JohnBKK

Hi, being a expat here for the last 21 years the first question as far as where to stay is one of budget - 5 star Hotels or Guest Houses Anyway, a good area to stay would be Sukhumvit Road - example Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit or slightly lower in price the Landmark Hotel or the Ambassador as the cheaper one (slightly aged but great location) - one of the best (my opinion) Thai restaurants is the "Lemongrass" nice ambiance being furnished in Thai antiques and the thai food is great - ask the concierge for location, its not far from either of the above mentione Hotels - the Ambassador has a Roadside Restaurant as well with a BBQ where they serve Fish Crabs etc.. from the Barbi - in my honest oppinion the problem wit Thai sea food is that they mostly kill all flavors by overspicing fish for example and BBQ Shrimps taste like slightly burned Socks but than this is my opinion - if you get a hankering for some Western Food your choice is great - "Le Opera" Sukhumvit Soi 39 for Italian - the JW Marriott Steak House near Sukhumvit Soi 4 for Steaks - The street restaurants are safe in general, but only to be recommended if you like spicy food - I mean spicy! and stay away from those directly at the main Street - hours and hours of fumes can't be good for the food and subsequently for you. Most large Hotels have Buffets where they serve Thai as well as Western Food - I can only recommend those in 5star Hotels because the quality of food is really good and the price is only aout $ 20-30.00 for lunch and 50.00 or so for dinner - advice though if you are watching your budget drink "Nam Pao" (water) and stay away from beer which costs about $ 5-8.00 for a small bottle and the wine .... 300% import duty make a bottle of chateau plonk rather expensive. In bangkok you can eat well for a little as $ 2.00 and there is really no limit upwards - if budget is no problem try the "Bayoke Sky Restaurant" its on the top floor of the tallest building in BKK and open air .. a unique experience. Well that's all I have time for, got to make sure most of these 5star places have enough pate's and terrine's for their NYE buffet's - I'm a chef and supply those places, have a good trip, John forgot, Sukhumvit Road has lots of BTS stations where you can catch the Sky Train which gets you quickly to the River and another lot of 5 star Hotels, but also a lot of interesting eateries oir to Silom Road with Irish Pubs and Thai places side by side -

I run a business in Bangkok and I think I can call it "artisan" - we make sausages and pre-cooked food items for 5 star Hotels - what differentiates us from others is that we do not use pre-mixed spices, but I make a batch fresh every day for each kind of sausage - using for example Nutmeg as in the whole Nut freshly grated instead of pre-grated stuff - we also use lean pork and pure fat to make sure we do not have more than 22% fat in the sausages - enough for full flavor and we add only about 5% of ice in weight during the cutter process (this is where none artisan producer make huge profits by adding a lot more water and increasing the phosphate levels to help emulsification) - any product we make is made with only the best available raw materials. We only produce to order, so all customers receive freshly made produce and not stuff from the freezer - I think that this could be called artisan Artisan = putting an awful lot of effort into making a great product and making a lot less money than others

Hi Beef Cheeks (love the name) this is my first post here. I'm executive Chef and we produce food and sausages for 5 star Hotels and also sell in Supermarkets here. The basic of pasteurizing is very simple, we do pate's, sauces etc... Make sure you have the right jars with self sealing lids - fill them with the produce you want to preserve until about 1/2 inch under the rim - close the lid firmly and place them into a large pot with boiling water (they should be fully submerged with the water standing 1" above the top of the jars) - keep the water boiling for 1 1/2 hours or longer if you live at a high altitute - remove jars from the water and let cool slowly at room temperature for the vacuum to develop - this is the way I do it and I have our produce tested by the local FDA laboratory every three months with 0 results on all bacterial counts - hope this helps