bonobo

I was in Barcelona in September, and I bought about 3 kg of a local ham. (I should have bought the whole ham, but I was low on Euros and didn't want to go find an ATM, idiot-that-I-am at times.)

This ham has made some great sandwiches, but I have very little left.  Where can I get more here in Thailand?  I don't mean the little plastic packs of 100g that you can buy at Villa or Tops, but big chunks of it that I can slice at home.

I have read on the internet everything from do not freeze, freeze, store in a cool dry place, refrigerate--and so on.  I just brought back about 80 corn tortillas, and while I will have some this weekend, I need to store the rest for later usage.

Does anyone have their own proven way to keep these?  How about you, Kikoman?  You seem to be an expert on this.

Since Villa stopped carrying corn tortillas, I have to bring them back from the US each trip.  I would love to be able to make them myself, but from previous threads, that seems to be problematic here in Thailand.

Sorry, just wanted to post.;I just finished a turkey dinner.  I brought the turkey with me from the US, a nice Butterball.;It was a little small, bot for two, and for sandwiches later, it was fine.

I brined it for 24 hours in salt, brown sugar, oranges, limes, rosemary, and thyme.  Then I stuffed it with an artichoke-apple-shitake-sage sausage stuffing and basted it with a rosemary butter sauce.;The skin was tasty, and even the white meat was moist. The mashed potatoes were normal, but the gravy was a cognac gravy made with the nice amount of turkey drippings along with a small bit of stock made from the gizzards.;Ocean Spray cranberry sauce and a simple orange-marshmellow salad (a taste from my childhood) made the rest of the meal.

Sandwiches tonight! (But I can't get too full as I am meeting a friend at the Sukothai brunch tomorrow.)

    turkey.JPG   140.35K   46 downloads

I arrived back at the Suvarnabhumi  the other evening, right in the middle of rush hour.  As i live on the Thonburi side, I told my taxi driver to take Kachanapisek around Bangkok and then in the short way to my home instead of going in through Bangkok proper and fighting the traffic.  The driver kept complaining that this way was too far (going this route adds about 5 km to the trip, but then again, there is no traffic of which to speak.)  I tried to explain to him that he will be getting more money on the meter while taking far less time, which is obviously to his advantage. Yet he still wanted to go through town, repeating the mantra that my way was too far.  Finally, I just gave him no choice, and as I sat back, I will admit, the thought of "stupid Thai taxis drivers" flitted across my mind.

And in reading this forum for several years now, I find this to be a trend amongst some posters here.  One Thai woman cuts off her husband's member, and this is something all Thai women do regularly.  One Thai woman with a foreign boyfriend has a Thai boyfriend on the side, and all Thai women in relationships with foreigners do the same.  One Thai man abandons his pregnant Thai girlfriend, and all Thai men do that.  One Thai man gets drunk each night in the village on cheap Thai rotgut, and all Thai men do that

But when I consider my thought of "stupid Thai taxi drivers," too dumb to understand when something works out in their favor, I have to remember how stupid some people in my home country can be.  You only have to go as far as "Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader" on TrueVIsion to see that the US has some pretty stupid people as well. Or when you stand in line after giving a cashier at the grocery store $11.75 for a $6.63 bill and watch her screw up her face in confusion as to why you gave her the extra $1.75 over the $10 bill, then try to figure out your change.

Unless you are fluent in the local language, and maybe not even then, I think it is very difficult for a foreigner to really feel like a full-fledged member of a host culture.  So there is always a little bit of an us-vs-them attitude present.  And I think we tend to gloss over what is wrong within our home cultures, when we see the same things in the host culture, we brand that specific action as endemic to everyone in that culture.

An American drunk driver who hits and kills a family of four back in Ohio is considered a bastard, a criminal, a social deviant who needs to be locked away.  But a Thai drunk driver who hits and kills a family of four in Korat is just proof that all Thais are drunks, that they drive and drink, and that this is a reflection on Thai society.

I know it is hard to do at times, but I think those of us who live here would lead happier lives if we didn't lump all Thais together with the actions of the few.

And now, I will get off my soapbox.

I finally got True to come out after 4 canceled appointments to install new boxes in the two bedrooms.  However, the old small flatscreen I had stored away really isn't that good (I am used to watching on my 50 inch full HD plasma.)

So I need to get a new tv, maybe a 37 or 40 inch for the master bedroom (guests can make do with the old one in the second bedroom).  I have checked out Central Pin Klao and the HomePro on Rapprapruek, but I am wondering where might be the best place to see a wide variety of tvs and at decent prices?

I want full HD with mp3 movie playback from a thumbdrive.

And any recommendations on a TV itself?  I have a Samsung plasma which I quite like, but I am open to anything.  I have read that LEDs are not really any better than other LCDs other than being thinner. cooler, and using a little less power.