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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   3335 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 21, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Chiang Mai has a kind of center, but generally it's quite spread out, and because Thailand is very hot this can be inconvenient if you're walking everywhere. You see tourists renting scooters but when I was there in February police were regularly stopping and citing them for various violations (riding tandem, no helmet, no license). The vendors renting are apparently very loosey goosey but the cops have their quotas. Tuk tuk taxis are also common but will add up, and aren't the safest. There's also currently a wave of businesses supported by selling marijuana in various strains and forms (eg gummi) which is a lotus trap for anyone who chooses to live there. I'd say buy a scooter and probably lay off the weed if you're looking to amp productivity.

I ate at tourist places but there are some really good places of that sort, selling the sort of international fare (quesadillas, gumbo, hummus and dolmata, etc.) that are sometimes very hard to source where I live. But again these aren't local shops. Local places for Thai people are cheaper but also spicier and by my own standards less sanitary.

I don't know CM as well as some of my friends but it's an historic area with a good music scene if you're into that. I will insert that Indians do not have the best reputation in Thailand due to the many cheapskate and entitled, presumptuous tourists that throng there, particularly in Bangkok. Some of these guys must be seen to be believed. I am not suggesting this is what you will be like, just giving fair warning.

Thanks, the point of being on Nimman Road is to avoid the need to commute altogether. So if we can work from our apartment, have a gym there in the building itself, and have vendors around us for food. So we only want to move out of our house for food and maybe a co-working space. My only concerns would be

  1. Burn, keeping it below 1-1.2k USD for the two of us. So hidden costs that we have not thought about.
  2. Health hazards (I have never eaten out for every meal in my life). The part about sanitation is what I am concerned about quite honestly.
  3. Climate (potential floods, mosquitoes[though being in a good apartment should cancel that out])

I would appreciate any advice and thoughts on whether the burn and all calculations are correct.

A) I am probably not a good guru as regards to this as I've only been to Chiang Mai once. Have you looked online? This seems to be in your window of expenses, but you need to think about things like health insurance, to say nothing of daily/weekly laundry costs (there will be places that can do this for you relatively cheaply, and fold up your shirts, etc.) I presume you'll need a good internet connection? There are subreddits about Chiang Mai that might prove helpful. This is the kind of thing where Reddit is actually useful, to some degree, though don't expect consensus opinions.

B) I cannot imagine, as you say, eating out for every meal. That seems pointlessly tedious, in addition to probably not cost effective. A rice cooker will take you a long way, as well as a small fridge and a basic knowledge of cooking that you'll need to develop anyway as a functional human being.

Public holidays or days when whatever cafe you frequent are closed will happen. In terms of street food that locals eat (that you buy on-the-fly and either eat sitting on a bench or wherever) the food basically sits out. It might have ice near it. I noticed oddly in Bangkok that the street food stalls smelled really strongly (of spice, etc.) but had no flies anywhere, even in the 80F weather in February. I thought that was weird and I still don't know why there weren't more flies. I did not eat the street food. Some of it looked good, but I didn't want to chance it. A friend of mine got what was probably food poisoning once eating Chiang Mai sausage (though he was in Phuket.) It may not have been the sausage (I like Chiang Mai sausage, actually, though it is spicy.)

C) You make it sound like you will hole up in one apartment semi-permanently, only venturing out to eat with your roomie. That sounds like hell to me, unless you are very close to your roomie, and even then, yeah, Hell. But I'm not you.

I can't offer you much else, other than what I've already said regarding transportation--and I expect even if you don't "commute" to and from any work, at some point you'll want to get out of the neighborhood and explore, particularly if you're staying there longer than a month or two.

I noticed oddly in Bangkok that the street food stalls smelled really strongly (of spice, etc.) but had no flies anywhere, even in the 80F weather in February. I thought that was weird and I still don't know why there weren't more flies.

Many herbs and spices such as lemongrass, cloves, and chili peppers have natural insect repellent and antimicrobial properties, which helps explain their prevalence in tropical cuisines and perhaps the lack of flies.

gumbo

You can make your own gumbo fairly easily if you have access to fat and flour(or canned roux); once you figure out how to obtain roux the main obstacle is time(it takes 3+ hours). All of the ingredients seem like they should be accessible in Japan.

Oh to be sure, and I have made efforts to do so, even once emailing a restaurant in Foley Alabama to ask how the hell they made theirs (they stonewalled me but apparently taped my email to their wall).

My standard for a restaurant I'll happily go to is a place that makes something I either don't know how to make properly or don't often have the time commitment to make. Gumbo falls in that category. You're completely correct, however, my skills are just apparently weak or I don't have some secret ingredient to do it right.

Gumbo is one of the easier things to make in the kitchen. It's barely a step above "dump everything in the pot" chili. Isaac Toups' basic chicken and sausage gumbo walkthrough on youtube is a good start, the dish is very forgiving as long as you get the roux right. It's not complicated food, it's long-simmering food set aside to feed a large group of people. You can get everything done inside of 20min and then spend the day drinking beer or whatever while it bubbles.

Yeah as I say I've done gumbo several times but I don't think it ever turns out right. Maybe it's the roux as you suggest.

The trick I was missing for gumbo is to use all three traditional thickeners - dark roux. file powder, and okra. When I only used one or two I'd always be disappointed.

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