Category: Photos

Maha Sarakham Restaurant Review – Little Tokyo

Went to a new Japanese restaurant opening today with Tong. It wasn’t crowded at all, and my first impression was bad because it reeked of fresh paint inside.

I don’t want to go into much detail, because we only had a few dishes, but what we did have was enough to lure me back again to try some other things.

The interior is neatly if unimaginatively decorated,and the coolers work well.
The interior is neatly if unimaginatively decorated,and the coolers work well.
"Little Ramen" - actually kinda full-sized and with decent broth and good toppings, but the noodles were way overcooked. 5/10.
“Little Ramen” – actually kinda full-sized and with decent broth and good toppings, but the noodles were way overcooked. 5/10.
Katsu and Omurice - Bleh katsu and not really omurice, but tasty and filling for 49 baht. 7/10.
Katsu and Omurice – Bleh katsu and not really omurice, but tasty and filling for 49 baht. 7/10.
Tom Yum Gyoza - the best dish we had by far. 8/10.
Tom Yam Gyoza – the best dish we had by far. 8/10.

Menu highlights outside.

Front view of the restaurant; fucking awesome reflection.
Front view of the restaurant; fucking awesome reflection.

Overall, I give this place a 6/10 (so far) – worth going to check out. The food had problems, but hopefully they will be ironed out soon.

Strengths: Reasonably priced (much cheaper than Japanese restaurants in Sermthai Complex). Has at least a couple strong dishes; soup gyoza is pretty good (tried two dishes with it).

Weaknesses: Smells of paint. Bad noodles (unforgivable for Japanese ramen). Bad sushi (not pictured above). Not much parking. Iced green tea is tooth-dissolvingly sweet. Hot tea is cheap and flavorless.

The place is located next to the copy shop on the corner of Highway 208 and Nakorn Sawan Soi 18 (the street that goes down to N&N 2 and Med Side) next to the copy shop.

http://goo.gl/maps/4E53T

Mina’s first catch

2013-04-16 21.47.59mina-pla-tong

The other day, I dug up a single earthworm from our sun-dried garden and tied a simple bobber rig onto a spinning rod to give Max and Mina a chance to catch something in the pond across our street. Max got a couple nibbles and then got half the worm stolen, so it was time to re-bait and let Mina have a chance. she hooked up in less than a minute and brought in another bronze featherback, slightly smaller than the one we had before.

Max and Mina wanted to keep him in their tank, since the last fish besides an algae eater we had, a freshwater angelfish bought at a local night market, died after lasting a good few months. As before, the featherback got into it with Mr. Pleco, and proceeded to get his ass kicked around the tank until I got fed up and threw him back into the pond. Nobody missed him. Some fish are just disagreeable.

I found the part!

… or at least, my sister-in-law in Bangkok asked a garage who did… Amazing Thailand!

Turn signal assemblies for 1971 Toyota "Kujira" Crown MS-60 - broken latch one on right, replacement on left
Turn signal assemblies for 1971 Toyota “Kujira” Crown MS-60 – broken one on right, replacement on left

The replacement part is actually in much worse condition, over all, than the one I took off my car, but the plastic latch that holds the turn signal in place (and keeps me from having to hold the lever when turning – which annoying as hell) is intact. I’m asking my pal, Ot, from Wattana Sound, to pull the best parts from each and create  a “best-functioning” amalgamation.

It’s funny that Taro had this same exact problem on his Mitsu Jeep when we were at university; the garage told us it would cost x amount to fix, but being poor students, we just used it broken until Taro bought another (used) Jeep. The difference between then and now is a huge cost differential (probably about 10:1 in favor of labor-cheap Thailand) and that while you expect an old Jeep to be a gritty driving experience, I’m aiming for a more luxurious experience in my Crown (it originally came with a refrigerator in the trunk and a pneumatic central locking system, after all).

Tabasco? Wasasco? WASABI-O!

Last year, I wrote an e-mail to my Santa Claus impersonating buddy in Japan (impossible to find a link for you, dude – there are at least 7 “Santa Daves” on Facebook and even a “Big Wave Santa”) telling him that they had brought a Tabasco-like wasabi sauce to market: Wasasco. He recently tried to find some, but couldn’t. I remembered that I’d seen something similar at Big-C, so went to check it out.

Wasabi-O, possible intentional copy of a trademark-infringing Japanese product, from Thailand (Tabasco --> Wasasco --> Wasabi-O) Do unto others, bitches!
Wasabi-O, possible intentional copy of a trademark-infringing Japanese product, from Thailand (Tabasco –> Wasasco –> Wasabi-O). Do unto others, bitches!

OK, the most shocking thing about this product is that it is not only edible, it is FUCKING DELICIOUS! Serious noms. It’s like the perfect dip for potato chips, creamy and atomic. I could see doing capfuls of this for losers of drinking games.

The thing is, Big-C had a whole shelf of these bottles on clearance, so I hope the Wasabi-O company isn’t going under or something. Time to go stock up, because the last favorite hot sauce I had here, Wolf, which tasted kind of like Cholula and Tapatio mixed together, just disappeared one day. Although I’d stocked up on half a dozen bottles of that, it didn’t last a year. I’m going to Big-C to buy up their stock, I guess.

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It occurs to me that McDonalds is possibly vindicated from Adam’s online criticism from a decade ago.

Golden Shower at New City Hall, Maha Sarakham

C. fistula - binomial nomenclature courtesy of the man himself, Carl Linnaeus
C. fistula – binomial nomenclature courtesy of the man himself, Carl Linnaeus

 

The Rachapreuk tree has naughty names (only for perverted minds?) in English (golden shower tree), Latin (Cassia fistula), Spanish (caña fistula), and translated Chinese (sausage tree). It’s name in Ayurvedic medicine is aragvadha, or “disease killer,” and it’s the national Flower of Thailand as well as the state flower of Kerala, India. It blooms at the hottest time of year here in Thailand, and I think serious modern research into its medicinal properties is long overdue.

I need this part

This post is a simple plea to the monkey in the sky to help me find a working turn signal assembly for my 1971 Toyota Crown. The molded plastic latch lasted many decades before succumbing to normal wear and tear. Looking at modern cars, I’m pretty sure none of them will last quite as long.

Juju booster +10!

2013-03-05 12.33.52

2013-03-05 12.33.59

I really don’t want to try replacing the whole steering column.