insomniac

great blog and thanks a bunch! ...just wondering as I have never been to Prague, do you really get shedloads of drunken Brit stag parties every weekend as that is the image we get from the media over here?... and it all looks so tranquil and beautiful from where you stand...must hop on Easyjet very soon (not in a hen party )

Lindsay, a heads up on the squid...open it outside and don't plan on a romantic evening

I think this is Soursop, not custard apple. ← You know, you might be right. I've only seen them whole and then as juice (I drink it constantly when I'm in Vietnam). I've never seen it cut up. ← I didn't have time to elaborate yesterday, but with custard apple, you don't usually cut it up. If it's ripe enough to eat, you'd just pull it open with your hands, so you'd not have straight lines. Plus, you don't get straight lines with custard apple anyway, because you'd probably need to cut through seeds--custard apple has more seeds. ← Well, I'm not persuaded on that point - I cut open custard apples! ← I love soursops, custard apples and cherimoyas and after reading this thread I've gotten very confused so this is what I remember (I think) : cherimoyas are green and look like they've got scales, soursops are green and have little spikes and custard apples are sort of purplish but I think they are all from the same family...i actually think I normally see sousops and I did think they were custard apples for a while....errr. sorry, I've confused myself

Routiers are truck stops...there is a Les Routiers publication which is annual (I think)

to me that has got to be the bottom line...

Lovely colors. It is always heart warming to hear of parents willing to go the extra mile for their young-ens. ← that dish of food has got to glow in the dark! ...I am imagining a blue drink just off camera

Rob, I salute you...

I'm punting for Jackal10, albiet with a bad guessing track record edited to add that those hills don't actually look like Cambridgeshire....hmmm

Bruce, what an ace!!! thanks so much...now why did I ever think I wouldn't find real Mex ingreds in the UK? ← insomniac, have you looked at this website? http://www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/ I used to get a lot of stuff from them when I lived in London - Also: http://www.coolchile.co.uk/ - huge variety and a good stall at Borough Market and Portobello Road if you ever get into London (plus a new little resto) And a place for Mexican tins/dried foods - El Azteca http://www.elaztecafood.co.uk/productos.php The website is in Spanish, but if you don't understand it, you can call them, they speak English - or pm me... Lots of places to get Mexican type stuff in London, if you can't find what you need in these places, let me know and I'll try and find it for you, I always found almost everything, or at least the ingredients to make it! ← thanks heaps Sandra, I guess because the standard of Mexican food here is so dire I didn't actually think about sourcing ingredients... ps. hope you are enjoying my hometown pps. I can read Spanish but speaking is work in progress

Wow, Scud has really grown up!...he must be beating the girls off with a stick...and I just noticed that the quaintly named resto that Rona and the boy are posing beside is the exact description of the portion of offal I was referring to in the Thai offal thread ps. love the off-piste way you cast your blogging spells Peter...

that's my sort of meal...sadly I find it impossible to get the sort of offal I want in these parts...and don't joke about ghosts, the kids used to be petrified of phii phret, not to mentiion various Chinese ghosts...alas they don't have the same effect now

Peter, I think I had that, but raw and sliced finely, did you see the pre-cooked item? was it white? and it tasted quite soft to eat...except that I was told it was not the uterus but something anatomically slightly lower,(use your imagination ) but there was a lot of laughing when they said what it was so maybe my leg was being pulled... ← Alas, we only saw it in its "crispified" state (as Scud would say). I took it on faith that it was uterus. Although I did wonder how to tell if it was really a virgin.......... ← ...was there a ring on one trotter?

Peter, I think I had that, but raw and sliced finely, did you see the pre-cooked item? was it white? and it tasted quite soft to eat...except that I was told it was not the uterus but something anatomically slightly lower,(use your imagination ) but there was a lot of laughing when they said what it was so maybe my leg was being pulled...

I'd second Phia Singh's book. I've worked with it, and it forms the "text" for a number of the cooking schools in Laos (at least in Luang Prabang). Another good one, if you can find it (I know Prasantrin has a copy, too), is Thai Cuisine in Rattanakosin Era, by Wandee Na Songkhla. Beyond the recipes, which work well, the "General Knowledge" section in the back is a wealth of info on the handlling and prep of the ingredients (which is where all the work lies). ISBN 974-86722-7-1 Plus, I like how the corrections have all been done on tape and put into the books by hand. ← I'll third 'Traditional Recipes of Laos' Does the 'Thai Cuisine' book have a list of ingredients also written in Thai script Peter?....I can't find mine? but if it is the one, I used to copy out ingredients I needed and hubby would take list to the market when he was in Bangkok for the night and get me what I wanted...very handy...

which area of Sydney is Chat Thai?? Sounds like it would be worth a visit! thanks SD

thanks for taking such trouble Fengyi, I'm sure that blogging can be very disruptive....really loved seeing it all, especially your relatives at home...that is truly the essence of living in another country...you are very lucky to have the family connection... ps. good luck with your business venture...not that you need it!

I have eaten warm, freshly slaughtered buffalo liver in a sort of laab treatment with plently of chillies while in the north ....also had a dish of the meat mixed with the contents of the stomach or perhaps the intestines just below the stomach...it was a greenish mass and made the meat quite bitter...I was not that keen to enquire exactly what the stuff was at the time but in retrospect I wish I had...I enjoyed the liver... ps. edited to add that offal in soup is readily available, some delicious examples in Chiang Mai..

you'll be going out on a high!! looking forward very much to the reports and the pix...I'm dying to hear what the Whampoa Club is like (have you been to the one in Shanghai to compare?...actually in retrospect I'm now guessing you haven't )

Bruce, what an ace!!! thanks so much...now why did I ever think I wouldn't find real Mex ingreds in the UK?

Bruce, what is the flavour of pasilla chili?? as I am certain not to find them in this neck of the woods...any substitutes using Asian chili??...thanks

I'm also a huge tongue fan but I prefer brains...

me too... like a one trick pony I drank the Belondrade y Lurton only at Gandarias for the 4 days we were there....interesting husband and wife wine!

stick your bare hand in.....

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has one of the best recipes for nettles that I've ever had. Risotto of nettles and wild herbs. ← this risotto is superb...

there is a perception by people other than in the USA that the greeting is not perhaps as sincere as it initially sounds. i.e it is not a prevailing social protocol elsewhere