Billy's Having A Birthday @ Billy's Bar

Billy is having a Birthday Party at Billy's Bar and Restaurant on Monday the 30th of November.

Not lots of time to make plans but it will be the place to be on Monday evening. Live band, some food and lots of drinks and a good crowd of Billy's friends.

Check in with those you haven't seen in a while and wish Billy and Davey a Happy Birthday!

If someone else is there, Billy's not responsible...

Hua Hin Bike Week: 4th - 5th December 2009

The Hua Hin Bike Week is this Friday and Saturday the 4th and 5th of December. It will be held at the same place as last year, 48 Rai field, along the klong, roughly even with Soi 33 on Petchkasem Rd. or roughly across the klong from the Mooban Karet.

If you drive south along the klong from Soi 10 or north along the klong from Soi 56, it's about half way between the two sois, on the east side of the road. Just listen for the sound of sweet pipes.

Haven't been to one before but reports have always been very positive so will try to take the family this year. Lots of bikes, food and music. Tattoos and T-shirts and other things to decorate your body or ride are also available.

Lots of bikers and Motorcyle Clubs from all over Thailand will be there with their machines and probably some from S'pore and Malaysia.

If you like bikes, beer and good food, be there.

It's been family friendly in the past and will assume it will remain that way this year as the MCs provide their own security and they like being able to come to Hua Hin.

The photo above is from the 2008 Bike Week and is provided by On The Road Thailand.com

Reds vs Yellows In Hua Hin

Somtawin and Pratana Kindergartens battled it out again this year at their annual Sports Day hosted at the new Somtawin campus in Nong Plop. Red, Yellow, Blue, and Pink shirts, ages 2 through 5 vied for no trophy or rewards, just a good time.

Here we see the Reds were a little confused during the tug of war competition, or perhaps the fellow on the right was a plant from one of the other teams.

November Odds & Ends

Word is that there's going to be a Rib Night at Billy's Bar on Thursday but the bad news is that it's already sold out. There must be some Canadians in town. Hope there are pictures.

Reliable sources were saying a couple of weeks ago that the Baja Taco Mobile would be up and running in a few days. It must have booked passage on that Hi Speed Ferry from Pattaya as neither have been seen or heard from.

Unless TETCBM occurs, it looks like the Hua Hin Rock Festival is still a go. Seeing posters and sound trucks around town talking about it so keep 19 December open.

Rotary Club of Hua Hin will be having their weekly meeting at the Grand Hotel on Friday in preparation for the December 4 elections. Last day to accept Charter Candidates is 18 December. There will be no meetings on 25 December or 1 January.

New Naem Nuang (แหนมเนือง) Place North of Hua Hin

Discovered this shop a couple of weeks ago during the ASEAN summit but figured that wasn't a good time to be sending folks out on Petchkasem Road.

Naem Nuang is an Essan version of a Vietnamese dish based on Vietnamese pork sausage. As with many Vietnamese dishes, it is served with a wide variety of rabbit food. This includes a type of leafy lettuce, mint leaves, bits of green (as in unripe) bananas and green mango, and other things that lovers of Vietnamese food would recognize but this refugee from Texas just knows as weeds. The combination does taste interesting though and this dish is the most greens that FBF ever eats at one sitting. There is also chopped garlic, cucumber, and chilies.

Pictured (sorry for the lousy photo but was in a hurry) above is the grilled naem in the lower right of the dish. Above the naem is a pasta something that looks like kanom jin but isn't. In the dish below are moistened squares of rice paper and the bowl of red above is a chili sauce with ground peanuts that is amazing.

Naem Nuang is sort of a roll your own spring roll. To make it, one takes a lettuce leaf and flattens it out and places a square of rice paper on that. Then you add a bit of garlic, green banana, green mango, a pinch of the kanom jin, various weeds, a couple of good chunks of naem and top that off with a good dollop of the chili sauce. Then you attempt to fold it into a container that will fit in your mouth without the sauce dripping everywhere.

This is not a good meal to eat with Maekong. Beer's OK but a good hotter-than-hot chili sauce needs chasing with liquid and too much Maekong and you'll soon have chili sauce in all the wrong places. Stick with beer or water as the chaser.

The unnamed shop with this delight is located about half way between Cha Am and Hua Hin across the road from the Narasuan Camp which houses the Ratchaniwet Marukhathaiyawan Palace. Across the street from the entrance to the camp and the helicopter pad is the well known Essan restaurant, Sap Eli. Just north of the Sap Eli parking lot is a small shop with a few salas with tables. In addition to Naem Nuang, they also sell some OTOPS type products from Mukdahan where they get their Naem.

We've always gotten it to go but they offer to heat the naem for you so I would assume that you can eat it there in the salas as you watch the traffic go by. Grabbing a box and eating it with your Gai Yang and Somtom at Sap Eli is probably doable also.

An order includes 5 large skewers of naem and all the rabbit food you'll need and goes for only 150 Baht. Not a bad deal at all for naem imported from Muk.

They open around 1100 but sometimes the naem isn't delivered until closer to noon.

Nueng