Category: Thai Society/Culture

  • The King of Thailand with a Nissan Cefiro A33

    Some years ago, Nissan presented the King of Thailand, his majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej Rama IX, with the last Cefiro A33 produced in its one million unit production run in Thailand.

    A good car for a great king. As a show of respect for his passing last year, we have also decided to let our beloved car go. A keen buyer has been found, and we say goodbye to our faithful ride this Friday.

  • Winter Wedding Photos

    Nam’s younger brother’s tying the knot today.

  • Issan-Japan Fusion

    bug-sushi

    Accidentally found on Google; cannot find original source but will link to it if I do.

  • Pokeween

    It hath begun here in Thailand, where friendly spirits are mostly known for revealing winning lottery numbers and having extremely long arms.

    UPDATE: Buddy candies are being quadrupled by decreasing walking distances 75%. Incense now attracts mostly Haunter and Gastly. Indeed, Pidgey and Rattata and other common mons seem to have been replaced by these types.

  • Round eggplant tip

    After 10 years of experimentation, I have finally figured out that medium-sized round eggplant is the best. Too small, and they are bitter. Too big, like in the photo above, and they are soft, tasteless, and the seeds are too big and numerous.

    The seeds are actually an important taste component. They can be big, they can be numerous, but they can’t be both because it makes the overall texture too soft. This is something nobody ever mentioned to me.

    Something really interesting – I’ve seen people have allergic reactions to only the big ones. Specific symptoms were an itchy and swelling throat.
    So stay away from big round eggplant!

  • Fake booze in SE Asia

    All this ad needs is some Billy Dee Williams.
    All this ad needs is some Billy Dee Williams.

    So I was talking about fake Absolut from Laos with the crew today, and it occurred to me that the last bottle of Heineken I had tasted a lot like piss, which is a trademark of the lowest levels of Thai brew (I’m looking at you, Red Horse). I wondered if people bother to adulterate/fake/fuck with tax stamps and lot markings on beer as well, and fired up the old Web Wombat (it’s an Aussie thang):

    That video prompted this official response from Heineken: Tampering with Heineken® labels

    Which led me to this vid:

    Story here: Heineken ‘absolutely on top’ of fake beer threat after Vietnam gang bust

    The two stories aren’t about the same incident, andnowI’mgettingsleepysonowittyconclusionforthispost, sorry.

  • Bigo Live, the Snapchat of SE Asia

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    The Bigo Live app is just getting popular, it seems. After testing it for a day, I think this will shut down Snapchat in Thailand before it ever gets really started. Actually, I think if they can find a way to pay users, either through ad sharing or tipping, or a combination of both, this could possibly be a threat to Facebook. It just suits Thailand very well.

    The downside? An even more unfair User Agreement than Facebook, which is saying a lot.

    It is inspiring a lot of ideas!!

  • What’s for lunch: Green Curry with Wings and Portobellos

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    Although I have made green curry with all kinds of meat, chicken is the best because of its wonderful grease. And among the cuts of chicken, we all prefer middle wings with an occasional wing drum thrown in for variety.

    Today I sliced in a couple small portobello mushrooms, and along with the filtered fish sauce and chicken grease, they made the curry into an aromatic, coconut-infused umami bomb. With local round eggplant and julienned kachai (lesser ginger).

    As far as eating goes, I actually prefer pulling chicken off the bones and mounding it on top of the rice and curry, but the kids just devour it off the bone.

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