Leading the wild into the ways of the man…
Bangkok Best Coffee seems to be a franchise in Thailand and I went to check it out after seeing it one too many times (it’s a compulsion I have, I can’t stand seeing something multiple times and not go ;)).
I don’t know if they deserve the moniker Bangkok Best Coffee but their coffee is alright…and most importantly it’s got caffeine in it.
I just realized that I have so many Bangkok back posts that it’ll take me ages to clear…
Got meth caffeine?
McDonald’s came out with a new and improved version of their Grilled Chicken Foldover [sixthseal.com] for reasons which I can’t comprehend since the first implementation tasted fine to me.
I capitalized on the new 2 am closing hours and went to McDonald’s at 1 am in the morning to check out their Grilled Chicken Foldover with the new recipe.
The Foldover McValue Meal costs RM 9.90 for a large meal with fries and Coke. I noticed that the packaging for the Grilled Chicken Foldover has changed as well.
The Grilled Chicken Foldover now comes in a muted brown instead of a dark rouge packaging and the graphics has been given an overhaul as well, probably to differentiate the “old” Grilled Chicken Foldover and the “new” Grilled Chicken Foldover.
The ad for the new Grilled Chicken Foldover describes it as “Lightly-grilled chicken patties, fresh lettuce, onions and tomatoes. Now with enhanced garlic flavor in our mayonnaise and added veggies like carrots, red and white cabbage.”
The same flatbread and dual chicken patty concept is used and the only recipe changes are garlic and some vegetables. I ate it last night and it tasted the same to me.
I honestly can’t tell the difference between the old and new Grilled Chicken Foldover.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t.
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There was a complimentary fruit basket labeled “Thailand Exotic Fruits” in Siam City Hotel, Bangkok where we stayed, and I just couldn’t resist…
(insert caption)
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The Style by Toyota is a huge café cum concept store located at Siam Square in Bangkok. We saw the illuminating lights changing colors on the imposing glass enclosed building and wanted to check it out but it was closed.
I went the next day with my gf to The Style by Toyota and I must admit, it certainly impressed me like no other concept store…it’s gotta be the best place to hang out in Bangkok. The Style by Toyota is sponsored by Toyota and it’s not just about cars but more of an art establishment.
There are Thai girls manning the counter with a friendly “Sawadee!” and I got them to pose for a photo. The place is very chill and the ambience exudes friendliness.
The first thing you see in this art cum concept store facility is a working concept car by Toyota as the main display. There is a cordon around it…
….but it’s a great photo op nevertheless.
The Style by Toyota has a coffee and juice bar at the ground floor of the three floor structure. There are LCD and plasma screens practically everywhere displaying Toyota ads.
There is also merchandise on display…
…and we realized that there was an anime fest going on in there coz some people were in costume.
I got some of the girls to pose for me.
Cosplay is fun.
The seating arrangements at The Style by Toyota range from the comfortable but futuristic…
…to the more esoteric ones that look out of the glass building for a great view of Bangkok.
The entire design of the place just screams “Art” and it gave me a really uncomfortable urge to smash something. 😉
There are seating arrangements right on the staircase for two…
…and single seats in front of an interactive Toyota flat screen monitor.
There are even balls of fluffy cushions to sit on while you browse through architecture books if you’re so inclined.
The bookshelves that lines The Style by Toyota is not limited to books about visual art but also music (though strangely, nothing about cars).
I got my coffee and sat at one of the touch screen interactive Toyota LCD monitors. There are games (one of which I played to the point of obsession with my gf to see who has a better score)…
…and even a touch screen ordering system that allows you to order a coffee straight from where you’re seating instead of going downstairs.
I tried it. It works.
The Style by Toyota is a must visit if you’re ever in Bangkok. It is a concept store unlike any other out there.
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I was at Point One and noticed a new range of cigarettes from Switzerland. It’s called SKL and comes with various flavors with two premium flagship brands.
I got the SKL Strawberry which is described on the pack as “strawberry cigarettes tastefully blended with pipe tobacco”.
The cool factor in the cigarette lies in the presentation – the entire cigarette is black. It’s really neat, for a lack of a better adjective at this hour of the night.
SKL Strawberry smokes really well too, at least in my not-so-humble-opinion. Cherie and Joanne said it tastes like incense. I like it, but your milage may vary. I’m going to try the others in the SKL range.
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This is Hard Rock Cafe in Bangkok.
We went to the Hard Rock Café Retail Store…
…and got matching Hard Rock Café Bangkok 2006 Limited Edition t-shirts as a souvenir.
Update:
This is the matching tees that we got. It says 1991-2006 “15 Years of Rock” Hard Rock Café Bangkok.
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I’m currently on:
Prozac (fluoxetine) 20 mg
This is Thailand Prozac coz I ran out of Prozac while in Bangkok and had to get my gf to go to a drugstore (chemist/pharmacy) to get it for me at Siam Square. It cost 1100 baht (about RM 110) for a single blister pack of 20 mg Prozac so its more expensive than Malaysia.
I take from 2 to 7 capsules every morning (about 40 mg to 120 mg) with an average of 5 capsules (100 mg) for my depression. I know, it’s bad to self-medicate but I’ve been on it for months now and it’s doing me good.
Remeron SolTab (mirtazepine) 15 mg
Remeron SolTab is the new orodispersible (meaning it dissolves in your mouth) version of mirtazepine, another antidepressant which I take at night.
Remeron helps me sleep as well, so I can lower down my nightly dose of benzodiazepines for my insomnia/anxiety.
I take one tablet at night with my antipsychotic medication (Risperdal) before I go to sleep. It’s supposed to help with my depression too.
Rivotril (clonazepam) 2 mg
Rivotril is the only benzodiazepine that I’m taking now – I’m on a taper plan for this too. I take 2 x 2 mg (4 mg of clonazepam) at night for my benzo dependency and I’m trying to get it down to 2 mg within three months.
Risperdal (risperidone) 2 mg
Risperdal is an antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia. My psychiatrist says that I have unusual thoughts and my gf reckons that it’s used to treat my manic phases.
I take one and half tablets every night with my Remeron for 3 mg of Risperdal daily. Risperdal has a nasty side effect that I noticed – it is very difficult to orgasm when steady state plasma concentrations have been reached.
What medication(s) are you on?
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Project Pasta was instantiated this evening on an impulse with my girlfriend. We decided to go to Ting & Ting – a local import specialty shop – to get the ingredients to cook gnocchi (it’s a pretentious Italian word for conk shaped pasta) at the sixthseal.com kitchen.
Bloody Gnocchi recipe:
Barilla Gnocchi
Hormel Real Bacon Bits
500 grams of ground beef
Monini Olio olive oil
San Remo Italian Double Concentrate Tomato Paste
duChef Tomato Puree
Grozette Formaggio da Pasta (cheese)
McCormick Season-All salt
McCormick Mixed Herbs
The sauce was prepared using my gf’s secret recipe of Hormel Real Bacon Bits sautéed in hot olive oil. McCormick Mixed Herbs was also added into the mixture and stirred for about a minute.
The resulting olive oil, bacon bits and herb mixture was transferred from the ceramic pot into a frying pan and the entire 500 gram bag of local Ting & Ting ground beef was added and cooked until the beef turned brown.
This is what the olive oil, bacon bits (the secret to the taste), herb, and ground beef sauce base should look like after cooking with a spatula. It should be noted that constant agitation is necessary to allow even heat to permeate the, er…meat.
Meanwhile, another ceramic pot was filled with boiling water and added with salt (McCormick Season-All Salt) in preparation to cook the gnocchi. The gnocchi takes about 14 minutes to cook so it is advisable to do this first if it hasn’t been done already. 😉
Back to the sauce, San Remo Italian Double Concentrate Tomato Paste was added to the ground beef mixture in the frying pan and mixed thoroughly. The ground beef should be slightly brownish at this point if you left the heat on.
Next step involves the transfer of the ground beef and tomato paste mixture back to the ceramic pot and the addition of duChef Tomato Puree (which she told me is different from tomato paste – to be honest, I can’t tell the difference). The sauce is mixed thoroughly until everything is blended evenly.
The pasta should be cooked at this point so we scooped up the gnocchi into two plates…
…and added the sauce on top.
This is what the gnocchi looks like when it’s done – there is cheese sprinkled on top of the sauce (to taste).
It was dubbed Bloody Gnocchi and we had it for dinner just now with skim milk. It was delicious!
…and it’s really fun to cook too. 🙂
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BTS or the Bangkok Transit System is the fastest and cheapest way to get around Bangkok. BTS is a train much like the LRT and they offer airport services via the BTS Skytrain network too.
The BTS trains are operated using a coupon system – the tickets are bought at the respective train stations…
…and used in the turnstiles to exit or enter the station.
The train station closest to Siam City Hotel Bangkok is Phaya Thai station (3 minutes walk) and the BTS network connects this station to stations which are in Pat Pong, Siam Square, Siam Paragon etc. Basically, you can get to anywhere you want to go in Bangkok city using the BTS.
This is what a BTS ticket looks like – it’s a coin operated vendor machine dispensed magnetic strip card that has a preloaded value onto it. Two train stops costs just 15 baht (about RM 1.50) so it’s the most affordable method to get around Thailand.
BTS trains are long and relatively new, much like its counterpart in Melbourne, Australia except that it runs on suspended rails instead of on the ground.
Here is a peek inside a BTS train. It’s usually packed with people at all times of the hour but the same thing can be said of Bangkok.
Sure, the BTS connects you to strange stations like On Nut and Mo Chit but get around the initial chuckle with the names and you’ll be fine. 🙂
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Coffee Bean has been my regular hangout for the past couple of days, being the pretentious fuck I am (read related posts to get the joke) and I noticed they had a new promotion going – the Honeydew Ice Blended.
Perfect! Nothing like a nice honeydew ice blended drink to take the edge off the day while seated al fresco with my friends sipping the drink and smoking cigarettes while the Air Pollutant Index (API) breaches the 150 mark. It’s like sipping pina coladas in the Bahamas, I swear.
This is perhaps one of the more defining sixthseal.com shots – the obligatory “Hello, I am making your drink, sir” shot.
The Coffee Bean Honeydew Ice Blended goes for RM 12 and comes with a whipped cream topping – it’s a very refreshing drink on a hazy evening. The cake is an Oreo Extreme cheesecake. It’s great too.
Meet the cast in the making of the Coffee Bean Honeydew Ice Blended post!
(oops…wrong coffee establishment)
That’s actually Frappe.
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