Leaderboard

This is Chicken à la Maryland, the second of the dishes I made from a menu for the Titanic's last day. Traditional Chicken à la Maryland was a breaded chicken breast sauteed in butter, dressed with bechamel sauce and accompanied by fried bananas on the side. I baked the chicken breast and left out the fried bananas as neither my niece nor I wanted them. I did make the bechamel sauce from scratch, but that's quite easy, although you have to stir constantly so it doesn't burn. Unsurprisingly, the dish originated in Baltimore, Maryland around 1875. A U.S. 'elevated' Southern fried chicken for fine dining by using only chicken breasts and sauteeing them in butter instead of deep-frying them in lard. He served the chicken with a French-inspired white sauce instead of gravy and added fried banana "coins" as a side or garnish. Bananas may seem like an odd choice to accompany fried chicken, but at the time, Baltimore was the leading U.S. for the importation of bananas, which were still regarded as an exotic and expensive fruit. For some reason the dish caught the fancy of Auguste Escoffier and he included it in one of his cookbooks, helping to spread Chicken à la Maryland to the world beyond Baltimore. Anyway, I had mine with a potato pancake and slice of tomato. The bechamel sauce, seasoned with nutmeg and gloves, went very well with the chicken. Evil

birds today

Spent some more redundancy money earlier. Went to Sportsbikeshop in Reading earlier for some new summer bike gear. Armoured jeans and armoured waterproof ankle boots. Went for waterproof as it's summer soon.🤣

I enjoyed Songkran in BKK and Chiang Mai - it was fun in the day but then people went home after sunset and you could have a normal evening. Pattaya was a different world altogether, my first festival there I was pissed every day for the whole thing and had a great time but I vowed not to get that carried away again and haven't - it just goes on too long with no respite day or night and I am too old for this now. Plus you get the assholes, both farang and Thai, that get mean-spirited about it and seem to enjoy inflicting misery on others - like Thai girls dressed up to go to work in hotels and being bombed in baht busses by drunks, just not nice. Also, I never minded the water but I did object to any kind of powder being rubbed on my hair and then running into my eyes -again, just idiotic behaviour. Last but not least, it broke my heart to see all of those lovely Thai girls with soaking wet shirts and not a nipple poking out anywhere because they were all wearing those damned padded bras....

Approaching Doha ....

Why it is impossible to get a good lasagne with a creamy sauce in Thailand but get it almost everywhere in Germany?

Oven-baked eggplant, filled with a mixture of cubed eggplant, feta cheese, diced tomato, browned onions, green pepper and bread crumbs. Evil

A few from Ilkley Moor.

I once went to "The World's Wine Festival" at Bristol Docks with a guy from my office and a mutual friend who owned a Nightclub in the center of Birmingham. I was Northern Regional Manger for an Insurance company at the time based in Birmingham. There was a modest entrance fee for which one received a book of vouchers each one of which could be exchanged for a glass of wine at any one of the large number of wine wholesalers plying their trade round the docks. To cut a long story short, I got absolutely ratassed having a great time and woke up with a monumental hangover the next morning. Three days later, back in the Regional Office, one of my girls in the office said "There are two men here with a delivery for you." This turned out to be 800 pounds worth of assorted wine and spirits that I had signed an invoice for and paid with my company Barclaycard which would normally cover my petrol and "modest" entertaining expenses! I thought my boss would absolutely slaughter me but he signed off my monthly expenses as "Christmas Gifts to Agents" in exchange for me sending more than half of the good stuff down to his office in London! "The least I could do Ron!!" 😒

Took this walking up Bangla / Patong Phuket in 2019 turned out to be the last proper Songkran who knew .. Give me Phuket over Patts all day long only one proper day and it's finished. I did actually go up to Patts after this , been loads of times . I'd take this over being stuck in U.K anytime .

Not the best looking, but very tasty. I used my Italian parmesan meatball recipe to make a mozzarella and Romano stuffed meatloaf. Added cheddar scalloped potatoes and some tomatoes with blue cheese dressing. Yes, we like cheese here.

On Monday, Netflix is finally coming out with Season 5 of "Better Call Saul", after making us all wait two years - so I am presently watching Season 4 again to refresh my memory since it's been so long since I last watched the series. Season 6, the final, is due for release this year as well - I wonder how long we'll have to wait to see this...

I'm just back from an extended walk....3 hours this morning! There was such a lovely light breeze that I decided to walk to Beach Road to check my PO Box. Only one letter....but it did tell me that my Army Pension will be increased by 20 quid a month! Happy with that one! Walked all the way around to my Sato shop but they had sold out! At least I wouldn't have to carry it back (Always think positive - I can wait for 7/11 to open!) All in All a lovely start to the day ......So I guess Leeds will lose 7 - 0 and the cat will need a new set of whiskers tonight!!!

When I was working in the Isle of Man for Manx Airlines me & a few blokes had to tow an aircraft to a remote apron the other side of the airfield.The tow truck was fucking huge I think it was designed to tow 747's wtf it was doing there is anybody's guess. Anyway we parked & locked it up & then realised we hadn't put the gust locks in,the aircraft was a 50 seat turboprop & had manual flight controls so wooden gust locks had to be fitted whenever it wasn't flying or in a hangar,especially in the very windy IoM. Then we discovered we didn't have a ladder & one wing was over the grass so I decided if we were quick we could drive the tow truck under the wing....big error,it sank up to it's axles and wouldn't budge. We ended up getting a fire engine to pull it out....I was not Mr Popular back at base!

@maipenrai some hard nipples for you 😉

Ribeye steak with onions and veg. I cooked this in butter and got distracted, I burnt one side, but flipped it over and lightly cooked the other. As I don't mind a bit of charcoal, it was surprisingly nice!

Sorry gents, did not bring my camera yesterday....but this is where we went. Oh.....you're welcome. The first pic, the girl on the right in the dark hair was there....nice gal. https://www.instagram.com/remedy.sj/

That much sauce is not part of classical lasagne al forno, but there are many regional variations on lasagne in Italy. It could be that a heavily sauce-dressed version made it's way to Germany and caught on there. Another possibility is that traditional Italian lasagne was given more sauce in Germany to suit German tastes. That has often happened with Italian dishes that were "imported" by restaurants around the world. Pizza, spaghetti and other types of pasta can be very different inside and outside Italy. Good lasagne of any type is difficult to find in Pattaya due to the long preparation and baking time required. I also wonder if there's much demand for a "heavy" dish like lasagne in Pattaya's warm climate. That said, I have seen pics on other boards of lasagne served in Pattaya with a lot of sauce, similar to the pics you posted. I don't want to commit the sin of Gabor and post pics other members have taken without their permission, but some of those pics came from The Nest (formerly the Robin's Nest) on LK Metro. This is a recent pic from The Nest's Facebook page: Let's just say the pic I saw on another board did not closely resemble the one above, but it did look good. Rinapp Ristorante on Soi Yamato has also been praised for its lasagne alla bolognese but there wasn't as much sauce as in your pic. The best lasagne I had in Pattaya was served by Kilkenny on LK Metro. The pics below are old, but posters elsewhere say it hasn't changed. It wasn't traditional lasagne, but the portion was large, very filling and tasted good. Soem recent pics from Kilkenny's FB page:

Seen at Doha airport:

Same same in an office in Bristol ... but it was somebody leaving spunk on the women's toilet seats .. Wasn't me. I'd have left it on the door knob...

@galenkia plays his 2nd WC , and a few extra transfers from the usual suspects ( myself and @Britboy ) 555 😉

YUP! The cat seems really happy , jumping around everywhere .... ......Or perhaps he is just doing his pre-match kick-evasion warmup routine!

I remember back to the good times in 'Saloniki, Greece, in 97/98 during the Winter. My TW fucking loved it! We were staying in a lovely old hotel. Log fire going at breakfast, excellent food and ............ she was outside cleaning the foot of snow off my car ready to go working. Engine running, heater on, scraping ice off my windscreen. She loved it. My shagging around and drinking soon put paid to THAT marriage ....

Dad probably made the titties as well. Or at least contributed.

My younger brother passed away about seven years ago (suicide). I am now reconnecting with his son (my Nephew). It is difficult, but also very good. A long story.... But anyway... this song hits home hard, and is a beautiful song. Never give up. Whatever struggles you may be dealing with you can get through them. Try your best. Life is good.

Late afternoon West London between the sleet showers.....

Chicken salad on sourdough toast, cantalope, cheeps, diet ginger ale....

The Riverside at Otley

Don't really like to be in Pattaya during Songkran as my experiences when I lived there were not as enjoyable as I hoped for. Was sick on two occasions because powder/water (from wherever) was thrust into my face so often that being ill was an obvious eventuality. The only time I enjoyed it was when I stayed at the Whitehouse Hotel, walked across to the first bar on the corner of 2nd road and got drenched and pasted. From that moment on I just watched, ate and drank until the mayhem subsided which was linked to the monks processions going down 2nd road. Last time I did Songkran was in Khon Kaen, first day was great with all the villagers following some monks around, loads of old ladies sprinkling the crowds and a great atmosphere. The 2nd day saw all the youngsters come out, get totally inebriated and fighting was on the menu. I hated it as one of Porn's brothers was involved, supposedly a drunk villager thought he was from the next village and jumped on him. Big mistake as Porn has 3 big brothers so the drunk was dispatched but not before the headsman had to intervene and fined the brother as well as the drunk. No, the idea of having a good time is essential to the Thai way of life and it can be fun if done in the manner I was used to when I first came to Thailand in 1987. Those days, the sun went down and everybody stopped throwing water, you could don your better clothes for a night out. Unfortunately, in Pattaya, a certain type started arriving and the expected ceasing of activities never occurred. Any time you were in the side streets off the main roads and you could see nicely dressed tourists being soaked by drunk foreigners who just thought it funny to drench someone anytime of day and night. Now Loy Kratong, that is a festival that I thoroughly enjoy.

Love is in the air.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world on now on ch4 should be on all4 after

When you even have Jenny 'worst case scenario' Harries saying numbers have peaked, and they're not translating into Hospitalisations and deaths, i wouldn't get too worried. They'll never be another lockdown, nor should there be with all the various treatments and knowledge we have now. I'm more concerned about @galenkia reading the Guardian ffs. Covid-19 infections are at “a very high level” but that they are not translating into hospital admissions and deaths, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency has said. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/covid-cases-hospitalisations-deaths-dr-jenny-harries-b991607.html

Witherspoons used to serve excellent lasagne. Huge portions too.

Salah and Kane most popular captain choices

Anyone up for a new round of lockdowns and vaccinations?.🤣

Just watched it, absolutely recommened viewing. For all non UK BM's definitely worth a watch if you can stream it. Rice farmers betting on cryto, visas for cryto traders, it's all going on.

Yea, seen it advertised, recording it to watch with the missus over the weekend as she's working tonight. Educate her incase she would get any 'this time next year Rodders' cyrpto brain waves

Many of these 'rebuild" vids suck. But, this is a good one. Very nice set up. I wish I had those skills !

Howdy, Moved to Koh Samui. Not sure what happened... but used to be on the Secrets Forum years back, see a few familiar people on the board already.

A certain mods Terac will see snow for the first time ever in her life!

The ones my local butcher makes. Most factory made sausages are gross.