What are Thais stocking up on pre-lockdown?

[johng]

2 minutes ago, Trujillo said:

Yes I meant beans, beans the magical fruit....

For me  "Beans means Heinz"

 

[watthong]

I think the locals are doing it out of a sense of being "fashionably panicked" (as in "fashionably late")...I try in vain to imagine starvation in my neighborhood, when the only time in the day where you don't see food dangling in front of you is the narrow 10-11am window. I guess one had to be in the midst of the "great Bangkok flood" a decade ago to be able to do so (well I wasn't here yet.) If nothing else fresh fruits are going to swamp the market this year I think, due to lack of export.

[Thailand]

I was in Makro Hang Dong road this mid morning, Did not appear to be any sign of panic buying,plenty of stock on the shleves.

[Amusements]

I was in Tesco Chewang today, and noticed Thai trolleys a bit fuller than usual, Bags of Rice, Mackerel in tins, Noodles and water. I only saw 2 foreigners buying toilet rolls, each had a 6 pack! Obviously the Thais don't buy them because they cant eat them.

[McTavish]

2 hours ago, johng said:

For me  "Beans means Heinz"

 

Beans means fartz. .... 

[anto]

On 3/16/2020 at 11:56 AM, NCC1701A said:

The Thai prime minister is expected to address the nation at 7:00pm this evening on all TV channels #ThaiTime #Thailand #COVID19

He said that there was no need to panic and hoard .If i was still living in Thailand i would immediately panic and hoard.

[5633572526]

On 3/16/2020 at 3:23 PM, Matzzon said:

Dried red pepper and freeze dried som tum.

Yes the som tum street seller disappearing is the only thing my gf is worried about. Actually so am I because I don’t want to have to search bkk for another one.

[elgenon]

21 hours ago, roo860 said:

I believe gun sales have gone up in the US. 

They go up at the wag of a tongue. That's another way some people feel comforted. You too can own an assault rifle without a background check.

 

I remember going to the Philippines and seeing a "No Guns" sign on the door of some bars. Guns and alcohol. Combustible combo.

[Tayaout]

1 minute ago, elgenon said:

I remember going to the Philippines and seeing a "No Guns" sign on the door of some bars. Guns and alcohol. Combustible combo.

I've seen the same in the US on some buildings. 

[elgenon]

14 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

I've seen the same in the US on some buildings. 

In Texas waitresses carry guns. You had better behave. No mouthing off.

[Tayaout]

47 minutes ago, elgenon said:

In Texas waitresses carry guns. You had better behave. No mouthing off.

I prefer to spend my time at the church: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hundreds-of-worshipers-gather-at-church-hosting-ceremony-featuring-ar-15s/

[gamesgplayemail]

oil ! so important for them to keep eating the greasy $h!t food that they are used to eat since they are born !

Learning any new thing and healthy food habits ? for what ?

 

[jojothai]

FYI, looks like farangs in Bangkok are starting to stock up.

Villa market sukhumvit soi 26 yesterday.

Toilet rolls cleared out, most of the canned food gone.

Not much rice left.

Local CP Frozen ready meals mostly gone. Still some imported left.

 

[opalred]

they can live on rice/ fish sauce /garlic and chili plus your ATM card

[elgenon]

23 hours ago, Tayaout said:

I prefer to spend my time at the church: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hundreds-of-worshipers-gather-at-church-hosting-ceremony-featuring-ar-15s/

I guess they are all worshiping the same thing. : (

 

 

[bkk6060]

On 3/18/2020 at 11:47 AM, gamesgplayemail said:

oil ! so important for them to keep eating the greasy $h!t food that they are used to eat since they are born !

Learning any new thing and healthy food habits ? for what ?

 

I agree.

Lots of decent healthy food is ruined here with the use of oil.  It is easy to cook w/o oil and actually more flavor if you know what you are doing (low salt/low fat) chicken broth works fine.

But, it is too huge of a staple here to ever go away.

[NancyL]

The owner of the nice little mini-Rimping "Green Store" in our condo building assured my husband that she will stay open and keep us in our daily necessities, like Coke Zero, beer, scotch, Campbell's soups, breakfast cereals, cheese, yogurt, bread, pasta and bottled pasta sauce.  She joked with my husband that I can always make a meal out of rice and lentils in our Instant Pot and somehow convinced him to buy two big bags (each) of lentils and rice during a recent daily shopping trips for necessities like beer, scotch, chocolate, sour cream and whatever else we needed to turn the previous day's restaurant left-overs into dinner.

 

Problem is that the rice he brought home is white rice -- something we never eat.  Always brown or multi-grain.  He said he was charmed into buying it and we might some day need it.  I put it in the storage room.

 

Later in the day we had a conversation about how we wished the Green Store stocked kitty litter -- something that became difficult to find during the 2011 floods.  Hubby pointed out that maybe the little dears would use white rice if he had difficulty finding kitty litter in Chiang Mai in the future. 

[jastheace]

On 3/17/2020 at 8:52 AM, Trujillo said:

Yes I meant beans, beans the magical fruit....

I remember the saying.

it goes...

'beans, beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you....

have to buy....'

[Bill97]

Musical guys not magical.  It is a song.

[NCC1701A]

in tesco lotus in Hua Hin today they put microwave freezer boxes and plastic zip bags on display in the meat department.

 

 

 

 

[tropo]

On 3/16/2020 at 6:19 PM, NCC1701A said:

last night in Hua Hin canned fish, instant noodles, canned milk. toilet paper, diapers, water.

G Mart and Big C.

No lines but full carts.

 

People walking down the street carrying big toilet paper. 

It was so exciting I am going to go out again tonight and see what is happening.

This is strange. I saw on the news they were hoarding toilet paper in Australia too.

 

If you're after vitamin C, you better get down to Watsons asap. The supply is still good, but I found out nearly all vitamin C on iHerb is sold out, so there could be a rush on it here too.

[Trujillo]

Doesn't toilet paper also contain vitamin C? I hear it's a good source of fiber too. 

[tropo]

On 3/17/2020 at 1:41 PM, Trujillo said:

I was told, in a lengthy conversation with a pharmacist here, that no company makes certified PM2.5 resistant masks in Thailand. All of them are from either the States or China. She said that all the stuff that is actually preventative for PM2.5 was purchased online. 
I asked what her suppliers said. She said there was a big complaint from the association of pharmacies as to why they can't get any supply and she said that the "Commerce Department" was obtaining masks (from some source) and then selling them to those in China at a tidy profit. She went on to say that the government is ... how to say? funneling all the incoming stocks of masks to itself for resale. 

 

She said the odds of supplies coming back to Chiang Mai are slim and unreliable if at all. 

 

So don't expect anyone to be stocking up on masks. I have a few from last year I only use on the worst days of pollution, not for any viral protection. 

 

By the way, what is it about Thais and beans? I've never seen Thai eat even one bean, let alone clear out the shelves. I'm not aware of any recipe in Thai cuisine that asks for beans. What's going on here? 

I couldn't buy a mask in Pattaya yesterday. What this means is that most people that you see that are wearing one are reusing it for days, weeks, or months, just to give the appearance of safety. In actual fact most mask wearers are probably more likely to be contaminated than people without them. All the shop staff I talked to didn't have a clue where to find masks despite most of them wearing one, so it would be a good idea to stay away from shop staff who are all wearing filthy and possibly contaminated masks.

[tropo]

On 3/19/2020 at 10:37 PM, NancyL said:

The owner of the nice little mini-Rimping "Green Store" in our condo building assured my husband that she will stay open and keep us in our daily necessities, like Coke Zero, beer, scotch, Campbell's soups, breakfast cereals, cheese, yogurt, bread, pasta and bottled pasta sauce.  She joked with my husband that I can always make a meal out of rice and lentils in our Instant Pot and somehow convinced him to buy two big bags (each) of lentils and rice during a recent daily shopping trips for necessities like beer, scotch, chocolate, sour cream and whatever else we needed to turn the previous day's restaurant left-overs into dinner.

 

Problem is that the rice he brought home is white rice -- something we never eat.  Always brown or multi-grain.  He said he was charmed into buying it and we might some day need it.  I put it in the storage room.

 

Later in the day we had a conversation about how we wished the Green Store stocked kitty litter -- something that became difficult to find during the 2011 floods.  Hubby pointed out that maybe the little dears would use white rice if he had difficulty finding kitty litter in Chiang Mai in the future. 

Don't worry about the white rice. Do some research. There is very little difference nutritionally between white and brown rice other than extra roughage in the brown rice, but brown rice has 80% more arsenic than white rice, which accumulates in the grains outer layers and which is removed in white rice.

[NancyL]

1 hour ago, tropo said:

Don't worry about the white rice. Do some research. There is very little difference nutritionally between white and brown rice other than extra roughage in the brown rice, but brown rice has 80% more arsenic than white rice, which accumulates in the grains outer layers and which is removed in white rice.

I always wash the brown rice before cooking.  I'd read that removes the arsenic.  Is that true?  I want the extra fiber of the brown rice.

[tropo]

3 minutes ago, NancyL said:

I always wash the brown rice before cooking.  I'd read that removes the arsenic.  Is that true?  I want the extra fiber of the brown rice.

Probably it will remove some, but to get rid of most of you need to get rid of all that makes brown rice brown. I think there are better ways to get fiber than consuming brown rice. Anyway, I didn't intend to go off topic. I just wanted to make sure you can eat your white rice without feeling bad ????

[CrunchWrapSupreme]

Last week at the local Big C, noodles was by far the busiest aisle. It was an absolute feeding frenzy. Notice they're trying to stock them as they're flying off the shelves.

 

The Thais have the right idea with food. I don't get us Americans' obsession with toilet paper. It doesn't feed us. I guess because we don't have the bum guns.

 

I'd absolutely love a bottle of Jack right now, but I'm just a teacher. That day I grabbed the 550 baht 1 liter of 100 Pipers.

[LomSak27]

I was Makro Hang Dong 615 AM sunday. BTW I usually ship early morning sundays so. Easily 2, no make that 3 times the regular amount of people. Now one was really concentrating on any one thing. 

 

Everyone was polite and going about their business. 

[BritManToo]

Just sent the misses out for a bit of 'panic buying' .......... 30Kg sack of rice.

Bad news phone call, the rice shop only has 45Kg sacks left ......... 1,600bht guess that'll feed us for a while.

 

If the world ends we'll just have to drive down to the family rice farm in Lomsak (or the other jungle farm in Nan) and live off the land.

Edited March 22, 2020 by BritManToo

[BritManToo]

37 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Just sent the misses out for a bit of 'panic buying' .......... 30Kg sack of rice.

Bad news phone call, the rice shop only has 45Kg sacks left ......... 1,600bht guess that'll feed us for a while.

The misses arrived back very happy, haggled them down to 1,350bht ..... biggest sack of rice I've ever owned.

She says it's a good one, but white rice all tastes the same to me.

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by BritManToo