LaosLover

We did a taste-off, And B+J is too sweet for us. Also, the vanilla Haagan Daz had a richer vanilla flavor. Pistachio-wise, true, B+J was like eating a can of pastichio's agglomerated with a little ice cream. I am bound for a Singapore getaway and will eat at the upscale middle eastern Artichoke Restaurant. They have ice creams in flavors like Honey, Rose, Orang Blossom, and Saffron-Pistachio. Saffron-Pistachio is available in the ME section of Brooklyn, and a few other ME enclaves in America. Never encountered it in Europe.

Gonna go with $300 a week. But that's for 2 people, every single meal out, every other meal in a place of the standard that might have wine by the glass. The only food I keep at home is peanut butter, bread, and hot sauce for takeaways.

Sparktrader, is that you?

100%. I like the idea of Ben & Jerry's mixing salty and sweet stuff and having interesting chunks of stuff to dig out, but the ice cream its floating in is good, not great, compared to Haagan Daz ice cream, which is flat-out great. Back in the states, they tend to rotate the flavors a bit. Chunk-wise, Haagan Daz pistachio is as good as a 5* middle eastern restaurant. Their chocolate-covered almonds in vanilla ice cream is beautifully proportionate. I find B+J tends towards an over-chunk ratio -if that can ever be considered a bad thing. The cynic in me notes that pretzels and cookie dough are cheaper fillers inside the pint container than ice cream. Rotation may be why I haven't seen an HD white chocolate, green tea ice cream bar here for a while. Again, like A dessert you might see in an upscale restaurant.

Just bought a $55 art book, Decoding Southeast Asian Art. More an academic deep dive than a coffee table book. Like a 5 minutes a page kind of book. It generates a little convo when I read it by the pool. Prob take a couple of months of dipping in and out of it to finish it. River Books does the best Thai Artbooks; I have about a dozen of them back home. Not into accumulating stuff, so I'll give it to the uni up the road.

You're too into this. Reeks of Johnny No-Mates.

Agreed. Saint Obama gave us the fist bump and that's my new go-to.

I've hit this with happy hours. 2 for 1 often (usually) means only off a short list of low grade drinks like Mai Tai's. If I want a galangal sour in a decent place, I ask first if its 2 for 1. At Uchi's Japanese Gastropub across the road from me, they have really evolved mixology drinks and are straight up 2 for 1, 4-7 PM. And they give me 15% off for being a neighbor. I'll be a customer at least once a week for life now.

Don't you kinda like the music?

I aint never been to Spain But I kinda like the music

I just never get the cargo shorts-hate. Don't you have to bring them with you from home? I can't recall seeing them in Central Dept. Store.

People assimilate primarily for economic advancement. For us mainly retirees, that's not a motivation.

In Manhattan, brunch means getting stuck eating with another dead wood couple or two that your wife or GF roped you into. Also, Prosecco and orange juice is just a terrible idea. Partic with a rich egg dish.

As a screwup who didn't make a dime before age 35, it was my simple middle class whiteness that let me keep getting second chances. Blacks get much less forgiveness. And I also credit my Brit mom for painting a veneer of middle classness on me. It sounds like the Man Who Would Be Jethro was less lucky.

Has anyone in your real life ever tried to make you feel bad for being white? Me? No. This sounds like more complaining about an abstract and far away "media". Just don't listen. You're white, it's OK. I can assure you that rich Manhattanites are untroubled by guilt or self-esteem issues. New Yorkers just assume on a subconscious level that they are superior to everybody else, just by dint of their zip code. Being "proud" of where you come from is the conceit of places where they name their sons Jethro.

Once they reheat the roast beef in its own gravy, a British pub is dead to me.

You live in cheapskate paradise, probably with a better looking woman than you could ever dream of back home. Why so glum, Chum? Why are you still fighting imaginary conflicts and pretending to be black? Or black-ish. Norman Mailer said he was a white negro. Are you?

.....Then again, for 1,500 baht a head, you can also do pretty well in an upscale restaurant just having whatever you want. A hotel buffet is more about choosing from 30 cakes. It's great to take first timers to, tho.

I wish the enormo-buffets started serving around 4 PM-ish. No way am I up to consume 3,000 calories around noon. Landmark Buffet along Suk Road is good one. So is Rang Mahal Indian. Here in Chiang Mai, The Shangri La looks good. I think of brunch as a dating thing -as in having it the morning after if I got lucky. So far, I haven't seen edible French Toast in Thailand. New Orleans -that's a French Toast town.

Wiki it. Participation trophies have been shown to be a good thing in helping kids develop. Not that I would know. I pretended to be gay to get out of gym glass. Decades before transgender rights.

Gagging to hear how much he has in common with his black brothers. Would love to hear a second opinion from said black brothers. American Black people have their specific thing. White people can't join it or claim kinship with it. Period.

Being "proud" of yourself is reserved for permanently aggrieved, self-pity-ers cosplaying as underdogs. Poor whites from Appalachia are "proud" of themselves, rich Manhattanites make no such claims. Being "proud" of yourself is life's lamest consolation prize. And if you are indeed, "old" why are you still wailing about half a century ago slights? Amazon has a poster for you to buy and put up on your wall: Buddha says: Let That ____ Go.

This is absurd. Most of the USA is pretty empty -and desperate for immigrants to keep the lights on. I grow Christmas trees back in the states. The tree's are going straight up in price. Reason: Guatamalans now prefer to paint houses up north to doing the harvest. One thing I really appreciate living in Nimman is the access to services, whether it's laundry, or enough wait staff in a restaurant. That hasn't been the case in years where I come from back in the states. You're waiting 30 minutes for a cheeseburger, it's cold when it arrives, and it costs $14 with the tax and tip. In the long run, we'll prob split our time between Chiang Mai and The Blue Ridge Mountains, but we're still ga-ga in love with life here, so call that half a decade at least.

Daily Reminder: Americans don't think of Europe at all, unless they are munching a slice of pizza at The Epcot Center. Lately, Europe's been in our news a bit, briefly referred to as the mass of countries adjacent to The Ukraine. Trump and The Republicans view Europe as a burnt out Socialist wasteland full of eggheads, commies, and chumps. This demented one way love affair from Britosphere righties towards Trump et al. reminds me of the unrequited love tales with shrewd hookers so often told here - often by the same would-be Trumpers. Try not to die as total cucks and suckers. He don't love you long time.

How brown are talking here? One man's dusky is another's cafe au lait. Don't a lot of Issan women work down there? If he wants browner, dial 1-800-CAMBODIA.