Prubangboy

I don't love Electronic Dance Music (EDM), but it was great to go to what was EDM Mini-Woodstock. It's a massive non-mainstream musical taste and a venue like FMP will def bring in some semi-names. Without drugs or dancing, it can be patience-testing. I think of it as disco on a budget. I'd liken it to: I don't love opera either, but if I went to Italy and a famous one was playing right down the street, I'd prob pop in. I like that you can go away from it and come back. All night. All walks of life and ages on the beach together. I can't think of anywhere else where that happens. Much more egalitarian and cross-political than the hippies were. It's always portrayed very negatively, but a google image of Nottingham Saturday Night will show worse. Prob 50% English, 20% N.Euro, 20% Yank, 10% Middle East; mostly couples, often EDM tourists who might also vacation in Ibiza or Tulum. Chiang Mai and Pai are also on their Thai itinerary for more of the same.

We made challah bread for our New York Jew landlord for Christmas. It had a proper brown crusty bottom and a proper rise due to a pizza stone. He keeps sending me French toast video's. If you bake more then twice a year, get a stone. 5,000 years of baking history is on my side. And the stone gets better as it gets more burnt. You want a dry, super-hot oven. That's why we put the sauce on lightly. Steam is the enemy of bread. A hot stone is the enemy of steam.

We tried it, with tomatoes straight off the vine, but it was a lot of work for a slightly inferior version to canned. Some ethnic foods deliberately include processed foods because that's the agreed upon taste. In New Orleans Cajun food, they use garlic powder AND fresh garlic. They like that earthy undertone of the powder. In Puerto Rican food, they make their own sofrito and scoop some out of a jar too. Most Indians (and Thai's) start with a glop of a curry mix and then customize from there. Purists are the enemies of gluttons.

Make that super-lite olive oil. Extra-virgin etc burns at lower temperatures. Dab that on at the end. We're going up to 800 degrees with an extra pizza stone on the upper oven rack above to refract heat. Any person here not using at least a single pizza stone needs to be mocked. I designate NextG for that needed task. He's right about the better ingredients in Euro-land, but they don't fire up the oven hot enough. Woodfired works for me too. Why Not? Italian in Nimman gets in the ballpark.

I love pineapple-everything and eat a mini-pineapple a day for fiber. The prob with pineapple pizza: Too acidic when combined with tomato sauce. Otherwise, I have no objections. Adding ham to it furthermore makes it too salty. I used to do a white pie (ricotta-base) with paper thin pineapple rounds (roasted, so not soggy), pine nuts, and gorgonzola dabs. Blue cheese and pineapple is a perfect combo. I think I'll have it on toast later on. We had an oven at home that went up to 1,000 degrees F and during covid became complete pizza-ologists. You want a 2-day sour dough rise, San Marzano canned tomatoes and not much oregano etc, and def no fresh herbs until table side, if at all. To get a crust that is both thin and chewy takes some kneading technique. It's a genius food of 3 ingredients. Anything else is dead weight. I tend to be anti-toppings. If pushed, maybe some decent, non-canned olives or possibly mushrooms. You have to worry about it being too salty. There's plenty of salt in San Marzano canned tomatoes. We grew our own SM tomato's but the canned kind worked better for pizza. In my native Staten Island, there is the noble tradition of the Grandma Slice, where whatever is heaving in the garden (basil, plum tomato's) is heaped on top of a reg. slice. July to September; then Grandma is done. Finally, I am disappointed here at the lack of snobbery about coal-fired ovens. They get the proper density of heat that nothing else provides. Outlawed now in New York, a few grandfathered-in shrines like John's in the village keep hope alive. After New York, and then after Staten Island (it's own pizza-world), New Jersey is indeed superb -no wait, there's the coal-fired Nirvana of New Haven too. Anthony Bourdain said that you have decide if you are a cheese or a sauce person. We are sauce people. We def go light on the cheese and substitute 50% parm cheese. I tend to pick excess mozzarella off my slice. Deep-dish? Like a bowl of melty cheese? Yuck.

Most tourists are here for the cheap beach experience. In America, with Mex, Florida, and The Carib close at hand, a 26 hour flight to get the beachfront room for 70% off is a hard sell. That's why I love Chiang Mai. To come here, you have to have some cultural interest. Of course, to 80% of the tourists here, a cultural interest means washing an elephant that's been already washed to death or taking a cooking class where they're smart enough not to let you handle an actual knife. We have marijuana and mushrooms everywhere now too for additional cultural experiences. In Nimman, at least half of the tourists don't even bother with a look-in at The Old City. We have our own, classier night market, thank you. Most people list eating and shopping as their #1 and #2 travel interests, so there's no need to leave this lovely little grid of 8 soi's between 2 busy roads.

Absolutely the least likely Enja fan on earth.

Love John, and Elvin Bishop was my first rock concert (he was opening for Donny Hathaway). But John was def a bit of a shy mope.

Disagree. Bangkok aint Paris, but toss together Jim Thompson House, The National Museum, The Royal Palace, a visit to the Thai Khon Ballet, assorted Wats the likes of which are found nowhere else, The Prassert Garden and on and on, and you could easily fill a week in Bangkok, dedicated only to cultural pursuits. And let's not forget the medical museum with 2 (two!!!) two-headed babies. I'm here for the culture. Living in Chiang Mai is like living in Florence.

A lot of people I might list would be a drain to even kill an hour with: Kafka, Picasso, Muddy Waters. That's why I picked cheery, blissed out Alice Coltrane.

A lot of hippie humor has aged badly (talking to you, Cheech and Chong). And so has a lot of that soft, Bill Cosby, banal observational humor, of which "Mom always liked you best" being particularly laugh-proof these days. I recall the Bros more for having the white hot hippie acts of the day like The Doors on (even tho it was the worst Doors song ever). Lenny Bruce -I loved his two books in high school, but he was terrible to watch or listen to on a record. He beat every bit into the ground, whereas in the books, his editors really helped him out. Dustin Hoffman in the film Lenny is much funnier and more bearable than Lenny ever was. Sort of like Joe Strummer: a one note try-too-hard. For me, the comedy legend from Long Island is Howard Stern (one town over from Lenny). Just like Bruce grandly elevated my poor, suburban angst, Howard legitimized the crassness of idiots like me as worthy (see also: Andrew Dice Clay).

Check out Fah Lanna Spa. They have a brutal massage with a thick piece of bamboo that's well within the Rolfing zone. Did it; fairly painful (but effective) -not running back. It's only available at the Old City branch and requires booking ahead (1,600 baht per hour). https://fahlanna.com/spa-menu/massage-10/

We did a thread here this year on the classic book: Hello My Big Honey -Love Letters to Bargirls. Published in '93. It's recently been reprinted by White Lotus Press, which means it has academic library value. The legend is that the hottie on the cover used to pose in front of Nana holding the book for dates -and that she died of AIDS (unverified).

No diss, but when did you last set foot in Thailand? A woman I know clears a grand a day working at a pot store (goodlooking, western-friendly etc). That guy I love here on the 10K a month plan is an anomaly -and in a long-term marriage. Can JoeBlow still hop off the plane and enjoy sex on tap for $10 a day? Maybe in Laos. I got several proposals there in June. But those women would be straighter in bed than Mormons. I'd want change back from the tenner.

TBL is still partying (in his long ago memories) like it's:

When they're openly displaying spliffs and mushrooms at Tapie Gate, that ship may have sailed. I went to The FMP this last Feb. MDMA etc. was being sold from kiosks on the two main drags of Had Run. About 3K people. Very well-behaved. So a bit of a letdown. The hotel wanted a deposit lest I leave fluorescent body paint on their sheets and towels.

Alice Coltrane https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/arts/music/alice-coltrane-jazz-music.html

According to an esteemed contributor here, he's still on the 10K baht plan. Maybe he was uh, grandfathered in? Last go-round on this tho, 30K seemed to the post-Covid #. Always an evergreen topic to kick around.

Agreed. If you are having sex with very poor people -who have all the usual problems of very poor people- it's unrealistic to expect them not to want/hope for a little of the cash that literally just falls out of your pockets. $10 a day (old rate?) for a girlfriend? I could prob find that in my sofa cushions. Is it for Mama, lotto tickets, or a new, enticing tube top? Who knows? Give or don't; but skip the moralizing.

This borders on clinical paranoia. You need to lead a 100% risk-free life. You shouldn't ever buy a toaster, lest the guarantee that comes with it doesn't pan out if it breaks. How indeed, does anyone know for absolute sure that any donation is going anywhere? What's to stop these evil miscreants from re-selling the rice? What are the odds that this micro-charity is a bunch of thieves and that just goes on and on for years? The odds are tiny. Get a grip. Again, OP, you're a lovely person.

It's not available too many places. Got mine at The Fa Lanna Spa in Chiang Mai. My wife reads a lot of spa menu's and can't recall seeing it elsewhere in Thailand. I might do it again out of further curiosity, if I was staying next to the spa again. Fa Lanna Spa had other stuff like being kneaded with a bamboo stick or having little widgets hammered in between your shoulder blades. There's a 5-hour program where you study trad dance in between various rubs and ancient treatments. More cultural than physical in benefit. https://fahlanna.com/spa-menu/ Whether these things are hype or not, the people who study them are very serious and dedicated. My Reiki person lives in a Reiki commune. I wish I could find proper shiatsu here. Someone mentioned such a person at The Meridian Hotel, but they didn't know them at the spa. It cost me 2,000 baht for the full Reiki hour. Make fun of me.

You are fronting your pub bore bitterness as savvy wisdom when you are in fact 100% content-free. Do you have any anecdotes to share of tiny charities skimming cash? I'm going to go with: Duh. No.

I don't have your gift of all-knowing, cynical clairvoyance. Everyone else in the universe but you thinks that giving money to charity is a good idea.

Def agree. It's a lovely thing to do. To answer your question, I'd buy the nicer rice, BUT: I always give money. It's the universal gift certificate, good in any store. A charity is always short of cash. It may be less satisfying to give cash to their general fund instead of imagining those winsome urchins enjoying your gift -but it will be much more appreciated than any specific thing you might give them.

Menopause: they put on weight, they have hot flashes, they go a little mad. I can def see trading down age-wise, but after 60, you're going to start running out of pre-meno bed-candidates. I noticed today at the buffet that all the female hugs I got were def of the side-hug variety. The ship has sailed.