Southeast Asia: I really enjoyed it despite all the Swedish people

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Southeast Asia: I really enjoyed it despite all the Swedish people

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raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Waltzing Along posted:

Is there any sort of difference between various meal times? IE: breakfast/lunch/dinner. Or is it just food whenever? I mean, are there things that are more likely to be served at different times of the day?

Yes but not as much as you're used to.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 00:48

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# ? May 28, 2024 01:57

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

Yeah, especially in the big cities and tourist areas. The local dim sum places are going to open and close in the morning along with the street stalls selling jok (local version of Chinese style congee rice porridge) or khao thom (thai rice soup), but there will be dim sum restaurants and things serving 24/7 if that's your thing. It's mostly at the local shophouse style and street restaurants where you see the change. Moo ping (grilled pork skewers - not with peanut sauce), while available throughout the day somewhere, are mostly served at breakfast. Same with Khao Moo Daeng (smoked pork with rice and gravy). Khao thoms (the restaurant style, not the food) will open around 17:00 and stay open until late, late, serving a number of dishes not available at tham sang (make to order) joints and this kind of thing. Most of this distinction will be lost on you as a visitor and the restaurants in tourist areas won't obey the standard dynamics of Thai food anyway, serving whatever they think you'll want, whenever, most of it mediocre or bad (again, in tourist areas).

Also congee is loving stupid and awful.

ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 01:32

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Cup Jok is my shame food

# ? Aug 20, 2014 02:01

Pixelante: Mar 16, 2006; You people will by God act like a team, or at least like people who know each other, or I'll incinerate the bunch of you here and now.

Wish I'd had a camera handy when my Irish friend picked up a red bean popsicle at Halong thinking it was going to be strawberry. I like red bean cake, but I have to say it's weird in cold form. Like pumpkin.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 02:37

lemonadesweetheart: May 27, 2010

You guys are so weird.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 03:16

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

I dunno, when you start eating staple foods like corn and beans and cassava for dessert I think maybe the problem isn't us!

# ? Aug 20, 2014 04:21

caberham: Mar 18, 2009; by Smythe; Grimey Drawer

Geeze you guys, you all may be man children but stop eating like actual 8 year old kids.

ReindeerF posted:

Also congee is loving stupid and awful.

It's a nice light neutral base like oatmeal.

ReindeerF posted:

I dunno, when you start eating staple foods like corn and beans and cassava for dessert I think maybe the problem isn't us!

It makes perfect sense because staple foods are plenty and cheap. It's like cornbread/yogurt you can flavour it savoury or sweet.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 04:38

caberham: Mar 18, 2009; by Smythe; Grimey Drawer

Waltzing Along posted:

Is there any sort of difference between various meal times? IE: breakfast/lunch/dinner. Or is it just food whenever? I mean, are there things that are more likely to be served at different times of the day?

Jesus loving Christ. Are you Clark Kent from Kansas or something?

Anyways, try different local food and fruit. Have fun. And do tell if you ever get the explosive shits!

caberham fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 04:44

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

caberham posted:

It makes perfect sense because staple foods are plenty and cheap. It's like cornbread/yogurt you can flavour it savoury or sweet.

Right, but it's 2014. What I mean is, "Jesus, this is as far as you've gotten?" America's an amalgamation, so it's kind of tough to compare, but French pastries, Swiss chocolates, German pastries, Italian gelato, etc, etc - this stuff dates back centuries. It's not just some beans and corn in a bowl of ice, heh. I really dig a lot of foods over here, all kinds of things are creative and original and have unique flavors and so on, but the dessert culture is like some growth stunted cousin that's produced a few outlier hits.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 04:50

Oracle: Oct 9, 2004

quote:

Also congee is loving stupid and awful.

My oldest has been thoroughly indoctrinated. Also my husband wants it as comfort food when he's sick and I apparently can't make it to save my life.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 04:51

The Saddest Rhino: Apr 29, 2009; Put it all together.
Solve the world.
One conversation at a time.

My question got buried somewhere before but I kinda still want to know what to expect when I go to Yangon, Myanmar, if anybody knows anything about it.

I'm Malaysian so I'm fairly aware of mosquitoes (lol) but my Singaporean colleagues have been informing me (a) avoid street food because they are all made of cigarette ash and deep fried turds (b) use bottled water for everything including baths and (c) if you don't take taxis everywhere you would either fall through pavement holes which form under your feet, or get repeatedly raped.

Please also advise if my Singaporean colleagues are just being loving Singaporean.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 04:52

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

Shouldn't any old flavorless paste do? I liked the oatmeal comparison. There's a reason all oatmeal comes with apples or cinnamon or whatever, because otherwise it loving sucks. I grew up eating oatmeal and it blew when mom didn't have time to chop up some apples to put in it. I'm under no illusion that it's good just because it's part of my background. I always marvel that poo poo like congee isn't immediately abandoned once people eat something, anything else, heh.

The Saddest Rhino posted:

Please also advise if my Singaporean colleagues are just being loving Singaporean.

I've not been, but many people I know have and I know a couple of people who live there and, yeah, they're being Singaporeans about it, heh. It's apparently dirty, not a particularly nice or fun city and so on - and expensive-er these days - but I've never heard of anyone reporting trouble with eating or getting around. Most complaints I hear are, "The food kind of sucks and it's boring as poo poo."

ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 04:55

caberham: Mar 18, 2009; by Smythe; Grimey Drawer

In short, SEA countries did not do as much long distance trading as the Euros. And colonization was much more local

ReindeerF posted:

Right, but it's 2014. What I mean is, "Jesus, this is as far as you've gotten?" America's an amalgamation, so it's kind of tough to compare, but French pastries, Swiss chocolates, German pastries, Italian gelato, etc, etc - this stuff dates back centuries.

Guess where sourced all those wonderful ingredients? Why hundreds of years of ~~slave labour~~ colonization and trade of course :laffo:

Dutch cinnamon buns required copious amounts of cinnamon because of status. All those sorbetto fruit flavours and cane sugar are processed and refined. Then there's European coffee and tea. People would be :spergin:

back then over cooking because it was harder to come by.

Here in East Asia it's just being lazy because mangosteens and coconuts are super easy to come by. And then you can just eat Durian all day. Or a bajillion other kinds of spices/herbs/fruits. Bread/baking culture is lacking because yeast is probably used for fermenting tofu instead of an oven.

However globalization is changing the world palate and everyone is going for French fries and HFC's. Even younger Europeans are pinning for starbucks

Oracle posted:

My oldest has been thoroughly indoctrinated. Also my husband wants it as comfort food when he's sick and I apparently can't make it to save my life.

I was going to say that congee is great comfort food when you get sick :ohdear:

It's not really that hard to make unless you want to be ultra picky. For me I use 1 : 3 : 2 rice to water to chicken stock ratio, simmer 3 hours and constantly stir the pot to avoid burning the ingredients. Ask the Chinese food thread for more details.

The Saddest Rhino posted:

Please also advise if my Singaporean colleagues are just being loving Singaporean.

Well they forgot to tell you something: You need to bring a maid :downsrim:

But you know Singaporeans and Hong Kongers, terrible arrogant city people who are always full of themselves when compared to the rest of South East Asia.

caberham fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 05:19

The Saddest Rhino: Apr 29, 2009; Put it all together.
Solve the world.
One conversation at a time.

I'm already very excited about the 'boring as poo poo' aspect. Oh god, I have to be there for 2-3 months

(The work apparently is very exciting because Myanmar is meant to be one of those third world countries that are finally opening up to globalisation and capitalisation etc but I'm vaguely apprehensive about it)

# ? Aug 20, 2014 05:30

raton: Jul 28, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

Burmese are a little rascally but fine. If you're in a conflict area (borders, some mountains) maybe you can worry, as is I wouldn't be worried. The last time I was there was for a visa run and from the herd of guys following me around (when I I did what I usually do and just wandered off the route into town) one guy showed me a pistol and I asked him if it was for sale and he said sure fifty bucks and we all had a laugh.

If you have Netflix Anthony Bourdain recently did a show on Burma that was pretty good. In sure you can find it on YouTube or Pirate Bay or whatever too.

raton fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 05:36

Barfolemew: Dec 5, 2011; Non Serviam

Hotel in Koh Tao, Khun Ying House in sairee for a week -Check
Train+ferry ticket, train 85 to chumphon and some ferry, tickets delivered to my hotel. -Check

Now i just have to wait two weeks for the liftoff and hope that Finnair wont gently caress up my flights.

Train and ferry ticket and delivery 1390 baht. Would have been cheaper to get them myself but :effort:

edit: https://www.asia-discovery.com got the tickets from there

Barfolemew fucked around with this message at 11:53 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 11:27

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

The Saddest Rhino posted:

I'm already very excited about the 'boring as poo poo' aspect. Oh god, I have to be there for 2-3 months

Short of Manila, I've always found a way to make a city interesting, so I'm sure you'll find something. Manila was really tough and I tried really hard and did have fun with Pinoy friends and thing, but it's just a crap city. I tried jogging through slums, eating news foods, going out in different nightlife areas, the city just blows. Only place I've had that experience so far.

The Saddest Rhino posted:

(The work apparently is very exciting because Myanmar is meant to be one of those third world countries that are finally opening up to globalisation and capitalisation etc but I'm vaguely apprehensive about it)

This is all true, but I think the Davos crowd and their hangers on got a quick lesson in Cool Your Heels when they realized just how long it's going to be before any level of industrialization will be possible. They've got a decade or more of road-building, power infrastructure, ports, telecommunications, internal logistics and other things to slog through before it'll be able to support anything other than industries like Oil & Gas or hospitality. The place basically hasn't been upgraded in, what, 50 years? There are a lot of frontier and emerging markets guys staking their claim there now, but they're not really able to get much done outside of the industries I mentioned (that I'm aware of). The only other industries where things are getting done are the industries to build all this infrastructure, but basic infrastructure almost always goes to either local/regional corrupt firms (for anything simple) and major multinationals with local connections (if complex), so I don't think a lot of small or medium size players will make it for a while. If the past is prologue, the infrastructure contracts will go to a consortium of Thai, Chinese and Indian companies. Germans, Japanese and Americans will support for projects that require complexity.

EDIT: This assumes the whole place doesn't just collapse as well, heh.

ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 12:23

Finch!: Sep 11, 2001; Spatial Awareness?

[ ] Whaleshark

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Barfolemew posted:

Hotel in Koh Tao, Khun Ying House in sairee for a week -Check
Train+ferry ticket, train 85 to chumphon and some ferry, tickets delivered to my hotel. -Check

Now i just have to wait two weeks for the liftoff and hope that Finnair wont gently caress up my flights.

Train and ferry ticket and delivery 1390 baht. Would have been cheaper to get them myself but

edit: https://www.asia-discovery.com got the tickets from there

Great success. Regarding the train/tickets, what's a few hundred baht between friends? I'd rather pay for that poo poo to happen than do it myself.

Khun Ying is good. They won't pick you up from the pier but I can get away with cheating a little bit and taking the Big Blue taxi to the crossroads and walking, mostly because I'm a Big Blue person and their taxi drivers know me and I can bullshit my way through if they don't. If you only have a small bag you can walk, it takes around half an hour and it's hot as gently caress. Or pay the 300 baht for an extortionate Koh Tao taxi... or find some people heading that direction and split it, or whatever.

It's looking like I'll be back on Koh Tao in early December. If all goes well I'll be in Las Vegas for an AWS thing in early/mid November, catch up with friends in Vancouver, then GTFO to Bangkok. We'll see - I really don't want to go from Australia to North America to South East Asia :effort:

# ? Aug 20, 2014 14:10

Atlas Hugged: Mar 12, 2007; Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all

Khoayam Gaizap is delicious. Why have I never heard of this before?

# ? Aug 20, 2014 15:15

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

I'm trying to decipher that transliteration. It looks like rice salad with tasty chicken, heh. Doesn't sound right, though.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 15:19

Atlas Hugged: Mar 12, 2007; Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all

I'm going by what my Dutch friend spelled it as. It's "chicken zap zap with rice" according to the English menu.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 15:21

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

Sep is the Lao/Isaan word for Aroy, which means delicious. Zap sounds like a bad transliteration by the owners. It could be delicious chicken with rice, heh. Is it a whole breast of slightly spicy chicken? Herbs rubbed in? Some spicy pungent sauce on the side? Sticky rice?

# ? Aug 20, 2014 15:25

Atlas Hugged: Mar 12, 2007; Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all

Just normal rice, but the rest yeah. I went with "zap" as the spelling because there's another restaurant up the road called "Zap Station" and when I inquired, a guy told me that "zap" was kind of a slang for delicious in Isaan. "Sep" sounds way more like the pronunciation I heard.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 15:29

Shammypants: May 25, 2004; Let me tell you about true luxury.

ReindeerF posted:

Short of Manila, I've always found a way to make a city interesting, so I'm sure you'll find something.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 15:33

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

Sounds like gai yang (grilled chicken) with khao (rice). Normally, Isaan folks eat sticky rice. Eating plain rice with roasted chicken is more Vietnamese or Filipino.

Stare at a woman and yell this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bQBrz4rFxw&t=183s

Sooooy soy soy!

Win friends and influence people.

EDIT: The face he makes at 03m10s never fails to crack me up.

XyrlocShammypants posted:

Mai supaarp.

ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 15:34

FortMan: Jan 10, 2012; Viva Romanesco!

Atlas Hugged posted:

Khoayam Gaizap is delicious. Why have I never heard of this before?

Sound like ข้าวยําไก่แซ่บ (Khao Yum Kai Sap), which is one of Thai KFC menu. Rice with Spicy Fried Chicken Salad. This thing:

# ? Aug 20, 2014 16:06

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

Ahhh, that bad KFC fusion of larb or nam tok spices and fried chicken with steamed rice. That makes sense. I was trying to imagine where that would occur.

Fortman, post more often.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 16:09

Atlas Hugged: Mar 12, 2007; Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all

Well I had it at a little restaurant not at KFC. It was tasty and the woman has been progressively adding peppers to see how spicy I can eat it.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 16:27

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

We had a restaurant near me that copied all the KFC recipes. It closed after a few months, but their versions were (Original Recipe aside) better than KFC. Dunno what exactly you got, but it's possible.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 16:32

Senso: Nov 4, 2005; Always working

Authentic Korean fried chicken > KFC anyway.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 16:45

Chair Huxtable: Dec 27, 2004; Heavens me, just look at the time

Senso posted:

Any fried chicken > KFC anyway.

Assholes don't even serve biscuits here. That's the only reason I ever set foot in that awful establishment.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 16:54

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

We've got a couple of legit places in Koreatown now and it's pretty good, yeah. Not as spicy as it should be, but Korean isn't the same kind of spicy as Thai or Mexican, so no matter how hard I try to say HOTTER they can't do it, heh. Still, good stuff. Glad I found out about it.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 16:54

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

Chair Huxtable posted:

Assholes don't even serve biscuits here. That's the only reason I ever set foot in that awful establishment.

I finally found a place doing biscuits and gravy here by the way. Which means biscuits.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 16:55

caberham: Mar 18, 2009; by Smythe; Grimey Drawer

ReindeerF posted:

Short of Manila, I've always found a way to make a city interesting, so I'm sure you'll find something.

XyrlocShammypants posted:

# ? Aug 20, 2014 17:15

caberham: Mar 18, 2009; by Smythe; Grimey Drawer

Chair Huxtable posted:

Assholes don't even serve biscuits here. That's the only reason I ever set foot in that awful establishment.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 17:17

ReindeerF: Apr 20, 2002; Rubber Dinghy Rapids Bro

You bastards are destroying like a decade of work on this and the last thread! EVILDOERS.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 17:21

caberham: Mar 18, 2009; by Smythe; Grimey Drawer

ReindeerF posted:

You bastards are destroying like a decade of work on this and the last thread! EVILDOERS.

Hey man, I will be in Bangkok very soon, I'm so excited :waycool:

Which hostel should I stay? And have you guys been to the ping pong show :holy:

****

I think they mean biscuit as in "American South biscuit" aka corn bread right?

caberham fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Aug 20, 2014

# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:38

Senso: Nov 4, 2005; Always working

Chair Huxtable posted:

Assholes don't even serve biscuits here. That's the only reason I ever set foot in that awful establishment.

What the hell is a KFC biscuit? A fried chicken biscuit? How can this be a thing. That must be a British thing. Gross.

Well, now that I'm in a British colony, I guess I could find out. But I'd rather not set foot in a KFC anyway.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:47

Atlas Hugged: Mar 12, 2007; Put your arms around me,
fiddly digits, itchy britches
I love you all

A biscuit is entirely different than cornbread. Cornbread is crumbly, biscuits are flakey or layered depending on style.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 19:04

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# ? May 28, 2024 01:57

Pirate Radar: Apr 18, 2008; You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!

Senso posted:

What the hell is a KFC biscuit? A fried chicken biscuit? How can this be a thing. That must be a British thing. Gross.

Well, now that I'm in a British colony, I guess I could find out. But I'd rather not set foot in a KFC anyway.

# ? Aug 20, 2014 19:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Southeast Asia: I really enjoyed it despite all the Swedish people

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