Saturday, 31 April 2007 - Erawan Shrine, or San Phra Phrom (ศาลพระพรหม), houses an image of Brahma, the Hindu god of creation.
01 April 2007
31 March 2007
Central World Plaza, Bangkok
Saturday, 30 March 2007 - Central World Plaza is the largest shopping mall in Southeast Asia (5,920,000 square feet). A large open area in front of the mall provides an activities area for live music and, at night, huge crowds often gather here to have a drink in the open air bars. Look at the relative size of the people standing in front of the Adias store.
It has seven monsterous floors, with a very well stocked (Western-oriented) grocery store, food court, several restaurants, and a huge movie theatre on the seventh floor.
The SKECHERS store is located on the third level. Other shoes brands including, Saucony, Puma, and Clarkes are on the same level.
18 March 2007
Manhattan Beach, Flowers Near the Beach
Sunday Morning in Manhattan Beach
Sunday 18 March 2007 - I left home before sunrise and walked down the Strand. I arrived at the Manhattan Beach Pier a little before sunrise on a cool, overcast morning. For this picture, I stopped the camera down to f36 with a -1EV with a 5 second exposure to make the waves nice and silky. The focal length was 135mm, but the focal length equivalent to a full frame 35mm would be 216mm (1.6X for a Canon EOS 30D).
A little later in the morning, it was a little brighter and I walked across the sand, almost to the water's edge. This picture was taken at f22 with -1EV and a 0.5 second exposure at 100mm (160mm, equivalent to a full frame sensor). I rendered an HDR image from the picture using a +/- 2EV, then used detail enhancement in the tone mapping. I loaded it back into Photoshop an increased the contrast.
A little later in the morning, it was a little brighter and I walked across the sand, almost to the water's edge. This picture was taken at f22 with -1EV and a 0.5 second exposure at 100mm (160mm, equivalent to a full frame sensor). I rendered an HDR image from the picture using a +/- 2EV, then used detail enhancement in the tone mapping. I loaded it back into Photoshop an increased the contrast.
18 February 2007
Prasat Hin Phanom Rung
Elephants
Songkran 2006
25 December 2006
Pla Dip (Thai Sashimi)
17 December 2006
Shrimp and Prawns
In the USA, people commonly call large shrimp "prawns", but that's not correct because some prawns can be smaller than shrimp. Some people think shrimp are saltwater and prawns are freshwater. That's not correct either.
This is the difference:
- The structure of the gills is different between shrimp and prawns. If you turn a shrimp over and look at its "belly", the side plate of the second segment of the abdomen overlaps the segments in the front and behind. If you do the same to a prawn, all of the abdominal side plates overlap like tiles from the front.
- Shrimp "brood" their eggs like a chicken (the eggs are held in their swimming legs -- See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleopod). Prawns don't brood -- They just shed their eggs into the current.
In Thailand, there are mainly three types of "prawns" served in restaurants:
- กุ้งแชบ๊วย Goong Chae-biao (White Prawn, Banana Prawn) Penaeus merguiensis - It has a white body with small rust-colored dots. Fully grown, they obtain a length of 20 cm (8 inches) or more, but they are harvested before they reach half that size. The small ones are sorted and sold as กุ้งชีแฮ้ Goong Chee-Hae. This is the prawn that is found in recipes that just indicate "prawns".
- กุ้งกุลาดำ Goong Goo-Laa-Dum (Tiger Prawn) Penaeus monodon - It has black and white stripes and is the giant among Asia prawns. The females grow to over 30 cm (1 foot) long. Look at the size of these tiger prawns!
- กุ้งก้ามกราม Goong Gaam-graam (Spiny-Clawed Prawn, Giant Freshwater Prawn, Freshwater Lobster) Macrobrachium rosenbergii - These are the prawns with the long second walking leg and a large spiny pincher. Spiny-clawed prawns with blue bodies are more tender when broiled or baked than those with grey-green bodies. Smaller spiny-clawed prawns are called กุ้งนาง Goong Naang.
28 November 2006
Dinner at Eoy's Home
Pattaya, Thailand
I love going to Eoy's home for dinner. Eoy's mother and father always prepare a wonderful meal.
To start, the best chicken soup I ever tasted. It was a very rich chicken stock with chunks of all kinds of chicken parts, cooked egg yolks, slices of kaa, ข่า (galangal), pak chee, ผักชี, (cilantro), a generous portion of nam manao, น้ำมะนาว, (lime juice) and, of course prik kee noo, พริกขี้หนู.
This fish is "pla see kohn", ปลาสีขน -- I'm not sure what kind of fish it is, but it must be in the mackerel family. It has a similar, but milder, less oily taste than mackerel. It is wonderful with nam jim, น้ำจิ้น.
This is the nam jim, น้ำจิ้น -- Lot's of hawm daeng, หอมแดง, sliced red shallots, firey prik kee noo, nam pla น้ำปล่า, and lime juice. It is fantastic with fried fish, and the little pieces of chile occassional give quite a hot bite!
This is pla nin, ปลานิล, (tilapia) fried to perfection. Several deep slices are cut in each side prior to frying. When served, you just pry off a big chunk from each slice. It comes off with ease and no bones.
I love going to Eoy's home for dinner. Eoy's mother and father always prepare a wonderful meal.
To start, the best chicken soup I ever tasted. It was a very rich chicken stock with chunks of all kinds of chicken parts, cooked egg yolks, slices of kaa, ข่า (galangal), pak chee, ผักชี, (cilantro), a generous portion of nam manao, น้ำมะนาว, (lime juice) and, of course prik kee noo, พริกขี้หนู.
This fish is "pla see kohn", ปลาสีขน -- I'm not sure what kind of fish it is, but it must be in the mackerel family. It has a similar, but milder, less oily taste than mackerel. It is wonderful with nam jim, น้ำจิ้น.
This is the nam jim, น้ำจิ้น -- Lot's of hawm daeng, หอมแดง, sliced red shallots, firey prik kee noo, nam pla น้ำปล่า, and lime juice. It is fantastic with fried fish, and the little pieces of chile occassional give quite a hot bite!
This is pla nin, ปลานิล, (tilapia) fried to perfection. Several deep slices are cut in each side prior to frying. When served, you just pry off a big chunk from each slice. It comes off with ease and no bones.
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