Having "Me" Time

Let's forget floods tonight and talk about cooking.  If you are a cook, and cook meat, then you are bound to have heard this, "Seal in the juices by searing meats before you cook."  For the non-cook, what does this mean?  It means basically to fry or expose the outer layer of meat to high temperatures before baking, or continuing to cook it.  My family does it, and so do my aunts.  I thought it made sense.  You cook the outer layer first, so that the raw juice would not be able to come out.  It's like one of those know-hows that gets passed down from generation to generation.  Lifehacker says this is not so.  Here's why. The article says that this was first proposed in the 19th century by a German chemist called Justus von Liebig who said that applying very high temperatures to meat would create a "sealed" layer of cooked meat through which liquid the inside meat would not be able to escape. (Wow, I didn't realize this would go back so long...

This evening I went to dinner at the Rio Grill Brazillian Restaurant at this unremarkable hotel that I am sure not many people in Bangkok have been to.  Its at the Asia Hotel which is walking distance to the main shopping district of Siam Paragon and Siam Centre.   I walked in and felt as if I had gone back to another time.  The hotel reminded me of times when big lobbies and large reception areas were the signs of a good hotel.  There were some art nouveau type decorations and stained glass signs.  It has a certain charm to it which I cannot describe.  It is so clean it doesn't have any of the "smell" that usually accompanies old buildings and is so clean and simple.  I suppose I like the simplicity of it all.  It isn't trying to be anything it isn't.  It simply is a hotel that was opened a in another era, when Bangkok didn't have sky trains or subways, when shopping malls didn't exist.   I ate at this Rio Grill Brazilian Restaurant which reminded me of t...