Expats On A Budget: Your List Of Luxury Food/drink Items

[peridot]

fritos and cream cheese

good cheap merlot

smoked salmon and cream cheese on a whole wheat bagel

Mexican food

cheese, cheese, cheese!

organic grains and vegetables

real olives, that are not sweet (I never had a sweet olive before coming to Thailand)

pickles

whole wheat crackers

I can get smoked salmon and something called cream cheese (though it sure isn't what they sell as cream cheese in America) at Siam Paragon, but not whole wheat bagels. Even when I find bread called "whole wheat", I think it should be properly called "whole wheat flavor", because it is not 100% whole wheat.

I miss my brown rice, and am tempted to cook it myself at home, then bring a cup or two to my local restaurant and ask them to use it in my dinner, but I haven't had the nerve to do this yet. They would probably think I am crazy the first few times, then be fine with it.

I didn't eat beef steak often in the USA, but I avoid beef here -- tough and flavorless. Why is the beef in Laos tender and delicious, and the beef in Thailand almost inedible?

Edited June 4, 2009 by peridot

[BlueSmurf]

Just had a friend bring me over some Tate and Lyle Golden syrup....I will be making some gingernut biscuits and who knows what else ! Oh yes some suet pudding topped with the golden nectar! Oh no I won't I ain't got no suet!! f---k it!

I can live without most things in fact we have never had a oven here for the last 7 years but i bought one resently and i am enjoying home made bread and some baked spuds now plus the odd roast dinner..Not too extravegant huh?

[WaatWang]

My Luxury Item:

- Fresh blueberries. They are equivalent of $10 USD in Pattaya for a tiny package, but when I crave them it's worth it. At home I could pick them fresh off the bushes.

But what's worse is that now my Thai BF is also hooked on them. I'll buy a package, put it in the fridge, go to have some later and they'll be all gone! He will also steal them out of my sangria when we go to get Mexican food (even though they're the frozen variety there). haha I have created a blueberry monster.

These *would* be my luxury items, if I could find them:

- Fresh NY style bagels

- Pre-made vegetarian items (fake beef crumbles, sausages, hot dogs, fake chicken, etc). I'm a vegetarian and all I can find are veggie burgers.

- Diet Pepsi with Lime (but I work around that with Pepsi Max & fresh lime)

If anyone knows where to find these in Pattaya (but maybe a road trip to BKK once a month if they're up there!) - please let me know!!

Great thread. I enjoyed reading it!

[cgit6]

Salmon @ paragon gourmet: chopped sashimi stlye

espresso

72+% dark chocolate

probiotics

Vit. B

Pistachios

Oatmeal/muselix

[Michaelaway]

This ain't for the lives of the rich and famous expat package bunch.

This is for the expats who do what they can to live in the local Thai economy, but are still human.

Some food luxury items are not luxury items in the west (such a Paramagiano cheese) but are in Thailand, they still count.

So what is your list of items you can't live without and those that you have sacrificed enjoying living in Thailand?

I have limited it to take home grocery items, but if you want to list restaurant indulgences as well, why not?

My list (can't live without)

good coffee

Paramagiano cheese

smoked salmon (and cream cheese to go with it)

avocados

sometimes 100 percent agave Tequila

sometimes good beers like Guinness

western breakfast cereals

My list (can live without)

good beef

western mushrooms

wine (painful!)

really good coffee

ricotta cheese

greek olives

________________________________________________________________________________

_________

Sawasdee, Khun Thing (this is really a good one!)-

Here's my list of things I miss here:

-A really good hambuger (at a restaurant)

-Tasty hamburger (meat, at the store- although Villa's ground round is ok)

-Variety of good Italian salami's (at a reasonable price)

-Variety of good Italian sausages (inc. some delectable chicken sausages, like they have in the U.S.)

-Variety of Greek olives

-Variety of good cheeses (at a reasonable price)

-Variety of good French breads (at a reasonable price)

-Fresh, warm Challah (mmmmmmmmmmmm...)

-Fresh lavash or pita bread

-Bing cherries (too expensive here!)

-Peaches & nectarines

-Fritos

-Diet root beer

-Good Greek food

-Good Chinese food

-Good Korean food

-Delicious, pan-fried crispy egg noodles (Hong Kong style)

-Better butter (it's just not right here, you know?)

-More places for good ice cream (Swenson's is pretty good, but...)

-A decent brownie (better 2 make your own from a mix; bakeries I've tried... what are they thinking?)

-Good Chocolate chip cookies (this one is painfully lacking here, as is the next one down!)

-All things from a Jewish Deli ie; corned beef, pastrami, chopped liver, knishes (oy, drool!), potato pancakes (double drool!!), smoked whitefish & sable, etc. (no borcht need apply)

And finally:

-A reliable computer repair guy whose work lasts for a while!! (Ok, off-topic, but: Whoa! This one is really getting to me!!)

Thanks for the chance to vent! Now, I'm hungry and nostalgic for all of the above... geesh!!

Best Regards,

-Michael (away!)

Edited June 8, 2009 by Michaelaway

[Jingthing]

Hello Michael,

There exists good Korean food in Pattaya, and it is well priced. Its good enough for Koreans anyway and good enough for me ...

For example try the place off second road north of Big, south of North Pattaya road, on the right down a soi ... There are others.

You may want to try the fancy Russian restaurant in the new Central mall, they have potato pancakes (latkes) and based on the picture I saw of them, they may possibly hit the spot.

Oh, yes, crispy Hong Kong style chow mein, haven't see that here. A semi-OK substitute may be the crispy egg noodle dishes at Saigon Cafe, again at the new mall.

Edited June 8, 2009 by Jingthing

[Michaelaway]

Hello Michael,

There exists good Korean food in Pattaya, and it is well priced. Its good enough for Koreans anyway and good enough for me ...

For example try the place off second road north of Big, south of North Pattaya road, on the right down a soi ... There are others.

You may want to try the fancy Russian restaurant in the new Central mall, they have potato pancakes (latkes) and based on the picture I saw of them, they may possibly hit the spot.

Oh, yes, crispy Hong Kong style chow mein, haven't see that here. A semi-OK substitute may be the crispy egg noodle dishes at Saigon Cafe, again at the new mall.

Hello, again!

Went to Central Mall again today and saw a Russian restaurant, or two. One of them had farm tables and benches, with stucco walls and alps-like posters (Wow, looked enticing- if you're a cossack, a boar hunter or maybe a tyrolean, or something. This probably wasn't "the fancy Russian restaurant," I'm guessing). Anyway, we'll go back again and I'll look for latkes... I wonder if they have blintzes...

Gonna try crispy noodles and bun bowls at Saigon Cafe on of these days, too.

Re; Korean food:

For example try the place off second road north of Big, south of North Pattaya road, on the right down a soi ... There are others. Sorry, please explain. I wanna go. Any landmarks to refer to?

Went to Central Mall again today and let my TGF choose where we'd eat. Soooooo, naturally, we covered a lot of ground during the comparison shopping portion of our program. And, naturally, she finally decided that Hot Pot Buffet was the one for us. We already ate at the Hot Pot Buffet at Tukkom last week, but at Central the offerings were siginficantly more varied. For instance, I am pretty darn sick of the MK style suki sauce that almost all other hot pot/ suki restaurants here serve. Today, they had that same red chili-based sauce but they also had tahini sauce (very close in taste to what I had many times in Beijing for winter hot-pot). Add garlic, onion, cilantro and a medium amount of chopped chilis and there you go! This really made a big difference for me. And considering how much my lovely companion loves suki, we'll probably keep going to Hot Pot Buffet when we're in the mood... 'cause I like that sauce!

The sushi was fresh, with a lot of salmon, (faux) crab, etc. The suki offerings were really plentiful: Lots of thin-sliced beef, chicken, pork and seafood (mostly squid, you know). Lots of fresh vegetables. About five Dim sum choices(although not memorable at all). Salad bar with assorted dressings (including a truly funky version of bleu cheese... whoa!) and kimchi. There also was a small row of those round, hinged-domed silver servers with sterno underneath, with fried rice, roast pork, terriaki something-or-other, and another battered mystery dish. Warning: this stuff under the dome tops looked, well... not-so-good; I passed on it all. Soft drinks were also unlimited/ self-service. After all of this, they had a freezer chest with assorted ice creams. I tried a couple but, sorry, again: not-so-good. There was some chocolate mousse- looking stuff in small bowls but we were im, lao!

Anyway, we really didn't go there for roast pork, mystery whatever, ice cream or mousse. They charged us 229 baht per person, 35 baht VATand 45 SVC (service charge, I figure) = 538 baht. The fine print mentioned that they have a 90 minute eating-time limit for your 229 baht. After that, there's an additional charge but we didn't mind. We were full in under an hour.

It was fine. Not upper crust. Basically, just sushi & suki, with a variety of good, fresh (Japanese) food for a pretty good price. On Wednesday's, they have a promotion: 25% discount, all day.

-Michael

[Jingthing]

Went to Central Mall again today and saw a Russian restaurant, or two. One of them had farm tables and benches, with stucco walls and alps-like posters

Hmmm. I am not sure, it might be. I only know of one Russian place in the new mall, it is on one of the top floors with most of the restaurants. Probably our definitions of fancy differ, anything above a plastic chair probably is fancy to me! Anyway I am sure they have Russian blinis pancakes stuffed with things like caviar but I am also pretty sure they don't have cheese stuffed blintzes. If you find the place with a picture of potato pancakes on the menu, that's the place.

Don't get your hopes up too high for the Saigon Cafe crispy fried noodles. They are just OK. Its offered with egg noodles or rice noodles. I suggest the seafood version.

Here is the Korean place I mentioned:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Recommended-...l&hl=Korean

There are others. I also like the one further south, on 2nd between the Klang and Pattaya north, on the ride hand side going north ... it is not too far from Greg's Kitchen I think. They have good beef ribs soup and also Chicken ginseng soup but there kim chi assortment is too sparse for my taste.

Edited June 8, 2009 by Jingthing

[ChangMaiSausage]

Thanks for sharing. Yes that is warped. Expats that like durian can go buy durian (I like it too!).

Slightly off topic but my missus says if you eat Durian with alcohol it will make you crazy (her words) anybody else ever heard of this? A coupleof weeks ago I was a little drunk and spotted the durian in the fridge but thought better after her words of warning mmmmmmm

[Jingthing]

Thanks for sharing. Yes that is warped. Expats that like durian can go buy durian (I like it too!).

Slightly off topic but my missus says if you eat Durian with alcohol it will make you crazy (her words) anybody else ever heard of this? A coupleof weeks ago I was a little drunk and spotted the durian in the fridge but thought better after her words of warning mmmmmmm

Actually most Thais believe mixing durian and whisky makes you die! I have had a few drinks with a large portion of durian and noticed nothing. I consider this belief about durian not mixing with alchohol an urban myth/old wives tales/silly folk superstition. However it is true that durian can raise the body temperature so I can see eating lots of durian with lots of booze would cause problems for some people, and theoretically potentially kill you, but drinking too much booze alone can kill you ...

Edited June 8, 2009 by Jingthing