butterisbetter

Jalang - at 089-7018977 - did an excellent job with leather on a designer chair. Very fair price and he is a good natured guy.

Thanks, I'll give him a call

Can anyone recommend a good reupholsterer?

I know someone living in Lakeland who had a huge housecat that was eaten by an even huger python. So there is at least one perilous snake there.

Related topic. Yesterday at Villa Mkt Soi 49 I saw Kingsford Hickory, Mesquite & Apple wood in bags ready for smoking.

If you live in Chiang Mai, Rim Ping Supermarkets carry it too. They also have Weber grills.

Hi, Nick,

Central has a bread maker (about 7,000 baht). They have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for about 30,000 baht. I know nothing about dehydrators. You might check out Chatuchak market for some items, but only guessing. Your best luck will be in smaller specialty stores that will seem invisible to most casual passers by. Try looking in the Thai Yellow Pages online in English. (http://www.yellow.co.th/). Don't neglect Makro.

try verasu on radio road. they have all the stuff you will need. they have other branches as well om bankgok.

My mother, who is visiting, loves coffee and just had a cappuccino at the McDonald's in Airport Plaza. She described it as "fair." Not terrible, not great.

I bought a microscope for my kids but don't know where to get blank slides for it. I've passed by stores that sell laboratory equipment such as beakers but I can't remember precisely where they are. They might carry slides but I don't know for sure.

Here's a foolproof recipe for poached eggs. The large eggs in this recipe correspond to size 3 eggs in thailand

<H4 class=detailHeader>Ingredients</H4>1teaspoon table salt plus more to taste2tablespoons white vinegar 4large eggs , each cracked into a small handled cup like a coffee cup Ground black pepper <H4 class=detailHeader>Instructions</H4>

1. 1. Fill 8- to 10-inch nonstick skillet nearly to rim with water, add 1 teaspoon salt and the vinegar, and bring mixture to boil over high heat.
   
2. 2. Lower the lips of each cup just into water at once; tip eggs into boiling water, cover, and remove from heat. Poach until yolks are medium-firm, exactly 4 minutes. For firmer yolks (or for extra large or jumbo eggs), poach 4 1/2 minutes; for looser yolks (or for medium eggs), poach 3 minutes.
   
3. 3. With slotted spoon, carefully lift and drain each egg over skillet. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
   

I haven't been to every outlet to compare, but the "head office" branch on Wireless Road is the biggest / best of all I have seen.

Then that sounds like the one I'm looking for. You've been really helpful. Thank you.

I'm going to be in Bangkok on Wednesday, Dec 16 and want to do some shopping at a Verasu store. Do some branches offer a wider selection than others? If so, which are they?

Vanillin was not made by soaking wood in alcohol. One of the ways vanillin used to be made was by converting lignin, which is one of the chief components of wood and a waste product in wood pulp manufacture, into vanillin. But that was done by a chemical process. It may still be done a little that way, but not much, because the process generates a lot of pollution. Most vanillin is currently made from something called guiacol, the chemical in smoke that gives smoked food its smoky flavor.

As for the difference between grade a and grade b beans. I believe that it is mainly a matter of appearance. The pods in grade b beans are off color, or have a non standard shape, or have some combination of these traits. I think it is Grade C beans that were being referred to as suitable for use in making extract. They do tend to have a lower moisture content.

All vanilla beans are processed more or less the same way. During the day they are dried in the sun, and at night wrapped and sweated. This process accomplishes 2 things: it changes the fresh odorlessless vanilla pod into the aromatic pod we call the vanilla bean and it extracts moisture form the bean. Top quality beans have a moisture content of 30-40 percent and lower quality beans have a moisture quantity of 10 percent. While this would seem to favor the use of lower quality beans for vanilla extract, it doesn't take into consideration vanillin content in the bean. Higher quality beans tend to have higher levels of vanillin and related flavor compounts. (Vanillin content also depends on provenance) So you would need more low quality beans to make an extract of equivalent strength. And then it might not have the subtlety of an extract made from high quality beans

On the other hand, Cooks Illustrated, a magazine which accepts no advertising and is entirely funded by subscribers, once did a blind taste test using vanillin and vanilla extracts. In baked goods,they were ashamed to report that their tasters couldn't tell the difference. But for products such as ice cream where heat isn't applied to the vanillin or vanilla, the difference was notable and in favor of the natural extract. Regardless of that, I still won't use vanillin on principle. What that principle is precisely, I can't say.

Rim Ping almost always has in stock a 100% whole wheat flour that comes in brown paper bags. 900 grams of flour to the bag. It comes from Australia and is a very good product. You'll find it in the baking section.

As for 100% whole wheat bread, Butter is Better Bakery located at Rim Ping Mee Chok and also in the Hang Dong area, bakes 2 kinds of 100% whole wheat bread. I should know since it's my wife's bakery.

The only real brand of vanilla extract that I have found in the supermarkets is McCormick. Last time I checked the 1 ounce size s for 119 Baht and the 2 ounce size sells for 199 Baht. Other brands are just solutions of vanillin, which is the main, but not the only, flavor element in vanilla. What's more, vanillin comes in 2 forms, methyl vanillin and ethyl vanillin. Supposedly, ethyl anillin, which is more expensive, has a stronger flavor. Don't know what kind of vanillin is commonly available for sale her.

ok so i import vanilla for wholesale, pm me if you need any info 80 baht per bean is verry pricy, connsidering the quality and bean type commonly avaliable here in thailand, as for beans being grown in the north i am suprised, generaly one needs a rich volcanic soil for quality production as well as constant tempratures. ie bali, reunion, tahiti, ect...

I did see them just the other day at Rim Ping Supermarket in Chiang Mai under the Doi Kham label which is the brand name for agricultural products of the King's Project. They were 70 baht each.

A new approach for sure and I wish them much success - but I suspect the company is really selling casings which are horribly expensive. Also, can they change the use of the word "are" to "our" on their web site because it's annoying and off putting.

3100 Baht for 450 (30x15) meters of skins. That works out to 45,000 sausages at 10 cm. That's .07 Baht per sausage for the skins. I don't know if you have ever tried to clean the fresh ones but I would be willing to pay a lot more than 7 satang.

The big question is, does that plunger looking device come with the sausage kit?

I just did the math and i believe it works out to roughly 0.7 baht (70 satangs) per 4 inch length of casing.

Each meter of casing is roughly 40 inches long.There are 450 meters (30x15) in all. Each meter yields ten 4 inch casings 450x10=4500 Total cost=3100 baht Divide the total cost by the total amount of 4 inch lengths (3100/4500) and you get 0.69 Baht per 4 inch length.

Considering how much vanilla beans cost and that the demand for them is worldwide. I'm surprised they are not grown here in Thailand and exported?

Actually, they are beginning to grow them in thailand. They were being sold at the Royal Project Exhibition in Chiang Mai several months (maybe 1 year) ago. They were charging 80 aht per bean which is about what you pay for them in the supermarkets here.

It starts at 9:00 AM

Lanna International School will be hosting a garage sale ("boot sale" if you're British) on Saturday Dec 5. All kinds of used goods will be for sale much of it made out of exciting plastic as well as more sober wood, paper, and metal. There will also be food on offer. Admittance is free.

The Lanna School is located just off the Hang Dong Road. To get there from Chiang Mai head south from the city past Lotus, past the shell station, until you get to a pedestrian bridge. Turn right onto the road the borders the end of the air field. Head about 200 meters and there you are.

If you're coming from the south on the Hang Dong Road, just go past the Big C intersection and turn left at the pedestrian bridge

For us Brits,

Tops has quite a lot of Waitrose products in stock.

Pricey...but great quality if you can afford it.

At my wife's bakery, Butter is Better at Rim Ping Mi Chok, there is for sale 100% whole wheat bread. No white flour is used at all. In fact, for some reason, she makes 2 kinds. One is made with stone ground whole wheat flour, the other is made with a very high gluten whole wheat flour. Occasionally she also makes a genuine german sourdough rye which is 2/3 dark rye flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour.

I've bought items from your wife's shop and they were delicious. I've seen two women working there. One is around late twenties and quite dark and seems to be there most of the time I visit Rimping. Is she your wife?

She hasn't been there much in November. She finds that when she spends too much time at the store, the quality of the baked goods suffers. Which is a shame for her, since she loves selling and meetng people.

According to the article that was linked to above, this is the same fair as the one at Mae Jo. CMU and Mae Jo host it in alternate years.

I did a search using vinatarta and marzipan which I should have done in the first place and did find several recipes that call for marzipan icing. So we'll try it that way and let you know. Won't be for a few days at least since we have American Thanksgiving holiday to contend with.

I looked up recipes for Vinaterta on the internet. Lots of variations. None that i saw called for marzipan although several did specify almond flavoring. Not that this is definitive. In this kind of recipe there is going to be a lot of variation. One recipe said that the cake had to be aged for at least 4 weeks in a cool place but not a refrigerator. Maybe if you baked it on Doi Inthanon in cold season you might get away with that. Anyway, it looks delicious. My wife has a bakery here in Chiangmai. This is just the kind of cake she llkes to bake so she is going to give it a try. Maybe we'll even have goulash as our entree.

I go to bakersmart all the time. They don't have cast iron skillets.

For us Brits,

Tops has quite a lot of Waitrose products in stock.

Pricey...but great quality if you can afford it.

At my wife's bakery, Butter is Better at Rim Ping Mi Chok, there is for sale 100% whole wheat bread. No white flour is used at all. In fact, for some reason, she makes 2 kinds. One is made with stone ground whole wheat flour, the other is made with a very high gluten whole wheat flour. Occasionally she also makes a genuine german sourdough rye which is 2/3 dark rye flour and 1/3 whole wheat flour.

If you go up sukumvit ( to soi 24 and make a right, eventually you;'ll come to a large chocolate shop on your right. It's more or less opposite the Davis Hotel. So if you look up the DAvis Hotel on the internet, you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. the name of the place escapes me now. I don't know if it's the best chocolate shop in bangkok, but it's very good.