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Thailand’s best Crispy Pork resto
We found the holy grail of crispy pork shops on Koh Chang over the summer. Everybody on that trip still talks about it. We were there to visit students interning on the island, so I was with a couple coworker pals and we brought Max along as well. Tee drove us to Bangkok, where we stayed at his condo for a night, then we set out for a few days of island life. This was probably the best meal of the whole trip because the prices were cheap (less than 2 dollars a dish) and the portions were huge! Of course, the place is a total hole in the wall,…
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Pickle
The last remaining member of our squirrel assassin clan.
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Random soi dog
Thai soi (street) dogs are mostly chill. This huge concrete lot near our house was supposed to be a fresh market years ago, but before it was completed, there was a huge storm. It toppled the poorly-constructed first market area roof and someone was killed by the falling roof while several others were injured. As it turns out, it was built too low and gets flooded a foot deep for the entire duration of rainy season anyway. This doggo and his friends run around here freely now.
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Fire Safety
This is a pretty common demonstration at schools and government offices in this country. Seemingly. the more run down the venue is, the crazier the demonstrations are. I’ve seen them light the flames and wave the gas cylinders over their heads like Donkey Kong before.
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Toyota 2000GT Sighting in BKK
Somebody drove their original Toyota 2000GT through Bangkok traffic to a classic car show last week. What a legend! This must be the same car I wrote about being kept in an underground garage a couple years ago: Toyota 2000GT in Thailand Credit goes to Kai Vorra-asd on Facebook: LINK
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Would you like that with or without endocrine disruptors?
The saddest cooking news I’ve heard in a long time: Black plastic products including spatulas are likely being made from recycled electronic waste like computers and televisions, many of which are treated with flame retardants and other chemicals. Flame retardants can dislodge from polymers easily and make their way into the surrounding environment. They are endocrine disruptors, which interfere with the body’s hormonal system and may be associated with thyroid disease, diabetes, and cancer. Full link to the Atlantic story: Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatula These are my mainstay utensils for certain things I cook and I surely have a dozen in my kitchen including spoons, ladles, slotted and…
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Scenes from a Hoi Tod Shop
Hoi Tod is a Thai dish made by frying mussels (or sometimes, other shellfish, squid, or shrimp) in an eggy batter and wrapping up beansprouts and garlic chives with it. Those in the know usually prefer this dish to Pad Thai. It’s often served as street food, especially at night markets, but there are also small shops that specialize in it. This particular joint was crowded when we visited at lunchtime on a weekday in a busy Bangkok district, but I thought it was pretty average — I thought it was too stuffed with undercooked sprouts, but that might just be due to my preferences. I’m used to a greasier…
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PP Pedestal
This is in the refurbished (!) restroom of one of my favorite restaurants in town. After careful observation, I have determined that it’s a MacGyvered pressure plate flushing mechanism that stinks of piss. It looked disgusting, so I just straddled it and stepped on the cleanest part when I was done… So weird.
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RMU Melodies
I like walking around my campus at sunset because I can see after school activities in a nice light just as it’s getting cooler. @Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University, Thailand
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AI Limitations
I’m using GPT-4 to help write an ESL textbook, which is probably taking longer than if I just did it by myself. However, because I’m relying on AI for the graphics and audio files for conversations, it’s really forcing me to learn basic Python script debugging and troubleshooting for ChatGPT. The most frustrating things about this experience so far are: I have to get back to the textbook, but I leave you with these absolute gems of what AI thinks Bingo cards look like: According to the file name, the prompt was: “A 4×4 Holiday Bingo sheet with a clean, minimalistic design suitable for embedding in a Word document. Each…
