Posts by Simon Grigg
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to HORansome,
I'm probably going to Malaysia at some point next year. Anyone know if it's going to be possible to be vegan there?[1]
The large Indian population would likely be your best bet outside of KL I'd imagine. Malay food itself is rarely vegetarian.
In KL itself you can get anything - the food can be incredible.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
True, I was (badly) paraphrasing the vegan dude in the Scott Pilgim-movie.
I got the irony after I posted.....
Rather slow today after heavily meat infused pasta last night and cheap Italian red (the mention of such things normally gets a response like 'you have Italian food in Bangkok?')
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to George Darroch,
I tried my luck a little in Thailand,
Of course I should be saying, there is almost no such thing as vegetarian in Thai cuisine. Vegetarian food is widely available in Thailand.
sambal
The two core ingredients are Shrimp paste and chilli. Indonesian food is a little more vegetarian friendly - as I think we discussed sitting in that cafe in Soi 38 - but not greatly so.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
That was my point - there is almost no such thing as vegetarian food in Thailand aside from the likes of fresh fruit dishes. And even when fruit is processed for some dishes, prawn or fish extract is added.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to HORansome,
excellent yet reasonably priced vegetarian dishes.
An alien concept in Thailand though. Even the most humble vegetarian looking dish uses fish sauce.
I don't think much of the food in the PFC is particularly authentic (tried to order in Bahasa at the Malay place and got a blank stare) but I love the place for the buzz and the people you see - and some of that not that authentic food is really quite delicious.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to BenWilson,
re: Tipping. It seems benign enough, so long as they already have a living wage.
What really irks me is the way the ++ (or in Singapore, +++) is added automatically to to accounts in many countries. The (+, or ++ in Sg) I get as it is the tax - although how that is not included in the price I don't get or like - but the fact that 'service' is added as a compulsory percentage is wrong.*
*Most especially in Bali where mgmt/owners of the big hotels and the fabulous and already overpriced beachfront restaurants, amongst many others, notoriously don't pass it to the staff and simply pocket it.
Rather sucks.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Russell Brown,
tipping system always seems to me like a form of social control
Uncomfortably so.
I had a few drinks with a barman from Boston the other night who was telling that on a good night he can pull $2000 in tips and never less than $300 so I guess it works for some.
And much of that is cash in pocket - I've yet to see or hunt out figures on this part of the US grey economy but it must be massive.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
There was no drinking as is their law.
They have ways around that law. Teapots in restaurants that don't serve tea and so on. Plus Malaysia ain't that far from Bandar Seri.
Nice mosque though.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Ask a volunteer, who are also supposed to be trained at trying to be really nice.:)
At 3am? I suspect that'll be peak time for many wanting a packet of fags. Then again, the ability to focus on the phone's screen may well be gone as well by that time.
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Hard News: Auckland City Nights, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
Besides, unless things have changed a lot in the past year, smartphones still aren't *that* common in NZ.
I found them fairly common a few weeks back, but as Sacha says most visitors will have them - and hopefully have reasonable international roaming rates that mean that they don't have to pay NZ rates when the 30 minutes of wi-fi is up.
Then, they'll probably be dragging themselves off the floor after being told how much a beer or restaurant glass of wine is in central Auckland these days and won't notice.