Peter Green

A whole month! Does that include hand grenades?

Here are a few suggestions. I'm sure more people will chime in here soon and there is a thread on building a home bar here somewhere. Bourbon Rye Brandy or Cognac Cointreau/triple sec Maraschino Green Chartreuse Angostura bitters Orange bitters ← The above gives you a good, solid base for a bar. Take any of the above, and branch out. Armagnacs.....I'll always take these over a cognac. Tequilas - get a good sipping tequila Single malts - go for something with strong, speyside peat first, then something mild like a Dalwhinnie second. Avoid, at all costs, anything that glows in the dark like a creme de menthe or parfait d'amour. If you do come across them, run. Run quickly.

Cool! The link is working now. I have to buy some of this for my Korean brother-in-law who does all our hunting. A seasoned hunter, indeed.

I kinda like the Princeton Pub. A good, honest working man's place. And I think there was a good diner a couple of doors over. Plus, that neat kitchen supply store is around there.

Thanks very much for writing up this trip! I have almost convinced my significant other that taking an apartment in Montreal for a month would be a very, very good idea. I'm hungry again.

coming back to this, I was going through the shelves, and, if it was me having a beer somewhere, I would be very happy with anything from Fergus Henderson's Nose To Tail. I'm not saying take the recipes. I'm saying review the writing, and look at what the good Mr. Fergus is saying about food. Not only would it make for very good grub, but it'd be fun, too.

Whale is available at Uemasa in Bangkok, in the Japanese enclave off of soi Thonglor. It's quite interesting. The part that I had tasted very much like good pork belly. As a note, this same restaurant also serves horse sashimi, which was wonderfully marbled, and melted like butter in my mouth. I'd hoped to get more this last trip, but we got there too late in the night, and they had already closed by midnight, so bear that in mind when planning.

Chufi, I think what you're planning is an excellent idea. We've been expatriated for over twenty years, and my wife had organized courses and tours in Egypt when we were there. Some comments: - many of the people that will sign up will be first-time expats. The hard-core, who've done five or six different postings, will already have their networks and procedures in place. Tailor to "newbies" who haven't been abroad much. - make a choice between expatriate living and gastro-tourism. Expatriates, many of whom have children, have specific needs tailored around creating a home environment with some elements of familiarity. The high-end side can work well, but you need to work from a base level. Offer a couple of sessions around the higher, local end of dining, and see what your balance calls for. - shopping is key to most new expats. They need to know where to find things that may not be local, or what local material they can substitute easily (another topic, substitutions, is a critical item for expats). - I hate to say it, but most of modern society is hopelessly inept in the kitchen, and has to be taught bottom up on how to work from scratch. (What! I can't buy pancake batter ready-to-pour!). - I'm not saying to shy away from the local cuisines (by any means) but look at how you can make them accessible to people that have never been abroad. - Having said that, keep your eyes open for the people that really want to get into it and cook, and then tailor some courses around them. They'll in turn pass the word, and you'll have a very successful business very soon. - And get the money up front. Take credit cards, whatever, but make it easy for them to pay right away. They'lll feel more comfortable. These are expats, for God's sake. They're hardly starving backpackers (okay, I'm a little peckish right now.....I should get those rib eyes ready).

Bangkok Post Here's a (short) article from today's Bangkok Post on two of the big markets in the city, Pak Khlong and Talat Thai.

Percy, what did you think of the hotel itself? It looks like I'll be staying there soon. ← In case this isn't too late.......the Four Seasons Bangkok generally makes it into the top hotels of the world in the polls. Check the executive club out. It's worth an extra $20 or so for access. Aside from a good breakfast, internet access and the usual, in the late afternoon/early evening they lay out a fantastic spread of appetizers, wines (generally Australian, but some good Chilean as well), and spirits (too early for me). The big draw are the appetizers. The different restaurants in the Four Seasons take turns providing nibbles, so this includes The Spice Market, Biscotti, Shintaro, and Madison's, all laying out some of the best food porn I've seen. The trick is to sample lightly, while still leaving room for your evening's eatings. Likewise, with the cost of wine in Bangkok, it's nice to relax before traffic with a Long Flat. I should post some pics. ← I like sitting next to the small pond having a cup of coffee and suasage roll. The orange juice is nice as well, Thai tnagerine actually. Peter..you join The World Gourmet Festival there every year i think! See you next year! ← It's an addiction, what can I say?

Everyone pretty much agrees, no one store is going to do everything well. But, if we took away any one shop, would it make life significantly more difficult? For me, if I'm back in Vancouver (okay, not in "The Country" but.....), I always include the big Chinese T&T supermarket over on East 1st on my back and forths between Kits and the North Shore. Good butchery (especially for pork), excellent live seafood tanks, extensive produce - with a lot of hard to come by items - bbq'd pork and fowl, and a reasonably good selection of SouthEast Asian and some Western goods. Can I find foie gras? Nope. And they're charcouterie isn't something to talk about. But would I cry if it went away?..... Probably.

Gastropub is the safest, in the good definition of the word, which is make solid, comfortable food. Now that the grill isn't doing the spontaneous combustion thing (although you could've got some X-Files tours to schedule you in for that!), then you're covered on the basic burger demand. If you could really push the fries - heck, you could spin them as"frites" (can you get beef fat for the frying?) although that gets a bit pretentious. When I was at Modern Burger in Vancouver they had a continual line-up out the door, and they were sticking to basics done right. What's local and good? Get your food costs down a bit while making things out as a terroir approach (I know, it sounds cynical, but it could work out)? Given the clientelle, you don't want to go avante-garde. If they want to experiment, they've got the place across the street. British-style meat pies? They give you a fair bit of freedom of ingredients (and they keep well enough). They work well in the cold months. As you allude, you can get people to drive an hour-and-a-half to try something different, but after that it won't be different (and they probably won't come back). You've probably gone through all these already, but it's an interesting project to think around.

Percy, what did you think of the hotel itself? It looks like I'll be staying there soon. ← In case this isn't too late.......the Four Seasons Bangkok generally makes it into the top hotels of the world in the polls. Check the executive club out. It's worth an extra $20 or so for access. Aside from a good breakfast, internet access and the usual, in the late afternoon/early evening they lay out a fantastic spread of appetizers, wines (generally Australian, but some good Chilean as well), and spirits (too early for me). The big draw are the appetizers. The different restaurants in the Four Seasons take turns providing nibbles, so this includes The Spice Market, Biscotti, Shintaro, and Madison's, all laying out some of the best food porn I've seen. The trick is to sample lightly, while still leaving room for your evening's eatings. Likewise, with the cost of wine in Bangkok, it's nice to relax before traffic with a Long Flat. I should post some pics.

Rico, Sorry, I'm not familiar with the area, other than that it's upstate. What sort of dining audience do you have to work for? Big seasonal changes, or constant?

Good Korean home food...... some cuttlefish, cut into strips (nice, meaty strips), quickly blanched, and then dipped in gochujang/vinegar/sesame..... And a beer would go well with that......

Culinary tourism? Yes, I'd say that all of our vacations have some aspect of this, whether it's a trip somewhere new such as Russia, which involves long hours of looking through restaurant reviews, or if it's a purpose directed trip (such as the World Gourmet Fest in Bangkok or the World Gourmet Summet in Singapore) where it's nothing but food. (the WGF, Coup, and Eid write ups are under Elsewhere in Asia...I'll have to figure out the linkings here) One option I do recommend to everyone, take advantage of your business trips. There is no reason that your companies shouldn't get the best quality out of the meals they're buying for you! (See OPM - Other People's Money) be it a trip to London, Houston, Calgary, or Beijing. Plus, you'll impress your hosts with your knowledge of their culture, and amaze your accountants with your disregard for their parsimony.

It's not a bad way to go. There must be an element of karma here.

I love these teas. The first time I'd bought any was in Sipsawngpanna (or whatever the Chinese call it, I'll stick with the Lao name) back in 1998 and I was intrigued by the suppository look of these little Hershey Kisses of tea. They did draw some odd questions from Customs when I came back through, but once I proved you couldn't mainline it, those were quelled. I took the tea home, and carefully parsed out the pots of tea I could make from them. What I found was a tea that was fabulously dark, darker than anything my mother ever poured out for Hockey Night in Canada (with lots of milk and sugar, thank you) but when I drank it there was not the slightest hint of bitterness about it. Even better, my wife, who can't take tea or coffee after lunch without being up all night can drink this to her heart (or tummy's) content. When I was back in Beijing a couple of years back, I found an excellent tea shop and immediately asked for pu erh. I was confronted with the question of suppositories or cakes? I ended up buying both. They weren't exactly cheap, but they provide a drink that is hard to compare to anything else for depth of colour and clarity of taste. I must make a pot tonight!

You'll have to make a decision at some point of how "local" you want to be about your intestinal system. Drawing upon several years in Egypt..... This may sound horrible, but consider bleaching your food. Yeah, yeah, it sounds way to Michael Jackson, but give a quick rinse in bleach, and then let them sit for the chlorine to evaporate. This'll generally safeguard against a lot of problems with fresh veggies, and the chlorine does evaporate very quickly. Avoid watermelons. The cell structure will allow amoebic penetration through the rind. For the beef (it's probably water buffalo), order only the fillet, or tenderloin. Put it in marinade, and freeze it in the marinade. This'll soften it up. Be cautious of meat and poultry sections without flies in expat markets. Often they'll come in and spray raid on the food in the morning to make it more palatable to the foreigners. Also, be careful of ice cream. Repeated freeze and thaw can introduce many problems. Sieve your flour. If the black bits in your rice break up softly, they're not rocks. You might want to pick these out before they make a second incredible journey through an intestinal track. Or......relax! Weight loss through dysentry is still weight loss, say I.

Dear Goddess, Thanks! I'll always give food a second (or third, or fourth) chance. I'm lining up a trip to Korea (South, that is) for next October to take in the fall in Sorak, so I'll give them another try in their proper setting. Usually, what we get in Bangkok is pretty true to form, but there are cases where things go astray in the translation. Plus, it gives me more things to look for in Korea (although I don't think that'll be a problem)! Cheers!

How come we haven't seen any jokes about Kim Jang Il (the Dear Kimchi)? Can you post the schedule/review for the house to house move on doing this? It'd make a really neat description of the equivalent of a block party!

Excellent! You've answered nagging questions I'd had about Singapore. Not just about Les Amis, which everyone at my tables at the WGS was still recommending, but also about Iggy's, which comes well recommended, too, and now I know why. As you said, not cheap, but well within the bounds of what's fair value for a very good meal. I've spent a lot more than that for less elsewhere, and what you've described will stand up to any locale. I'm hungry again. Any chance of a review of Iggy's soon?

When in doubt, champagne. We did a dinner a little while ago in Bangkok with Passedat (Petite Nice) and they did the entire 7 courses around Laurent Perrier. Nobody had any complaints.

We've got a place up on the Sunshine Coast, and this has been an issue. Generally the boats are pre-contracted for their good quality stuff. For instance, the shrimp boats have contracts with the shrimp processing shops. Tuna's going to the fish boys. You'll generally need to make some "special" arrangements for receiving fresh goods boatside. Doing this under cover of darkness might be wise.

Pesto time.