Evil Penevil

I had a decent lamb kebab at the McDoner Kebab stand on LK Metro beside Sugar Sugar and close to the intersection with Soi Bukhao. .. The sign said "UK Style" kebabs and I noticed two differences compared with the generic kebabs you get at stands all over Pattaya. The choice of sauces was unlike at any other stand and the vegetable mix was different; it was light on the tomatoes and less vinegary. I took the mint and yoghurt sauce for my large lamb kebab (135 baht). ... It was OK; the meat was good but there was too little sauce, which made the kebab very bland overall. I didn't necessarily want it more spicy, just with more flavor. I may try it again, but I'll ask the lady to go heavy on the sauce. Evil

A quick update after having eaten four times at the Mercure Saturday seafood buffet. It's definitely a good idea to get there at 6.30 pm when the buffet opens. Last night I went with a friend and his companion at 8.00 pm and the buffet tables had just about been picked clean. I would have gone elsewhere, but my friend had promised his companion a seafood buffet and didn't want to disappoint her. He spoke with the Thai staff and they promised the serving platters would be refilled. We saw that some of the antipasta platters and the salad bar was being replenished, so we decided to take a chance. After finishing our "starter plate," we saw there was still no seafood (oysters, crab, shrimp, clams, sushi, smoked salmon)on offer. At that point, my friend asked to speak to the manager, who turned out to be a young farang guy. My friend rather forcefully complained about the lack of the "good stuff" on the tables and how we had been promised the platters would be refilled. The manager apologized and did his magic in the kitchen. In a few minutes, all the food we'd asked for reappeared on the buffet in a quantity sufficient for three people. The manager rectified the situation, but without his help, I doubt we would have gotten a good result. The non-seafood hot dishes had also been picked over and weren't replenished, but we didn't care so much because they weren't the buffet's main attraction. I also think the quality of the non-seafood hot food has slipped over the past two months. All in all, the buffet remains decent value for money at 600 baht, but only if you partake heavily of the seafood. Evil

I had late supper last night at Govit. It was delicious plate of stir-fried chicken with ginger and onions for 150 baht. The ginger flavored the chicken perfectly. It was very subtle and balanced, more sophisticated a dish than you find in many mainstream Thai restaurants at a much higher price. Evil

Apparently the original version of garlic bread, which dates back to Roman times, was like bruschetta and similar to the bread in your pic. The version with which most of us are more familiar is modern adaptation that got its start in Italian restaurants in the U.S. Evil

I haven't tried their pizza but will soon. I'll take photos and write a report. Yes, it is. I can't speak from personal experience as I haven't had one of their pizzas, but I generally prefer pizzas with thin crispy crusts and light toppings. Evil

Inspired by a recommendation on the Pattaya Restaurants Facebook group, I decided to give Pizza Italy a try. It was a good choice. I've had two pasta meals there and look forward to trying more of the dishes on offer. Pizza Italy is located on a subsoi of Soi Bukhao between Soi 15 and Soi Diana. The restaurant isn't visible from Soi Bukhao. The chef is a very friendly Italian guy who really knows his stuff. The restaurant has a wood-burning oven for pizza and other dishes. My first meal consisted of a bowl of rigatoni. It was freshly made, not precooked and warmed up in a microwave. It wasn't a huge portion. but rigatoni is a heavy dish and the portion was large enough to fill me up. It tasted great, subtly seasoned but full of flavor. It cost 230 baht. For my next meal at Pizza Italy I had a tomato and onion salad followed by lasagne. Unlike a lot of tomatoes in Thailand, the ones in my salad had been properly ripened. The assortment of condiments, which included olive oil, was a nice touch. The salad cost a modest 60 baht. The onion had been sliced paper thin and placed as the bottom layer in the bowl, which meant the diner could choose how much onion he wanted to eat with the tomatoes. The tomato salad was a good starter for the lasagne, which had also be freshly prepared. Again, the seasoning was subtle, with just the right hint of nutmeg. I definitely knew it was there, but it didn't overpower the dish as a whole. The cost was 220 baht. Pizza Italy has a full range of Italian dishes. It also offers pizza for delivery and take-away. Both times I ate there, I was the only customer, which is a shame. Let's hope that's just a function of low season and rainy evenings. Bottom line: Pizza Italy is a good option for hearty Italian food at reasonable prices in a casual setting. Recommended. Evil

Good review. I stayed there about a week last year and liked the @Mind apartments and facilities. I was even considering a long-term stay, but like you, I found the location inconvenient and decided it wasn't for me. Evil

Those courses are mostly done through the use of a computer keyboard and screen, so there are certain to be courses you could download or get on a disc. My niece taught herself to touch type recently using such a downloaded course. Evil

Qatar Air has a promotion going for flights from Philly to Denpassar, but I don't think it is quite that cheap, I believe BigD is quoting the price of the outward or return leg of a round-trip ticket. The total price, while reasonable, is double that: With all the connections, you're looking at a 37-hour journey. Ouch! By playing with dates, you could probably could find a flight for 2 x $536, or $1,072. Definitely a bargain, but the dates are likely to be atrocious. Something like three days or three months in Bali. Evil

Time to update the report on Govit Seafood Restaurant, one of my favorite pop-up street eateries. ... It's located long a stretch of wall that runs between Shark A Go Go and Sapphire Club on Soi 15 off Walking Street. Nothing much has charged in the years I've been eating there. A pic from a few days ago: And how it looked in 2011: It offers very fresh seafood - crab, rock lobster, shrimp, clams and several types of fish - cooked to order at reasonable prices. It's certainly not the cheapest pop-up restaurant you'll find, but the quality of the food is equal or better to many enclosed sit-down restaurants in Pattaya. Most dishes cost in the 100-to-150 baht ranges, with whole fish at 300 baht. Rock lobster and crab are priced by weight. There's a limited selection of drinks - Singha, Coke and water. Grilled squid at 150 baht: It's open between 7.00 p.m. and about 2.00 a.m., but can close earlier if ingredients run out. If it starts raining, it also shuts down, either temporarily or for the night. Should you be caught by a sudden shower in the middle of a meal, you're whisked across the alleyway to the porch of the nearby Beach Club A Go Go. Besides seafood, it has a few other dishes on it's menu, like beef in oyster sauce; fried morning glory; and crispy pork with kale. Beef in oyster sauce at 150 baht: Across the alley way, there are a couple of good hole-in-wall restaurants. One specializes in seafood, the other in boiled chicken with rice. Bottom line - A reasonably priced (but not cheap) place for a quick Thai meal just off WS. Evil

One advantage of Pattaya Talk is the reputation system. Very fair. Evil

I second the recommendation of The Killer Angels. Shaara has written two sets of trilogies about the Civil War, as well as novels about the Revolutionary and Mexican Wars. All are good. Cain at Gettysburg by former Army officer Ralph Peters is also good. Owen Parry has written a series of detective novels set in the Civil War. Probably the best is A Faded Coat of Blue. The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command, by Edwin B. Coddington, is a very detailed factual account written by a military historian. Evil

It's crucial to distinguish between schemes that involve: 1) exploiting loopholes in FF offers from airlines and other companies; and 2) making fraudulent purchases with a credit card to gain FF miles. There's nothing illegal about 1), but 2) is, although it might be rare for the credit card company to pursue the matter. A bigger risk of 2) is having your credit cards cancelled and your credit rating wrecked. The Pudding Guy and the baht run took advantage of oversights in the wording of specific FF promotional offer or the rules of the program itself. For example, the Pudding Guy's idea wouldn't have worked if the company (ConAgra) had placed a limit on the number of miles it was possible to accrue through the offer. Had it wanted to, the company could simply have refused to accept his claim and forced him to sue. Over the years, airlines have gutted their FF programs because they became such liabilities. With the changes that went into effect in 2014, it's very hard for anyone who isn't flying a lot on full-fare tickets to get much value from the FF programs. Evil

I had a midnight supper of roast duck and steamed rice at Leng Kee Restaurant near the corner of Soi Bukhao and Pattaya Klang. Although Leng Kee has over 1,100 Thai and Chinese dishes listed on its menu, a medium order of roast duck at 200 baht was enough for me. The steamed rice was 10 baht and a SML was 60 baht. .. The duck was perfectly cooked and very succulent. It was served in a delicious sauce and came with pickled ginger, a few greens and a super spicy dipping sauce. One tiny drop of that sauce just about burned a hole in my tongue. I've eaten at Leng Kee a number of times and the meals there have always been good. However, the other dishes, whether Chinese or Thai, haven't "wowwed" me. It's the duck that keeps me coming back. I consider it the best I've had in Pattaya at a modestly priced restaurants. Besides the great duck, I like the fact Leng Kee is open 24 hours a day and is very clean. I also appreciate that many dishes come in three sizes (small, medium, large) at 80/200/350 or 400 baht. The service is prompt and correct, but the waiters can at times seem a bit surly. That's understandable, as I've witnessed some foreign tourists giving them a really hard time. Bottom line: An excellent place to go for duck, good for other Chinese and Thai dishes. Now who's going to be the first one to say you can get better duck at a cheaper price elsewhere? Evil

Surprising as it seems, I haven't seen any balloon chasers at Skeeter's "food events." It's mostly regular customers who sit drinking with Skeeter or his ladies for quite some time. The food appears to be an extra perk of a visit to Sky Bar, not the reason for it. I've never seen anyone order just a single beer or soft drink, scarf the food and leave. Evil

Definitely not the healthiest food if you have to watch your cholesterol level. I limit my consumption of burgers and steaks to once-a-month treats. The burger I had last night at Sky Bar was my treat for July, 2019. Evil

Skeeter served up some fantastic bacon cheeseburgers, among the best I've had in Thailand or anywhere else. I don't often eat burgers in Pattaya because of disappointing experiences in the past, but I jump at any chance to enjoy one of Skeeter's burgers. High-quality beef patty topped with plenty of cheese and bacon. It doesn't get better than that. Evil

From his follow-up post, I believe he is talking about making charges to a merchant account which he would also control. It's unclear whether he already has such an account or would try to set one up. It is almost impossible to set up a fake merchant's account; the banks require a lot of information about the company/individual's business. But if he or a close relative/friend already has a merchant account, then "faking" purchases at levels high enough to give him 100,000 FF points would amount to felony fraud. Banks are very sensitive to any transaction that could be suspected as money laundering or terrorist financing. Sailfast- talk with a lawyer before you attempt anything along these lines. Many, many small businesses have come to grief because of "irregularities" involving suspicious credit card charges. Evil

I'm not sure what you mean by, "100,000 miles can be racked up with a fee of $1000." The $1,000 you refer to the "finance charge" some companies add to the purchase price for goods or services. You would still have to make and pay off $100,000 in purchases to get 100,000 bonus frequent flyer miles through the card. Cash advances and balance transfers are excluded from bonus points, so you'd have to make real purchases. If you can run up legitimate purchases of that size, you will indeed get the equivalent in FF miles, usually 1 FF mile for every dollar spent. There are many people who do just that. I have a friend who has a small business and pays all his business expenses via credit card, including the rent on his premises. But it still takes him nearly a year to run up $200,000 in charges on the card. But if you attempt any fraud in collision with the seller, such as charging an item to the card but immediately returning it for a cash refund, you could get into real trouble. Evil

I hope it turns out well for Spanky's, but some bars have had big problems with such offers. A few will be determined to get their money's worth and drink too much- they puke, pass out or become aggressive drunks. Evil

I tried Fry Day's popular 99 baht version, but the batter was too thick and oily for me. The batter could have served as body armor for an Imperial Stormtrooper. The chips were OK. I'm not having much luck with fish 'n chips in Pattaya. Evil

Not nearly as nice. Very hard seats. Good recline, though. Evil

Put this one in the novelty category. It's a review of the lunch served on Delta Flight 172 (NRT to JFK) to Economy Plus passengers. I'm posting from an altitude of 35,000 feet above northern Canada, with about four hours left in the 12.5-hour flight. There were two choices, chicken or beef, and I took the beef. I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. The beef was tender and packed a fair amount of flavor. The wedge potatoes nd vegetables were good. The "appetizer" was cold fried chicken in Namban sauce and I wish I'd had more of it. It was one of the better airline meals I've had in economy class. Evil