Looking For Real Bacon

[Bangkok Barry]

Does anyone out there know of anywhere in Bangkok where I can buy proper bacon? The Brit and Australian-type stuff, not the crisp break-into-pieces American rubbish. Even Villa doesn't seem to stock it. I really miss a toasted bacon sandwich!!!

[tutsiwarrior]

get real you dumb limey...nobody in the world wants the English stuff when the american variety is available...a bacon butty? once the brine has boiled out you ain't got nothing left. Very nice smoked US style bacon available everywhere and superior for BLT sandwiches anywhere in the world. And forget the brown sauce...use mayonaisse like white folks...

don't know why the thais learned how to drive on the wrong side of the road...

[bartender100]

Bangkok Barry

I'm with you on this one,here in pattaya plenty places have bacon,but not the real stuff.Most americans have never tried danish bacon.

[Jeepz]

Bacon

Good stuff! I personally like American style bacon because that is what I grew up on. Canadian bacon is good for Eggs Benedict. I rarely refuse when offered. English bacon and Danish bacon are things I haven't tried yet, but I look forward to it.

Trick to Great American Style Bacon: Bake it, don't fry it in a pan.

Get a "Jelly Roll Pan" which is very similar to a cookie sheet, but with taller sides. Very necessary to keep the bacon grease from spilling out. Sides need to be 3/4 inch to 1 inch tall. To help with clean up, lay a sheet of aluminum foil down the length of the pan. Not required, just handy.

Preheat oven to 400 deg farenheit. You celsius folks will have to convert that, I don't have my little converter thingy at hand.

Place strips of american style bacon on pan flat. Make sure they are not touching, but you don't need much distance between them.

Put pan in preheated oven for six to eight minutes. Pan should be in the upper middle of the oven, not the very top. After the first 6-8 minutes, take pan out and turn it around and put pan back in. You want the end that was toward the door of the oven to be at the back of the oven now. Bake bacon for another six minutes or so. If you have thicker bacon the time will be longer. Maybe up to nine or ten minutes. If you want the bacon crispier, you may have to cook it longer.

So you just need to keep an eye on it at the tail end and adjust for your taste, your oven's actual temperature, and thickness of bacon. Remember to turn the pan around half way through. You do not need to flip the bacon over!

What you get is nice flat well cooked bacon. And you can do quite a bit of it at one go. You should be able to get ten or so pieces done at once. Some tongs for pulling the bacon out of the pan and paper towels to soak up any grease left on the bacon strips (just pat them down). Voila!

I usually make one or two pans worth and then save what isn't eaten for use later. Store in fridge. Reheats in microwave quickly, great for cutting up on salads or that late night Bacon Lettuce Tomato sandwich. Save bacon grease in container (refrigerate) for other cooking uses. Like I said, "Good stuff!"

Jeepz

[12call]

Yorkies Platter on Jomtien Beach for half decent bacon,but make sure you watch him slice it for you.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

get real you dumb limey...nobody in the world wants the English stuff when the american variety is available...a bacon butty? once the brine has boiled out you ain't got nothing left. Very nice smoked US style bacon available everywhere and superior for BLT sandwiches anywhere in the world. And forget the brown sauce...use mayonaisse like white folks...

don't know why the thais learned how to drive on the wrong side of the road...

Thank God for American quisiune over here, the country has improved so much since the outbreak of fast food joints and the new generation of obese Thai's, many who are also discovering the delights of acne.

It's good to see the Thai's develop their wonderful country by following the example of the worlds most popular and intelligent country, the country which is also encouraging schoolkids to learn a language which it has the front to call 'English'.

Look forward to the McDonalds on Ko Samet.

[Georgie-Porgie]

get real you dumb limey...nobody in the world wants the English stuff when the american variety is available...a bacon butty? once the brine has boiled out you ain't got nothing left. Very nice smoked US style bacon available everywhere and superior for BLT sandwiches anywhere in the world. And forget the brown sauce...use mayonaisse like white folks...

don't know why the thais learned how to drive on the wrong side of the road...

Thank God for American quisiune over here, the country has improved so much since the outbreak of fast food joints and the new generation of obese Thai's, many who are also discovering the delights of acne.

It's good to see the Thai's develop their wonderful country by following the example of the worlds most popular and intelligent country, the country which is also encouraging schoolkids to learn a language which it has the front to call 'English'.

Look forward to the McDonalds on Ko Samet.

Q). WHICH COUNTRY IS KNOWN FOR HAVING THE WORST CUISINE ON THE PLANET?

A). ENGLAND

Nuff' said...

[Georgie-Porgie]

gruel

mushy peas

spotted dick...

Need I say more?

[xbusman]

Beans on toast

Haggis

warm beer

God save us, everyone.

[tutsiwarrior]

I quite like mushy peas...especially if bought from a chip shop in the East Midlands. As far as the balance of English cuisine is concerned, not the worst but a bit featureless. There is something cosy about a roast Sunday lunch after a few pints down the pub...

Jeepz...one thing you forget, very few people have access to a regular gas fired stove/oven around here. If bacon is not cooked stove top in a skillet they would try to deep fry it in a wok with chiles and nam pla...served with rice...

[tutsiwarrior]

xbusman...haggis is Scotland and never accuse a Scot of sharing any sort of tradition with England. Yes haggis is abhorrent but when in Scotland have whiskey instead...seems to taste better there than anywhere else in the world. My former in-laws lived in Glasgow and mother-in-law could do wonders with chunks of meat and root vegetables.

[Georgie-Porgie]

QUOTE (tutsiwarrior @ Mon 2004-02-16, 22:08:32)

get real you dumb limey...nobody in the world wants the English stuff when the american variety is available...a bacon butty? once the brine has boiled out you ain't got nothing left. Very nice smoked US style bacon available everywhere and superior for BLT sandwiches anywhere in the world. And forget the brown sauce...use mayonaisse like white folks...

don't know why the thais learned how to drive on the wrong side of the road... 

tuttsiwarrior I had high hopes for you until you started defending mashy peas. These MoFos have been dissing American style bacon and Big Macs! That is almost like attacking the homeland with a Dirty Bomb.

Start acting like a real American; Get your head out of your butt and start mercilessly attacking the "dumb limeys" lousy assed food. I might have a job for you down in the Bear-Pit!

[The Gentleman Scamp]

QUOTE (tutsiwarrior @ Mon 2004-02-16, 22:08:32)

get real you dumb limey...nobody in the world wants the English stuff when the american variety is available...a bacon butty? once the brine has boiled out you ain't got nothing left. Very nice smoked US style bacon available everywhere and superior for BLT sandwiches anywhere in the world. And forget the brown sauce...use mayonaisse like white folks...

don't know why the thais learned how to drive on the wrong side of the road... 

tuttsiwarrior I had high hopes for you until you started defending mashy peas. These MoFos have been dissing American style bacon and Big Macs! That is almost like attacking the homeland with a Dirty Bomb.

Start acting like a real American; Get your head out of your butt and start mercilessly attacking the "dumb limeys" lousy assed food. I might have a job for you down in the Bear-Pit!

Nobody eats gruel anymore, have you ever been to England? Don't get me wrong Georgie, I'm no patriot, that's why I'm out here, but get your facts right before slagging off out good wholesome nosh which includes roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, bubble & squeak and the unbeatable full english breakfast.

If you guy's had anything more to offer than hamburgers and peanut butter and jam, sorry - "jello" sandwiches, donuts and hot dogs than maybe you'd have a case to criticise, but I can't think of any desirable American quisuine apart from steak, which you didn't invent anyway - so there!

Come on you Brits, back me up here, don't be so reserved or you'll give him more fuel.

[tutsiwarrior]

punkin'-and-pie...hey loosen up, man...us Americans are nothing if not merciful and forgiving of others and their savage customs and cuisine (G Bush and Iraq notwithstanding). Just 'cause I like mushy peas don't make me a subversive. Lets' go on about ARAB food...it's quite nice but that don't make me Al Qaeda.

But...no doubt...when I hit Don Muang on a trip somewhere I immediately head for the Burger King regardless of whether mushy peas or baba ganoosh were on offer.

What's going on down at the Bear Pit?...some sort of new bear baiting with vicious hounds attraction? If you need a grill man I am unemployed and I worked at MacDonalds when I was 16...what better qualifications can one ask for?

[tutsiwarrior]

scamp...the question is have you ever been to the US?...you sound as ignorant as georgie with your review of US cuisine. And there is gruel in the UK...it's called oatmeal and you can either eat it or put it on your acne like teenagers do in Scotland.

Rosbif is OK for Sunday lunch if you got a good joint...bubble and squeak is just left over stir fried vegetables with scrambled eggs (prepared it once for my then new wife in London when I first came over and her eyes narrowed and she said 'you sure you've never been here before?'). Fried breakfast is for shit as you can never get your eggs scrambled...must order eggs on toast instead. When you tell the waitress you want the toast on the side you run the risk of her spitting into your food before it's served.

the US has its own native cuisine that I miss like mexican (most of the stuff you get is tex-mex...you won't find chimichangas or fajitas anywhere but in tourist places in Mexico) and real brick oven BBQ pork ribs, chicken and sausages served up by fat, sweating black women in take away places in shitty neighborhoods. The best the UK has to offer is Indian takeaway prepared and sold by pakistanis and sri lankans and a good fish and chip shop usually run by chinese.

They also got cheeseburgers and pizza...yum, yum...

Bitter is OK but an acquired taste for yanks. I challenge any yank to sit down to a pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord and tell me it tastes for shit.

OK?...choose off...the gloves are removed...

[bartender100]

Maybe it would be better to close all the KFC's and Mac's at 6pm,as a way of saving the thai youth.

[tutsiwarrior]

Ah HA...the first foray...KFC and MacDonalds provide a wholesome environment for Thai youth...as employees they can pleasantly be exploited by multinational companies as well as stay out of trouble...

any suggestion to the contrary promotes social disorder and justification for unacceptable bar closing hours...

PM Toxin...incarcerate this man...

[Bangkok Barry]

A whole bunch of responses to my plea for real bacon, one or two of which actually dealt with the question but none pointing me to a ‘point of sale’. So be it. Maybe I’ll have to interogate the manager of one of the British pubs who dish out the stuff for their source and hope it isn’t specially imported.

Meanwhile, thanks to Jeepz for his detailed description of how to turn a three minute cooking experience into a 30 minute marathon (just kidding - thanx for the advice). If tutsiwarrior is looking for mushy peas in Bangkok then the place on Sukhumvit 23 often reccomended by ‘the late’ Bernard Trink can oblige (on the left maybe 100 yards/metres up from Sukhumvit). But you probably know that already. And I do miss the Sunday English roast - which is now actually easier to find in the Land of Oz although Asian food outlets appear to be squeezing them out of the food courts there). And to bartender100 in Pattaya (lucky man!), have you tried the breakfast at the Pig & Whistle on Soi 7. REAL BACON. But they still can’t do a proper toasted sandwich, preparing it in one of those waffle-type gadgets instead.

Finally, on the MacDonalds thing - strange that they don’t have a special breakfast menu here (at least, they didn’t last time I looked, but I don’t go searching for breakfast in MacDonalds too often). I quite enjoy their biscuits now and then if I’m travelling. Other Asian countries do them, so why not here?

[Georgie-Porgie]

Now that tutsiwarrior has done such a fine job of defending us, I can admit that I actually like lots of British food. Who can knock Roast Beef with those really good small potatoes (not baked, not fried, grilled maybe?), or Fish and Chips with malt vinegar, or Bangers and Mash, but I get tired of people pretending that McDonalds and Co. don't taste good.

They taste great, if you only eat there once in a while, but they are terrible for your health, however, no worse than Fish and Chips.

[adjan jb]

Maybe French Cuisine should be mandatory. I'm not parochial. But as a teacher, I just feel very concerned by the well-being of Thai youth.

[Georgie-Porgie]

Maybe French Cuisine should be mandatory. I'm not parochial. But as a teacher, I just feel very concerned by the well-being of Thai youth.

I enjoy French food, but I don't think that it is the end all to be all. California style Mexican, San Francisco style Chinese food and regular old Japanese food are my favorites.

[samran]

Does anyone out there know of anywhere in Bangkok where I can buy proper bacon?

There seems to be many pigs with their noses in the trough around parliament. You may like to try there.

[adjan jb]

What are your favorites ?

mine are (not in order): Indian, Chinese, Thai and French. But every country has great food to offer.

(Except England, apart from its fantastic breakfast, English cuisine is an oxymoron)

[Georgie-Porgie]

What are your favorites ?

Every country has great food to offer.

Except England, English cuisine is an oxymoron)

Take that Limeys! The essence of a refined Frenchman speaks!

[davidm]

The best place I've found for bacon is Foodland. The butcher's section offers German style black bacon and English style regular bacon. Reasonable prices, too. Yorkies of Jomtien is sold at Villa. Very good sausages, okay bacon and disgracefully bad pies.

Have any of the critics of British cuisine ever tried tried spotted dick or haggis? Do they know what they are? (No spotted dick is not a venereal disease.)

British cuisine acquired a dreadful reputation during and shortly after the Second World War, when cooks would throw together whatever they could get their hands on in the hope of resembling a meal. Those were hard times. The succeeding generation struggled in the kitchen because there were very few people to teach them how to cook to a higher standard.

That has changed. Since the 1980s, Britain has earned rave reviews from serious gastronomers. London has been declared superior to Milan or Paris in terms of the quality and diversity of cuisine.

Britain has a native cuisine to be proud of. We just prefer not to share it with ignorant Frenchmen. Britain has also given the world some fine cheeses, meats, breads and beers. Cheddar and Stilton are widely regarded as among the world's best cheeses. English ales, as made by traditional brewers like Theakstons, are almost beyond compare.

Britain has also inspired changes in other cuisines, such as Indian food. UK-based Indian chefs are now showing off their culinary expertise in the sub-continent.

True, Britain also has locally made lager and hamburger joints, but these are simply poor imitations of US based multinational junk and cheap and nasty European beer.

America does not have a native cuisine. Cheeseburgers may taste nice, but they are no alternative to real food.

[adjan jb]

Right, Davidm. London is (almost) a unique place for the diversity and quality of cuisine.

Anyway that's where I had my best Thai meal outside of Thailand (the Blue Elephant). My best Spanish meal outside of spain (I can't remember the name and location of the bodega). The best italian(I think it was in Guilford) and Indian (in Suffolk) meals I've ever had.

But I'm still looking for a decent English restaurant (I'm looking forward trying haggis). Any suggestion ?

[Georgie-Porgie]

Davidm, I'm not sure what you mean by native cuisine (uninfluenced by any other type of cuisine?), but America has some amazing regional cuisines that are totally distinct from each other and influenced by native fruits, vegetables and our melting pot culture, Creole, for example, from New Orleans, influenced by French Cooking, but using very different local ingredients. Tex-Mex. Soul food isn't very healthy, but it tastes wonderful. South-Western Cuisine. Pennsylvania Amish. I could go on for half a page if I could remember all the names.

These don't include all the ethnic foods that have been blended together and changed to suit our tastes and are commonly accepted as "American" foods, something like the delicious curries in England. New York Pizza is quite different from, and many people think far superior to the Italian original.

The humble hamburger is probably the most famous "American" food, but it is probably really German, anyway, and hardly representative of the vast smorgasbord of foods that make up American cuisine

[adjan jb]

G-P, what is "soul food" ?

[Georgie-Porgie]

As we all know (due to the Bear-Pit!), America didn't treat slaves very nicely. They were given the cheapest cuts of meat and the the worst vegetables. Over a period of time they found out how to use these ingredients and other wild vegetables and spices to make a really delicious and unique type of food, based on their native African dishes and the typical foods found in a Southern household during that period of time.

One dish that I love is made with pork. It is a stew of cabbage, some green vegetables like they use with Kow Soy (the Burmese dish), and pork. It is called Collard greens and Hog Jowls and is great!

If you want to try something similar in Thailand, there is a Chinese dish called Jup Chai that is very close to it, but you need to go to a place that mixes the vegetables with lots of different cuts of meat and tofu to get the real taste. They sell it in the market everywhere in Thailand with very little meat, but it is rather bland and tasteless that way.

Anyway, that is how Soul Food came to be, and the funny thing is that now-a-days, even the most racist Southerners love the stuff.

[huski]

New York Pizza is quite different from, and many people think far superior to the Italian original.

i agree, new york "style" is the best of the three different types in america. i personally miss philly cheese steaks from philadelphia & new england clam chowder