal and lime leaves. These don’t need to brown. Just heat them until they are very aromatic. Use your nose. It is ok if the leaves char just a little. Galangal looks like ginger and I guess it shares a little of the flavour but…it has a much sweeter fruity aroma. I think it smells kind of like pink bubblegum when you warm it up.
roasting chilis in dry pan
Roast chilis until they become dark and smokey. A few charred patches are ok.
all aromatics pictured with stone mortar and pestle for making jeow bong
Now these will get processed by hand with this stone mortar and pestle. I think most people probably use a food processor instead but I wanted to try it this traditional way. It was more work that I thought!
scissors cutting chilis to smaller size
Start with the chilies. I snip mine into smaller pieces with scissors first. This way they don’t bounce out of the mortar so easily when you are grinding them.
chilis after grinding in mortar
Grind and pound them into a rough powder.
galangal and lime leaf grinding in mortar
Add galangal and kaffir lime leaves.
Pound and grind these into a rough paste. This takes a considerable amount of time and muscle. I was surprised.
Repeat this process with the shallots and garlic…pound..grind..pound…grind.
adding garlic and shallots to mortar and grinding into paste
This looks good to me. This is much rougher than would come out of a food processor (or a jar) but, I like the rustic look and once you cook it out everything relaxes into a nice soft paste.
Heat oil in a heavy pan.
cooking paste from mortar in pan
Add all of the paste from the mortar and warm it through.
Add the fish sauce, palm sugar, MSG, tamarind and water.
cooking paste while reducing liquid
Cook over medium heat stirring often.
finished jeow bong in pan
Once it cooks down to a sticky paste, it is done. Remove from heat and cool it down.
cooling jeow bong
Finished product! This is definitely chunkier than you would get if you bought it in a jar. But, it is delicious and easy to eat. Addictive! Personally, I like this rustic homemade look out of the mortar and pestle. If you want something perfectly smooth, use a food processor instead.

Now what?

Store the paste in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

You can use your jeow bong as a dip for meats or veggies or mix it into stir fried dishes. Or, try swiping a little onto a ball of warm sticky rice and popping it into your mouth. This is my favourite way to eat it.

Go easy with this stuff. It is surprisingly powerful!

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below.

Thanks for reading : )

If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here.

Diagram

On August 2, 2025 2 Comments - Photography

***this post will not work in tiny form on your phone. Have a look on a bigger screen if you can***

What’s a diagram?

In broad terms, a diagram is a visual representation of an idea or a system of related parts. It might explain how the parts function together or, it might just depict how the parts relate to each other in physical space. A diagram is usually a drawing or a flow of symbols representing and simplifying the workings of something.

Can a photograph be a diagram?

I think so. A photo can be labeled with words or over-laid with symbols that clarify what you are looking at or, how the different things in the photo relate to each other. I can remember school textbooks full of diagrams, from drawings showing the organs of a plant cell to photos labeling the parts of an airplane wing. I would pour over them for hours and I still love looking at them today.

It seems like a lot of old technical instructions came with roughly labeled black and white photos too. I had a motorcycle repair manual that was full of terrible black and white photos with what looked like taped-on labels. Things like lawn mowers, power tools, instruction manuals from small factories…these often used to come with labeled photos.

When I was a boy, some of these diagrams inspired me to take apart appliances when my parents weren’t home and draw pictures as I went so that I could put them back together again. These were my own diagrams and they worked! Usually…

IKEA

IKEA is notorious for it’s cryptic diagrams aimed at having a single instruction manual that works across all languages and cultures. This is a pretty ambitious goal and I don’t think it always works. The IKEA diagrams have become kind of a universal joke with anyone who has had to sweat over assembling a flat-packed bookcase or file cabinet. Over the years, I have gotten a little better at understanding them but….I also think I could improve them quite a bit. That would be a fun job : )

The Calypso

The Calypso was Jacques Cousteau’s ship. When I was small, all I could think about was the ocean. I read everything I could in the school library and then begged my parents for my own Jacques Cousteau Encyclopedia. Eventually they got me the books. My absolute favourite book was the last volume. In it was a 4 page foldout of all the rooms and systems on the ship. Both sides! The rest of the books are long gone now but the Calypso book is still on my bookshelf. This is a classic diagram with numbered lines that correspond to a key on the opposite page. It is one of my favourite diagrams of all time.

Here is one side of the Calypso diagram:

diagram of Calypso, Cousteau's ship
Jacques Cousteau Encyclopedia Volume 21 Calypso Quarters and Equipment Starboard Side, 1978

How we arrange all of our “things”

Something I like to do on Instagram: when someone posts a selfie or other photo taken inside their house, I like to zoom in on the backgrounds and have a look at what is on the walls, what is on a bookshelf or a table. I like to see how people arrange their “stuff”. The background is sometimes more interesting than the main subject.

With that thought in mind, I had a look at some of my old photos and also around my apartment to see how my things were arranged and how they might relate to each other. Sometimes arrangements seem random but other times there are patterns…the stuff we use more often is easier to access. Or things that get used together are grouped together. Sometimes there is a logical flow to the physical arrangement of our things. And sometimes, there is a kind of beauty to the random placement of things, how they just happen to end up in space. I often think how difficult it must be for art directors on a set to get all these kinds of details just right to make a fictional environment feel believable.

My photo-diagrams

Below are some diagrams that I made of stuff around my house or things in past pictures. I like the look of these kinds of labeled photos. They remind me of old parts manuals or science fair projects when paper and glue was the only way…

diagram labeling contents of living room shelf
Built-in shelf and contents south wall (fire hazards in yellow highlight).
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025
diagram of small student kitchen
Student kitchen Toronto Canada (potential fire hazards in yellow highlight).
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025
diagram of guitar effects pedal board
Guitar effect pedals mounted on board (yellow arrows indicate flow of current through circuits).
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025
kitchen shelves and contents
Gas pipe and raw lumber shelving with contents, kitchen, north wall.
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025
coffee workflow
Coffee workflow from bean broker to mug (orange indicates potential danger from scalding).
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025

Diagrams as art

I think there is something meaningful and personal about the way we arrange our “stuff”, our tools and our less functional objects. And I also think there is both art and science in good diagrams. I tried to combine both ideas here into something fun and engaging. What do you think? If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below. And subscribe if you would like a note about new posts. Thanks for reading!

If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here.

Queen Street East

On July 31, 2025 4 Comments - Photography, Toronto

***your phone will magically turn good pictures into bad. Try looking at this post on a bigger screen if you can***

To Book City in the Beaches

This morning, I finished up the last chapter of a fat book that I have been reading for a few weeks. I had a new title in mind so I decided to take a walk from my place to the Book City in the Beaches neighbourhood. Book City is one of the last independent bookstores so, in an effort to support small business, I try to buy most of my books there. And, lucky for me, they had a single copy of the book I wanted. This long walk would take me along most of Queen Street East through Corktown, Leslieville and to the Beaches (named for the white sand beaches nearby along the shore of Lake Ontario).

Return flight

Since I had my camera with me and since I don’t get to the Beaches very often, I decided to take a few photos on the 7km walk home. Compared to the rest of Queen Street, this area has some truly old and interesting low rise architecture and businesses. Some blocks of Queen Street East are so quaint, they almost have the old-time feel of a cottage-town main street. The commercial areas are mostly undeveloped (so far). There is even a gas station right out of the 1950’s with pumps that look like refrigerators, full service attendants in uniform and a round glass reception area. I am excited to take some pictures of it at night! Coming soon!

The Photos

I had not planned on posting about this so I was just taking random pictures for fun. The photos are not really meant to be representative of anything. I just liked enough of them that I wanted to share them. They are generally in chronological order from the Beaches travelling west back towards Corktown.

Time for a pint….
Colourful old-school aquarium shop. You don’t really see too many of these around anymore. When I was a kid, fish were very popular pets and every shopping mall had a huge aquarium shop. I did see many just like this one in Japan and Korea with tanks of pet fish and plants on the sidewalk.
Melba Studios: I just like the look of this place. The old windows and the green paint. I think it is a ceramic studio.
Maru Japanese Bistro. These rainbow benches are all over the sidewalks here.
There is something about hand painted signage that i just love. The graphics here are so cool. The colours too. And the globe lights…so retro.
Dave’s Hot Chicken and electric bike delivery guy. These guys are such a part of the cityscape now. When I go walking and I don’t see one of these guys for awhile, I feel like maybe I have gone too far and it’s time to turn back towards home.
Old pawnshop.
Boston Discount Store at Queen and Boston Street
Jack Black, Pet M.D.
Queen Books.
This is a corner garden centre and cafe. I like the mural but I wonder why it is 11 o’clock? There is a lot of colour everywhere in this neighbourhood. It is the first thing I noticed. A lot of Toronto, especially newly redeveloped Toronto is…well…”neutral”.
Wonderful bulky old building with original windows and paint. Those apartments up top must be incredible. Ali Baba’s…good quality fast food.
Riverside Bridge/Queen Street Viaduct crossing over the Don River. “This river I step in is not the river I stand in”. That’s a Heraclitus quote…feel free to discuss amongst yourselves in the comments. I don’t recommend stepping or standing in the Don River these days. I am pretty sure that clock is broken.
4644 and 4441 meet face to face on the Riverside Bridge. These colours make me happy: the vibrant TTC red framed by the dull green bridge. It’s a good picture.
“Who is Jesus?” billboard beside faded Bay Cat Hospital sign. I had a cat neutered here once but I have not read the Bible in some time.
Concrete bridge-support art.
Speaking of colourful, Thruway Muffler is the sickest colour of pink. This crazy bubblegum colour covers the entire giant auto repair garage. Beside it is Spaccio: commissary kitchen, grocery store and restaurant that is part of the Terroni group. They have the absolute best frozen take home pizzas, a bargain at 2 for 20$.
Poke bowl billboard with float plane.
I like the lines, light and colours here. These old brick factory buildings are real beauties.
“Scenic Route” art posted on a row of boarded up and abandoned houses on River Street.
A rare selfie…Hello Neighbour

The End

Hope you enjoyed some of these photos. Queen Street at the Beaches is lined with fun and unique shops and restaurants and is definitely worth a visit. I will be back soon for some night photos. As always, if you have anything to say, even if it’s just “Hi” feel free to comment below.

If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here.

,