Oneman

(Darn shame to have to start this way, but here it is:  Mod -- please close this thread to avoid angry trolls and volunteers from the PC language police.)

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Is there anything like a traditional, men’s grill in Chiang Mai?

(Don’t mention it here, but send me a private message instead and we can exchange ideas.)

Use to be, years ago, that nicer hotels in US cities, had a men’s grill restaurant and bar.
In the Commonwealth countries every city had its clubs, for men.
Women just didn’t go in there (unless they were the waitresses, or it was some special occasion, such as annual, family night.).

All of those were places where a few friends could meet for lunch or dinner.
Is there anything even near that in CM?

Reason for asking is the nicer restaurants are starting to over-run with Western females, particularly of the US and British variety.
High pitched, screechy voices.
Loud, cackling laughter.
And all the in-your-face body language of any “protected minority”.

Had dinner this week at Ping-Ping Seafood in Anusaan Market.
Always busy with tourists, but I’ve never before seen so many Western females in there before.

Went past the Bistro1 restaurant in Nim City Daily.
Some of the best Western food I’ve had in Chiang Mai.
But now, Western females, front and center, at the outdoor tables.

Went in to Weeo’s secret Garden restaurant.
Used to be perfect for breakfast or meeting friends for a relaxed lunch.
More Western females there, doing their best to talk and laugh as loud as possible, and totally disrupt the quiet, garden, setting.

The Dukes in the night bazaar is filled with them, too.
The Dukes on the river, less so, but still some, especially lording it over their offspring and husband on a leash.

One reason I moved to Chiang Mai was to get away from that kind of bad behavior from Western females in the  “homeland”.
But now, they, and their behavior, are starting to arrive here in Chiang Mai.

So, I’m looking for a refuge.
Maybe other men are, too.
Any suggestions?

Yes, there are the traditional bars that we all know about.
The Red Lion, O’Malley’s, Queen Victoria, The Pub, etc., but those are mainly pubs that happen to serve food.
So much more enjoyable to enjoy a nice dinner, where the meal is the focus, not the drinks, not the TV, and not the football louts at the bar.

Now, its a real shame that contemporary mores force me to include this comment, but that’s the way it is.
Not, repeat, not, looking for a homosexual place.

My goal is simply to find a comfortable, CM version, of a traditional Men’s Grill, for a pleasant dinner, without Western females doing their best to disrupt the atmosphere.
If that’s possible.

So far, I have discovered two excellent restaurants in CM where I’ve never, ever, seen a Western female.
And, given the circumstances of each restaurant, Western females are not  likely to appear there.
No, I’m not mentioning the names, because those are my “trading cards” to exchange with other men who know about other places.
I’m looking for a few more.

Better if reply by private message.
We do not want the word to “get out” in public like this.
If Western females learn of any refuge for Western men, they will eagerly discuss it at their Western females lunch groups, and then go on the attack.

(Now, Mod, please close this thread.  No need to feed the trolls, especially the female trolls.

-- Oneman

New Italian restaurant -- tastes like grandma used to make.

Does Chiang Mai really need yet another Italian restaurant?
I would have replied to that question, "...[yawn]...".
But that was before I ate at Colosseo yesterday evening.

Colosseo fills an empty niche in the restaurant "scene" here, a niche that I didn't realize was empty until I tasted their food.
That niche is home-made, Italian, food.
Real home-made, not just a phrase in an advertisement.
This is the kind of food that grandma used to make for everyday eating.

What you get is simple food, from fresh ingredients.
What you *don't* get is food piled up in layers with a thin slice of something on a thick bed of strangely-colored something else.
Or food pressed into a round mold that comes out looking like a colored hockey puck.
No spikes of vegetable sticks sticking out at odd angles.
And no swirls of tasteless sauces swirled around to make small portions appear bigger on the pate
None of that artsy, fusion, nouvelle cuisine nonsense.
At Closseo you get food on a plate -- that's all.

I arrived early and was the first customer of the evening.
So the chef came over to my table to chat.
He proudly explained how he prepares each meal to order.

I started with prawns Marie Rose -- shrimp cocktail.
Grandma never made that for us, but, still, it was a very nice beginning to the meal.
The most generous shrimp cocktail I've ever seen -- a dozen good sized, shrimp.
Frozen?  
Yes.
The sauce?
Mayonnaise and ketchup -- remember, this is not exotic.


Then ravioli with spinach and ricotta filling in sage butter sauce.
It took a long time to arrive.
The chef was in the kitchen mixing up one serving of the filling and then making ravioli for just my  serving.
Freshly made?
Yes.

I've had better-tasting sage butter ravioli than this.
But that was at pretentious restaurant in San Francisco, and those flavors were so intense that you couldn't eat it everyday.
This ravioli you could eat every day.

Next, I should have ordered a "secundi" of eggplant parmigiana.
But I wanted to sample the Boulagnaise, so I ordered a second pasta.
The chef mentioned that he makes the fettucinni using the same pasta dough as the ravioli.
(But he doesn't make all the pastas, just a few, simple ones.)

It was a huge plate of pasta, more than I could finish.
The sauce was certainly home-made.
And I didn't have to endure the restaurant show of a waitress coming over with a lump of parmesan cheese and a grater.
None of that silliness.
Of course you will have parmesan on top, and it's already there when your plate arrives at the table, exactly the way grandma would have done it.

I was too full for any dessert, but to take home for my lunch today, I ordered pasta i fagioli soup with beans and bacon.
The chef told me the beans are already cooked, but the soup he makes from scratch when it is ordered.
I had smelled the aroma of bacon.

In every dish, the flavors were simple.
Nothing complicated, nothing exotic.
That is the niche that Colosseo fills: really home-made.
This is the kind of Italian food I could enjoy eating every day.

Colosseo is a tiny place, just one shop house.
Clean and neat, bright and cheerful.
But no air-conditioning.
I wonder what it will be like in the hot and smoky season here.
Probably exactly like every other open-air restaurant.

It is well-hidden behind Nimmanhaemin Road.
In a very small soi, on another road with a name that nobody can pronounce.
So, unless you've been there before it's impossible to find.
Besides that, it's only been open a few weeks, so nobody knows where it is yet.
Even I will have a problem to find again.

Here's the address:

17/4 Soi 7, Sirimangkalajan Road
That road (with the un-prouncable name) is parallel to Nimmanhaemin Road.
If you know the "Mac Zone" store, it is on Sirimangkalajan Road.

On the corner of Siriman-whatever and Soi 7 is a fancy car wash shop, "Car Bella".
Soi 7 is also the "back entrance" to Gad Suan Kaeo shopping center and the Lotus Bang Suan Kaeo hotel.

I don't know anything about hours open or days closed.
No web site that I know of.
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Looking for others who are familiar with "The Dollar Vigilante" (TDV).

Organizing a lunch-discussion in Chiang Mai.

Restaurant location either Le Meridian or The Chedi hotel -- central location.
Date not yet set.
(Details sent by email -- not posted here.)

Note:
I don't intend this thread to be a debate or explanation of ideas from "TDV".
Rather this is only an invitation to make contact with others in the Chiang Mai area who are already familiar.

-- Oneman
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New restaurant from an old hand: "Gipsy's Grill".

Mr. Gipsy (German expat) has owned restaurants in Chiang Mai for many years.
He always serves hearty, home-style meals, made with top quality ingredients.

For many years he ran the "Rose Restaurant" -- well known among expats here.
Then, about a year ago, Gipsy disappeared -- moved to a new location, somewhere on the outskirts of the city.

I'm happy to report that Gipsy has recently moved back into town.
He's just opened a new restaurant -- Gipsy's Grill --  in the same neighborhood as the old Rose.

Because the restaurant is just getting going, the menu is still limited and the service has a few wrinkles to be ironed out, but the food is as good as before.
On the menu so far are German sausage platters, with, of course, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes, or with home-fried potatoes with bacon and onions.
For the sauerkraut, he makes that himself.

Also available now is a crispy pork knuckle, that is slow-roasted, not deep fried.
Gipsy said, if you order that, be sure to bring a friend to help eat, because it is 1.5 kilos.

Plus, he's got hamburgers with beef from Rim Ping that is ground to his specifications for fat content.
In the old location, his hamburgers were among the best that I've been able to find in Chiang Mai.
He claimed now even better than before, but he wouldn't say why.

Gipsy said he will be building up the menu gradually.
I asked him to bring back the corned beef hash & eggs breakfast.
If other readers here remember that, perhaps you'll urge him on to reinstate the corned beef hash & eggs.

Location is Ratchamanka Road, 70 meters West of Moonmuang Road.
North side of the street,  right next Lost Books shop.
Sorry, I didn't ask about the hours open.
But closed on Mondays.

-- Oneman
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A search of ThaiVisa shows zero results for "BitCoin" in the Internet forum section.
So, I'll start the topic here.

In one sentence: BitCoin is a money transfer service that runs on the Internet.

For anyone living overseas from his home country, or doing extensive international travel, BitCoin seems useful.
A little bit useful now, maybe more useful if it catches on.
I think it will catch on, possibly in a big way.

 bitcoin_goldv2_mini.png   60.97K   5 downloads
That's the BitCoin logo.
For those of us familiar with Thai Baht currency, a most interesting logo.
But there is no connection to Thai Baht -- it's just a logo.

BitCoin is a competitor for Western Union, MoneyBookers, SWIFT, and the like.
But those are well-established.
BitCoin is very new and still very rough around the edges.
But I see the potential, so I'm starting to use it now, in order to learn more.

BitCoin also is a way to store money, like a bank account.
But it is not a bank; just a bunch of data packets floating around on the Internet.
Those data packets are all encrypted, of course.
There is some risk.
We don't yet know all the points of risk, but I expect they will start to appear soon enough.
And, these days, banks are risky too.

BitCoin is totally private.
You don't need to give any personal information at all, not even an email address.
You can transfer money to and from any other BitCoin address, anywhere in the world.
That privacy is very convenient, and, for some, very useful.
But any totally private way to transfer money could be used for immoral purposes.
It probably already is being used in such ways.
So, sooner or later, BitCoin will attract attention from governments.
It was the same with the Hawala/Hundi private money transfer network just after the "911" attack in New York.

BitCoin is essentially free.
It doesn't cost anything to get the address or to get the software.
If you use a commercial exchange service they do have fees, just like other money exchangers.
But there is an active and growing trade among private individuals, with no exchange fees involved.
No fees, but some risk.

To use Bitcoin all you need is your own, private, Bitcoin address.
You can think of it like an account number, but its not really an account anywhere, just an account number.
You can have as many Bitcoin addresses as you wish -- no limit.
And you don't have to give anybody any personal information about yourself, not even your name.

There are two ways to get a Bitcoin address.
One way is to download and run the Bitcoin program on your computer.
The Bitcoin program is free.
Google for many download sites.

The other way is to use a web site that will give you a private address.
You don't need any software on your computer -- just your ordinary web browser.
That site is: www.mybitcoin.com/
It's free.

I've been using both methods.
For practice, I've been sending Bitcoins back and forth between my two different addresses.
And exchanging Bitcoin pennies with friends, too.

BitCoin either runs on personal mobile devices now, or it will very soon.
So you don't even need a computer, just an iPod or something like that.

Bitcoin transactions are not instant: takes a few hours to transfer.
Nobody told me that, so I'll tell you and maybe save you some wondering.
If you run the Bitcoin program on your computer, the first transaction can take, perhaps, an entire day to reach you.
After that, just a few hours.
If you use the on-line web site at MyBitcoin.com, then only an hour or two, maybe less.

If you want to practice and learn, you're welcome to contact me.
We can send each other BitCoin pennies (0.01) and see how it works out.

I'm not an expert in this, but I have learned quite a bit so far.
If you have questions, you're welcome to ask me.
If I know the answer, then I'll tell you.
Probably there are others here who know a lot more than I do.

-- Oneman
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