The Bangkok Thai down at Metiaut (on the way to Christo Rei) now has an Indian menu.  I haven’t tried it yet.

The new hotel next to City Cafe has now put up its sign.  It is called the “Discovery Inn”.  I may stick my nose in soon, as accommodation around town is said to be tight, courtesy of many UN Police nabbing anything with a bed in it.

Now that the wet season is bringing rain down more regularly, Cafe Brasil has (a couple of weeks ago) retired the outdoor gazebo in the front.

Aaron has retired from the kitchen at Castaways, leaving Simon pretty stretched these days.

I wake every morning at 6:59am as I have done for the last 7 years, grunt an inaudible good morning to good lady on my left, pass wind on schedule, attend to bodily functions in ablutions area, spend 2.69 minutes (on average) on the conveniences, shower with wheat germ soap as is the custom, select fresh underwear and remainder of white/black/grey apparel for another day of servitude.

Arrive at work, sit in car for 4.27 minutes in order to schedule arrival at desk at culturally acceptable 8:28am. Open briefcase, remove lunch carefully wrapped in wax paper and place in desk drawer so briefcase does not smell like I am so cheap that I bring my lunch to work ….

Then because I have nothing else to do, I ponder yesterday’s supermarket receipt which falls out of my wallet (plus that never-ending lint) and decide to compare prices with typical OZ supermarket prices. So I use the website of one of OZ’s 2 major supermarket chains and do some price comparisons. Prices are shown below. (Statistical correctness suspended !)

The results support my feeling that breakfast cereal is priced fairly ferociously (large volume, light weight ?). Milk is not bad (its all long-life except on the odd occasion). Juice variable. Spaghetti pretty ferocious. Cheese ferocious.

I admit I didn’t have a current OZ price for tomatos or eggplant but used AUD3 just for fun. So fruit and veg is a big winner here. Cereal and cheese losers.

The clear and obvious conclusion is that I should convert to a diet of baked beans and cream. Lots of wind and artery hardening.

Have you ever had one of those mornings when you wake up feeling like a chartered accountant ? And then I woke up …

Tomorrow … Bond … James Bond.

“Fat Old Sod” over at XananaRepublic has provided the perfect gin and tonic recipe, no doubt the result of many trial and error tests.  Unfortunately, I have to report that I have had to resort to some drastic measures.

No matter how many Omega-3 fish oil tablets I pop, I can’t retrieve the little bit of forgetfulness I encountered last weekend after a few lunchtime g&t heartstarters (and the odd follow-up beer and wine).  I am sorry to say that I have now moved to a self-imposed “no gin and tonic before 5pm” regime until I lift my game.

I am but a novice when it comes to drinking spirits, partly because I hardly drank the stuff before I came here.  Sorry, “FOS” for letting the side down.

This is an appeal to the masses.

Has anyone seen a real live bottle of local Buffalo or Lion beer lately ?  I would like to acquire.
Does anyone know the history of these two breweries ?

Don’t worry, I have no intention of actually drinking them.

I like Thai food (and Indian and Italian and Turkish and …).  Unless you live in Dili under a rock, you should have noticed the steady growth in this segment of the eating scene.

I finally got around to going to the Thai Pavilion near the Pertamina wharf.  Looked flashy, looked a good candidate for a big let-down, but no, I give this one the big thumbs up.  I will need to go a few times to give the extensive menu a good (chili) workout but looks good.

You can eat inside in the air-con or on either the lower or upper floor balconies.   There is a waiter who can actually describe what you might be considering eating.  If you regard this as a good thing, it joins the 2 Burmese restaurants plus the Golden Star Chinese in Audian.  You also get a real cloth napkin and cloth tablecloth … plus large LCD screen for karaoke.

The main thing is that it felt so uniquely different than anywhere else and the prices are not excessive.  I have marked my card for the $5 lunch buffet, but I will not hold that against it if is not as good as a la carte.

“Thai Foods” near the Esplanada Hotel has now moved into the old Paradise restaurant premises across the road from Hotel Dili 2001.  Based on the significant increase in after work road traffic in the Cristo Rei direction (ie east), it may be a good move.  The old Thai Foods premises is currently being re-worked into a Filipino restaurant just as it was before Thai Foods appeared.

If you like “padh thai” noodles, you can now get them at Bangkok Thai, Bangkok Spice 2, Dili Club, Thai Foods, Bagan Beach Cafe, Thai Pavilion, Harbour View Cafe and Dili Beach Cafe.

With the Thai Pavilion adjacent to the “new” Comorro fruit and market, it struck me that I could return to going to the market on Saturday morning and following it up with a good cheap lunch in relaxed setting, just like back in OZ.  Now, all we need is the delicatessen with the cheeses, fresh pasta, freshly sliced pastrami, espresso coffee, continental butcher and …  Drats, just dribbled on my keyboard.

Now I love Indian food and can cook a pretty mean curry.

It all goes back to when I first started living away from the parental home and ended up sharing houses with all sorts of people. Once I shared with a guy and his girlfriend and he introduced me to coming home from work, opening a beer, opening a jar of chilis, slicing some cheese and eating each slice with a chili on top. It was hot but the mission was to test one’s limits. Later on, I ended up having curry cook-offs with another guy (different house) where the aim was to exceed the extremes of the last one and when eating, last the longest before breaking out into a sweat.

So I am pretty critical when it comes to Indian restaurants. I have eaten at both the Sun (southern Indian) and the Piyashi (northern Indian) restaurants. Today, I spoke with an Indian guy who lives in the apartments at the Piyashi and he explained everything. Not only did he explain which one was southern and which one northern, but dissected the menus with withering precision.

I was but mince meat in his company. However, he did explain one weakness which I had inaccurately analysed. I thought Piyashi used too much ghee and he quickly corrected me and said, “no, they use Bimoli … I try to tell them … next time you are there, ask for me and I will guide you on eating what they do best”. He’s my man.

So what is Bimoli ? Bimoli is palm oil and is used everywhere here. I have heard some bad stuff about Bimoli but decided to look into it, so I have put together a table of % of saturated fats in each of the oils listed :

To be honest, I use a blend of canola and butter in my curries. At other times, I use olive oil, which may not be the lowest in saturated fat, but it is very high in mono-unsaturated fats which is meant to be good. Got to get on my bike … come to think of it, palm oil is probably safer.