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Perfect Chicken Pot Pie
As perfect as it gets for NE Thailand, at least: It only tasted about half as good as it looked, which was still pretty good. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the plate was flipped around the wrong way until after I took the photo. On the positive side, I’m pretty happy with the quality of the camera on my Desire HD. It pretty much replaces a pocket camera, not that I ever carried one regularly.
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Wifred is currently the best show on television
And goddamn, Mary Steenburgen is just… timeless.
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Old photos of HB
This photo gallery of Huntington Beach from the 1920’s shows just how many derricks there used to be on and near the beach. I had no idea how many had been taken down over the years, but I suspect the huge and oily wooden beams we used in front of our HB house as planter sidings 30 years ago came from that infrastructure. I also found another related image through Google that I can’t find the source for:
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Dog Show at Central Plaza, Khon Kaen
And when they say, “show,” it’s like a spectacle for people who have never seen dogs before and might mistake them for food or something. The only other time I’ve heard of dogs displayed in a cage like this was at Nazo no Paradise (raccoon boner heaven), when they advertised a new “zoo” about 20 years ago and a few people, including my ex-coworker took their kids up to see it… only to find a roped off area next to the muddy parking lot adorned with cages labeled, respectively, “monkey,” “dog,” and “cat.”
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This guy is HUNGRY.
…And his stage is the fucking GAIA! (via my pal Ton on FB)
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Aegle marmelos
This is a bael or bael fruit AKA Bengal quince, wood apple, stone apple or seer phael (head-fruit). In Thai it’s known as matum. In Thailand, bael is usually found in the form of dried slices, which are reconstituted in water to make juice. Our housekeeper brought over a few from her tree and I was surprised at how hard and heavy they were. We did as she said and boiled them, but then accidentally left them out on a hot night and the next day, they had fermented in the shell and burst, oozing a heavy syrup onto our counters. I threw them into the pond out front as…
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Rhaphanidosis
Definitely a word you should know. Goes hand in hand with “sodomy with a mullet.”
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In which OLDER does not necessarily mean WISER…
So far today, I’ve had to break into my own house three times because each time I left I’ve forgotten my own keys inside, and then later, forgotten to ask my wife for hers. On the plus side, both my morning and afternoon classes at Mahasarakham University (Nam’s uni, where I teach on Mondays part time) were thrilled to have class cancelled due to a blackout caused by a storm that knocked down power lines last night – the ironic thing is that unpowered classrooms are kinda what I’m used to working for a public university and all. Here’s my proof, in the form of a photo documenting last month’s…
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Spit Roast Pig
When we went to our good friend’s party last month, the kids tired out in an hour or two and we took them back home (just a 2 minute drive). Imagine my joy when I returned solo to freely flowing brew and this: One of our friend’s father-in-law’s friends who looked like he stepped straight out of a Cometbus narrative was manning the spit for a while, then I tried my hand at it… Eventually, only the deliciously crackling neck and head remained. The thing about roast pig is that you have to eat it hot – 100x more delicious.
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Chris Delivery
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being Chris Delivery’s bodyguard (I got the job by looking “ex-yakuza.”) Fortunately, there were no kidnapping or assassination attempts, but he did get jumped by several groups of screaming fans wanting autographs and v sign photos (and, I suspect, a romantic evening under a private mango tree). The talk he gave at our university was heartfelt and entertaining, and a great success by any measure. Props to my friend, Ajarn Kedsiree Jumpeehom, for setting it up and thanks to Chris for putting on an awesome show. For a television personality with several shows, books, and other assorted projects known to pretty much everybody in…
