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Ajarn
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Posts posted by Ajarn
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After ITV reported this story yesterday, they went on to list all the Thai singers and actors who've been busted in the last few years. Quite a few.....
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"Although the tropical storm has weakened from a 'typhoon', it is anticipated to be as powerful as the 'Gay' typhoon
I wonder what they mean by that.... If it is as powerfull, it's a typhoon, too, right? So, if it's not a typhoon, how can it be as powerful?
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Batten down the hatches!
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No Septic, me, but is it really necessary to have a turkey as the bird for thanksgiving? Why not goose, or duck (or sick buffalo )?
Tradition, sir. It was the meat served at the historical dinner with the Indians
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Foolish to 'bet' on the baht, imo. The playing field isn't level with the billions of baht being poured in to try to stabilize the baht. That has been government policy for many years, and was one of the primary reasons for the collapse of the baht in 1997, when the government couldn't cover the margin calls...
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Some research I read said that it was in Europe before hitting Mexico- in other words, chilli peppers were introduced to Mexico by Europeans.
But, still, the most interesting fact, to me, is what dugdig mentioned- that chilli peppers aren't native to Thailand...
Here are about 20 more legends on the origin of Chilli (not the peppers)
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Chi...hiliHistory.htm
Any other suggestions for decent Chilli Con Carne in Chiang Mai ?
By the way, I used to love Fritos chips when I was a kid (Probably from living next to a local TV star who was the 'Frito Bandito' in commercials...)
Has anyone seen these 'Frito's Corn Chips' in CM?
Ajarn, I always believed that it was the Portuguese spice traders that brought chillies to India and the rest of Asia. Now they could have obtained chillies from either Mexico or south America??
According to this, the Portuguese got them from Columbus, but it's also possible, I think, that the Portuguese got them directly from Brazil in the 1500's...
From http://groups.msn.com/FoodiesCorner/chilehistory.msnw
Origins
We know that species of Capsicum were domesticated in tropical South America, although exactly where and when it originated is a subject of debate. Many believe chiles first grew somewhere in the area between central Bolivia down to southwestern Brazil, but this remains to be fully substantiated. Chiles did not, despite popular belief, come from India or IndoChina.
Peppers are the fruit of perennial shrubs belonging to the genus Capsicum and were unknown outside the tropical and subtropical regions of the Western Hemisphere before 1492 when Christopher Columbus made his epic voyage in search of a short route to the East Indies. The misconception of the origin of the chile stems back to Columbus' time. Columbus believed he found a new type of black pepper, thus naming it pepper. What Columbus really found was referred to as ají by the local populations. Ají is what we now call the chile pepper.
Although he did not reach Asia and its spices, he did return to Spain with examples of a new, pungent spice found during his first visit to the eastern coast of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Republic of Haiti). Upon his return, its popularity spread around the world
History
For the peoples of the Old World, the history of the capsicums began at the end of the 15th century when Columbus brought some specimens of a red fruited plant back from the New World to his sovereigns.
Plant remains and depictions of chiles on artifacts provide archaeological evidence of the use and probably cultivation of wild capsicums by humans as early as 5000 BC. By 1492, Native Americans had domesticated at least four species. In the West Indies, Columbus found several different capsicums being cultivated by the Arawak Indians. Later, a second species reached the West Indies from Mesoamerica along with other foods like maize, beans and squash.
Within 50 years after the first capsicum peppers reached the Iberian Peninsula with Columbus, chile peppers were being grown on all coasts of Africa, India, Asia, China, Middle East, Balkans, Central Europe and Italy.
The first European depictions of peppers date from 1542 when a German herbal, Leonhart Fuchs described and illustrated several types of peppers. It was not however, the Spanish who were responsible for the diffusion of New World foods; it was the Portuguese, aided by local traders following long-used trade routes, who spread the plants. Unfortunately, documentation for the routes that chile peppers followed from the Americas is not as plentiful as for other New World plants like maize, tobacco, sweet potatoes, manioc, beans or tomatoes. However it is highly probably that capsicums accompanied the better-documented Mesoamerican food complex of corn, beans and squash as peppers have been closely associated iwth these plants through history.
The fiery new spice was readily accepted by the natives of Africa and India who were long accustomed to food highly seasoned with spices. From India, chiles travelled not only along the Portuguese route back around Africa to Europe but also over ancient trade routes that led either to Europe via the Middle East or to monsoon Asia. In the latter case, if the Portuguese had not carried chile peppers to Southeast Asia and Japan, the new spice would have been spread by Arabic, Gujurati, Chinese, Malaysian, Vietnamese adn Javanese traders as they traded traditional wares throughout their worlds. And, after Portuguese introduction, both birds and humans carried the peppers inland. In the Szechuan and Hunan provinces in China, where many New World foods were established by the Spanish conquistadors, there were no roads leading from the coast. Nonetheless, American foods were known there by the middle of the 16th century having reached these regions via caravan routes from the Ganges River through Burma adn across Western China.
Despite a European "discovery" of the Americas, chile peppers diffused throughout Europe in circuitous fashion. Following the fall of Granada in 1492, the Spaniards established dominance over the western Mediterranean while the Ottoman Turks succeeded in installing themselves as the controlling power in northern Africa, Egypt, Arabia, the Balkans, the Middle East adn the eastern Mediterranean. Venice was the center of the spice and Oriental trade of central Europe and Venice depended on teh Ottoman Turks for goods from the fabled Orient. From central Europe the trade went to Antwerp and the rest of Europe. It was along these avenues that chiles travelled into much of Europe. They were in Italy by 1535, Germany by 1542, England before 1538, the Balkans before 1569 and Moravia by 1585.
Well into the 19th century, most Europeans continued to believe that peppers were native to India and the Orient until Alphonse de Candolle, a botanist, produced convincing linguistic evidence for the South American origin of the genus Capsicum
It was only after the Portuguese had carried capsicums and other American plants to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe that the Spaniards played a significant role in the movement of New World crops to places other than Spain, Italy and Western Europe.
Chile Etymology
Columbus was not in any way deterred from calling the Caribbean Islands he found the "Indies" and the natives "Indians" and the chile pepper, pimiento after the completely unrelated black pepper pimienta which he sought in his elusive East.
The indigenous Arawaks called the fruit axi, which was the South American name they brought with them when they migrated north to the Antilles. The Spaniards transliterated this to aji.
The Dutch and English were probably responsible for introducing the current capsicum names to the Eastern part of the Old World. In Australia, India, Indonesia and Southeast Asia in general, the term "chilli" ("chillies") or sometimes, "chilly" is used by English speakers for the pungent types whereas the mild ones are called capsicums. It is in the United States that the greastest confusion exists. Both the Anglicized spelling "chili" (chilies) and the Spanish chile (chiles) are used interchangably to refer to either the fruits of the Capsicum plant for as a short form for chile con carne.
References
Heiser, Charles. 1990. Seed To Civlization: The Story of Food. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Kiple, Kenneth & Kriemhild Ornelas. 2000. "Chilli Peppers". The Cambridge World History of Food. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 281-288.
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I've never been succesfull in getting the sticker price lowered, but got lots of free stuff like chrome push bumpers, window film, bed liner, reg fees, 1 baht of gold... This was from Isuzu.
Right, list price is fixed, but there is solid negotiating space about the money you get for any trade-in, and the salesman can be made to throw in absolutely any option you can think of, including his daughter.
...okay I made that last thing up, but even a year's worth of first class insurance worth 20K baht is possible, especially for cars that are like totally desperate for an update. (Like, how long has Mitsu's Strada really been with us.. Or the Ford-Mazda twins.. Who would buy those at list prices close to Isuzu/Toyota, unless serious extras were thrown in.
Cheers,
Chanchao
Right, I forgot about the first year's insurance free. I didn't think it was much until I had to pay myself the next year
On my car, they offered peanuts, but it was acceptable... Ended up selling it to a friend at that price- hope we're still friends
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Turkeys in the US are about US$1.30 / lb or about $2.85 / kilo. That would be about 115 baht / kilo.
Price depends on where you buy and what brand, of course.
"My pick: A fresh local bird. Prices really do vary quite a bit - even at the supermarket a fresh turkey costs more than the giant frozen ones that retailers nearly give away at holiday time ($1.19 and up per pound, A&P).
Next best thing: frozen turkeys, 89-99 cents per pound, A&P."
Time flies by...
The last time I spent a Thanksgiving in the States, turkey was 19 cents per pound at Safeway... About 15 years ago
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I've never been succesfull in getting the sticker price lowered, but got lots of free stuff like chrome push bumpers, window film, bed liner, reg fees, 1 baht of gold... This was from Isuzu.
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Some research I read said that it was in Europe before hitting Mexico- in other words, chilli peppers were introduced to Mexico by Europeans.
But, still, the most interesting fact, to me, is what dugdig mentioned- that chilli peppers aren't native to Thailand...
Here are about 20 more legends on the origin of Chilli (not the peppers)
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Chi...hiliHistory.htm
Any other suggestions for decent Chilli Con Carne in Chiang Mai ?
By the way, I used to love Fritos chips when I was a kid (Probably from living next to a local TV star who was the 'Frito Bandito' in commercials...)
Has anyone seen these 'Frito's Corn Chips' in CM?
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As pointed out above, it depends on many things... There really is no single standard... Best way to answer your questions is to ask the universities you say you're already in contact with. Anything else would likely just be rumour...
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Yeah, at the prices now, a 10,000 baht turkey is pretty ridiculous, na'?
I'll just sit closer to the chicken so it'll seem bigger, like a turkey.
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Did you know that chilli peppers originally came from the northern Mexico southwestern USA region and they are not native to Thailand or Asia at all.
More like S. America, then Mexico, Europe, Thailand. Just saw a program about that on the National Geographic station on UBC
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Frankly, most of the chilli I've had at farang-run places has been pretty good. Mike's Hamburgers, Mango Tree, The Saloon. Uppercrust at the Night bazarr is okay, too.
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I just called Rimping Supermarket in Chiang Mai, who says turkeys are not restricted and that they just got a new shipment of Butterballs from the States.... 490 baht per kilo. Last year, it was closer to 200
And about 10-20 baht per kilo in the States... ?
I just called another place in CM that's always sold turkeys and they said imports are blocked....
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The Magellan maps I've seen are quite scimpy on Thailand, as mentioned. Just main roads, mostly, but quite a few smaller towns, too. Nothing like in the States, where you can punch in an address, and a little voice tells you where to turn at each juncture....
I've never used Garmin, but most people I know have them... David U. swears by his. The only thing about the Garmin is, when I checked last year, their memory card was limited to the 16 meg built in memory- no adding bigger cards, which the Magellan offers... With the Garmin, you'd likely need to do regular downloads in order to not lose tracks and waypoints, whereas with the Magellen, I have an added 64 meg card that I can save to and download at my convenience. I also like that the Magellen has a colour screen...
That URL I gave you has some comparisons between the two manufacturers...
Good fun with this stuff, Chanchao, including world-wide treasure hunts and such..
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Chanchao, when I first got into this, http://gpsinformation.net/ was a great intro into the GPSR world... Prices are from just over $100US up to around $500 for the better of the portables... The main players are Garmin and Magellan. When I checked my unit in Bkk, it was roughly 100% more than the price I paid (about $470 as I recall) from an online store in the States. I couldn't find any company willing to send the unit to Thailand, so I had a friend in the States forward it to me. The Thai PO let it pass without duties... Just lucky this time, I think.
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I use a garmin etrex vista.
My map is a combination of my tracklogs & those of a friend, PLUS a lot of digitised roads taken from a digital map o Thailand, & converted into garmin format using OziExplorer & GPSmapper software. Got a lot of data in northern Thailand. Also done some digitising of main roads throughout most of the rest of Thailand. Only useful if you can load garmin maps onto your gps unit - the basic models don't accept user maps. I don't know what the 12 can accept.
Andy, I have a Megellan Mericolor, which I like very much, but the Thailand map is very scimpy with details, though the topographic part of the Thai map is pretty good.
The biggest annoyance is when my routes don't even match many on the road map, like in this one below, a screen shot of the same loop in my earlier thread, but against the Magellan map. Are the Garmin maps more accurate? Is there any way to trade maps between Garmin and Magellan that you're aware of? Or trading tracks/waypoints? I'm still relatively new to the GPSR's, but I find them quite fascinating to use... Amazing that these little units can constantly coordinate info between 12(?) satelites, and do so many simultaneous calculations for position, speed, direction, altitude, eta, etc...
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The Helping Hand, on Loi Kroh rd. accepts blankets and warm clothing for distribution to the needy..
Left side, just past the first group of bars when you turn onto Loi Kroh 053-279-467
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Scheduled to start next year, the study will be completed within 10 months, following which the bidding process to select key contractors will be started.
"The construction period should not be longer than two years," he said.
Two years... yeah, right. They've been dicking around with all of the highway underpass construction for what, about the last six months now, with not an awful lot to show for it. What sort of rail system do you suppose is gonna get constructed in two year's time?
when they first started on these underpasses, I wondered at the sense involved in doing such construction at the beginning of the monsoon season. But they were working,- days, nights, weekends... I was duly impressed. I then ignored it for many months because of the need to only pay attention to the evolving traffic patterns, and the confused drivers which comes with it... Interestingly, it's a pretty smooth process now on even the worst parts of the super and ring roads- I like the civilty (when compared to Calif. drivers)- the lack of horns, the relative patience-but-push-it-to-the-limits driving. Still, it seems, very few can make a decent u-turn....
When I started looking again recently, I also noticed how little seemed to have been done, especially on the middle ring road- where I'd been recently impressed by all the hard workers I'd seen. Since things have dried out, I see that work has picked up....
I do avoid the Super section as much as possible, especially when my car is still clean
I hope the rail thing will happen after I'm gone.... History says that's likely
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Khlaay=relieve, Khriat=tension.
Mind you I am a Thai and it took me ages (weeks)to work out what is the pronouciation of 'khlaay khriat' in Thai.
I'm not thai, but took me a while as well
Me, too. I thought it was Room close to hate (w/transposed r/l)
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talk with an almost neutral (and thus English) accent?
I don't think that an 'English' accent is neutral at all, but maybe to your ears it is. To me, a 'neutral accent' would be closer to Western US English. I've had numerous students comment over the years that they generally understand American English the easiest.... But, when watching some of these new Hollywood movies, or trying to listen to American music, I often understand very little!
And I think such 'accents' in America are more culturally-based than class-based like the UK. But then class structure is a part of your culture, too, so maybe it all still comes around back to same point... Language is a reflection of the local culture
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Ajarn,
I'm not 100% sure that SS does cover the average private language school teacher. I did print out the docs that Sumitr man sent me (remember I was going to get them translated?) but the ladies here said it didn't apply (and I'm pretty sure they checked with MoE or Labor Dept!) to us? If you have any proof or info to prove me wrong (and I'd love to be wrong in this matter) let me know and I'll pass it on to them.
Ken, all I know is from personal experience... I've used my SS card 3 times. Once in 1991, when I was a teacher in a UN refugee camp, once in 1993, when I was a teacher at CMU, and once in 1998, when I was a DoS in Bkk...
When I used the system, I wasn't working for any private school (the law says "Separate programs for civil servants and private school teachers")
Maybe someone from your company could contact the SS office to find out the program available for private school teachers... It could be that the program mentioned for private schools is the same as for government employees, which would be better than SS, or so I've read....
I'd forgotten about the private school exemption when I'd earlier said ALL legal employees in Thailand are covered
, but, still, there does seem to be something there for the private school teacher, too.Good luck in untangling the mess
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Reminds me that there is a very decent boutique resort in Samoeng town. Can't remember the name, but as you hit town, turn right and start bearing to your left, looping around the backside of Samoeng- a couple of k's only.. Cottages in the trees with fan/air are 700 baht up...Nice romantic restaurant, too
A few meters further, is a funky little place (wannabe housing development, it seems) with nice houses for rent from 4-8,000 per month, furnished. One house, a 2 story, is completely made from river stone...
Enjoy Samoeng while you can. Once they get going on that 4-lane hiway direct to Mae Hong Sorn, Samoeng is bound to change a lot.
Thanksgiving
in General Topics
Posted
Thanks for 'giving' us your land