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American and Mexican tacos are completely different. American tacos were essentially invented shortly after WWII, when the device that allows U-shaped tacos was patented. In the 1950's Gordon Bell opened two Taco Tia restaurants in San Bernardino, after having an unsuccessful go at a hot dog stand. He sold those taco restaurants and subsequently opened a restaurant in Downey, California, in competition with, but different than a restaurant owned by the McDonald brothers. That was the start of fast food giants Taco Bell and McDonalds. The popularity of the American taco grew exponentially.

Beef from Argentina is great. "Argentina has the highest per capita meat consumption in the world. Many gauchos have eaten beef for breakfast, lunch and dinner since they were children. You can envy them, because when you get a good steak in Argentina, it is the best on earth." Lots more from Argentina on 2 Steaks a Day That bad, huh? I assume this was the Sizzler at RGP. Sizzler started out as a reasonably-priced discount steakhouse chain, but quality deteriorated rapidly. I have only been to Sizzler once in the past 10 years, and stuck to the salad bar.

I had a 90-day reporting at Maptaphut immigration today. Old Germany is probably the most popular western restaurant in Maptaphut with the ex-pat crowd. It is located just west of Soi 19 on Sukhumvit, near Maptaphut immigration, and has ample parking. They have revolving buffets, a different one for each day of the week. The cost is 140-180 baht. Thursday was the international buffet, but I was too early for the Christmas special buffet. The food is German-continental. A little on the heavy side for my preference, but I must say it was very good. The food is well-prepared an

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Sam previously catered food at Shooter's (now known as Club Mirage) located on Soi Diamond. He has opened a restaurant on Jomtien Plaza (turn at the Hanuman statue, make a right turn when you pass Ace Cafe, towards the end of the street on your right). The restaurant is small (max. seating is 14), but nicely decorated. The menu is what you would expect from Sam: appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, and a selection of Mexican items. I have previously eaten Sam's nachos and quesadillas which are very good, especially when washe

Online 90-day reporting has been set up for some of the rural provinces. It's not available yet in Bangkok or Chonburi. To midlife crisis: I don't recommend it, but an alternative is an elite visa. If I recall, for a few million baht, it gets you a 5-year visa. It also gets you some discounts on things like green fees. I saw a used one advertised on TV, but heck if I know whether it is transferable. The reason I didn't go that route is that with Thailand's political uncertainty and immigration rules that change every day, who knows after plopping down a few million baht whether

I can no longer recommend BVP. It's in a great location: close to Big C, soi 6 and sabai. But, the hotel charges upscale rates for substandard rooms. The rooms have not been remodeled, refurnished or properly maintained since I began staying there in 2004.

Yes, she is going to run into a lot of resistance because she is not a native English speaker. She will, however, be able to get a job, but not at top pay, and probably not in Bangkok. If she lacks a bachelor's degree, this will be a more significant impediment than her French nationality. Technically, you cannot get a work permit as a teacher without a bachelor's degree. Some schools in the provinces can get immigration to overlook this. She could also get a job at a language center, because she would be classified as a consultant, rather than a teacher. I know several Scandinavian-b

It ran for 10 years from 1985-1995. The creator/writer, Bill Watterson, started off his career as a political cartoonist. He basically retired after ending the comic strip, and leads a very private life. He doesn't even license Calvin and Hobbes merchandise for marketing, although he has released the comic strips in anthologies.

My TG from Chiang Rai brought some soup back from up north. It tasted fantastic. Most tender meat I had ever eaten. Even more gelatinous than osso buco. When I was done, she told me it was tiger soup. I immediately went on the net and determined serving tiger meat is illegal in Thailand. Apparently, there's a breeding farm in China that has about 5,000 tigers for consumption. The whole episode made me sick, and I told my TG never to buy tiger meat again.

It's hard to say which city is best. Also, are you talking about taqueria-style, family style or southwestern cuisine restaurants. I think you now need to throw Vegas into the mix, because it has a large Mexican-American population. In Vegas, there's a fantastic taqueria on Maryland Pkwy, just north of E. Sahara, called Santa Rosa Taco Shop. I can't say that any one restaurant in San Diego is the "best" Mexican.

Southwestern cuisine has a lot going for it. One of the best restaurants has to be Mark Miller's Coyote Cafe' in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Miller was trained by Alice Waters of Chez Pannise in Berkeley, and opened his first restaurant, Fourth Street Grill, in Berkeley in 1979. In 1984, he sold out and opened Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe in 1987. The best authentic Mexican food I have eaten has been in Los Angeles, not Mexico.

I liked Taqueria Cancun: there were two, at each end of the Mission District, and one on Market. They serve awesome tacos al pastor. I haven't been there in about 2 years. How I long for authentic taqueria-style Mexican food, which does not exist in LOS.

Youtube "higher quality" video crack! TOT has been blocking streaming of videos on youtube, because TOT wants to limit bandwidth use. I had to go through a proxy to even get the video to load. Then, I could only stream a youtube video, if youtube had a "higher quality" video option (this option appears just below the video box) and I selected that option. You can automatically select the "higher quality" option for all videos by adding "&fmt=18" at the end of the web address. It is slower, and you will get significant buffering, but you can get all videos to play on TOT! E

Yep, let's see, there's Carlos Bocanegra (D, Fulham) Michael Bradley (M, Heerenveen) Conor Casey (D, Mainz 05) Steve Cherundolo (D, Hannover 96) Bobby Convey (M, Reading) Jay DeMerit (D, Watford) Benny Feilhaber (M, Hamburg) Brad Friedel (G, Blackburn) Cory Gibbs (D, Charlton) Marcus Hahnemann (G, Reading) Tim Howard (G, Everton) Jemal Johnson (F, Blackburn) Brian McBride (F, Fulham) Claudio Reyna (M, Manchester City) Giuseppe Rossi (F, Manchester United) Johann Smith (F, Bolton) That's not all, but definitely enough to field a football team. Wait

Cucumber is very nice, indoors with air con, and has a great atmosphere for meetings. It is a little on the expensive side, but the food quality is top notch. It's located on the north side of Pattaya Tai, just before you get to TukCom.

And, Hawaii, as on the map, is backwards and upside down (Big Island is drawn in northwest position, instead of southeast). Most frequently asked question by U.S. mainland tourists visiting Hawaii: "Where do I exchange my dollars?"

Thanks for the plug Spidey. I am the REPS M2-3 English teacher at Rayong Wittayakom. Lots of parents do send their kids to my classes, but only as far away as Sattahip. If anyone is interested, the cost is 40.000 baht/year, and an admission exam is given every February at the M1 level. This year, we had 200 applications for 60 slots. ZB

And the final table: 1 Zaphod's Buggers Mark Weber 2244 2 Midlifecrisis United Norm Chase 2055 3 Bigones hammers paul brown 2045 4 Yaba FC Matt West 1996 5 the saints alex mcallister 1992 6 Bullfrog's Boobies Bullfrog KPPT 1942 7 meatballs marvels stuart kerrigan 1897 8 Merangues RedMen Merangue 1 1859 9 Thaithai Utd Bill Scott 1823 10 Turbos Thaigers Al Coholic 1787 11 andgerrard1972 Andrew Benitez 1701 12 Santisuk United robert lennox 1643 13 Wig & Pizzled utd Spirit of Don R

At 40,000-50,000B/yr budget, I would look for a good government school with an MEP program. MEP, mini-English program, requires students to take all courses (usually English, math, science, social studies and P.E.) in English, except for Thai language/culture. The MEP program is designed to give students an upper-hand when they reach the university level. I think that you would not find a reputable private or international school in that price range (I think they start at around 100,000 baht/year). I work in an MEP program at the top-ranked government school on the Eastern Seaboard, an

It's on Soi Post Office (Soi 13/1) not Soi 13, across from the Malibu.

It was probably invented in the 1880's in New York City by Chinese migrant railworkers. Chop suey is a stir-fried mix of chicken or beef, with an assortment of vegetables that are laying around, commonly bean sprouts, in a soy based sauce thickened with corn starch. "During his exile in the United States, Liang Qichao, a Guangdong native, wrote in 1903 that there existed in the United States a food item called chop suey which was popularly served by Chinese restaurateurs, but which local Chinese people did not eat." It could have been invented anywhere in the U.S., but it certainly was a

I also bought an X-Box 360 to play in retirement. You can get all the games in Pattaya. The best store is on 2nd Road, just north of Pattaya Tai. You can also find games in TukCom, and there's a store on the 2nd Floor of Tops, next to the DVD store. The only thing I haven't found in Pattaya is the game controller (guitar) for Guitar Hero 2. (they carry the PSP version, but not the X-Box version). For living arrangements, I would go with a serviced apartment or condo. Lots are available right now in your price range. I agree that cooking facilities, internet and TV connection are crit

Whether we pull out of Iraq tomorrow or not, the military is now in shambles (although very experienced in insurgency warfare) and it is estimated that it will cost $2 trillion and take 10 years to recover from the depletion caused by the war in Iraq. And as for healthcare costs, the argument about entitlement programs is equally applicable to the private sector. The great bulk of healthcare costs go to administrative expenses both in insurance companies and in hospitals and medical clinics.

Don't forget the role of the Federal Reserve, which is supposed to independently manage the country's monetary supply. BTW, didn't you hear that Bush and Hank Paulson met with Bernanke today, before tomorrow's announcement of a major rate cut? So much for the independent Federal Reserve and Bush's innocence with respect to the faltering economy.