Monkey at Yoshida Manor
INSERT ANIMAL NAME – Crap coffee
The most expensive coffee in the world is being produced at the elephant camp we take the kids to almost every new year, on the way to Surin province: World’s Priciest Coffee Is Hand-Picked From Elephant Dung
So here’s my prediction: What started as civet crap coffee and moved to elephant crap coffee will eventually result in the production of human crap coffee. Because, let’s be honest, Kopi Luwak can reportedly be very smooth (the ones I tried were not), but most people drink it because it’s something new and exotic, and because they secretly want to be like the baboon.
Freestyle Fries
View from the Kuj
The sky looks like a painting. My new (probably fake) Alfa Romeo wing mirrors work a lot better than the old ones. Now adjusting them only takes two tries instead of five (check mirror, get out, walk over, adjust angle, walk back, sit down, repeat). Badass.
Thai Basil Explosion with Star Egg
Give me sliced pork belly, and I can rule the world.
Dorilocos, Frito Pies, and Papaslocas! Oh, my!
Why haven’t I heard about this until today? My new mission: Create an equally delicious Northeastern Thai version without ever having tried the original: Yam Praduk foo, pork rinds, gummy worms, and blood sausage cubes thrown together in a bag of Banana Party snack chips!
Maybe I need to spend some more time planning first.
RIP Gaijin Shacho Hero Dude
Dear Nissan,
Now that you have ousted Carlos-sama, can you please stop making horrendous cars?
For example, no Skyline is worth a million dollars. Period. But this isn’t even trying:
Now, it’s rumored that you gangstabbed your Caesar in the back because he wanted to fully merge Nissan and Renault, but really, at this point you need to look at Renault’s current product lineup compared to yours. Although many Renault products look quirky, they are at least generically modern, while Nissan’s look like they were designed in North Korea:
It’s not necessary for you to compete with everybody on all fronts, but please, stop making ugly-ass cars. Please go back to your roots.
Sunset Cast
We visited a nearby reservoir, Kaeng Loeng Chan (they really need to simplify the official English spelling), on the weekend. They were holding a work rally to cover the newly-created Health Park with grass sod and quite a few people showed up to volunteer (or as a Thai would say, to make merit).
We got bored of the manual labor after less than an hour and walked around the banks of the reservoir instead, taking photos and looking at dead crabs. The water seems too murky and oxygen-depleted to support fish close too shore, but they must be out there somewhere. Maybe I’ll take the kids fishing out there sometime.
Cast Iron Pizza
Cheap labor. 
But happy! 
And saucy! 
Spoonwork 
Sweet Thai Basil 
Placement decisions 
Tried a baking pan as well (no bueno) 
Allowrie four cheese blend 
Out of the oven! 
On the cutting board… 
Bubbly bliss… 
New mochi knife. 
Execute! Execute! Execute! 
Rocky slicing motion. 
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS
We went all in with Kenji on this one:
Foolproof Pan Pizza Recipe
New York-Style Pizza Sauce Recipe
Actually, for the sauce, I added filtered fish sauce, tripled the amount of garlic, and used the good part of a rotting onion instead of going to the store to buy a fresh one, and it turned out really, really well.
I tried using a cast iron Lodge pan and an aluminum baking pan, and the latter was predictably much inferior to the former because the crust stuck to it pretty badly.
In Thailand, any cheese is expensive, and the one called for in the recipe is unavailable where we live, so we used a cheap pre-shredded mix. It was most excellent. The sweet Thai basil was also a great match.
Next time, I must find a bigger, better alternative to the baking pan.
Nice stance…
The plastic wing mirrors are a pet peeve tho. Needs a whip antenna… and just where is the edge of the front door?