petercouz

On 4/4/2024 at 12:54 AM, proton said:

Authentic street food has to be cooked in months old palm oil with heaps of sugar, salt and MSG. There should be roaches running about and the odd rat. Used plates need to be stacked up for hours in stinking water, directly in the sun is best. 😄

Well if that is your experience that's a shame - i have eaten some really great street food over a couple of decades and never ever had a stomach upset -you get to know where the good places are - and i dont think any self respecting Thai citizen would be visiting any street stall if the food resembled what you describe.

On 4/4/2024 at 1:19 AM, Martin71 said:

 

Genuine book saw it in a bookshop in Swampy... damn near messed my britches...

Actually i am in the book business, i sell books from the UK , Australia and US to Asia Books and Kinokuniya - this particular book has been very popular - it is a name that certainly turns your head and makes you chuckle, but I believe it is supposed be genuinely good! Your imahe shows this to be the third edition - thats good going.

On 4/3/2024 at 4:56 PM, Korat Kiwi said:

When I was living in Chiang Mai (Mae Rim to be precise) there was a local guy who use to work in 5 star restaurants.  However his heart wasn't into that scene. 

 

Lucky for the residents of Mae Rim in that he set up a street stall right next to a 7-11.  Every evening from about 6 to midnight unless he ran out of food. 

 

Very good fast and healthy food.  He was a wonder to watch in action.  Many a night I'd sit there waiting for my order with a cold beer from 7-11.  Even during torrential downpours he'd be busy at it. 

 

Him and his wife were lovely people, always smiling. Would love to go back and see if they're still operating. 

Now that sounds nice!

3 hours ago, KhunLA said:

You're serious ... street food vs in home/building cooking lessons.   Ever heard of YouTube, or a cookbook.  Food from the street or night market, no different than in home cooking, unless you plan on buying a mobile cart/cooking station.

 

Since 'street food' seems to be a generic name to all food cooked in TH now, I'm not seeing what the difference is, since no longer needs to be serve, outside a building/on the street via mobile vendor.   They call one chickie's ฿1000 crab omelet 'street food'.   Most Thais don't pay 3 days salary for 1 omelet, no matter how many stars you get the dump.

 

Kudos to the guy who can get ฿25k from ding dong tourist  ...  that's awesome.

A lot of what you say is probably right, but there are definitely Street Food style techniques to learn and tips and tricks that just aren't the same as normal restaurant cooking, which my wife is already proficient in - yes she does look at YT a lot, but being at the coal face is very different - we will see how it goes and i will report back if it is a waste of time or not!

4 hours ago, Andre0720 said:

My girlfriend and daughter went from Phuket to Bangkok some years ago, to take a course on Thai cuisine cooking. I gave them $1,000 dollars for the trip and the fees for the so-called chef.

When they came back, they simply said that it was all the same as in Phuket, food mixed with refined sugar, MSG, frying in bad cheap oils.

 

They said they lost the time and money in the ordeal. Nothing to learn there.

 

And since then, I have completely stopped eating Thai food, as I now have the opinion that it contains ingredients considered as poison now in the nutrition domain. Particularly the refined sugar, and the toxicity of high heat on bad oils.

As the only good oils are now considered to be Extra Virgin Olive oil and avocado oil I add Sesame oil to my cooking for the flavor.

 

Just about nobody knows anything about cooking in Thailand. The culture is about putting food in a frying pan, adding some refined sugar, sometimes MSG is added, then they add a sauce form a bottle bought at the Super Cheap mini mart, that contains typically another 20% of added refined sugar, stir it, and serve. Particularly the ubiquitous Soy Bean Sauce

Just a joke. Worst food on the planet.

If you want to take cooking lessons, go to France.

And just check below a picture of the quantity of refined sugar that is sold at only ONE mini-mart, in the course of about 10 days.

And Thai people wonder about how come they got diabetes.

If we wanted to learn French cooking, France would be appropriate........

3 hours ago, Yagoda said:

My kid did Cooking with Poo down in the Khlong Toey market and loved the entire experience. It was cheap too. Shes not a tourist either, she has a ton of Asia time

Sounds interesting - do you have aa contact for Poo - so to speak? I have seen her book in the markets and her YT vids are pretty good

3 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Simply attend a 'Thai cooking class' to learn some technique, and how sweet, sour & spicy is applied to you cooking.  What will offset (if an oops) or compliment each other when added to a dish.

 

I watch a lot of YouTube, not for the recipes, although will pinch them, but for the technique and cooking knowledge that their years of experience has taught them in practice.

 

Understanding what makes up flavor/taste, and how your ingredients will contribute to the final dish:

 

What to season, when to season, how to season, if to season.

Sure - my wife already has that experience, she understands the balance of Thai tastes and ingredients well, it is the Street style techniques she is after, which can be quite different

3 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

 

Fly to Bangkok.

Wander into any street market during off-peak times.

Approach random seller.

Order two dishes of xxx at 40 baht each.

Offer additional 500 baht if they show you how to make it yourself.

Indeed! Yes, that is exactly what we may do - not s tupid idea at all! Thanks!

Cheers! Yes know about the many cooking schools - we dont have the time for that and my wife already has very good general experience - its more the technique of street food cooking - it is very suited to 'Thai takeaway'

My wife and I are visiting Thailand in June and we are hoping to find someone who can offer Street Food cooking lessons - preferably in Bangkok.

We found one guy on You Tube and his price is 25,000 Baht for three hours - 8,000 Baht an hour is pretty excessive I think!

I like the idea of not only lessons but perhaps some real street food experience in  night market - if anyone has any contacts please let me know

Cheers

Peter

Hi - does anyone have any experience with the customer service of Iview HD?

18 hours ago, kingkenny said:

I wonder whether Fallon has the same version.

 

All I can see is the British telling them to get a path to democracy. Maybe the sweetner after that is a joint exercise.

 

The below made me chuckle:

 

“Don’t write headlines that every time the government goes somewhere, we go to buy weapons,” Prayuth said Tuesday after meeting his cabinet. “It’s not that easy. We do not have that much money.”

Since it came to power, the military government has been criticized for the increased spending by the Defense Ministry. During its three years in power, it has spent more than 70 billion baht on weapons and systems for the army, navy and airforce, according to Thai PBS.

 

The Military have a beautiful Military Strategic Studies centre in Bang Saen - looks like a holiday resort under the mountain at Laem Ten - with a landscaped park - it received the full renovation after the coup. - but Bang Saen itself has not got a park for the people of the town.......

2 hours ago, gamini said:

You are talking about Pattaya. There are plenty of beautiful unspoilt beaches in Thailand with clean water and nice people living there.

No one said anything about there not being nice people, that has nothing to do with it- the trash is what we are talking about - se e some of the photos that have been posted -this is typical of the east cost of the Gulf - its not isolated -even the better beaches are still polluted, just not so bad, it does not make them good - i think peopl are so used to it that they just dont see it anymore - the problem is an environmental disaster for Thailand - plastic bags never go away - they stay in the environment forever - why are these so many people not taking this seriously? It beggars belief..... Sky TV in the UK has launched a campaign to raise awreness of the devastation and marine death cause by plastic litter in the ocean - this is what thailand needs to do - it does not need people thinking people are overstating what is happening

2 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

 

 

(Natural News) An enormous garbage “island” found floating in the Gulf of Thailand is now threatening to move ashore onto some of Thailand’s most popular beaches.

The garbage patch, which is roughly 10 kilometers long and weighs an estimated 100 tons, was recently discovered by a fishing trawler captain off the coast of Chumphon province. The floating trash was moving northward towards Koh Talu Island and the diving and resort areas of Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, where authorities fear a disruption of the tourist trade and significant damage to the environment.

Comprised mostly of plastic, the trash slick poses a threat to marine life such as dolphins and turtles who may eat floating bags they mistake for jellyfish, and to coral, which can be killed by plastic that sinks to the bottom.

The Royal Thai Navy and Marine and Coastal Resources Department have coordinated an effort to clean up the trash – an operation estimated to take 10 days – but the latest reports are that the cleanup has been halted due to unfavorable weather conditions.

Tides and wind had already spread the debris field and some of the trash had begun to wash up on local beaches before even stronger winds and waves were predicted for the area over the following days.

 

http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-02-16-ocean-of-trash-an-island-of-garbage-is-moving-in-on-thailands-tourist-resorts.html#

 

 

 

 

I am not surprised......

2 minutes ago, ginjag said:

It was like this in  Yingluck  days and before that.       Sorry for your agenda

 

No rule of law, simple - nothing gets implemented  - its all worthy Mayoral statements and lip service  - anything that does get started is never implemented or followed up - budgets run out and it all disappears down the drains with the plastic. Some schools do teach about the environment  and they draw nice pictures and do worthy projects -all good - but go outside the school, i mean right outside and the area is littered with rubbish - it is so sad - the scale of the problem is so enormous i think everyone just puts the blinkers on

15 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

 

The thing about being in any area in the Gulf, is that you sit on the beach and enjoy the view. But, you never actually go into the water. The runoff from the industrial estates in Ayutthaya, and Chonburi are scary. Combine that with the waste from Bangkok. And you have bacteria levels that boggle the mind. Have seen some test results. Once you see them, you do not swim in the Gulf. The Andaman yes. It is a huge body of water, that is very deep, and has alot of circulation, and is quite clean. But, the Gulf is filthy and dangerous to swim in. 

 

From the Wiki:

 

In 2003, PCD has set up 240 monitoring stations in 23 provinces along Thailand's coastline and significant islands. In 2003, monitoring results showed that coastal water of 68 percent of the stations were in "very good" and "good" quality. Thirty percent of the stations were in "fair" condition and only three percent were in "poor" quality. Compared with past data, coastal water quality was shown to have deteriorated, specifically in the areas into which four main rivers flow. The chief determinants of pollution were DO and TCB.

Water quality in the inner Gulf of Thailand, into which the Chao Phraya, Tha Chin, Pak Panang, and Rayong Rivers and several canals discharged, revealed high concentrations of domestic pollutants. Very low DO levels (0.3, 1.8, 3.5 mg/L) were found in the areas of Klong 12 Thanwa, Mae Klongand Tha Chin, respectively. Additionally, TCB and heavy metal levels appeared to be higher than allowable standards in the same area. Moreover, in Bang Pakong District the level of total suspended solids (TSS) appeared to be high.

The western seaboard generally appeared to have "good" water quality. However, TCB levels in some areas where domestic waste water discharged into the sea without treatment exceeded the standard. Water quality in most areas of the eastern seaboard was in "good" condition, except for high levels of total suspended solids and TCB in the areas of Laem Chabang and Map Ta Phut. Despite rapid growth, overall coastal water quality in the Andaman Sea were still in "very good" condition, except for the few areas that revealed concerns of DO and TCB levels.^[80]

Water pollution has become obvious in many areas. In 1997, hundreds of thousands of fish and other aquatic life in the Nam Phong River died as a result of industrial pollution.^[84] Large amounts of arsenic were found in the groundwater in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, a result of mining in the area.^[85] Pollution affects the marine environment. Red tides, caused by excessive algae growth and a result of pollution, oil spills, and invasive species are some of the factors that are affecting Thailand's marine biodiversity.^[3]

Another major source of pollution are the heavy metals that have seeped into the rivers of Thailand. In the Chao Phraya estuary, mercury levels have far exceeded normal standards, and high concentrations of heavy metals on the river bed poses a serious threat to ecosystems.^[1]

In March 2017 Associate Professor Thon Thamrongnawasawat, vice dean of the fisheries faculty of Kasetsart University, said, "... there is something terribly wrong with the Thai sea [Gulf of Thailand]." His observation followed on the deaths of two Bruda whales and two whale sharks in the Gulf of Thailand since the beginning of the year. The latest casualty is a 12-metre Bruda whale weighing about two tonnes. It washed ashore in Village Nine of Tambon Thongchai, Bang Saphan District, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province. Earlier, one six-month old Bruda whale was found dead on the beach of Ban Kung Tanod in Tambon Khao Daeng, Kui Buri District of Prachuap Khiri Khan. Two dead whale sharks that washed ashore in the past 70 days were entangled in ropes. As of 2017 there are only an estimated 100 whale sharks and about 50 Bruda whales remaining in the gulf.^[86]

Great Post - i hope Kabula, who posted that we were ignorant and costing jobs, is reading. The situation now is much worse than 2003 as well, - i would like to see more recent studies

1 hour ago, Kabula said:

In my opinion many of these news stories are over blown.

 

I just got back from two days in Pattaya and walked much of the beach and never saw what is depicted here.  It appears to be the far N. part of the beach.  Granted the water is not clean, but I observed most of beach full, of tourists, no trash as the umbrella vendors keep it clean in their areas.  There were many boats loading for the Islands.  At night the area around Beach Road was full.  The wait at Hops restaurant at 8 p.m. was close to an hour!  I had a wonderful time and look forward to going back.  I don't go in the water.

 

In fact, I've lived here for 12 years and go to Pattaya at least once a month.  I never saw dead fish in the central part of the Pattaya beach like depicted in the photo.  Perhaps up by the pier and far north.

 

It's sad to see the facts twisted and all the ignorant posters who have not been to the beach recently pile on.

 

All beaches in the world have some trash on them from incoming tides and weather, so why pick on Pattaya?

 

Ignorant posters cost citizens jobs!

 

Well if it starts costing citizens jobs then something might eventually get done (dont hold your breath) - you must have become immune to the rubbish Kabula, and your attitude does not help the reality and gravity of the problem - it is in cataclysmic proportions in the gulf - i see dead fish regularly in Bang Saen, and the amount of plastic bands, Chang bottle tops, cigarette butts, plastic forks, bottles, bags is overwhelming - day in day out. The beach vendors do keep there areas clean, thank god, but anything away from their sacred patch is left for all too sea - the dogs, which in theory are banned from the beach, shit wherever they like. The local tourist police dont fine anyone as far as i can see. Oil gets washed up regularly, so does the bamboo from sea shellfish farms

And i have lived and visited in many places and i have never ever seen anything to compare, on any other beaches in any countries, except Cambodia (same coastline, funny that), to the scale of the problem that Thailand has on the coast around the Gulf and in the Gulf itself - god knows what the sea floor must be like.

A few miles up the coast in Bang Saen the beach gets just as polluted, but the visitors there are Thai, millions of them, and they dont care about the rubbish - they just close there eyes to it, but foreign tourists will not put up with it.

The entire northern Gulf is heavily polluted with plastic, and a lot of other shit from Bangkok as well as the coastal towns - it is a eco disaster area that Thailand has to address sooner rather than later, The plastic is not confined to the sea and beaches it is in every plot of land, every street and soi, and every government that comes along does nothing to stop it -it had made me fall out of love with this country. I finally bit the bullet and took my family to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, and there is hardly a speck of trash on the beaches here (the locals think so but they have no idea what a rally polluted coast is like  )- the sea is beautiful and clear, my kids are appreciating it so much, but i am sad about it.

I would vote it as one of the most boring in the world - all those luxury brand shops occupying the main area with no shoppers in them - compare that to Changi which has shop after shop dedicated to ordimary people, with stuff you might actually buy and can afford to buy. Its Thailand feeling it has to be in the high end market to make rich thai's swell with pride - I would like to know who in TAT thinks that this is what real customers want - they dont - the average flyer has money to spend, but not at Luxury Brand stores - wake up TAT! The best store there was a really nice bookstore near the Immigration exit which has now been kicked out for Lacoste - there was always people in the bookshop, which was run by Asia Books , a fabulous Thai company, and now it is just a faceless and empty International Brand store

1 minute ago, 4MyEgo said:

 

I said "most", for me whenever I feel that is a flaw, I just smile and exhale, after all this is not just a different country IMO, its a whole new system, I just duck and weave here and there as I would back home, but there would be a lot more ducking and weaving back there, suffice to say I really can't understand why people get so worked up here, if they accepted that it is what it is and nothing is going to change in our life time, unless they want it to, bottom line is, their country, there rules and if we think its not right, then we should go straight back to where we came from unless we are prepared to accept the fact.

Yep - no argument from me! - live here with a smile on your face and you cant go wrong (but it still get tiresome to be told to stop whining - some crap does need airing)

29 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

The problem with most on TVF members IMO is that they don't have anything better to do but to whine, bitch, moan and groan (release), this is what happens when you have too much time on your hands, and when you forget what you came here for in the 1st place, and what you wanted to achieve here (the plan), having forgotten what hell you came from, working in the slave trade to make a coin in the old country.

 

You see when you work like a slave and all hours trying to survive, you just go with the flow, because know no one wants to know about it, but here, well its "let it all hang out", from all the bitter twisted bitches on TVF, not that you ever take it personal, because it makes interesting for a laugh, you see my wife of 10 years NEVER bitches, so I feel right at home now.

 

Putting all of the above aside, there are some interesting topics, all good in learning other peoples point of views and taking in their advice, particularly all of the drunks 555

I have never whined and bitched on TVF before, but that does not mean that people may need or have the right to on occasion - it is just human nature when you are away from the culture you grew up in - its so easy to spot the flaws in other cultures, more so than those in your own, and thus hard to be quiet about it, hahha!

1 minute ago, Mousehound said:

The problem is we are all looking for Utopia.  And, if it existed at all we would all be there. And then it would no longer be Utopia.

Yes - a Utopia that is hotter than where we came from, cheaper on every level, especially the sex!

look - I enjoy my life in Thailand - it is laid back and i can do pretty much what i want without the nanny state penalising me every five minutes like is Oz or the UK - but crikey there are very very serious problems with this society, such as the hate between the reds and yellows (wait for the hate to explode again sometime in the future, its only a matter of time); the appalling pollution,  the appalling corruption, the Police and their complete inability ()or desire) to enforce civilized laws, such as those that protect people on the roads in particular, but hey as long as its hot and cheap who cares - stop whining!

There is a very good recent article by Stickman, on his blog, about people who think like you. I respect your views but people who complain are not all 'whining' - just because they live there are saying they are not allowed to voice the issues that confront them and Thailand? Often an outsider can see what a local cant - i could say more, but i dont want to while..... anyway enjoy your time here but please allow others, many who have  many years experience of the real Thailand, a view that they can express - stop being so offended, please.

Good for him. I live in Hua Hin and like all of Thailand, it can be filthy.

maybe i should get off my rear end and do the same.

lets hope he does not play Bridge.

The trouble is the farang should not have to set these examples - Thailand should be adult enough to see its own issues and do something about it rather than letting farangs show them the way - i think they only resent us when we try and show them the error of their ways anyway