Thai cuisine has
become my favorite foreign cuisine
for some years now. Therefore, after my Saturday morning nihongo class, I was
more than happy to finally visit the third Thai restaurant I found in Rio de
Janeiro.
Even
though it was my sixth time eating Thai food (I went twice to one restaurant and three times to other), I was not entirely familiar with everything they
use to include on the menu, so I tried a little bit of everything they had,
including things I usually don’t eat (fresh vegetables, to be more specific).
In the end, I enjoyed pretty much everything (even the fresh vegetables spring
rolls and fish dumplings), but it was the jasmine
rice with coconut milk and red curry paste, which was already a favorite of
mine since the visits I did to the other restaurants in the past, that saw me
repeating countless times. It was just amazing!
After
eating a lot, I just started thinking about Thai music, and how little I know about it, while on the bus
returning home. At the end, the closest thing I had on my cell phone was “cha cha SING”, a Berryz Kobo’s (Berryz工房) cover of a Thai song, which they
released as a single in July 2012.
“cha cha SING” is a
fun song in that comical/parody style
Morning Musume (モーニング娘。) liked to do around
2000, wich exotic sounding songs like “Koi
no Dance Site” (恋のダンスサイト) and “Happy Summer Wedding” (ハッピーサマーウェディング), for example. The arrangement is top-notch with all the synths and traditional sounds, and even though it may sound a little stereotyped at times, Berryz did a very
good job covering it (catchiness level is pretty high as well). Speaking of
cover, the original by Bird Thongchai
can be heard below.
“cha cha SING” reached #6 on
the Oricon charts, selling 33,001
copies. Lyrics were written by Mukek Jongmankhong, while Japanese lyrics were
written by Tsunku (つんく). Sudsan Wongsamut
was the responsible for music, and, finally, Kaoru Okubo (大久保薫) did the
arrangement.
Source: generasia.com
I do like my Thai as well (my stomach sometimes has issues but since my palate outranks it...). Tom yum kun is one of my favourite dishes but there is also one dish whose name escapes me right now...it includes ground beef and fried egg on rice which is wildly chopped up at your table.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've seen of the video here and for "Dschingis Khan", Berryz Kobo did like to really put the exotica into their performances. I was reminded of "Koi no Dance Site" seeing the video for "Cha Cha Sing".
I was surprised to find out that the unit apparently decided to call it quits a year ago, although some small bit of memory in my head may recall some announcement.
Hi, J-Canuck.
DeleteI'm pretty sure Tom yum kun wasn't on the menu, but I just googled it here. It looks delicious, and made me even more anxious about returning to the Thai restaurant.
Still dreaming about the rice with coconut milk here, though. I'm also thinking about cooking it at home...
About Berryz, it's a pity they disbanded, as, in the last few years, their songs were the ones I liked most in Hello! Project. As for the exotica thing, they surely liked to pull it off (or perhaps Tsunku wanted this image for them). If I remember correctly, their "Koi no Jubaku" single and "Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance" were also somewhat exotic.
Green coconut curry was really good when I tasted it once. Have a try of Tom yum kun...it's spicy and sour at the same time.
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