Posts by Simon Grigg
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to BenWilson,
Indeed. One wonders what exactly Cuba would've been like if big brother had long ago engaged. The Cubans were open to doing so.
Then, many of the engaged 'free' nations in the region have hardly been bastions of civil rights or the good life for their peoples in the years since Castro tossed out the US corporations.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Bart Janssen,
It's the same problem I have with the chinese restaurants in Balmoral, they each (apparently) can cook one thing well but their menu contains every possible dish so unless you know exactly what to order your chances of getting the one good thing are miniscule.
Have you tried the Shanghai styled dumplings at New Flavour?
If you can get past the queues, the place is pretty wonderful (avoid the squid - greasy).
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Lilith __,
Cubans may be disadvantaged in some ways, but longevity ain't one of them.
Careful, you'll be tempting the arrival of James Bremner with some spurious link to illustrate just how ill informed we out-worlders are.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Bart Janssen,
You must have got lucky
I have - dozens of times. I know I'm not alone in rating it highly but each to their own :)
Mostly I find mid level and higher Indian food (and other Asian cuisines) to be watered down in New Zealand to suit our less adventurous palettes (I'm thinking of the over-rated Satya amongst others) but, to me at least, LI doesn't do that hence the large numbers of Indian families you always see in there. I'm always reminded, too, of my regular trips to Brick Lane when living in London. It was something I long missed when returning to Auckland.
But other nights I've had bland cardboard pretending to be food.
I think it may be what you order there. Their strength seems to be Thai salads (rather than the endless variations on Green Curries and Pad Thai that seem to dominate Thai menus in NZ).
And both restaurants seem to understand the meaning of heat in food, and the way to apply it, which I miss most elsewhere.
But, I agree, I've had a couple of pretty average visits to the place.
As Sacha says too, they are the importers of Beer Lao, so they get bonus points for that.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to DexterX,
You are referring to wide screen TVs, the Internet, an I phone, fast-food, facebook, pop music and a degree of isolation?
I think he may be referring as much to healthcare, public transport systems not found in many parts of the world, an abundance of food, peace, employment and the likelihood that you will survive long enough to see your kids turn into adults - and even meet your grandkids.
The Chinese are now the world's largest outgoing tourist market so that isolation may increasingly be a Western preconception.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I dislike the term Asian (not least because it's misused to mean only East Asian)
Or even more narrowly: East Asian of Chinese descent.
And mostly I agree with you, however I'm happy to say that even when it is so mis-used thus, the majority of people I spend time with do not do so in a derogatory way (I'm ashamed to say that's not always true of the nation as a mass).
That said, I really sympathise with organisations like the very worthy and hard working Asia New Zealand Foundation who have to continually battle against what is really just geographic laziness.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Sacha,
and they import Beer Lao too
Next time, Sacha, I'll bring through a couple of bottles of the wonderful dark variety. Promise.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Yamis,
A solution may be at hand
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to poffa,
Just a small point, being in Thailand I resent being called a fulang
Why? On its own it's not a term of derision. A farang is simply a westerner- it's not making any qualitative statement.
We talk of Asians and Europeans in New Zealand and the word is roughly similar in its sweep.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Bart Janssen,
The Thai is decent but has bad nights. Little india is OK but can't claim to be cuisine.
I rate Little India. Not a fine dining experience at all and atmosphere nil but wonderful complex flavours that are almost unmatched in Auckland in my experience.
I also rate Mekong Neua - perhaps the closest thing to authentic Isaan food I've had in Auckland and not dowsed in decidedly non-Thai ingredients like peas, capsicum and carrot to cover up the non-availability of various unavailable spices and vegetables. Or drowned in coconut cream.
Their Gung Chae Num Pla is pretty close to the real deal.
