Why is Hatyai called Hatyai?

Hi friends,

How are you? I hope you are fine.

I should have gone to Hatyai, my hometown during long holidays, but the train ticket was fully booked.

As I am thinking of Hatyai, I read about its history on the Internet so I would like to introduce some information to you.

Do you know why Hatyai is called Hatyai, which means the city of big beach? (Despite the fact that no big beach left now)

I have wondered for a long time as well. I have got the answer and here is it:

Long time ago, there was a very big white beach along the U Ta Pao canal. This beach was able to serve 50 boats to park on. Most people dug out the sand from the beach to use for their house construction, and a large amount of sand here seemed not to be used all. Therefore, people in the past called Hatyai by its name.

In the meantime, some people said the name of Hatyai was originated from the tree of Ma Hatyai, or in Thai “ต้นมะหาดใหญ่’. As people in the south always shorten the words, they called the village of Ma Hat Yai as Hatyai.

Note: For your information, in the past the U Ta Pao canal was used as the important water transportation between Songkhla to Kedah State, Malaysia. (Now, there is no big area of beach left.) It was said that Hatyai has been founded for almost 100 years. It was developed from a village, then Amphur and now a metropolitan.

Again, time for lunch now and I am thinking of a Dim Sum food shop in Hatyai!

 Happy weekend

Thanks for the information on http://www.songkhlahealth.org/paper/1182 , http://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/อำเภอหาดใหญ่

and http://th.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071109092356AAxEXeS

Retirement Planning

Last year, my company invited an officer from the Stock Exchange of Thailand to give a lecture on Retirement Planning. Now I'm gonna tell you briefly about his lecture that I think is useful to your guys.

Have you start saving for your retirement yet? Some of you might think that I'm only 30 year old, there is still plenty of time to save the money. This idea is not good. You should start thinking about how to live your life after your retirement. Don't wait until you are 40 or 50 cause it will be too late. After you retire, you will have no job and no income so how will you pay for food and other expenses such as personnel expenses, health expenses and travelling expenses.

Now, you might wonder how much money do you have to save for your retirement. There is a formula for calculating the money you should have before you retire.

the money you should have at your retirement =
70% of your annual current expenses x the numbers of years you expect to live after retirement

If you plan to live until you are hundred year old, you will need to save more money.

Anyway, when you retire, some of you may get the money from pension fund or coporate welfare fund but the money you get from your company isn't enough for you to live your life conveniently after your retirement. So you should save the money by yourself too.

Please remember, the earlier you save, the more money you will have.

Let's Cook Chinese Fried Rice

Yesterday, I bought a box of sausage fried rice from a take-away shop in my village. Its taste is very good, not too sweet and salty. I really like it because it is not added Monosodium glutamate and garlic.

This fried rice makes me think of Chinese fried rice cooked by my Taiwanese friend, Hsiu Mei, pronounced as “Sho Mei”.

Once she came to my house, I asked her to cook Chinese fried rice. She wondered why I wanted to try such common food. I said to her that it was not common food for me, but it was so special dish!

Next, I asked her if she wanted any special ingredients. She said “just some salt, cooking oil, day-old rice, chopped onion and carrot and one egg.”

I kept asking her again “Why do you want only some salt? Why is it not soya sauce?”

She said “Just some salt is enough. If you want to make the rice dark colour, it is o.k. to add a little bit of soya sauce.”

Then, Hsiu Mei started cooking Chinese fried rice.

-          She boiled some chopped carrot until it was cooked, but not too soft. Then, she drained it, and set it aside.

-          For some chopped onion, she boiled it in the other pot and did the same process as the chopped carrot.

-          Next, she put some cooking oil into a pan and heated the oil for 2 minutes, then scrambled the egg and separated it into the pan.

-          Later, she added some day-old rice and  a teaspoon of salt.

-          The rice was stirred thoroughly and rubbed to get rid of the clumps.

-          Some chopped onion and carrot was topped onto the rice.

-          She stirred the all thing together.

-          Finished!

She told some tips to me that the onion and carrot needed to be boiled in order to maintain its flavour, and both would have nicer smell than cooking them in the oil. She said it was o.k. to add some meat.

Furthermore,  the other of my Chinese friend, Xiang, told me that peanut oil (groundnut oil) was good for cooking fried rice. She recommended me to use a wok instead of a frying pan.

Also, May, my friend from Hong Kong, said Chinese fried rice should not be added some Spring green leaves (Pak Ka Na or ผักคะน้า) and tomato because these would make the rice wet.

Try cooking Chinese fried rice on your own and enjoy.

Have a good week!