mrjohn

I assume "Photography" was the word Octavedave was searching for and I wish someone would come up with an answer, as photo lighting is something I am looking for too.

So you grow Fenugreek,Cardamon,Cumin,Asafoetida in your garden then.If so i will buy it from you .Obviously you know very little about Indian spices.

This reply is for starkey rich and so I apologise, once again, for going off topic.

I think it might be wise, starkey rich, on an anonymous forum such as this, not to make assumptions about people whom you have not met, and about whom you know nothing.

Food, more specifically Asian food, has been my life and my living for the past 40 years so I think I know something about the subject.

However, to answer your points:

We grow ginger, mint, coriander and curry leaves and, of course, lots of fresh chillies.

Cumin seeds are easily available here. Even Tops sells them and the fresh leaves from the plant are available in the market most days.

Fenugreek grows perfectly well here. I have grown it in my garden, but I don't particularly like the pungent, lingering smell and neither does my Thai wife!

Asafoetida is only used in minute quantities, so a small packet would last a very long time. Cardamon seeds are also available, although, admittedly not the same as the Indian small green ones.

It was the idea that you have to ship this stuff down from Bangkok, and that somehow this constituted a major expense, that I was questioning.

The most important ingredients for Indian food namely, chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric, fresh chillies, fresh coriander, onions, garlic, ginger are not only widely available they are, naturally, of the highest quality. I buy most of my dry spices from an old shop in Phuket Town where they are both cheap and wonderfully fresh.

So, as far as I can see, the only two items you would need to “ship down from Bangkok,” would be asafoetida, and good quality green cardamoms.

Actually, I have a problem obtaining large, black mustard seeds. So if you know where to get them let me know and, maybe for once, we farangs could be mutually supportive instead of constantly trying to score points off each other.

"Then you have the cost of shipping all of your spices from Bangkok."

Please excuse me for continuing the digression into Indian food, but I would be interested to know why anyone would need to ship stuff from anywhere at all when all the ingredients are widely available here.

Indeed, many of them are growing in your garden if you know where to look.

Just for the record.

I use CAT EVDO and it has been very slow lately and cuts out a number of times per day.

Prior to that it had been reliable and fast enough for about three months.

All these so-called ISP's have good and bad times.

The only consistent thing with them all is that nobody takes any notice of a complaint.

The Govt's meddling in it does not help...a few days ago Amazon UK was blocked by MICT!!!

Ok. But a lot easier to read your rant with paragraphs.

Even easier, but probably no more informative, if you could spell.

These signs are not written in English.

They are written in a Romanised script. This is to acknowledge that the Thai alphabet is not known outside Thailand. It is therefore for the benefit of non Thais.

Furthermore, in my experience there are very few Romanised road signs in rural areas.....

Biggest eye-sores on the island are all the microwave towers for mobile phones.

Doubt people would be willing to give their phones up, though.

Sorry... no, the biggest eyesores on the island are the piles of plastic waste and endless rows of unnecessary shophouses not to mention the jerry-built farang hovels (with obligatory swimming pool) that some gullible pratt (who has just stepped off a plane) will buy because their tiny minds tell them it's so, so cheap.

Not sure why anyone would get excited about a new Tesco. It will only sell the same old tat as anywhere else and will also contribute to the urbanisation (some would say total destruction) of a once pleasantly rural area.

I used to do this trip regularly but the last time was three years ago. So things may have changed.

You need to get an official translation of your vehicle's documents from a Thai Land registration office for a small fee. This will also give you a translation of your Thai number plate. When you get to the border ( Malaysian side) get a stick on translated number plate made and affix it to your vehicle. Your car will now (outwardly at least) appear to comply with Malaysian regulations.

You are also supposed to buy Malaysian insurance at the border to be legal but in my experience you are unlikely to be stopped or asked for this especially if you have the translated number plate on show.

Seems ear infections are a common problem here. I had constant itching in both ears for some time. Went to local Pharmacy and they gave me Lymarin cream. It worked pretty much straight away ( I carried on using it for a week or so to be sure) and the problem has not recurred.

http://www.phuketvegetarian.com/index_eg.htm is the official website.

Details of the various ceremonies and rituals are given, just click on the dates. Bladed-Ladder Climbing is particularly spectacular and the last night procession is not to be missed! Take plenty of cotton wool to stuff in your ears.

I recently spent some time with my wife's family in Chonburi. She has an aunt/cousin whose name is Nong.

Nong is in her late forties."So what do people call her?" I asked. "Pii Nong" came the reply. So what do I call her, because she is younger than me?

Khun Nong came the reply.

Two tier pricing is abhorrent because it is blatantly racist. You are charged simply because you do not look like a Thai. In most other countries this would be illegal. However in Thailand it is actively condoned by the government.

The additional problem here in Phuket (as in many tourist dominated areas) is that for every one of us long term expats there is a daily plane load of halfwits, happy to leave the few braincells they once had at the airport and pay the first price anyone asks.

Just for information, Rawai Hardware (in my experience) grossly overcharges foreigners.

I ran my own business in the UK for years and my instinct has always been to support local, family run businesses. Unfortunately here I tend to buy from the big shops where at least I have a chance of paying a fair price. Local businesses are shooting themselves in the foot and deserve all the adverse publicity a forum such as this can give them.

"One stall there has designer labell goods, sunglasses, purses etc at 100 baht each why pay more"

1 Bht, 100 Bht, 10,000 Bht What difference does it make? It's just a label.

Well I got the impression that the OP was asking about fish species or varieties, not looking for cookery tips.

Pla Tab Tim is an intensively farmed, freshwater fish and not to my taste. Pla Kapong (Sea Perch) is also usually farmed and is pretty tasteless. Both, in my opinion are best avoided.

If you really want to eat good fish then living in Bangkok is not the best of places as demand will often outstrip supply.

My favourite is definitely Pla Samlii (cotton wool fish) very plentiful on the Gulf coast.

The semi-dried version, Pla Samlii daet diaao is one of Thailand's great delicacies.

Tuna is very cheap and good (Pla Tuna in Thai)

Spanish Mackerel (Pla Insii in Thai) is great fish. The larger fish are more intensely flavoured and especially good pan-fried as steaks. This is a good standby if you are eating on your own in a restaurant where a whole fish might be too much for one person.

Best of all for availability is Pla Tuu. Much like a herring or sardine in flavour. Very good fresh and cheap at about 40Bht a kilo. But it can be bought at markets all over the country in bamboo baskets as a preserved fish for use in nam phrik, kanom jin etc.

"If so, how far into the language have you gotten?"

Perhaps you would be kind enough to clarify, but I can only assume from this that English is the language that you need to study.

I had a TV go pop a year or so ago - an old CRT type, not plasma or anything like that - and took it to a TV repair guy on Vised road near the muslim area. He put a new power supply in it and it's been going strong ever since - 800 baht. He also fixed a floor standing fan that stopped working - 300 baht."

Can you be a little bit more specific about the location of this TV repair shop. I too have a TV I need to repair and this would appear to be close to home.

"Agar agar is a seaweed based gelatin."

Sorry to be pedantic but.......Agar agar is a coagulant made from seaweed, whereas gelatin is a coagulant made from animal bones.

In culinary terms they both serve the same function. The only real advantage in using agar agar is if you happen to be vegetarian.

Gelatin is widely available, just look in the cake making section in any minimart or supermarket.

Tops sells a perfectly edible brand of miso which is made in Thailand for the Japanese expat community. It is considerably cheaper than the imported stuff.

Hope this helps

Phew!!!...... well, the animosity that can be generated on this board by a seemingly innocent request for information never ceases to amaze me.

There was a similar thread recently where someone tried to make an enquiry about the availability of sea salt. That too descended into a mindless slanging match.

To return to the topic…. should anyone be interested. And, johninthai I hope that, despite your justified protestations you are still reading……..

I think we may have been a little cross purposes given the myriad variations in the English language.

The flour which I use is imported from Australia. It is labelled "WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR (stone grind). To my thinking this is wholemeal.

I usually add a little white flour (from the same company labelled "hard wheat flour") which produces a lighter, less dense, loaf. The word, "hard" in baking terms indicates a high gluten content, or wheat protein which produces a bread with a better texture. Soft flours produce more "cakey" results.

Thailand often adopts the American way (this alone, is a subject worthy of some discussion) and labels flour "all purpose flour" which is both a misnomer and unnecessarily confusing.

Making bread is so easy here, given the friendly temperatures. You do not need a "breadmaker" which, in any case, would be imported and therefore expensive, but you do need an oven which is the only stumbling block. Thais don't use them in the home so they are shoddily made and overpriced. I am currently on my third electric one which has died only four months after purchase!

I am coming to the conclusion that gas ovens are better but few of them seem capable of the requisite temperature. Any recommendations here would be gratefully received.

For further information, there is also a very good baking supply shop in Bangkok Road, Phuket town on the right hand side just before the fountain.

There is a German or Swiss baking supply shop in Rawai which, I think is called Schmidt. They sell all manner of German bread mixes.

Now then, some of you, try and find something contentious in that!!

I remember one Buddha day some years ago when the local 7/11 was also refusing to sell soda by virtue of the same logic.

Only last month when in a one buffalo town somewhere in the south the 7/11 refused to sell beer at two minutes to 5pm.

Even my wife was amazed at this.

We walked down the road 5 yards and got a cold beer from the local minimart and a good conversation with the owner!

The moral is..... avoid "national chains" whenever there is an alternative

The topic under discussion here, was and is, "REAL WHOLEGRAIN BREAD" ........not baguettes, and certainly not "brown" bread. Good white bread has it's place, and there are good white breads available all over the island. Personally I rate the Bastogne white bread very highly. I have yet to try the bread from the bakery near Promphan.

But the issue was, where to buy good wholemeal (AKA "staff of life" bread).

I still maintain that the answer is to make your own.

I made three loaves of 100% wholemeal bread today at approximately 25 Bht per loaf!

Why not do what I do and make your own? Its not difficult and will cost much less than 60 Bht

I use Australian wholemeal stoneground flour from Tops or Villa Market.

Incidentally, I have not seen any where in Phuket that sells anything remotely like real wholemeal bread....and certainly not Tesco Lotus or Big C!

What, exactly does this topic have to do with Thailand???

Well you could try eating rice....this is Thailand, and there is a lot of it about....or am I missing something?

Anybody know where I can buy rocket seeds. I think Americans call it Arugula.

I am in Phuket and can't find it.

I have tried imported seeds from Europe but they always die off.

Recently I bought a packet of spinach seeds here in Phuket which must have contained some rocket seeds by mistake and they grew well. So I know you can grow the stuff just need to get the right variety.

Thanks to anyone who can help