I could fill a book with Thailand stories but one of the crazier ones was I shared a house for a bit with a couple other guys I knew from Ohio. One of them had another guy he only knew very tangentially get in touch and say he was coming to Chiangmai. Dude arrived and said he wanted to go somewhere and smoke opium. My roommate knew a resort in the rural area that would serve it to guests. So he points the guy the way.

Dude went there and OD’d on opium. Story was he kept asking for more and hosts obliged. Resort owner went so far as to stage photos of staff trying to revive him to show the authorities.

So now my buddy is on the hook to show dude’s freaking parents around the Thai countryside when they fly over to claim the body. Told me he was just making small talk with these people he never met and the Dad was like “how do you think we are, our son is dead”.

Be careful with opium kids.

Was he smoking it? Seems rather 19th century.

Grab bag responses:

Griz - don't think I've ever been excited about pudding...until now. Presentation looks great!

Yim:
Re: custom suits

My brother in law was living in Nicaragua when he got married and had a custom suits made...smart play right? Except he somehow didn't test fit and walked down the aisle in a jacket that looked like it was straight outta an mid-80s issue of Vogue...shoulder pads for miles!

Re: adventures in asia

Awesome! One of my great regrets in life is that I never had a proper adventure while young. Went to college, got a job, got married, got a dog, had kids, started a company...basically just did what was expected. Hoping to rectify this by riding a bicycle cross country sometime in the next few years

Re: food truck

Drag, but not uncommon I guess. So many small biz are so fly by night. Agree with your advice on life/professional skills for the young folk

Yes, what's the other option?

Good points, I don't know what I was thinking or what his motivation was if he wasn't really a cop

That's sad. Fortunately I dodged the drugs, would love to hear more of your stories, I was only in Thailand about a week. I do recall they loved Americans back then, I was relatively tall and stood out like a sore thumb and people would run up and talk to you like you were famous, I found Thai women to be beautiful as well (but was never quite sure I was looking at an woman considering how feminine some of the lady boys appeared). Closest I'll ever come to getting a sense of what being in the limelight would be like

lol about the suits, glad to know I'm not alone

Re: truck...I think any time you want to build something or create something new, you're in for some tough slogging because its swimming upstream and not many people like to try new things. Part of the problem is it kills me to pay what excellent companies would charge to finish Black Betty. Two places would do a fantastic job but they want $100,000+ to do it (without the motor work) and that sounds insane to me but it works for them because they get clients like Whataburger, Depp Eddy Vodka, etc. If I was already generating $100k in profit monthly, I wouldn't bat an eye.

Timeless Travel Trailers in Colorado do amazing work and I'd hire them in an instant if they'd finish BB for $30-40K but they wont....until I can justify what they charge, I'm on my own, here's an example of their work (I have the same Spartan and am trying to do something similar for an outdoor sitting area and bar):



Once I get past the engine work, me and my guys can do carpentry, wiring, polishing, etc. I'm clueless when it comes to working on motors, etc so am stuck until that part is finished

I would have thought people just go directly for heroin these days.

Yim that house design is 10 times better than the standard Texas generic development style you see over and over again.

tyvm, it was a labor of love driven by my personal insanity.

The skilled labor, unique materials and effort it took to pull off the detail shown in the shot below are not for the faint of heart (for example: the green roof tile is reclaimed Ludowici that was 60+ years old which was fine because the life of the tile is 400+ years. It also gave me the aged patina I wanted so the house, while being brand new, gives the illusion of looking like it was built in the 1920-30's):



This house below was the last house I built and lived in for a couple of years, it was inspired by a house built on Malibu beach that was built in the 1920's. Its called the Adamson House and is now a museum. I'm especially partial to Spanish eclectic and Mediterranean architecture. The front patio was tiled with all the leftover tile and roof tiles we broke to create a mosaic that reflected the materials used throughout the inside and outside of the house. (the pots you see on the front porch are watered by the sprinkler system because I ran conduit under the slab of the front porch that pops up behind the pots allowing for drip irrigation to keep the flowers watered as necessary with minimal effort):



The kitchen in this house was out of this world, cant wait to make a new one:



ok sorry for the derail everyone, I'll get back on topic, I got sidetracked going down memory lane

Yim you've posted that kitchen before, I want to see some new work ok?

The house is obviously amazing. No wonder you can splash out on food truck ventures.

Oh ****, I've officially crossed the old fart line and am repeating myself because I cant remember Ive already told the same tired story, just ban me if it continues

(I dont have kids either and my girlfriend is low maintenance so I can do crazy stuff like Black Betty).

I actually cooked something tonight. I found a pack of frozen cod in the freezer, had some potatoes and a few beers lying around so I made fish and chips:



fried potato skins, fries and purple potato chips:

That looks really great. I think fish and chips is one of the hardest dishes around.

Thx brother but this doesnt hold a candle to what I've seen you post here.

The tartar sauce was more tedious than the fish. The batter is just beer, salt, flour and baking powder, toss fish in batter and fry

Good tartar sauce recipe I found online:

Thanks for the recipe, yim. Do you double fry the chips? Also, whats the temp on the oil for the fish?

Yes sir, I fried the chips at 275F, pulled & spread them on a tray to cool. Then bumped the temp to 365 and fried the potato skins, purple potatoes and Cod then fried the chips the second time at 365F til crispy.

I have an electric fryer so it makes it real easy to control temp, it would be a pain to regulate in a pan over the stove

getting money while also living the life money can't buy -- you're an inspiration yim.

the fried food doesn't look bad either.

Damn fish and chips looks elite.

Thank you once again, yim.

TY, I'm a goofball, I've only bought 2 cars in the last 25 years and still have them both, one is my work truck I bought in 95', this and some other strategies help keep my expenses low plus I avoid debt like the plague (except leveraging my spec houses--which was short term debt) so at my age it affords me a lot of freedom (as long as the dollar doesnt crash). Plus and I cant emphasize this enough, I have no kids, thats a big expense and time burden on folks but they'll have someone around when they're old to help care for them, I'm screwed. I made a run at going pro at poker back in 98', fortunately Vegas handed me my ass and I went back to building houses. Had a blip of success when the internet poker boom started and then all the leatherass, technical geniuses who could multi-table took the joy out of the game for me plus their talent was insurmountable for this yahoo

thx, I bought the black checkerboard paper slip sheets and plastic baskets to play around with what I could possibly use should Black Betty ever get rolling, I think they'll make a good match and keep trash to a minimum

TY, I'd like to see your spin on them Amoeba, all I dod is follow directions

Quick rant. Decided to make tomahawk ribeye for something different this Xmas. Was content enough to pay through the nose at snake river farms for the meat, but was shipping some to me, some to my brother, some to a friend, and some to my folks...all different addresses. GTFO $50 a pop shipping.

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Spoiler alert: did is anyways obv...tis the season I suppose

Some fancy lemon wedges for that fish n chip! Looking real nice, yim. What do you think about using newspaper?

All this Thailand talk and here I am making Tom Ka Gai. I made a renegade version with turkey leftovers and it was lovely so I tried the real thing with kaffir lime leaves and galangal instead of lime zest and ginger. (And chicken instead of turkey).

Shredded chicken in the soup and crisped the skins separately.

I really should take a little more time with the photos. But I was hungry.



Tom Ka Gai with green onion, chili oil, and chicken skin.

Hoagie - looks great. Love thai food and never once tried to make it at home...prolly time for that to change

Awesome Hoagie! Chili oil is a clutch garnish.

Foo, I wish I could email you all the leftover galangal, lemongrass, and lime leaves I have. We have this Asian super market that’s got everything but it’s all in family sized portions. I needed 10 lime leaves and probably ended up with ~500. I’m not sure wtf else people make with them. I’m thinking about a lime leaf simple syrup.

Brian, chili oil is the nuts.

Lime leaf freezes well. I keep them, and bird's eye chilis, in the freezer for the occasional Thai cooking spree. Pretty sure lemongrass and galangal also freeze well.