butterisbetter

What are the opening hours for Bake and Bite and Butter is Better?

Don't know about Bake and Bite. Butter is Better hours are 8-5 Mondays to Saturdays. Closed Sundays.

The good thing about a real bakery is that you will get more time to spend with your kids. Bakeries are done by 3 in the afternoon, just when the kids are getting home from school. Evenings are free to do the family thing and to get out and about.

I guess for the time being we'll just continue being poseurs.

I have also seen them at Bakersmart in Nong Hoi and at Makro

Yes, good luck. How about a real bakery where we can go in the early morning to get some great fresh baked breads and pastries?

On the few days that I have gotten out early on a Saturday morning and wanted to treat my kids to some nice freshly baked Danishes, cinnamon buns and croissants I have found only stale day old product. I would love to find some apple strudel, baklava and the type of rolls that the German Bakery was producing near the Dara Devi, now closed.

I have fond memories of my father going to the bakery either Saturday or Sunday morning to get the freshest bakery items. Do this and you will have a successful business. It will not be a hobby but it might be a labor of love.

Give us fresh breads of all types, whole grain, sour and French.

Give us pastries that we can have that are savory or sweet. The restaurant should be secondary to the bakery.

A bakery is always a lot of hard work. Here you will be working more.

Please don't give us decent cakes and cookies. Anyone can find a good cookie. Please give yourself a real chance.

Of course, you're right that a bakery should be ready to go early in the morning. Dao is kind of reluctant to face the necessity of getting up at 3 in the morning. Posts like this might help to nudge her in that direction. I am working on it. And our kids will get to experience a kind of virtual orphanhood. Which is so cool. Anyway, we already are a successful business at Rim Ping but following your advice would surely make us a more successful business.

We are working on Danish pastries and croissants right now. My mother was with us for 2 months and helped us along. We are about 80% satisfied with the Danishes and hope in a few weeks to be offering them for sale. The butter here is not the same as in America and it's harder to turn out a satisfactory danish with them. Croissants should follow right behind the dough is virtually except with less sugar.

We do offer lots of kinds of bread including 99% whole wheat bread (can't call it 100% because of the addition of a teaspoon of wheat gluten), challah, brioche, light rye bread, real slow rise french baguete and italian bread & rolls.. Also real Focaccia. We will also be offering again real dark german style rye sourdough bread, the kind you have to start a few days before to brew the sourdough mash. The bread is so heavy that you can build a pyramid with it or at least a Reichstag. I loved it and the few german people who tried it said that it reminded them of the bread their grandmother's made. Maybe that was the grandmother who flogged them and locked them in the closet for days. We couldn't sell enough of it to justify the effort. Maybe the problem is that we don't slice it. The blades of ordinary commercial bread slicers just bounce off the loaf as though it were wrapped in a Kevlar vest. But we will try again. We also make halfway authentic bagels. Certainly closer to what a bagel should be than any that I have found in Thailand. And . for that matter in the USA except for a few isolated outposts in New York City. We did used to make the real old fashioned bagels using high gluten flour and barley malt but they were too dense, too chewy for most people who accustomed to eating soft bagels. The only thing inauthentic about them was we didn't use put lye in the water. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find food grade lye in Thailand. Love that food grade lye. So we used sodium bicarbonate instead. And still use it for boiling our current bagels. Maybe we'll try for the real thing again but I'm not hopeful about the outcome.

As for our cakes and cookies. I may be prejudiced but we have a huge following for our cakes. I think they're indecently good.

Actually, if I had my way the restaurant would be tertiary to the bakery. Or better yet, nonexistent, The bakery business is hard enough alone. But Dao used to run a restaurant that catered to us farangs and misses it. Anyway, my mother taught her how to make blintzes and she has a missionary zeal to share them and her potato knishes with the world.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions They are much appreciated

I'm the husband of the owner of Butter is Better. We did not buy out Bake and Bite. I wish we had access to the kind of cash that would take.But if we did we would probably just pursue baking as an extravagant hobby. Gai just wanted to focus on her new larger restaurant. Butter is Better is now occupying Bake and Bite's old site.

Neither Dao nor I have ever claimed that we were going to improve on what Gai has done. We have our own take on American home style food but it would be presumptuous for us to claim to do it better. Gai makes some really wonderful food. I spent a lot of time at her restaurant trying to analyze what she does in order to steal...er..pay tribute to her cuisine.

As for our chocolate chip cookies..

.I don't know what midstatements are being referred to about their availability. For a while Dao had an outpost at Rim Ping Nim City and after she left, she did try for a while to keep stocking some items there and at Rim Ping Narawat. But honestly, it was a lot of work to keep the store stocked with fresh stuff. Also, once you start selling packaged goods you have to contend with the Thai equivalent of the FDA. These requirement can be quite onerous if you are working on a small scale. Many business routinely violate them and risk major fines. but Dao chose not to. It's a lot easier and more profitable to run the shop at Rim Ping Mee Chok.

As for the recipe of the chocolate chip cookies. it's the same as it's always been. Dao did cut the size down but cut the price proportionately as well. One problem she does have is with the staff occasionally leaving the cookies too long in the oven. Usually she catches it and gives the cookies away. Occasionally a batch slips by her. When that happens they are not chewy. She does have a publicly posted policy that if anyone has a problem with anything she makes, they can get their money back no questions asked. A return of the item in question is not even required. She really is grateful when people tell her that something has gone wrong with production.

As for the cost. If you use good unsalted butter instead of margarine. top quality unbleached flour instead of bleached flour, imported bittersweet couverture chocolate from top european producers instead of the domestic stuff that looks like chocolate and kind of tastes like chocolate, your costs are going to be a lot lot higher.

Does anybody know where to get steel-cut oats? Or, as it is often called Irish oatmeal? I've never had rolled oats that can compare to them in flavor. Rim Ping Supermarket in Chiang Mai used to carry steel cut oats under the name of porridge oats, but no more. Until I find them, I will go with the Chefheat's recommendation for Lowan oatmeal. He hasn't let me down yet.

Also, I believe that the restaurant Gotlost referred to is Bake and Bite and it didn't really close. Just one branch out of 3 closed and that only because the owner wanted to concentrate on her new larger restaurant. The old place was very successful right up until the end. I couldn't swear to it, but I'm pretty confident she is still serving oatmeal at her 2 other locations.

The restaurant that is replacing Bake and Bite in its old location, will be serving oatmeal.

By the way, I did notice that Old Fashioned Quaker oats are newly on offer at Rim Ping.

For what it's worth, I had asked Sergio, the owner of Buonissimo, where he was moving to. He said somewhere on the Chang Klan Rd.

There is currently an ongoing discussion of sausage casings on theThaivisa.com Western Food forum. Most likely it will provide you with all the information anyone needs about sourcing sausage skins.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Sausage-Casings-t196520.html

I bought one of the home type slicers... about 4000 baht, I believe.... the one with the serrated blade.

The same thing I saw they have at Verasu.

Not very good at slicing meat thinly, especially bacon or hard salami... seriously underpowered and not sharp enough.

However, It did OK with my homemade cotto salami and thicker cuts of raw meat.

Really, I find it's best at slicing bread or vegies.

My wife is opening a second branch of her bakery. this branch is going to be a bakery/restaurant. Can commercial slicers smoothly slice bread. I thought a serrated blade would be necessary for that which would make it less useful for slicing meats.

I dont see why a commercial slicer coulnd't do bread nicely ... those babies are super sharp.

However, if you are slicing entire loaves (sandwich slices that is) for sale ... there are machines that will slice the entire loaf in one shot. They have about 15 or 20 blades spaced apart; you just slide the loaf in sideways...and voila!! ... all is sliced and ready to bag up for sale.

They don't work on harder breads like German Rye. Also, it seems that each machine is equpped to slice to a one certain thickness and that's all. If you want different thicknesses, you have to buy more machines.

I've seen a lot of microwave cookware for sale at Carrefours. I didn't notice specifically whether a browning pan was among them. Bakersmart is a great store. But it doesn't have microwave accessories.

I bought one of the home type slicers... about 4000 baht, I believe.... the one with the serrated blade.

The same thing I saw they have at Verasu.

Not very good at slicing meat thinly, especially bacon or hard salami... seriously underpowered and not sharp enough.

However, It did OK with my homemade cotto salami and thicker cuts of raw meat.

Really, I find it's best at slicing bread or vegies.

My wife is opening a second branch of her bakery. this branch is going to be a bakery/restaurant. Can commercial slicers smoothly slice bread. I thought a serrated blade would be necessary for that which would make it less useful for slicing meats.

We just ate at Wanlamun on Fri Feb 5 and we had excellent Bangkok style Thai food. It turns out that the chef, Tim, is the mother of Moo, the pastry chef. She's a very friendly warm person who speaks excellent english, as does her son.

The waitress warned us that some of the dishes we had ordered were very spicy, but, as it turns out, not a patch on the spiciness of northern and Isan food. Just the right degree of heat for me. My wife, though from Isan, lived in Bangkok for many years, and judged the dishes we had to be authentic Bangkok cuisine.

The dishes we had were a sweet and sour pomelo salad, which had just the right balance of sweetness and sourness; gaeng som cha-om with fish -- the fish being thin and perfectly fried slices; Kap moo which is a pork dish made from high pork belly and highly reduced to be crispy; and nuea pad chah made withbeef, lots of fresh green peppercorns; and a variety of galengale leaf.

Even the plain white rice was excellent - obviously a very high quality rice.

The desserts, as noted elsewhere,, were excellent. And the restaurant is beautifully decorated. Just the sort of place to take someone you are trying to hoodwink into thinking you are a civilized person.

My wife is opening a restaurant/bakery. She has just signed the lease which is scheduled to begin on March 1. The place has been very, very well maintained but she still wants to find a crew that can come in and give the place a deep, deep cleaning. Is there such a service offered in Chiang Mai?

A few weeks ago I happened to be at the royal project store in the airport and noticed that the strawberries looked unusually red. i bought a couple boxes and the ranged in flavor from mildly sweet to flat out deliciously sweet. so it can be done here. i went back a few days later and wasn't so lucky.

All this chatter about ITIN gets it in exactly the wrong order. I am trying to determine whether my stepdaughter would in fact be eligible for that number. A temporary number in her case. And for her to eligible she would have to qualify as a resident for tax purposes in the year of 2007

I want to know if I can claim my Thai stepdaughter as my dependent for the year 2007. She does live with us in Thailand and I pay for all her expenses. During 2007, when my stepdaugher was 7 years old, she and my wife accompanied me to the United States for a period of 30 days. Would that satisfy the residency requirement imposted by the IRS and hence qualify her as a dependent of mine?

I should have been more careful in my reply. I was referring to Sergio's wholesale operations and wine store (possibly bakery too?) when I wrote that it was moving to Chang Klan Rd. I had thought the restaurant was going to be extinct.

At the Hang Dong Makro in Chiang Mai, one day they stopped selling baking powder. It's been about a year since they have stocked it. They also stopped selling baking parchment. In that case I called the central office to ask them how to order it. They began shipping it out again to Hang Dong and it's been in stock ever since. Also unbranded ground cinnamon. I actually had a semi friendly argument with the staff in front who tried to assure me that they had never sold unbranded ground cinnamon even though I had been buying it for at least a year.

I believe it's going to be somewhere on the Chang Klan road

Droste's Cocoa is available in thailand. There are 2 kinds. One is imported from the Netherlands, the other from Malaysia. I haven't tried the Malaysian kind but Netherlands Droste's is superb. Just use it to make your own mix.

Some anonymous benefactor left a 2 month old puppy with its very own collar in front of our home. She's a sweetheart, affectionate but not sloppy about it. Unfortunately we have 4 dogs already and 2 are murderously jealous. We can't keep her. I am offering not only the puppy with her collar, but the shirt she is wearing in the picture as well. And I'm even willing to pay for her vaccinations and neutering. It hurts to let her go, but for the sake of her own safety, she can't stay here. If you're interested, contact my by PM.

Does anybody know what hours the Mae Sai Immigration Post is open? I particularly would like to know when it closes.

i always thought the walking street markets were free to vendors, just roll up and sell yr wares but no copied stuff

i could be wrong thou

The spaces are rented out cheaply, but I am told there are waiting lists. Take a Thai and ask at the Town Hall on the river by the white chedi and the US Consul.

Make it clear which weekend market you are talking about. The best known is Rachadamnoen "walking street" on Sundays, and the other 2 on Saturdays are Wualai Road and Bumrungrad Road, the section north west of the British Council/Consul.

The latter was started for Thais selling things unconnected with "traditional Thai culture", thus you get western items like old ad hoardings, sewing machines, car parts, tools, toys etc. Personally, I find it the most interesting - and the least well known among expats and tourists.

Strongly advise non-Thais not to set up at all, especially by oneself. Not even playing music. The powers-that-be will assume you are out to collect money and you freedom and visa will be in jeopardy. And that's not a nice place.

Have you done a search for it on this forum. I did supply this information to somebody last year but I lost it. There you can find the office. That said, there is (or at least used to be) a very long waiting list. A good alternative is to look for a space at a Wat. They get lots of pedestrian traffic too. When my wife did it. they charged her 50 baht rental for the day.

I've heard that due to the recent problems in Myanmar, that the border is closed and you can't get a 15 day renewal there. Is that true?