ChiFlyer

The link may show that this restaurant is temporarily closed. https://www.royalcliff.com/shop/huang-chao/ I had been told that Huang Chao has excellent American-Chinese food, which I have found hard to find in Bang Lamung (the greater Pattaya area). I received an e-mail from the Royal Cliff stating that Huang Chao is now open on Friday nights, but only on the last Friday of the month. 🤨 The GF and I decided to give it a try. This will be very much of a mixed review. In defense of the restaurant, many ex-pats like it. They have been closed for a long time and they are most likely working through some quirks in their reopening phase (once a month is a reopening? 🤨) Service is much too slow. If you have a friend that you have not seen in two years this would be a good chance to catch up. Since the TGF and I catch up on a daily basis, not good. The prices for wine are more expensive that Cafe des Amis. They have a bottle on the menu that costs 300,000. That is not a typeo. I did not order that. I did order a Pinot Noir from France that cost 3400. It was excellent for that price range, but I have ordered similar wines from both Cafe des Amis and Gian's that cost 2000. The quality of the food was variable to say the least. However, it was reasonably priced. On a recommendation from someone in my condo, I tried the "Hot and Sour Soup". It was quite good and cost 250. Sorry about the pic, but I ate half of it before I remembered to take a pic. This is partially due to how long it took it to arrive. Also, it was a little bland, but good. The GF likes scallops, so we ordered the sauteed scallops in an XO sauce for her. It was not very good. Cost for a small plate 350. I ordered Schezwan Beef. It was decent, but the peat factor was well below what I was expecting and I hate baby bok choi. Cost 400. All in all - sorry to say - I am in no hurry to return.

They plant primarily rice. Her brother is the hands on farmer. He brings in a damn fine crop of rice. He has been doing it for 30 years. I am not a big rice eater (too many carbs for this old fart), but I do look forward to getting some of the harvest.

The GF already owned 40 rai of farmland in the immediate area when I met her. (In case anyone does not know, a rai equals about 1/3 rd of an acre). One thing we did that some others may want to consider is we put in a retention pond. It fills up during rainy season and then can be used to irrigate the farm land during the dry season. There are trucks cheaply for hire who will come in and pump the water over the planted area. In effect, this gives the farmer two crops a year instead of one. The retention pond cost 40,000. The GF and I split the cost. I paid 30,000. 😏I am going to have to work on her English a little more as to what split means. Seriously, I have no regrets for this. I think I offered her family and hence herself a better way of life without taking on an ongoing cost. She put in some mango trees etc. in order to help shade the retention pond. These also offer fruit to be sold. I am continually amazed by the efficiency of how things are done by the Thai people.

Nice pics. A bit much to take in all at one time. I have done the car trip into the Khon Kean area from Pattaya a couple of times. That is a 9 hour trip. We skirt Korat and then Chaiyaphum and the then head North on 201. Our main destination is the GF's family's house about mid-way between Khon Kaen and Chum Phae. I enjoy making the trip a couple of times a year, but one month is about my limit for a stay. We have built a small house in the area. My intention for that is that the GF will be covered after I am no longer around. The security guard in the pic is her 5 year old nephew. He works for free showers and TV game access. The lesser visited temples up North are great.

Yes, I have been here for most of the last 6 years. I think what you are talking about is the event where -> a cat got into the main electric room and somehow managed to short himself out across two different feeds. So long Mr. Whiskers and the damage took 3 days to repair as I recall. The GF and I were lucky in that she owned a small condo over in the Jomtien Beach Condo complex (near soi 9 on Jomtien 2nd Road). We just stayed there for a few days until things got back to normal at VT2A.

Sorry, but I can not report on what language they were speaking. She tossed their butts before I became involved. One does not want to get on the wrong side of this woman. One of the guys over at PA who met her when she was operating a couple of hair salons commented "their is no grass growing under her feet".

Just a note, as a few have expressed an interest in stopping by the restaurant. VT2A will have some rolling water outages on Thursday and Friday of this week. This is due to a planned water tank upgrade that makes sense IMO. The estimated schedule for these outages has the restaurant without water from 9 AM to Noon on Thursday. The ladies plan to come in early and draw down a few large containers of water. Still service may be affected on that day.

It hit really hard over here in Jomtien as well. It woke me up about 1 AM and I am glad it did. The wind was so strong that it was driving the rain into the condo under the balcony window/doors. I had an excellently sized pool of water heading to my computer equipment area. I said "SHIT". The TGF was up out of bed within seconds armed with mop and bucket. We have been in this particular condo for two years now and this is only the second time that water was driven in by the wind and the previous time it was relatively minor. This time it was all three balcony doors and they did not have their seals all go bad at once. I live in VT2A (the building is 20 years old or so now) and the original doors were all single pane. Guys who have replaced the original doors with double or triple panes do not have these problems. Also being close to the Jomtiem Complex Blue Light Bars, the noise from the very late night birthday parties can be terrible on the South side of the building. At least it was pre-covid. I am expecting the noise level to begin to ramp up once again as tourism resumes. Multiple pane doors eliminate these problems. I am a long term renter, so I am not going to pay for this particular upgrade as it is expensive. I had a very rough estimate of 250,000 THB for a 3 unit condo (130 sqm with three balconies). I am also not highly motivated to push this because we are on the North side of the building, which shields us from the impending birthday party noise.

I am sorry. I did not express myself very well. Before it threw an error if one tried to download it. Now it can be downloaded. I misspoke when I said directly viewed.

When I first started going to Pattaya (around 2000, I was previously a Latin Camp guy), I accidentally walked into Nang Nual with a couple of newly found friends from Super Girl. An incredible time was had by all and I really liked the seafood as well. For a variety of reasons (not worth getting into) I did not return very often to Pattaya after that. I spent some time in Bangkok, but more in Brazil, Columbia, the DR, Saint Martin, Western Europe, El Salvador, and the PI. In 2016 I retired and decided to do a 3 week celebration vacation in the Jomtien area. I remembered Nang Nual and went there and was quite disappointed with both the quality of the food and also the previous ambience was long gone. I walked over to Super Girl and also not so good. Still I enjoyed my stay in Jomtien enough that I started considering it as my retirement destination. I have been here for 5+ years now.

I just got an email from the Royal Cliff. It said that their Chinese Restaurant (Huang Chao) is now open on the last Friday of the month. https://www.royalcliff.com/shop/huang-chao/ I am guessing that Covid impacted their business to the point where they closed temporarily. hmmm - this Friday is the last Friday of June. I would guess this is their grand reopening. I would make a reservation, should one have the inclination to try the place. I have not made up my mind just yet.

Thanks - I am now able to directly display the pdf file here at 24x7. I have no idea why.

hmmm - New guy with a question here. I just noticed that the pdf file for the Chicken Parm recipe can not be opened. It throws an error saying that I do not have permission to share the file on 24x7. Can someone explain why I do not have permission to share a pdf file? Not bitchin about it, just trying to understand if the problem is me or something else. In the mean time one can find the Chicken Parm recipe at the following link: https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/atk-best-chicken-parmesan/1493322 ATK has stopped sharing their recipes unless one signs up for some kind of membership. They used to be pretty open about this, but after the break up of the shows founders they became painful to deal with in this manner. The good news is that if one does a Google search on "America's Test Kitchen + recipe name", one can usually find the full recipe that someone copied into a link.

I forgot to mention something about the cheese in the original post. The recipe calls for a cheese blend of Mozzarella and Fontina. I have never been able to find Fontina in the Pattaya area. I started using Gruyere as a substitute after doing some internet searches looking for substitutes for Fontina. Works well enough.

Interesting to say the least. I was unaware of the connection to the Royal Cliff. I tried their Grill Room once, but it was a little too fancy for me. I was recently told by a friend in the condo complex where I live that the Chinese restaurant within the Royal Cliff is very good food wise, relatively inexpensive, and not crowd pressured.

For a starter, I am breaking the rules for this forum. I am not the business owner, but I reach out to the ex-pat community on behalf of the business owners who are all Thai and occasionally benefit from my English translation services. I have no fiduciary interest in this business, nor do I work on their behalf beyond this simplistic capacity. I also do not have a work permit. 🙄 My GF is the owner of this place. It is a small restaurant and not that serious of an endeavor as compared to some larger restaurants. It has about 5 tables. They serve primarily Thai food, freshly ground coffee, and some Farang type breakfasts and snacks. The cook (not my GF) ran a similar place in Korat for over 10 years. Her Thai food recipes are good. I recommend her Cashew Chicken dish. OTOH I like my version of Chicken Panang better than hers. 🙂Please do not tell her I said that. 🤐 Anyway, the place is called "Three Angels" and is located in the VT2A condo complex in Jomtien. It is on the first floor. Make a left as you enter the building. This place definitely makes the "Under 300 Baht" list. The Thai food is pretty decent. Some fool bank rolled them to a higher end CAT internet service. They have had a few clowns order water just to camp on the internet service for hours. Their asses were tossed. They do have a good connection with the VT2A Security people, who are pretty decent IMO.

Great. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I was a fan of "Bite me Bistro", but became aware of it a little late in the game. Chatted with Peter a few times in the restaurant. Seemed like a decent guy. The GF's place is not as serious an endeavor as "Bite Me Bistro". It has about 5 tables. It is primarily Thai food, freshly ground coffee, and some Farang type breakfasts and snacks. The cook (not my GF) ran a similar place in Korat for over 10 years. Her Thai food recipes are good. I recommend her Cashew Chicken dish. OTOH I like my version of Chicken Panang better than hers. 🙂Please do not tell her I said that. 🤐 Anyway, the place is called "Three Angels" and is located in the VT2A condo complex in Jomtien. It is on the first floor. Make a left as you enter the building. This place definitely makes the "Under 300 Baht" list. The Thai food is pretty decent.

I disagree some. When the place was first opened (198x ?), it was the only restaurant of this caliber in the area. It did digress in it's later years. As they continued to add tables and serve tour groups, the kitchen and seating were stressed, leading to a downturn in quality IMO.

Hi Nickrock. I am a newbie with regard to 24x7, but have lived in Jomtien for most of the last 6 years. Just so I understand - > given that advertising can be a grey line. As an example discussion point, my TGF owns a restaurant. Now I would think that if I start posting daily specials and what not, I have definitely crossed the line. OTOH, if I just mention the place in general (adding that I have an interest) I am not crossing the line. Any comments?

Chicken Parm The America's Test Kitchen (ATK) recipe for this item is worth reading. It explains why many home cooked versions of this dish get messed up. Chicken Parm.pdf The use of fresh Basil in this recipe is critical. I follow this recipe exactly, well almost. I cut the chicken breasts according to a method that ATK published a few years after they published this recipe. Cut the breast in half across the middle. The fat end can now be butterflied into two pieces. One can then pound each of the three pieces accordingly. Some of the three may require no pounding. For pounding (not that kind you dirty birds 🙂), I place two pieces of chicken on some plastic warp. Fold more of the same sheet of plastic wrap over (start with about a 12" piece of plastic wrap) and gently pound the chicken with a mallet to the desired thickness. I have received many compliments on this dish. It is filling, so I do not serve a pasta with it. For this reason, I make only half of the sauce. Instead of a pasta, I make what one might call toasted bruschetta. The recipe for that is something I came up with based on a few other items that I had read about. I will detail that recipe in front of the pic. Pics The Chicken Parm The Toasted Bruschetta This is actually pretty simple and quick, but I often get more compliments from this than I do the Chicken Parm. Take about a 12" baguette and cut it on the bias into 1.5" or so slices. The 1.5" size is an upper limit. I usually try and go a little smaller. Cut a garlic clove in half and scrape it against the baguette pieces. Put a little olive oil on the slices (just a little) put some cheese on top leftover from the Parm, and broil it for about 2 minutes. It is done just when the cheese shows some initial browning spots. Pull the baking sheet from the oven. Use the leftover sauce from the Parm to top the baguette pieces. Then top the baguette pieces with fresh Basil.

He should have put some garlic in it. 🙂That egg does look excellent indeed. I think I have seen Ming Tsai (well known cooking TV guy) do that as well.

Recipe - Chicken and Dumplings Soup Usually going into the weekend I make a pot of soup. I eat lunches from that throughout the following week. This is supposed to help me lose a little weight. Well at least it is keeping me from gaining more. This week I made a "Chicken and Dumplings Soup". https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/chicken-and-dumplings/#wprm-recipe-container-13840 I had to make a few changes: I thought that the recipe needed a little garlic, so I added 3 cloves of minced garlic near the end of the veggie saute. I cooked the garlic until it bloomed (about 30 seconds until you smelled it). I have never seen Chives in the greater Pattaya area. I substitute the top ends of fresh scallions for the 2 TBSP of chives in the dumpling section. This is once again American Comfort food. The TGF liked it, but asked me several times what the dumplings were called. For some reason that is a word she has some difficulty in pronouncing. I think it might be the "PL" in the middle of the word. In any case a few pics: Nearing completion in the pot Served

I do not attend Xmas or American Thanksgiving dinners anywhere in the greater Pattaya area. I have tried several times, but was always disappointed. I find these Western Holiday offerings to be over-priced and because the restaurant is working for a bigger crowd not that great. It's kind of like New Year's Eve being considered as amatuer night IMO. I do have many fond memories of these holidays from growing up, but much prefer to have a few friends over to celebrate and I have built up the cooking skills to entertain a smallish gathering.

Thanks EP.

Hey, "Gin" was the first flavored Vodka. 🙂 I am also not a Gin drinker. I seldom drink hard liquor other than an occasional shooter of tequila. My favorite poison within that category is Monte Alban Mezcal Yes that it is the one with the worm in the bottle. I was introduced to it by a friend from work that I met in my 30s. https://www.google.com/search?q=monte+alban+mezcal&source=hp&ei=AWKrYoi3MNKNseMP04qwsAE&iflsig=AJiK0e8AAAAAYqtwEVuQ-Mm5d9YU2h4d9ikfYy5fcP2C&oq=monte+alban+&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYAjIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6CwgAEIAEELEDEIMBOg4ILhCxAxCDARDHARCjAjoICAAQsQMQgwE6CAguEIAEENQCOgsILhCxAxCDARDUAjoICC4QgAQQsQM6CwguEIAEELEDENQCOgUIABCxAzoLCC4QsQMQxwEQrwE6CAgAEIAEELEDOg4IABCABBCxAxCDARDJAzoOCC4QgAQQsQMQgwEQ1AI6CwguEIAEELEDEIMBOgsILhCABBDHARCvAToFCC4QgARQAFj3ImDmR2gAcAB4AIABdIgB5QeSAQQxMC4ymAEAoAEB&sclient=gws-wiz I have not seen it anywhere in the Bang Lamung area. If someone spots it, please give me a yell. I have been struggling by with Cuervo Gold. Also, if ordering a cocktail at a better restaurant (where slamming shooters might not be appropriate), I usually order a very dry Rob Roy (Scotch Manhattan) made with 12 year old single malt Scotch. The GF likes an occasional Margarita. Also and probably most importantly, if I am going out and expect to probably be consuming more than a couple of glasses of wine, the GF and I call a cab, much cheaper than a DUI. And a considerable reduction in a possible guilt going forward factor.