butterisbetter

We have a child in Lanna. She's been there since 1st grade. WE're very happy with the school.

Rim Ping is a great supermarket with just about every Western food you might need, and it's not far from the school. Also, Makro isn't far and they have a pretty good selection of Western gourmet items. Also not far is Central Airport Plaza which is an upscale mall with a really good Thai food court on the ground floor and virtually every other kind of store you might need.

Driving really isn't a problem. Remember that the steering wheel is on the other side of the car so you pretty much orient yourself automatically to keeping the driver's side towards the center of the road. The biggest hazard is watching out for motorcyclists. Most of them haven't a clue about what it's like to drive a car and put themselves in harm's way because of that. But you can get a driver.

We live about 1 kilometer from the school. For 30,000 baht you can get yourself a really nice place in a gated community. We prefer to live in an ungated area where rich people, middle class, and working class people all live close by in an unplanned jumble. Feels more like Thailand. But if you're worried about the kids, there are plenty of gated communities nearby. Most with community pools.

We have a small image for which we don't have the large original. We need to find a Thai artist good at making exact copies. This would be a color painting. I know there are people in the night bazaar who are brilliant at pen and ink copying. But this is more of a watercolor type of job.

I too miss cheese, Makro is ok but the only cheese they have is cheddar, Parmasan, Philadelphia and small portions of Danish Blue. I will go and have a look at Gecko garden but otherwise its mortgage the house and go the Rimping or Tops

Makro has many more varieties than that in the Mae Rim store.

also in the Hang Dong store

Stopped going there after they changed the menu, taking off the dishes I liked, The rissotto and the grilled chicken.

Usually had to walk into the AC restaurant and order the pastries before even looking at the menu, as there was not a great deal of choice left by the end of the meal later on that evening.

It sounds like they took at least some of their fusion dishes off the menu. For my taste, that was the least successful portion of their menu. As for running out of pastries..a lot of the pastries they make are quite delicate and wouldn't hold up well until the next day. So their options are either to run out ofthings or throw a lot out at the end of the evening. If they choose the latter course, they would have to raise the price of their pastries to take this expense into account.

Go and have a look in hide away down hang dong road drive past the airport plaza going towards hang dong when you see the Big SCB bank on your left hand side drive up the soi just before it, there is a sign on it also "hide away" drive about 1 km and it's on the left hand side.

It's a thai diary the milk is really good not sure about the cheese because i don't eat it but my friends have said it was ok.

Dacheeso's fresh dairy products are superb. Their aged cheeses, though, are mostlymade for Thai tastes. Might be good for children, too. They're very mild. I suspect that one of the reasons for this is to properly age cheeses like cheddar, you have to give it at least 6 months in a temperature controlled environment. Which means A/C and lots of storage space. This is expensive given Thailand's climate.

This does sound interesting, the pla chon curry in the photo blog looks good, I have a hard time finding good central and southern style food in CM, lots of good "rustic" and northern fare here. The sophisicated Bkk style is worth paying a bit more for. The location is off Chang moi rd. , not Chiang mai as stated by BisB.

Oops. I'm pretty sure the GPS coordinates are correct.

I think it's a terrific restaurant. Their Bangkok specialties are great and a lot of the pastries and other desserts as well. For the quality you get, the food is well worth it. I haven't eaten there in a while but now that I've been reminded I will go back.

I believe these are the correct coordinates:

18.789642576019364, 98.99616122245789

If you are heading east on Chiang Mai Road, it's the soi on the right (south side) that comes immediately after the Thai Military Bank. Once you're on that soi, it's maybe 10 or 20 meters down on the left (east) sside.

I know many people in a similar position to myself ..... unable to consume alcoholic drinks due to a medical condition.

A restaurant should be selling food, if it makes it's money from alcohol, it's a bar.

Actually, restaurant customers who don't drink alcohol should be grateful to those who do. It's always been the case that restaurants that offer a serious selection of alcholic beverages earn a disproportionae share of their income from drinks. It helps keep the food costs low. This goes especially for high end restaurants. As for a joint like ours, it's the malted milk shakes that keep us afloat.

We do. GPS: 18.780400 98.999704

I just realized that http://www.wwmco.asia/ is western wholesale meats. Well, they used to sell lard. I have their catalog. I guess not anymore.

Remember ya want it to be around 80-90 degrees for the bread to rise.I(n an airconditioned home ya might have the airconditioning down to much.

actually, for bread you get a much tastier loaf if you let it rise at a lower temperature. We put some bread doughs in the refrigerator and let them do a slow rise for as long as 36 hours. The general rule is for every 9 degrees centigrade rise in temperature, the rising time will be cut in half.

Any of the instant yeasts should work. Maybe you bought a very old package. I have seen cake yeast in Chiang Mai at Bakersmart. They keep it in the freezer.

You might try Western Wholesale Meat in Chonburi. They deliver

If its to do with the pump or tank (ie the system) rather than a leaky tap or pipe etc; try the place on Charoenraj rd north of Good View. Opposite Come dara (sp?), its called Ang Thong . I've got the tel. no. if you need it.

thank you. the phone number would be great. i do seem to remember passing by a store there with lots of pumps.

For a limited time we are offering - practically giving away - Cumberland Sausage (2 pieces) with Mashed Potatoes & Onion Gravy. 95 baht.

Well I tried them yesterday, after looking forward to them all week, and was quite disappointed.

First thing I noticed was the smell when it first came out, something, most probably the onions, smelled fermented or slightly off; I tasted the gravy and it wasn't too bad so I forged ahead. The mash was lumpy, but nice, and the peas had been under-rehydrated (see the photo), but the worst thing was that the sausages appeared to not have been cooked to order, but reheated. If you look at the photo, you can tell by the absence of any fats on the ends - this was more evident inside - that the sausages had been pre-cooked and (under)reheated. Their flavour was good though, but would've been better with some fats to stimulate the taste buds...

After this disappointment, I just sat there feeling empty - I'd been looking forward to this dish all week, and was let down badly. Not wanting my culinary experience in Chiang Mai to end this way, I waited for half an hour and then ordered a Pastrami Rueben, my first ever... OMG! It was amazing! So amazing that I almost ordered a second one! The bread was warm and delicious, the pastrami was melt-in-your-mouth perfection, and even the sauerkraut, something I don't usually eat, was delicious! I ate half as it came, and the second half with the coleslaw and dressing that came with it - both versions were amazing. Lucky I'm leaving Chiang Mai today or I could easily become addicted!

I'm sure you won't take the bangers and mash review as a complaint, in this business you can't satisfy all the people all the time with all of your offerings, and you do seem to take on board all positive and negative comments. In the end though it doesn't matter, as I will definitely be recommending Butter is Better to any friends visiting Chiang Mai. That Rueben is to die for.

As for the Reuben, I'd like to pick a fight with you over your review, but I'll let it pass.

You'd like to pick a fight with me over my review of the Reuben?!?

The sentence that followed began with "Seriously..." Anyway it was meant to be a joke. Apparently I have a gift for making jokes that aren't funny.

Anybody know of a good plumber? We're having problems with our water pumping system. Maybe one with a degree in physics.

One needs balls of steel to open a restaurant in Chiang Mai. The brutal reviews by people in this city are unlike anything I've ever seen anywhere else in the world. If someone's 'toast' is not toasted to their liking they will eat you up and spit you out and bad-rap you as much as they can. We all know some of the reviews are from jealous competitors, but not all.

Butter is Better is pretty easy-going and tolerates it pretty well. The one poster who took a shot at him (and was way OTT) ended up on permanent vacation from the forum. People who haven't even tried the Spanish restaurant mentioned in another thread are already taking a shot at it. Why would people want to damage the potential business from what seems like an interesting restaurant here in the city? I don't get it.

Actually, I thought I had intimidated that party into silence. I was disappointed to find out that he was banned. It turned out that he also went ballistic on a thread about an admittedly controversial topic: rolling coins for banks. Can't say that I blame him. How many brave men and women have sacrificed their lives so that we can roll coins in freedom?

For a limited time we are offering - practically giving away - Cumberland Sausage (2 pieces) with Mashed Potatoes & Onion Gravy. 95 baht.

Well I tried them yesterday, after looking forward to them all week, and was quite disappointed.

First thing I noticed was the smell when it first came out, something, most probably the onions, smelled fermented or slightly off; I tasted the gravy and it wasn't too bad so I forged ahead. The mash was lumpy, but nice, and the peas had been under-rehydrated (see the photo), but the worst thing was that the sausages appeared to not have been cooked to order, but reheated. If you look at the photo, you can tell by the absence of any fats on the ends - this was more evident inside - that the sausages had been pre-cooked and (under)reheated. Their flavour was good though, but would've been better with some fats to stimulate the taste buds...

After this disappointment, I just sat there feeling empty - I'd been looking forward to this dish all week, and was let down badly. Not wanting my culinary experience in Chiang Mai to end this way, I waited for half an hour and then ordered a Pastrami Rueben, my first ever... OMG! It was amazing! So amazing that I almost ordered a second one! The bread was warm and delicious, the pastrami was melt-in-your-mouth perfection, and even the sauerkraut, something I don't usually eat, was delicious! I ate half as it came, and the second half with the coleslaw and dressing that came with it - both versions were amazing. Lucky I'm leaving Chiang Mai today or I could easily become addicted!

I'm sure you won't take the bangers and mash review as a complaint, in this business you can't satisfy all the people all the time with all of your offerings, and you do seem to take on board all positive and negative comments. In the end though it doesn't matter, as I will definitely be recommending Butter is Better to any friends visiting Chiang Mai. That Rueben is to die for.

Actually, I was thinking that the Cumberland Sausage might be a little bit too lean this time. It's a mix of shoulder butt and pork belly. And you have to eyeball the meat each time to adjust for fat. It still tasted good to me but it's possible that I'm slightly prejudiced. I will check into the mashed potatoes and peas.

As for the Reuben, I'd like to pick a fight with you over your review, but I'll let it pass. Seriously, when I first made corned beef, I did it more or less on a lark. (Pastrami is essentially smoked corned beef coated with spices.) I didn't think it would taste very good. I was shocked by how good it was. As were several customers I shared it with. I think it tastes better than what you get at most delis nowadays in New York. Their stuff tastes like they're getting it from Boar's Head or some similar corporation. Stuff that's injected with cure and then put in a tumbler for a few hours. Of course, I exempt places like Katz's and similar old time delis.

At those places, you used to pay the guy slicing the sandwich to give you especially fatty pieces. In fact, there is some delicacy which consisted of corned beef fate dusted with paprika and roasted at a low temperature in the oven. In corned beef, the fat is where the flavor lies.

Hope it has more taste to it and is better prepared than the Eggs Benedict I recently tried

That's one of our most popular dishes. We do use a genuine recipe. No shortcuts. That said, the kitchen can screw up. What exactly was the problem?

Found the right stuff on suthep rd, nr nimmanhaemin rd.

That would be Union Science.

I very much enjoy Spanish food, so I got a bit excited hearing about the news of a quality joint moving up from BKK. It's obvious the owners have done no investigating into how/where quality restaurants in CNX operate and are located. What a location! A rat hole in a wall? Obvious they are not banking on getting any expats to their establishment. Parking? Ambiance?

I give them 8-12 months...... and then its hasta la vista! 100%

I remember when El Diablo, which is in the same area, opened. Some poster gave it 6 months to live. Maybe this person is a relative.

Northern Chemical. Near the traffic light on Super highway near Wat Jed Yod. On opposite side of street and about 100 meters north of Grandview Hotel. In a strip of stores there and a bit hard to see. Often there are a number of food carts in the largish parking area. I bought a 5 L container there about 2 months back. Fairly inexpensive.

The blue color in the ethanol that you commonly find here in drug stores has been added I believe to give the stuff a lousy taste to really discourage alcoholics from drinking it. It may also be more toxic in this form but not sure.

Drinking ethanol in any case will give you a blinding headache/hangover. In normal "drinking alcohol" all methanol and most ethanol has been distilled out. The cheaper the stuff usually the less distilled and therefor the higher the ethanol content. Hangovers come form alcohols that have the higher ethanol content.

Methanol content can kill you or at least make you literally go blind (temporarily or permanently) depending on how much you ingested and can cause permanent brain damage. This happens frequently with local hooch made on Bali and probably here as well. I only know this from a guy on Bali who distilled his own for use in making very pure herbal tinctures.

Ethanol is drinking alcohol. Without ethanol (ethyl alcohol) it's not an alcoholic beverage. The stuff that makes hangovers worse is methanol and other chemicals called congeners.

It doesn't seem like mosquito bites since the bites were in one location and close to each other. It could be lots of things including bedbugs. They tend to do a series of bites in close proximity. Mostly they bite at the extremities since that is the first part of the body they encounter. Of course, that also goes for other biting insects that don't fly. And the itching caused by bed bug bites can be really bad and last for days. Still, if you only got those bites one time, and it was at your home, it's most likely ants or some other crawling insects. Bedbugs are an unrelenting plague.

You might try Union Science on Doi Suthep road near the intersection with Nimmanheiman

http://www.unionsci.com/

Well I must have had a lucky escape (from the peas) this afternoon. A good sized portion - just like in the photo at the begining of the thread. My only picky comment would be that I prefer my gravy to runnier but the flavour was there so thanks for a good bangers & mash.

Off at a tangent I recall one occasion in The Clubhouse on Loy Kroh (long since closed) being served apple pie and custard garnished with a sprig of parsley. Each to their own I suppose

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Next time I will try and make it less thick. I do appreciate feedback from people who are familiar with British cookery since I am not.