THESE DAYS many diseases, health conditions and disorders are lifestyle- or diet-related, among them high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Nutrition experts Julienna Hever and Raymond J Cronise are adamant that if food can wreak havoc on your health, then a diet can be designed to remedy certain health problems. You just need to pay extra attention to what you eat and how much you eat.

Their answer to modern lifestyle problems is a “whole food, plant-based diet”, a new lifestyle trend conceptualised in the US and now making inroads to Thailand where wellness tourism is growing.

NASA scientist-turned-nutrition expert Ray Cronise and registered dietician Julieanna Hever recommend a whole food, plant-based lifestyle for a longer and healthier life. /photo courtesy of Pasut Ratanabanangkoon

Hever and Cronise recently conducted a plant-based culinary and nutritional classes at Evason Hua Hin, attracting health-conscious individuals from around the world including physicians, students and other professionals from Brazil, Britain, Australia and China, all of them determined to improve their health through, well, healthy cooking.

“A whole food, plant-based diet consists of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices, which can be consumed in infinite combinations,” Hever tells The Nation.

She asserts that a plant-based diet promotes consumption of wholesome and unprocessed foods, saying: “If you process rice into flour, you lose lots of nutrition.” While plant-based diets include vegan and vegetarian foods, some of these are oily, salty or very sweet and cannot be described as healthy. “It’s worth noting that there are vegetarian and vegan versions of burgers, ice cream and cookies. They are not healthy,” she stresses.

Through Cronise and Hever’s nutrition classes, individuals learn how to cook flavourful, healthy dishes without cooking oil. / photo courtesy of Julieanna Hever and Ray Cronise

Cronise explains that like both these diets, plant-based food excludes animal products. “Think about Thai dishes, whole grains, mushrooms. Most Thai dishes have all of these. That can’t be said about most American dishes. Here mushrooms aren’t foreign,” he says.

Both Americans have been conducting classes on plant-based diets around the world as a team for two and a half years. However, Hever, a registered dietician with a master’s degree in nutrition, has professionally conducted classes on plant-based diets for the past 14 years.

Cronise is a scientist-turned-weight-loss and nutrition expert who studied chemistry and worked for 15 years as a Material Scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) in microgravity, biophysics, and physical & analytical chemistry. A household name in the US’s weight-loss world, he has helped many celebrities and ordinary folks achieve their weight-loss goals through his knowledge of metabolism, mild cold stress, dietary restriction and nutrition.

 Pad Thai without shrimp and eggs fits well with Hever’s dietary regime. photo courtesy of Julieanna Hever and Ray Cronise

Cronise and Hever are also the authors of “Plant-Based Nutrition, 2E (Idiot’s Guides)” that extols the virtues of a plant-based lifestyle as beneficial to the “healthspan”, or longevity.

By bringing their concept of plant-based food to Thailand, both are hoping that their recipes can make a difference to the lives of those who are looking for ideas for healthy living and cooking as a way of overcoming personal medical problems and attaining longevity.

Plant-based food is beneficial to the health in many ways.

In their article titled “Plant-based nutrition for healthcare professionals” published in 2017 in the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology, they wrote that plant-based diets are associated with lowering overall and ischemic heart disease mortality; reducing medication needs; supporting sustainable weight management; reducing incidence and severity of high-risk conditions, such as obesity and obesity-related inflammatory markers, hyperglycemia, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia; and even reversing advanced cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

 Hever and Cronise say it’s possible to adopt a 100per cent plantbased diet without suffering nutrient deficiency. /photo courtesy of Julieanna Hever and Ray Cronise

These advantages are likely the result of both the consistent consumption of innate health-promoting compounds found in whole plant foods and the reduction of exposure to harmful substances found in animal products and highly processed foods.

Meat (including processed, red, and white assortments), fish, dairy, and eggs contain health-damaging saturated fats, heme iron, N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc), carnitine, and chemical contaminants formed when flesh is cooked, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic amines, and advanced glycation end products.

Julieanna says plant foods exclusively contain two critical nutrients: fibre and phytonutrients. Fibre, found in multiple varieties in all intact plant foods, gives powerful protection of the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and immune systems, while phytonutrients, a vast class of thousands of compounds including glucosinolates, carotenoids, and flavonoids, work synergistically to reduce inflammation and oxidation, providing protection from disease initiation and progression.

“There are two reasons why plant-based diets are healthful. First, you’re avoiding excessive protein, saturated food and animal products that are harmful. Then, plants contain fibre that can be found in plants, not animals. Plants cannot fight and run, so they create phytonutrients as a defence mechanism to protect themselves from bacteria. These nutrients work to protect us too,” she says.

Miang Kham is one of the healthy Thai dishes recommended by both experts. /photo courtesy of Julieanna Hever and Ray Cronise

Cronise asserts that aside from its multiple benefits, plant-based food in principle promotes “healthspan”: how long and well someone can live with quality of life. He says plant-based food is a way of implementing dietary restriction that’s beneficial to human health, citing a 20-year study by the Wisconsin National Primate Research Centre in Madison.

In the study, which was conducted from 1989 to 2009, 38 rhesus macaques that were allowed to eat whatever they wanted were nearly twice as likely to die at any age than were 38 monkeys whose calorie intakes were cut by 30 per cent. The study also suggested that the monkeys on a reduced-calorie diet lived longer than those that ate as much as they wanted.

“You may be able to eat more food, and not gain weight, but when you start restricting, you get to a point where body goes into a protective mode. Eating every hour or so, every day is a kind of modern concept. Whole food, planted based diets help people eat less, but swallow more,” Cronise says.

When it comes to plant-based food, Hever says there are infinite combinations and options to be found in our daily life. Half the plate should consist of vegetables and fruits in order to ensure adequate intake of fibre, potassium, magnesium, folate, iron, and vitamins A and C, nutrients that tend to be low in the standard Western diet, she says.

Hever doesn’t use oil when cooking and indeed advises against using cooking oil, however good it may be. In their classes, both cook all vegetables with water and broth or by steaming.

 photo courtesy of Julieanna Hever and Ray Cronise

“Oils are a way of getting enough calories to survive. You can get calories from other sources. Our dishes contain mostly no oil, even extra virgin olive oil. Do you need olive oil to survive? If you can get calories from elsewhere, then oil is not necessary – as long as you have enough mango and sticky rice. Today we have the luxury of just eating plants.

“Michelin-starred food, fast food and street food are the same things. Think about that for a second. A meal at a five-star restaurant has sugar, salt and oil. That’s what we love. They make it pretty. Street food is high in sugar, salt and oil. The point is if you eat that every day, you’re likely to develop all the non-communicable diseases we are talking about,” says Cronise.

Both believe Thai food is a great example of health food, but this doesn’t include the greasy curries.

“Traditional Thai food like miang kham is mostly healthy food. Small portions help, but it depends on the type of food and the quantity. What we are trying to do is focus on those foods that the literature has said are the most healthful and make those into flavourful food. So we recommend vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices. That’s just every Thai dish,” Hever says.

 photo courtesy of Julieanna Hever and Ray Cronise

“You have the best fruits every day in Thailand. You can’t walk down the street in the US and buy a coconut or have coconut water,” adds Cronise.

To them, Bangkok is the best place to find plant-based dishes from regular restaurants. They like to order pad thai without shrimp and egg on top or tom yum without oil or go for raw sushi, spring rolls and roasted vegetables.

“If you don’t have time to cook, time for your health, you’ll have time for medical procedures later in life. We want to live longer, not just live healthy. We eat what we can eat to survive and reproduce. The point here is when we look at our age, we just can’t eat almost anything. You eat the plants or eat the animals that eat the plant? But the nutrition came from the plant. We need to restrict our diet and we need to eat more plants,” says Cronise.

LEARN MORE

https://about.me/julieannahever

https://about.me/raycronise

TOP-OF-THE-LINE appliances for the kitchen are now accessible to Thai households as a leading German manufacturer arrives in Bangkok with the launch of the first Miele lounge at the equally upmarket Bhiraj Tower at EmQuartier.

Drs Markus Miele and Reinhard Zinkann, executive director and co-proprietor of the group, respectively, flew to Bangkok specially for the recent grand opening.

The largest family-owned luxury appliance manufacturer, Miele provides greater convenience and more elegance to the home with a wide range of major appliances including ovens, hobs, surfaces, ventilation hoods, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, as well as the revolutionary built-in coffee system and convection steam oven. Like an art gallery, Miele considers its products as artistic treasures and displays them as such.

Established 120 years ago in an old saw and corn mill in Herzebrock near Gutersloh, Miele started by manufacturing cream separators, coming up with the first mechanical butter churn and reducing the time farmers were forced to use to turn their cream into butter. From there the ideas continued to flow and in 1914, the company introduced the first washing machine with an electric motor.

Entrenched in the values and traditions of sustainability, Miele is known for long-lasting appliances that cause minimal damage to the natural world.

Among the items on show at the Miele lounge are washing machines and dryers, dishwashers, oven, hobs, wine fridges, water dispensers and coffee machines, all of the highest standard.

“Miele has always chosen to use the best and most durable materials in both assembly and manufacture. Our designs adhere to the Bauhaus philosophy of simple and timeless and we do not bow to trends but upgrade our products on the inside,” Miele explains.

“This is our first time in Thailand and we are delighted to launch our lounge. In addition to showing off our best appliances in a kitchen setting, we are also introduced a new collection that helps those without experience in cooking and baking to produce food that is of expert quality simply by using the touch screen. The cooktop settings include frying and simmering while the oven offers a range of options for both baking and roasting.

“Our washing machine too offers a range of programs that ensure everything from cottons to silks will come out as good as new,” he adds.

Zinkann echoes his words, saying: “Our aim is to respond to the needs of all consumers not just our premium users who live in Thailand. We place emphasis on creativity, innovations, technology and, of course, value. We have recently created an innovative way of cooking without first thawing that gives excellent results. The Miele Lounge Bangkok is here to present all of our appliances and allow customers to enjoy a full demonstration before buying.”

“We are the only manufacturers in our branch of industry to test products such as our washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers and ovens to the equivalent of 20 years of use,” Miele adds.

“We remain true to our promise of ‘immer besser’ (always better) and our motto is ‘Once a Miele, always a Miele’, meaning that Miele customers around the world remain loyal to Miele and recommend Miele to others. Looking to the future, we promise not to entertain any compromises when it comes to quality and durability.”

For anyone considering a new domestic appliance, a stop at the lounge will certainly prove worthwhile. It offers a visual catalogue of sophisticated craftsmanship that characterises the brand and a spectrum of built-in and free-standing appliances designed to suit the modern lifestyle.

CAMBODIA-BASED writer Steven W Palmer has just recently released a remarkably elaborate crime yarn that mingles historical fiction with police procedural. It contrasts the gleaming-chrome, gung-ho bustle of modern Phnom Penh with the horrifically evil, soul-darkening four-year horror of the Khmer Rouge era – which began with that same capital being so ominously and systematically emptied of all inhabitants.

The juxtaposition has tremendous potential for a work of absolutely stunning storytelling, but unfortunately, “Angkor Cloth Angkor Gold” has overreached and lags behind expectations.

Anyone familiar with recent Cambodian history and with Phnom Penh (and Kampot) will enjoy the ride because Palmer ticks all the events and sights as he unspools an ornate tale that spans decades. In fact, he shares a great deal of background facts about the Khmer Rouge period with which most readers will surely be unacquainted.

This in itself can be considered reward enough. Fans of pure fiction get a bonus, though, because a much bigger surprise awaits in the telling, and it’s a very clever knockout punch.

“Angkor Cloth” entails the hunt for a serial killer of unusual species, a refined and well-educated psychopath who happened to be born of high class, just as Jack the Ripper is sometimes surmised to have been.

This individual was among the milieu of Khmer intellectuals in 1960s Paris, including Saloth Sar (the nom de guerre “Pol Pot” is never uttered), but once back home, the complex creature who’s in our focus became yet another victim of the Khmer Rouge.

We get to know this taker of lives, and exceedingly well, through the entries in a daily journal, which the killer “narrates” in chapters that alternate with progress reports on international police efforts to track down someone who’s become an alarmingly prolific murderer. The journal begins in 1980 in Khao-I-Dang, a camp for Khmer refugees on the Thai border.

On the hunt for a maniac in late 2016 are Army Brigadier-General Hoem Chamreun, attached to the Interior Ministry, and Second Lieutenant Sopheak “Sophie” Chang, educated in and newly returned from the US – and, sure enough, not hard on the eyes. (Chamreun and Sophie inevitably get around to some mutually respectful smooching as the story progresses.)

The gulf between the years in the to-and-fro storytelling eventually narrows. “Angkor Cloth” is like a tapestry being woven from its two ends, in different places and times.

The effect is a variation on the tension-building format that Truman Capote perfected with “In Cold Blood”, in which alternating chapters bring predators and prey closer together at a menacingly slow pace, but here, because the investigation is taking place 36 years after the original murders, there’s a wasteful disconnect.

As well, the more we get to know the villain, the more our empathy grows. This is a devout Buddhist, well read in Western philosophy, whose rationale for killing is heartfelt and not incomprehensible.

In Phnom Pehn and as far away as France and Italy, the hunt is on for a serial killer haunted by the “phantom smell of spilt blood” and for whom the “shadows grow hungry and impatient”.

At the crux of the novel is an old Khmer proverb, “Men are gold. Women are white linen.” Thus, women who allow their purity to be “soiled” by engaging sexually with non-Khmer must be “cleansed” – by men who remain untainted by such behaviour because they’re made of gold.

For our killer, the cleansing can only mean dispatching a soiled woman to another lifetime. Palmer makes no direct connection to the appalling practices still reported in some patriarchal South Asian and African societies, though the Nazi theory of a “master race” lurks spectrally.

“What separates us is far greater than anything that we have in common,” the mad one affirms of differences in culture, even as the readiness of foreigners to provide salvation from the awful camp is acknowledged – particularly a Polish volunteer who has a death camp number tattooed on her forearm, in which the killer reads kinship.

The main problem with the meticulous Bayeux Tapestry that Palmer has attempted to weave from two ends at the same time – or perhaps more pertinently the Angkor bas-relief he has sculpted – is that most of the imagery filling the space is mundane.

Historical fiction can pose pitfalls – the weave has to be as aesthetically pleasing as it is precise. Palmer is a talented embroiderer, but too distracted by minutiae and too often neglecting the central thrilling theme. The history could have been allowed to bleed more into the foreground to set the pace and tone, rather than reams of inconsequential information about the casework.

Police procedural doesn’t work as fiction unless all the tiresome gumshoe detective work is distilled down to a selection of interesting clues or possibilities.

But here, repetition joins thick clots of detail in smothering the suspense. Every fresh murder in Phnom Penh involves a tour-guide’s itinerary of streets, the same questions posed at the scene, the same phone-slamming aggravation when nothing’s adding up. Similarly, every killing is much the same unholy ritual.

Fiction set in a real place among well-known landmarks can feel like a travelogue, and in a crime novel there’s nothing intrinsically interesting in that. Meanwhile protagonist Chamreun is described repeatedly by himself and others as “a man of action”, yet he dithers over love and his career and is involved in no action whatsoever, other than fast driving.

Steven Palmer has built a broad, tall edifice in 340 pages and there is much to admire. Almost lost in the tedium is an interesting segue between two chapters, so slight as to almost seem accidental.

The killer has completed another “cleansing” in the refugee camp and drifts into “a surprisingly peaceful sleep”. Then Chamreun realises that the complexities of the case before him have unexpectedly resulted in him “sleeping better than he had for months”. Both characters, separated in time by decades, are tortured by immediate events, by doubts over their shared Buddhist faith, and yet both are finding rest in their unwitting proximity. This is good stuff.

But Palmer’s towering edifice is short on architectural finesse and its functionality fluctuates, to the deficit of an otherwise rich, original and interesting crime novel.

Angkor Cloth Angkor Gold

By Steven W Palmer

Published by Saraswati Publishing Cambodia, 2018

Available at Amazon.com, US$6 (Bt188, Kindle)

BUILT MORE THAN 100 years ago, the quaint wooden house that sits quietly behind a Hindu temple on Dinso Road of Bangkok has been restored to its former glory after years of being left to suffer the vagaries of the weather.

Previously known as Baan Sao Ching Cha thanks to its proximity to the Giant Swing, the two-storey house has been renamed Baan Kanom Pang Khing – Gingerbread House in English – in a nod to its distinctive architectural style of intricate fretwork, pitched roof, overhanging eaves and louvred shutter windows that were popular in Thailand in the late 19th century among aristocrats and wealthy people as a symbol of high-ranking status.

The century-old, gingerbread-style wooden house Baan Kanom Pang Khing has been given a new lease of life as a cafe. 

Though it is far from being the sugar-coated gingerbread home that appears in such classic tales as Hansel and Gretel, the newly renovated house has a new purpose in life – an “olde worlde” cafe serving up drinks and sweet treats.

A former private residence albeit left deserted for several years, Baan Kanom Pang Khing is already welcoming plenty of visitors since its reopening last month. The house is one of a few surviving gingerbread-style architectural buildings in Bangkok to have been restored to its original grandeur.

Among Bangkok’s well-preserved gingerbread buildings are Phra Tamnak Petch (Diamond Hall) of Wat Bovoranives Vihara, the cluster of monk’s chambers at Wat Suan Plu, and the Golden Teak Museum inside Wat Devaraj Kunchorn Varavihara.

Thanpuying Petchara Techakumpuch, the private dentist of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, inherited the property in 1964 from her grandfather Khun Prasert Thabien (Khan) who built the house on a plot of 47-square-wah plot in 1913. Khun Prasert served as an official of the Agricultural Ministry in the reign of King Rama VI.

Thanpuying Petchara never lived in the house herself though she did allow the staff of her dental clinic, most of whom had come to Bangkok from the provinces, to stay there. Today Baan Kanom Pang Khing is owned by her daughter Thanachporn Cunaratana-angkul and her husband Wirat who decided to give it a new life by turning it into an appealing cafe after several months of rejuvenation.

The house’s distinctively intricate fretwork

“We want to preserve the family’s heritage and decided to restore the house to its original condition as far as possible and share its exquisitely carved woodwork that is rarely seen today with the public. Our aim is for Baan Kanom Pang Khing to become a cafe-cum-living museum where visitors can enjoy a good cup of |coffee with sweet treats and admire the distinctive architectural style that blends Western and Thai designs,” says Wirat, owner of the PC Dental Lab, which specialises in prosthetics.

The teak ceiling on the upper floor has been raised to give greater volume to the space.

Renovations began last year and took about four months to complete. The decayed parts of the roofs, |ceilings, walls and floors have been restored though not painted over to showcase their original wooden textures. Outside guttering and the water and electricity supply systems have been redesigned. The teak |ceilings of the open-air upper floor have been raised to give more volume to the space and allow fresh air to |circulate.

Some of the wooden fretwork above the windows was originally carved with letters of the Thai alphabets to read Khan – the common name of Khun Prasert Thabien – the house’s founder. This design is used as the cafe’s logo.

A part of downstairs is used for brewing coffee and displaying the desserts. 

The downstairs areas that were previously sectioned into different rooms have been made more open plan, allowing a space to house a coffee bar and seats. Air conditioning has been installed and the original veranda was removed to provide more seating. Antique furniture and several old photographs of the house are displayed.

Antique furniture and vintage-style ornaments recall the past ambience.

“It took time to find skilled artisans who know how to preserve the old woodwork. They told me that their children had no interest in this skill and opted for other occupations. After the renovations were completed, I also asked an architect to draw up plans of the house that will be beneficial in case of rebuilding or reassembling,” he adds.

The family crowds onto a veranda in a vintage snapshot. The veranda has since been removed.

According to Wirat, Baan Kanom Pang Khing underwent its first major renovation in 1990 on the orders of Dr Sith, the late husband of Thanpuying Petchara.

“It took about a year to complete and saw the house raised by some 30 centimetre and the foundations rebuilt with cement and an air passage beneath the floor to prevent humidity damaging the wood. Some of the decayed planks in the walls were replaced with new ones and visitors today can see the different shades of wood that symbolise their different ages.

An old photo of the house after its first major renovation in 1990.

“The windows were built in the style called baan kra thung (awning windows that are hinged on the top and open outward from the bottom, allowing for ventilation and protection from the rain). Dr Sith also renamed the house Baan Kanom Pang Khing and personally carved the wooden nameplate at the front of the house,” says Wirat.

The cafe serves drinks and desserts but no savoury dishes. It can accommodate about 40 people. Visitors can linger in the open-air upstairs gallery and admire the antique furniture or sit alfresco under the shade of a big mango tree that has been part of the garden since the house was built. The air-conditioned dining area downstairs provides limited seats.

Baan kra thung windows allow for ventilation and protection from the rain.

“I saw the attractive pictures of the house in social media and I was hooked by its charming wooden architecture that is rarely seen today,” says Siripapha Jitlamai, a visitor. “I admire the way the owners are trying to preserve the original grandeur and open it to the public. This is a hidden gem of Bangkok.”

Thai-style sweet treats are on offer.

While no gingerbread cookies are available here, visitors can sip coffee and tea while enjoying such traditional Thai desserts as bua loy (rice balls in sweet coconut milk and pandan leaf-infused coconut ice cream), chao guay (grass jelly with Thai tea ice cream topped with sweetened egg threads), and bael fruit cake. Vintage-style brassware and crystalware are used to recall the past dining ambience.

“We don’t provide savoury dishes that require cooking to avoid the risk of fire. There are a lot of eateries serving up good food in the area, so visitors can also stroll around to enjoy local tempting dishes,” adds Wirat.

COFFEE AND CULTURE

Baan Kanom Pang Khing is situated on an alley behind the Hindu Temple, next to the Giant Swing on Dinso Road of Bangkok.

It’s open daily, except Monday, from 11am to 8pm.

Call (097) 229 7021 or search for “@house2456” on Facebook page.

A NEW pair of wireless noise-cancelling headphones with high sound quality and powerful bass, Sony’s WH-1000XM3 cut more outside sound than ever before, allowing you to enjoy music without interruption even when you are in a noisy environment

The phones come with Adaptive Sound Control technology and a range of smart features including Quick Attention, Voice Assistant compatibility and touch control.

The 1000XM3 are designed to block out most noises with the earpads and use Sony’s new HD Noise-Cancelling Processor QN1 to further minimise the noise. A dedicated NC processor ensures the reproduction of your music is never compromised due to processor performance.

Most noise-cancelling headphones are designed to block out only vehicle noise when travelling. The 1000XM3 go a step further, blocking out daily audio nuisances like voices and the background sounds you might hear walking through a city.

The 1000XM3 use Sense Engine technology that automatically prompts Adaptive Sound Control to detect what you’re doing travelling, walking or waiting –then adjusts ambient sound settings to suit.

For example, when the Sense Engine detects that you are travelling, the Control feature will use the sound setting to block out background noise.

And when it detects you are walking, it will use a sound setting that alerts you to possible vehicles coming up behind you thus ensuring you stay safe.

And if the Sense Engine detects you are waiting, such as at an airport or railway station, it will adjust the sound setting to allow you to hear important announcements while reducing background noises.

The phones also have Quick Attention mode that lets you communicate without having to remove them. You simply place your hand over the right ear cup to turn the volume down for instant conversation.

When the headphones are turned on, the noise cancelling function is turned on automatically. There is a NC/Ambient button for turning on/off the noise cancelling function and for switching to the Ambient Sound Mode.

You can also change the settings of the noise cancelling function and the Ambient Sound Mode with the Sony Headphones Connect app.

During the test, I found that 1000XM3’s noise cancelling function was really effective. It blocked all the noise from my room’s air-conditioner. Even sounds from my TV didn’t interfere with my listening pleasure. And the Sense Engine technology, when checked through the Headphones Connect app, accurately detected that I was standing still while I was working at home. (I’ve changed to standing-style when working at home, using a notebook table over my desk).

The phones have sound quality thanks to a built-in amplifier integrated in HD Noise-Cancelling Processor QN1 and support Hi-Res Audio technology with a frequency response of 4 to 40,000 Hz and high sensitivity of 104.5 dB.

The headphones use 40-mm drivers with Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) diaphragms so the 1000XM3 is perfect for handling heavy beats and can reproduce a full range of frequencies up to 40 kHz.

The Hi-Res Audio quality means the phones can reproduce music sounds with 500-per-cent better sound quality than an audio CD when used with the provided headphone cable.

And when used with a provided cable, you can also turn on the noise-cancelling function.

Even when used as wireless headphones, the 1000XM3 allow you to enjoy high-quality music only slightly less than with full Hi-Res Audio quality because the headphones support LDAC Bluetooth transmission technology.

LDAC transmits approximately three times more data (at the maximum transfer rate of 990 kbps) than conventional Bluetooth wireless audio, so we can listen to High-Resolution Audio content with exceptional quality, as close as possible to that of a dedicated wired connection.

And when used with Bluetooth connection, you can use the Touch Sensor Control Panel on the right ear cup to control music playback. Simply double tap to play or pause the music, swipe forwards for the next track or backwards for the previous track or swipe up or down to increase or decrease the volume.

You also use the touch panel to receive an incoming call or hang up by double tapping.

During the test, I found that the 1000XM3 reproduced really high-quality music sounds with powerful bass and very good instrument details. I enjoyed using the Clear Bass sound mode of the headphones that can be selected with the Sony Headphones Connect app.

You can also use the app to customise the sound preference using an equaliser in addition to choosing from the preset settings.

The app is really useful as it reports the type of wireless connection with your smartphone and reports the battery level of the headphones.

The headphones have good battery life of some 30 hours per one full charge. And if you have a quick charger, you can get five hours of battery life from just 10 minutes of charging.

I found the 1000XM3 comfortable to wear for several hours, The super soft, pressure-relieving earpads in foam urethane evenly distribute pressure and increase ear pad contact for a stable fit. Comfort is further enhanced by a larger and deeper ergonomic ear space structure.

The 1000XM3 is designed for travellers with swivel foldable structure, allowing the ear cups to swivel inwards so that they pack up neatly in a compact case. A durable carrying case is supplied.

And it comes with a nice feature for plane travellers. Its unique Atmospheric Pressure Optimising delivers optimal sound at high altitude, so you can enjoy noise cancelling at its best when you fly.

Sony WH-1000XM3 has a suggested retail price of Bt13,990.

>> Headphone type: Closed, dynamic

>>  Wearing style: Circumaural

>> Driver unit: 44mm dome type (CCAW Voice coil)

>> Magnet: Neodymium

>> Diaphragm: Aluminium coated LCP

>> Frequency response: 4 Hz-40,000 Hz

>> Impedance: 47 ohm

>> Sensitivity: 104.5dB

>> Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.2; Supported audio formats: SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC

>> Battery: Approximately 30 hours of playback time; Approx 3 hours of charge time

>> What’s in rhe Box: Carrying Case, Plug Adapter for In-flight Use, Connection Cable, USB Cable

WHEN 71-YEAR-OLD YouTuber Park Mak-rye tried a fast-food restaurant’s self-ordering service for the first time, the challenging process took longer than anticipated.

Park first pushed the “order” button on the screen, then slowly read the menu’s tiny letters and scrolled down. As she struggled to find the bulgogi burger combo she wanted for lunch, the ordering session reached its time limit.

“What’s wrong with this machine?” Park shouted, saying she would never use the kiosk again.

A fast-food restaurant near Seoul City Hall has reduced the number of cashiers and installed selfordering machines. 

The eight-minute video titled “The Restaurant That Mak-Rye Can’t Go To” got 400,000 views on YouTube in one month, garnering 2,000 comments that mostly criticised the machine for being difficult to use.

Self-ordering kiosks have been spreading across the country, especially after the minimum-wage hike hit hard in 2019.

According to a survey by the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise in December, one in five workplaces had cut staff because of the wage hike. Some had since installed self-ordering kiosks instead.

“Demand for the machines has been increasing since we started the business in 2011, but orders have exploded since December, which seems to be related to the minimum-wage hike,” said Ahn Ho-seong of Payself, a kiosk manufacturer.

Restaurant and cafe owners are the main customers, but hospitals, cyber cafes and study centres also deploy the machines to save on labour costs.

McDonald’s had the machines at 250 of its 420 stores by January 1. “McDonald’s has deployed the self-ordering kiosks since 2016, as part of efforts to change restaurants into ‘futuristic stores’ and offer better service by reducing waiting time during busy hours,” said a PR manager from McDonald’s Korea.

The fast-food chain said the self-ordering machines have a magnifier function and display adjustment for customers who struggle with placing orders.

Many elderly customers, however, were seen having difficulties at the restaurants.

“I’ve been trying to buy a burger combo, but it’s not as easy as it seems,” Chang Soo-young, 81, said at a restaurant near Seoul City Hall.

“I can’t read the small letters very well, and it’s hard to find the burger combo I want. It’d be much simpler and faster if I just ordered it through a cashier.”

Another senior customer at a fast-food restaurant at Seoul Station said his heart beat faster while he ordered his coffee.

“The process is complicated and people are waiting behind me in a long line, but I can’t find where to put my credit card. All these things just freak me out,” he said.

A message on the screen informs customers that ordering via a cashier is not possible at the moment. 

“It’s kind of sad to think the world is changing very fast and I’m left behind. It’s frustrating, and it hurts my pride.”

The customers also need to check a monitor to see when their orders are ready. In November, a man in his 40s threw a burger in a cashier’s face, upset about the food coming late. The cashier said the order number was displayed on the monitor, but the customer argued he couldn’t see it.

Senior customers’ struggles sometimes impact store operations as well.

“We installed the machines to reduce labour costs, but ironically I had to hire more part-time workers to help elderly customers use the machines,” said the owner of an eatery.

Elderly customers account for 20 per cent of sales, he said.

“About 90 per cent of elderly customers walk straight to the counter, throw 1,000 won at the staff and say, ‘Just give me a cup of black coffee.’ Many of them know the kiosk is there, but they often say they failed to order correctly at fast-food restaurants.”

Repeated failure at using the hi-tech ordering service can impair people’s self-reliance and trigger depression, an expert said.

“The feeling of being left behind can make old people feel depressed and degrade the quality of their lives,” said Chung Soon-dool, a social-welfare professor at Ewha Womans University.

“It also can make old people believe that the world is changing in favour of young people, which can lead to generational conflicts.”

To solve the problem, the professor stressed the importance of educating seniors to help them adapt to new tech.

“A little help from the staff, such as letting them order in an analog way, would be needed sometimes while they get used to the technology.”

On her way back home, the elderly YouTuber Park gave her friend a few tips for using the self-ordering system.

“You should bring your reading glasses, a chair in case you can’t reach the top of the screen and a credit card because the machine doesn’t take cash!”

IF YOU’RE hankering for a smartphone with a camera that allows you to take beautiful shots with bokeh effect as well as wide-angle panorama shots but won’t leave your bank account in the red, then the Samsung Galaxy A7 is the device for you.

And the A7 is also fast for its price range as it is powered by a fast octa-core processor and also boasts a decent size memory.

The A7 is powered by Samsung Exynos 7885 with four cores running at 2.2 GHz and four others at 1.6 GHz. It comes with 4 gigabytes of working memory or RAM and 64 GB internal storage, which is expandable with a microSD card.

The phone also has dual nano-SIM slots and another microSD slot so you can use two SIMs and can still add up to 512GB of extra storage.

The A7 performed well during the test, the touchscreen and menus were responsive and apps ran fast.

It comes with a fast Internet connection too. I used Ookla Speedtest app to measure the connection speed and I found that it achieved download speed of 47.1 Mbps and upload speed of 27.7 Mbps.

The A7 is powerful enough for running two apps at once by diving the top and bottom parts of the display when the App Pair function is activated. The App pair is available only for certain supported apps.

Moreover, the A7 is capable of playing High-Resolution Audio files. I tested it with Sony’s MDR-1ABT Hi-Res Audio headphones and the music played with good sound quality and powerful bass.

And the A7 also comes with a beautiful 6-inch Super AMOLED display with 2,220 x 1080 or FHD+ resolution. The display is good for watching HD movies and viewing photos. I enjoyed using it to watch movies from TrueID TV app.

The A7 sounds good when watching movies thanks to its Dolby Atmos function that, when used with headphones, can create and playback multi-channel soundtracks for a fully immersive and home cinema sound experience.

But the highlight of the A7 is its triple rear camera system that’s made up of a 24-megapixel main camera with fast f/1.7 aperture, an 8 MP wide-angle camera that uses an ultra wide angle lens with 120-degree field of view and a 5MP depth camera for the data used in creating bokeh or blurred background effect. The wide-angle camera has f/2.4 aperture lens while the depth camera uses a f/2.2 aperture lens.

The ultra-wide angle camera has both 77-degree and 120-degree field of view so it allows you to capture more of what catches your eyes.

When in Auto and Scene Optimiser modes, there is a button for witching between ultra wide camera and the main camera.

The Scene Optimiser mode uses AI to automatically adjust saturation, white balance and brightness levels. It has 19 customisation modes to capture natural-looking images, among them Bird, Food, City Street, Water side, Mountain, Nightview, Animal, Tree, Sky, Flower, Scenery, and Waterfall.

If you want to capture outstanding subjects with blurred background, you must use the Live Focus mode, which has a slide bar for you to adjust the level of blurriness of the background of your shots.

I found during the test that the main camera captured beautiful shots, especially when the Scene Optimiser mode was used and the Live Focus was really effective for capturing beautiful shots with bokeh effect.

The A7 is an attractive beast too, with a colourful body and premium glass-like back casing. The colour one I tested looked really sleek.

For security, the A7 comes with a fingerprint reader embedded on its power button. I found it finger print worked efficiently for unlocking the phone.

The A7 also has Face Recognition technology for unlocking the phone instantly and fast.

The A7 has a large battery of 3,300 mAh capacity that can comfortably survive a full day and play up to 48 hours of music.

Samsung Galaxy A7 with 4 GB RAM and 64GB storage retails for Bt8,990. The version with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage retails for Bt11,990.

>> Network: GSM/ HSPA / LTE

>> OS: Android 8.0

>> CPU: Samsung Exynos 7885 octa-core processor 2.2GHz, 1.6GHz

>> Memory 4GB RAM

>> Storage: 64GB, expandable with microSD card by up to 512GB

>> Display: 6-inch Super AMOLED display witth 2,220×1,080 pixels

>> Cameras: Rear: 24MP main camera with f/1.7 lens, 8.0MP wide-angle camera with f/2.4 lens, 5.0MP depth camera with f/2.2 lens; Front: 24MP with f/2.0 lens

>> Connectivity: ANI+, micro USB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi 802.11a, Bluetooth 5.0

>> Location: GPS, Glonass, Beidou

>> Sensors: Accelerometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor

>> Battery: 3,300 mAh

>> Dimensions: 59.8 x 76.8 x 7.5mm

>> Weight: 168g

AMSTERDAM’S RIJKSMUSEUM unveiled on Wednesday the first-ever exhibition of all of its Rembrandts, marking the 350th anniversary of the death of the prolific painter it dubs the “first Instagrammer”.

The landmark exhibition featuring nearly 400 paintings, drawings and sketches aims to show how the Golden Age master’s compulsive self-portraits and renderings of the world around him prefigure our modern world.

“Rembrandt was the first artist in history – the first ‘Instagrammer’, one could even say – to really capture the world around him,” says Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits.

“Self-portrait” is one of many the artist did throughout his life, and you can now see them all at once. 

“No artist made as many self-portraits as Rembrandt. He painted his family, he drew his friends, he went out into the streets, the countryside, and he even let us enter his own bedroom to where his sick wife was stretched out.”

The exhibition will be a final chance to glimpse his masterpiece “The Night Watch” before the huge tableau is obscured by months of restoration work from July. But it is also a rare opportunity to see lesser works by Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-1669).

“For the first time in history the Rijksmuseum is showing every Rembrandt we own – 22 paintings, 300 sketches, 60 drawings,” says Dibbits.

Many of those are normally kept from the public because they are so fragile three centuries after their creation.

On the occasion of the Year of Rembrandt which marks the 350th anniversary of his death, the Rijksmusuem is showing for the first time all of the paintings, drawing from its own collection. 

“Light makes the drawings fade, so we almost never show them. An exhibition like this only happens once in a generation.”

Many visitors will simply relish the chance to admire the museum’s entire Rembrandt collection, including the self-portraits that follow him from fresh-faced man-about-town to dimly lit, grizzled artist struggling with age and money problems.

But curators also hope the extensive collection will make them reflect on the social media-obsessed age.

“If I use words like ‘selfie’ and ‘Instagram’, it’s because Rembrandt fashioned the way we look at the world and the way we take photographs,” the museum director says.

“Without Rembrandt, we would still be painting or trying to paint pictures of gods and goddesses and scenes from antiquity. What he did was to make these extraordinary stories ordinary – and make our ordinary lives extraordinary.”

The famous coffee brand is launching two new Limited Edition coffees, Cafe Istanbul and Caffe Venezia, that are inspired by the world’s very first coffeehouses and aim to bring the vibrant and bustling atmosphere directly to modern homes.

Istanbul has always been the entry point from Asia to Europe. A melting pot of colliding cultures, flavours tastes and ideas. With no printing press, Istanbul’s coffeehouse was seen as the mouthpiece of the city, where wild and rich theories were challenged, with coffee as the natural elixir.

Venice has always been the creative gateway to Europe. Home for the arts, music and experimentation, which often made the coffeehouses the tastemakers. This fusion of cultures and expressions made the coffeehouses wild, complex and elegance places.

Follow the footsteps of the past and enter the birthplace of the coffeehouses in Istanbul with Cafe Istanbul. With its intense, black and oriental notes, Cafe Istanbul will inspire any black coffee lover taking them directly into the heart of the wild and bustling atmosphere of that time.

Caffe Venezia, with its elegant and delicate profile, is the perfect muse and inspiration in a cup. Journey to Venice and enjoy a short get away to the home for arts and music.

To fully immerse in a lively blend of history, the artist Young Rascal illustrates the first coffeehouses and merged today’s drinkers in yesterday’s world.

Nespresso also introduces two new recipes.

“Cappuccino Oriental” is inspired by the modern Turkish coffee culture and old elements of spiced coffee (cinnamon, cardamom or clove) “Cardamon Espresso” is inspired by old Arabica coffee preparation.