just_Elaine

I went to Kitcha and was told by one of the lady dentists that I needed two fillings...was sceptical as I didnt like the look of the place so went to Empress dental clinic on Canal rd and saw a Dr Jarunee who is much admired on this forum....she examined me and said all I needed was a clean and polish

Dr Jarunee was trained in Germany and the rest of the staff that work there have outstanding CVs...maybe worth going and having a check up and consultation before you decide who to engage

http://www.empressdentalclinic.com/

I would go as far as saying that Dr. Jarunee is one of the best in C.M. and one of the best I have been to anywhere. I can not say the same for the others there regardless of what their "CV" says. Some are fresh out of school and have little experience. Unfortunately, (but fortunately for her) Dr. Jarunee is extremely busy and can not do all procedures herself so she must refer to her associates. If she can't do the work herself, I go elsewhere.

I mainly have cleanings done and got someone I was not happy with Jarunee left Grace. I went back to Grace and requested someone else and ended up liking that person. However, that person is not there a lot. Thanks TV people for letting me know where Jarunee is located now! I will be seeing her again in the next week.

Can someone give more exact details of location please?

Oh, as others have said it is on Chaiyaphum (East side of the moat), closer to the North side.

It is near Sompet market (someone said "Kad Sompet" above) and I mentioned that it is on Chaiyaphum which is the outer road. Start from the northeast corner of the moat on Chiayaphum road and walk South. I think Miguel's Cafe is pretty close to it, but I think Brasserie is north of Miguel's (not sure about this).

Agree with the San Francisco Bay Area Chinese food and sourdough bread. However, I miss this when I am in the states too (and not in the Bay Area)!

How about fresh tomatoes with real home grown taste? Not like the red cardboard varieties found in most American Supermarkets ... I'm speaking of the American home grown varieties with a real tangy and flavorful taste.

Any comments on tomatoes ?

Yes, very nice tomatoes available at many markets and farmers markets back home. And you can grow your own too.. Attached a pic of tomatoes from the garden summer before last.

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These tomatoes in the photo were "back home' not in Thailand...What about the tomatoes in Thailand? Any that you consider to be as good as the ones in the photos?

No, but I think I might be spoiled... I think that there might be a cherry tomato that has pretty good flavor here.

Thanks for the updates. Will give it another go now that Took is back in town. Thoroughly enjoyed Chai's show a couple of weeks ago.

Just fyi... We went by there about 9 days ago (Friday night) and Mai Blues just happened to walk out of there. I asked him if Took was playing and he looked at me in surprise for asking and said "No'. So I don't know if Took is playing there on a regular basis or not. Anyway, he wasn't there the night we went by.

How about fresh tomatoes with real home grown taste? Not like the red cardboard varieties found in most American Supermarkets ... I'm speaking of the American home grown varieties with a real tangy and flavorful taste.

Any comments on tomatoes ?

Yes, very nice tomatoes available at many markets and farmers markets back home. And you can grow your own too.. Attached a pic of tomatoes from the garden summer before last.

.

I usually go to PharmaChoice at Kad Suan Kaew and have seen both capsule and tablets here. I did not ask to see the bottles there. They basically ask how many I want and give it to me. It is pretty cheap. I think there is a PharmaChoice on Hang Dong a few doors up from Tesco Lotus.

From years ago --- We used to go there to listen to Teh Intaranan and his band. His wife, Bella, used to sing too. This is more jazz standards type music. Then it closed for remodeling and for a couple of years, I tried to check on the status of the club at the restaurant. After awhile, I gave up asking so it's been a couple of years since I checked on this.

Anyway, has anyone been to the Tha Chang Jazz Club (next to/attached to the Gallery Restaurant) recently? Do you know if the timetable on the Gallery website current?

Thanks..

Interesting thread about what the dish actually is because I never knew what made bolognese bolognese. At the same time the point seems to have been forgotten, and that is the effort to recreate a dish on the other side of the world with the available ingredients. Forgive me but I don't think the heart of bolognese is the meat, meaning if you are doing the sauce right then you can probably substitute to some degree. I mean, look at what passes for pizza these days.

I come from close to New Orleans, LA and am always frustrated by restaurants in other parts of the world that call their food Cajun but that fail miserably in their attempts to make it. What spoils it for me isn't specific ingredients so much as a complete failure to understand what is at the core of the dish. What makes it what it is. I mean, without gulf seafood, you'll never get the flavor exactly right but that doesn't mean you quit trying.

Though this is a thread on an Italian restaurant that morphed into one about Italian food I can't pass up the opportunity to comment on the Cajun and/or Creole Food. Nothing is more misrepresented, even in America, of this cuisine! Of course just burning/carbonizing some spicy sugar coating on a chicken is not blackened but it's the flavor profile beginning with the use of the "holy trinity" of aromatic vegetables (onion, celery and green pepper) or the proper roux and to understand the food, it's history etc. I moved to NO to learn flavoring and cooked in the French Quarter and forever have a deep romance with the food from there. I'm with you brother!!

Oh, I mentioned the source of the food stuffs earlier in this topic so I agree with you on this too

Ummm... You people are making me hungry for gumbo and oyster po'boys. I liked that better than the fish almondine place (can't remember the name). Also, enjoyed the music there and an occasional cocktail...

Let us know how it was... I always miss it. Can't seem to drag myself over there. Thanks for the reminder.

Beautiful pictures!

You got it right, I've been making Ragu or Bolognese for a long time and there's only one way to do it if you want to call it Ragu Bolognese not just meat sauce. (Ground veal or) ground pork or both and ground beef, no garlic and optional milk or minced pancetta, simmer at lowest setting allow only bubbles for 6 hours (or at least 3 hours) is THE ONLY WAY to cook Ragu Bolognese there are no other recipes. Otherwise it's just called a meat sauce. Marcella Hazan popularize a lot of Italians stuff to the world via her recipes including Balsamic vinegar and Bolognese with a dash of milk.

Well, I guess I really make a meat sauce then. The recipe I was following also used tomato paste, but I used heirloom tomatoes from the garden instead (when tomatoes are coming out faster than one can handle). It takes a long time, but it ends up very nice and then I freeze batches of it for an easy pasta dinner. I will have to try to make a real ragu bolognese this year. Thanks for making me think about this everyone....

Oh, thank you for the responses. I decided to try and look up bolognese sauce. I never really thought about the types of meat that is supposed to go in there.. Anyway, ran across and old egullet discussion/posts that says that has ground veal, ground pork, ground beef and minced pancetta in it. Also, a surprise is a white wine (not red) and optionally milk... mmmmm

I found La Fontana a mixed bag...

On the plus side:

• Immaculately clean, including the rest rooms--and attractive.
  
• Cloth napkins--always a pleasant surprise in a restaurant with moderate prices.
  
• Good house wine--at least the red I was served.
  
• Bread sticks with salsa dip made a nice hors d'ouvres.
  

However...

• I ordered spaghetti bolognese. There was plenty of ground beef, but the tomato sauce was disappointing. It had a viscous taste--not fresh.
  
• My order arrived promptly. Shortly thereafter the restaurant began filling up, and clearly the kitchen was overwhelmed. The table next to mine ordered soon after I did, but they were still waiting for dinner when I paid my bill and left.
  
• The waiter and two waitresses never cracked a smile; neither did the owner. An eleven year-old boy, presumably the owner's son, brought me my bill and made change.
  

In summary, a convenient location and a reasonably priced menu. However, La Fontana faces heavy competition when it comes to Italian food in that area of Chiang Mai.

bolognese sauce is not made with beef

What is it made with?

I found La Fontana a mixed bag...

On the plus side:

• Immaculately clean, including the rest rooms--and attractive.
  
• Cloth napkins--always a pleasant surprise in a restaurant with moderate prices.
  
• Good house wine--at least the red I was served.
  
• Bread sticks with salsa dip made a nice hors d'ouvres.
  

However...

• I ordered spaghetti bolognese. There was plenty of ground beef, but the tomato sauce was disappointing. It had a viscous taste--not fresh.
  
• My order arrived promptly. Shortly thereafter the restaurant began filling up, and clearly the kitchen was overwhelmed. The table next to mine ordered soon after I did, but they were still waiting for dinner when I paid my bill and left.
  
• The waiter and two waitresses never cracked a smile; neither did the owner. An eleven year-old boy, presumably the owner's son, brought me my bill and made change.
  

In summary, a convenient location and a reasonably priced menu. However, La Fontana faces heavy competition when it comes to Italian food in that area of Chiang Mai.

Umm... The recipe I follow for bolognese has the sauce cooking for a long time so it is not that fresh tomato taste as in other sauces...

The one in Kad Suan Kaew shopping center was opened a week or two ago when I was roaming around there..

Steamed lamb...? No, thanks.

I'm probably a little more opened to this kind of cooking since I ate steamed beef (flank sliced with preserved veggie), steamed chicken, steamed pork, steamed pork spareribs in black bean sauce as a kid. I've never had steamed lamb though...

I assume with MSG this is meant? Yes it is- and can be used when cooking Kapow. :-)

M.S.G. is present in most oyster sauces :

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Oyster_sauce

I didn't know that, but it looks like there are versions that do not have msg.

Just saw a recipe for krapraw that does not use oyster sauce. It uses 2-3 Tbs. peanut oil for stir-frying for 1 pound of meat and for the sauce:

• 2-3 tsp. black soy sauce (the semi-sweet kind), or to taste
  
• 2 Tbs. fish sauce (nam bplah), or to taste
  

For the other ingredients, it uses chicken, garlic, shallots, chillis, holy basil and kaffir lime leaves. And white pepper.

Maybe try this and see if it is less oily...

my recipe for kapow as taught to me by my wife

5 chillie 2 garlic broken up in kok

fry chilli and garlic in hot oil ( sneeze and cough )

add chicken cook for a while then add sliced long bean

add about 1 tsp of oyster sauce, splash of nam pla about 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp of chicken flavour

add water the kok to rinse out chilli and add to the wok

continue to cook until chicken done

turn of heat and add kapow leaves mixing until wilted

chicken should be thin sliced so cooks quickly

total time to cook about 5 mins

I don't know why your wife teached you to add the sliced long bean and chicken flavour because these are not necessary for cooking kaprow.

What!! No MSG??

I've never seen MSG in a Thai recipe. Why do you think it has MSG?

I did a search and found an article on chiangmaicitynews dated May 11, 2012. They published this phone number: 0815304386 and this address: 28 Moo 5 T. Santamet, A. Sansai, Chiang Mai 50210 (you can call for further directions. Other info - chef from BKK. 1-2 course meal for 1 person approximately 300-700 baht depending what you order. Specials - crispy duck w/honey sauce and Praa Salmon. If you try it out, let us know how it is....

Thank you all for the information. An elderly friend of mine told me to check at the Brasserie when I came to Thailand, but I found it had moved to the moat. Then, when I went a few times I didn't see much happening. I hope it gets back to what it used to be.

Just went searching around and it looks like we missed the New Year party. There are pictures of Took and others. I can't tell if that is his old keyboard guy playing in the photos. A comment on Facebook says that there is a Blues Jam Session there tonight. If anyone happens to go, would you please try to find out when the music starts? (I'm not feeling so hot today so will probably not be going out.) Thanks.

Oh, as others have said it is on Chaiyaphum (East side of the moat), closer to the North side.

The Brasserie has reopened! It's now just outside the moat northeast of the Old City, just across the moat from Ginger Kafe. Took is M.I.A. but his ex-wife runs the place and the house band is still great.

Someone posted that Took is playing again. I haven't been by to see for myself, but see this post: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/608773-ped-bluesman-in-town-for-one-night-only/

What a fantastic gig! It was Boy's birthday and the line up with Ped and guests was just great. Finished with "Stand By Me" at 1:15.

Brilliant.

Yes, terrific!

Ped was at Took's new Brasserie Bar on Chaiyaphum Rd last night. He didn't play but everyone knew who he was and spoke to him. A real great bluesman, will be a good night.

BTW Took is back and playing at the Bar after a long break. The bar looks great and has real cold beer for once. Took looked and played like Took of old, hope he can play more often again.

Great news! Hope to see him soon.

Also, looking forward to seeing Ped at Boy's tonight.

Thanks for the info everyone.