Action! Adventure! Quilting!

My mouth is on fire and my belly is full of som tam and cha yen (spicy papaya salad & Thai iced tea). Pok Pok Noi, a satellite branch of the wildly popular Thai restaurant Pok Pok, has opened up just a 15 min. walk down the street from my apartment. Oh man, it's good stuff! It's about 10 times more expensive than the same food would be in Thailand... but I must admit there's also 100% fewer cockroaches. It was so nice to sit at a table on the sidewalk with my mouth quietly burning as tinny strains of Thai country music poured out from the window beside me. Good times.

Oh, it's nice to be home, and it's nice to have that little taste of nostalgia right up the street, but man my life has been a bit low on action and adventure lately. It's been an ongoing cycle of studying, work, studying, class, studying, laundry, studying, and sleep, occasionally interrupted by an awkward date with an unsuitable gentleman. Livin' la vida aburrida baby!

BUT! That's all about to change. It's summer! Well, it's almost summer, and I've got plans. I decided not to take Spanish 202 this summer, and to just pick it up again in the fall. The up side of this will be a nice long vacation from conjugations, indirect object pronouns and wondering if the table is masculine or feminine. The downside of course will be that when I start classes again I will not remember anything about conjugations, indirect object pronouns, or whether the table is masculine or feminine.

To combat this summer brain-drain I thought I might try to find a Spanish conversation group to meet up with. But last week, an even better opportunity arose. The brother of one of the Spanish teachers at my college came to our class and gave a presentation about Costa Rica... he has a tour agency and organizes educational/cultural tours of Costa Rica for students every year. They stay a few days with local families, spend a day river rafting, take Spanish classes, explore the rain-forest, and visit an indigenous community. Oh yeah... and they spend about half the trip in little cabanas a short walk from white sand beaches on the Caribbean Sea!

I think it took me about 12 seconds to decide that I was going to go. Really all I did was flip through the packet he'd handed out until I found the price, confirmed that it wouldn't put me in debt, then spent the rest of his presentation imagining myself beach-side with an umbrella drink in hand. Yeah. I'm going to Costa Rica this summer. Pura Vida Baby!

I've made peace with the fact that I'm never going to save enough money to be able to buy a house. Travel is a priority in my life and as long as I'm not putting myself in debt to do it, that's what I'll be spending my money on. w00t!

In other news, now that my class is wrapping up, I've started quilting again. Expect a quilting post shortly.

Yay summer!!!

Grandma's Peach Cobbler.... sort of

I was blessed to have grown up with a southern Grandma. She was, as is required by South Carolina's state law, an amazing cook. Biscuits and gravy, fried okra, and oh sweet lord - Peach Cobbler.* The peaches she could get were as big as my head, perfectly ripe, soft and so flavorful, they were just heavenly. My mom also made a mean peach cobbler, but living in NJ, then CA meant we never quite got the same flavor as grandma did. Nevertheless, this peach cobbler beats anything you'll find in a restaurant hands down!

When I moved out on my own, this was one recipe I made sure to write down. In fact I wrote it down in this cutesy little journal my mom had given me that ended up being the repository for all my family recipes and little bits of advice to myself as I negotiated the challenges of living on my own. I even pasted a picture of my 'dream home' in the back. It was that kind of journal.

Anyway this is one of the things that counted as a precious possessions when I left for Thailand and I was sure to save it. Unfortunately I didn't write down specifically where I packed it and haven't been able to locate it. =(Never fear! My sister is also a fan of grandma's peach cobbler and had written down a copy of the recipe and sent it to me in a care package at some point. So when a friend brought over a box of peaches the other day, I knew what I had to do.


The problem was... my sister had taken a few liberties with the recipe (replacing the batter with a bisquick batter & cutting down the butter a bit) and while I noticed it was different... I couldn't remember the exact recipe I'd gotten from my mom. Anyway... regardless of the specific measurements, the secret is in the method of preparation.

You start with three bowls, the fruit the batter and the BUTTAH!
The fruit: 3 cups of peaches (the better your peaches, the better this will be) & 1/2 cup of sugar mix them up by hand. I squirted a tiny bit of lemon juice on the, only because these peaches are good, but not superior and I wanted to bump up the flavor a bit.

The batter: my sister calls for a cup of bisquick 1/2 cup of sugar and "enough milk to make it the right consistency." I was chatting with her** while baking & she described it as "thinner than a biscuit dough, but thicker than pancake batter... about like waffle batter". I didn't have bisquick, so I used a cup of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder & about 3/4 cup of milk.


The butter: Again... a difference between her recipe and grandma's... she said 1/2 a stick of butter, but I am SURE my grandma's recipe called for a full stick of butter to be melted in the casserole dish as the oven preheats (350F). I compromised and used about 2/3 of a stick.


Now what you do is wait until the butter gets all melty and bubbly and wonderful, then you POUR THE BATTER INTO THE BUTTER, and *then* you pour the fruit into the batter. DO.NOT. STIR. This is the critical part. I have seen cobblers where they put the fruit in the bottom, then put little rounds of biscuits on top. It makes me want to cry. That's not cobbler!! WTF?Because what happens is you put it in the oven for about 45 mins, and the batter will bubble up through the fruit and get all fruity & wonderful on the inside, and fry up in the butter on the outside and get all crispy brown and coated with awesomeness. When you take it out of the oven, it will be all kinds of bubbly and juicy... spoon some of the juices/butter up over the doughy parts while it's still warm.

I swear to you, having cobbler this way will change your life! Ok... or maybe it will just make you make a lot of intense yummy noises.


You can eat this pure (it's best a little warm, but good cooled off too), but naturally adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream or fresh whip cream will just take it over the top. I have had this peach cobbler for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and am pretty sure this is what heaven tastes like.

This cobbler also has magical powers. Or perhaps it was Grandma looking down on me and giving me a helping hand. But while the cobbler was in the oven I hunted through my boxes of books and on my second time through one of the boxes I *finally* found the book with all my recipes in it. =) So here is the actual recipe from my grandma... and the explanation for why my sister wrote it down 'wrong'... she was halving the recipe.

6 cups sliced peaches
1 1/2 cups sugar (in a bowl, set aside)

1 1/2 sticks of butter (melt in a casserole dish)

batter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups milk

Put the batter in the butter, put the fruit in the batter, do not stir. Bake at 350 for 45 min.




*In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that she died of a heart attack, but the way I see it, life without peach cobbler wouldn't be much a life I'd want to live anyway. =P

**castigating her vehemently for taking liberties with Grandma's recipe.

Happy Thanksgiving

YUM!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays (the other being Independence Day), and I'm super excited to get to celebrate it in the US, and with a family I used to do Thanksgiving with back in college. It's not home, but it's the next best (or possibly better) thing. =)

And I'm baking! Despite my Sunset Breads cookbook being locked safely in a friend's basement, I decided to make challah. I summoned the gods of the internets (posted on a forum) and aquired the measurements for the ingredients & baking temp/time. I mean, I know how to make this bread...just wasn't sure of the numbers.

Then, last night as I was going through some of my old pictures I found this one:

And I cracked up, because even though I'm making onion bread (and presumably my roasted veggie-basil soup) in this picture, the cookbook is open to the challah page. =) And thanks to the obscenely high level of resolution on the camera I had at the time, I was actually able to enlarge it enough to read the recipe.

THIS! This, my friends, is why I support the photo-documentation of all cooking / baking endeavors. Because one day, you may be recently returned from overseas adventure, miles away from your favorite cookbook and need (yes NEED) to make your favorite dish.

At this moment I'm hanging out at Starbucks as my challah dough goes through it's first rise*. Let me tell you, I haven't mixed dough by hand in a good long time, and I miss Betty dearly. But I am extremely thankful for the strength in my arms, digital photography, the best laptop a girl could ask for, a well stocked kitchen, a loving (and endulgent) friend to stay with, and a 100% American Thanksgiving meal in my forseeable future!

I am also thankful for all my cyber-friends who have supported me this past year (or longer!), and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving filled with both kinds of stuffing & plenty of gravy on top. =)


*well, I decided to start it with a sponge this morning which I let rise as I showered / got ready, but this is it's first *official* rise with all the proper ingredients mixed in. I'm not sure this recipe is meant to be started with a sponge, so encorporating the eggs, oil & remaining flour was a bit tricky.... and sticky.... and very very messy!


**Edited to add a picture of the little challah I made. This was consumed in about 4.7 seconds by the two of us. This was like a sacrificial challah to keep us away from the big challah I made for tomorrow. =P

I'm not dead.

I'm still in the Bay Area but will be heading up to Salem tonight. My social life has experienced something of an explosion while here. I met up with Bobby who is living in SF now - we went on an epic quest to find this particular Mexican restaurant but alas, it was closed. But we had Indian food instead and it was yummy. I also met up with two friends from High School and had fun drinking a few beers with them... since we were all such good kids and never drank together back in the day. Mostly I've been hanging out in J's apartment, eating cheese and looking for jobs on craigslist. No responses yet... cross your fingers.

One thing I was able to accomplish here was to recover pictures from my camera's corrupted memory card. Yay! So here are pictures of Vietnam:


I met up with Jonathan & we went for beers at 'beer corner'.
Then to a cafe in downtown. Look ma - I'm in a communist country!

How to cross the street in Hanoi: close your eyes, start walking and hope for the best.


I went to the Temple of Literature which was surprisingly peaceful. I was expecting books.There were no books.


Jonathan took me to a concert at the Opera House which was fabulous, and to Indian food, which was... architecturally inspiring. Ha Long Bay was beautiful.

"Beautiful" and "Enjoyable" are different.


So yeah, I'm heading up to Salem now for Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure that I've gained back about 10 lbs this week. J. keeps telling me I was standing on the scale wrong the first day I weighed myself, but I think she's just being kind. At this rate I'll be back to pre-Thailand weight by the time I get back to Portland. Which is not too terrible, because then at least all my warm clothes will fit. =P

Cooking with gas!

I'm starting to feel human again, getting over my cold and the crappy stuff that happened towards the end of my time in Rayong. So I decided to venture out and take a cooking course. It was a good decision.

There were five of us... a newlywed couple from Germany, a Canadian couple a year out of college and on their way to a year in New Zealand for a working holiday.... and you know, me... myself.... alone... khun deo. But really it was okay, the other couples were very friendly and we had fun chatting. It's kind of cool to be doing the travel bit after my year of working because when we get around to the whole "How long have you been in Thailand?" game, I always have the trump card.

And after a year of trying to fit into the Thai culture, it's fun to be a genuine tourist here. Since there are soooo many tourists here I have no problem whipping out my camera and snapping pictures of anything that's "weird."

For example, all kinds of random stuff at the market, where my cooking class started.



The instructor, "Miss Bitch" as her t-shirt proudly announced, told us a bit about the different Thai ingredients, then let us wander around while she did the actual shopping.






Back at the school we started on breakfast - for me Pad Thai. All the ingredients were set out for us, all we really had to do was mix this and that and do the stir-frying. It's definitely more for fun than for actually learning how to cook... but that was fine with me.





After Pad Thai came the appetizers, Spring Rolls for me, and Som Tam (papaya salad) for two of the other students.



Miss Bitch had quite an entertaining teaching technique: "Crush the garlic like your ex-lover", swirling the egg in the wok for the pad thai: "swirl the egg, swirl the egg, swirl your hips - sexy sexy sexy!" and admonishing the guys not to use the toilet after touching peppers to avoid getting chili willies "I cannot help you with that!" It was a routine, but it was still really funny.






Next I made Tom Yam Gung, a very popular sour coconut shrimp soup. It starts with coconut milk, lemon grass, chili paste, keffir lime leaves and... something else I've already forgotten. =( We only add the shrimp at the end, and don't stir because it makes it taste too fishy, according to Miss Bitch.





For the main course I learned to make both stir fried chicken with cashew nuts and yellow curry. Although she demonstrated making the curry paste from scratch with a mortar and pestle ("now treat it like your new lover - harder! faster! harder! faster!") she told us that even most Thai families buy their curry paste at the market...it's cheaper than buying the ingredients separately.






Both of these dishes were absolutely delicious, and I cannot wait to try them at home. After each dish we stopped and ate, and napped.... it was a LOT of food for one day.




And when we were more bloated than could possibly be imagined, we made dessert! I chose mango with sticky rice, which I think could be well adapted to peaches depending on your climate.






Yum!


I started feeling relatively comfortable with the wok, and we got a recipe book at the end, so in theory I should be able to make all these wonderful dishes at home.

You know, at that time in the undetermined future when I actually *have* a home again!





TAG: Code Sweet Chili Sauce

Sort of beefy

There's a scene in Doctor Who when the Doctor takes Rose and a tag-along (can't remember his name, not Ricky) well into the future. While there, Rose stops for a snack - a beverage of sorts that she sips with a straw. When asked how it tastes she replies with an amused smile "Sort of beefy." The tag-along was suitably disgusted, but Rose just laughed.*

And Rose's attitude is exactly what you need when you travel. I like beef. I like shakes. Beef-shake? Why not? So I channeled the spirit of the Bad Wolf herself when I saw these bad boys.



Chicken curry donuts. Yup... CHICKEN.... CURRY..... DONUTS!

They taste about as you'd expect, very sweet and donuty on the outside, mildly spicy chicken curry filling on the inside. And actually, they're pretty good. This is the second time I've gotten them.

I think the trick to eating in Thailand is to avoid the uncanny-valley of foods. If it's traditional Thai food it's good. If it's radically weird food like chicken curry donuts, you can judge it on it's own merits... having no preconceived notion of what a 'good' chicken curry donut would be. It's when Thailand tries to do Western food that you get problems!


TAG: Code Watermelon

*I'll bet Rose stopped laughing when the beef-shake hit her intestinal track!

Oishi!

Last night I went over to Jeb & Gum's place for dinner. The Japanese teacher (let's call her Wasabi- she has quite a spicy side) from Jeb's other school wanted to learn to cook, so she and I both hung out in the kitchen with Gum.



I'm not sure I actually learned how to cook anything. Mostly I did a lot of chopping of herbs. I tried to jot down some notes about how to cook everything but that was futile. For the Panang Curry my notes say "oil, prik-gang panang, fry chili paste, add coconut milk, thicken, add beef - cook, add coconut milk, add basil leaves - pork soup flavoring, brown sugar, salt-kem, ahjinimoto (a Japanese seasoning of some sort), brown sugar, mancoot leaves, sweet peppers"... I have a feeling that's not quite going to get the job done when I get home. =P


Gum was just doing what most cooks do in the kitchen. Throw in a bit of this and that, taste, a little more of this... there's no recipe, no measuring cups, she just knows how to do it. I'm more of a baker than a cook, but I'll do some experimenting when I get home.


I will say that I was AMAZED by her ability to make a Thai feast using a fairly modest amount of counter space and one electric wok. She even timed it out well, first chop all the ingredients, then cook the meat for the pork salad (moo yam) and let it cool before starting the curry. Mix together the ingredients for the omelet (kai jeaow) while the curry is cooking. Plate the curry & start the omelet, then mix together the salad. It took a few minutes to get everything on the table.. but it was well worth the wait.

The reason men come to Thailand.

We had a lot of fun, it was so hilarious... three girls with three different native languages all cooking together. Through the basic Thanglish being used, I learned the Thai words for "salty" "sweet" and "garbage" and was pleased that I could understand when Wasabi kept saying "I'm hungry, I want to eat!!!". My favorite expression of the evening (and new diet motto) was something Gum kept saying ... I'll never get it right but something like "Gin gadai, you die, gin mai di."- "Eat whatever, when you're dead - you can't eat." My second favorite expression of the evening was "Oishi" (Japanese for 'delicious') which we all exclaimed repeatedly.

kai jeaow goong

I had intended to get a nice picture of the table all set, but completely forgot in my eagerness to start chowing down. There were six of us (the boys, naturally, stayed upstairs drinking while the girls cooked) and the meal was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Oishi!

TAG: Code Sweet Chili Sauce

See Food Diet

Yeah, the whole weight loss portion of this adventure is long over. =( Mai bpen lai.


Today a couple of the other teachers and I went to the petroleum plant to evaluate students for placement in upcoming classes. The plant is the biggest customer for my school, so this was a bit of a big deal (dress nicely, be friendly, look American, etc etc.) The downside was having to get to work by 8:30am like a normal person (I haven't had a morning class in a while). But the upside was that a few former students of one of the other teachers invited us out to lunch. And lunch was at restaurant on the beach!


This particular restaurant had regular tables and picnic benches, as opposed to the lounge chairs and low tables prevalent at the beach I normally visit. So we didn't feel entirely out of place sitting there in our work clothes. It was still, um... rustic*. There was sand beneath our feet and a nice cool breeze blowing in from the ocean. The tide was out pretty far, with a few shimmers of water left on the sand, and a fishing boat resting in the shallows. There were birds hoping around on the shore picking at the sand crabs, and of course the restaurant dog wandering around nudging me in the back in hopes of a treat. People, I could not make this stuff up if I tried... it was just so perfectly what a beach-side restaurant should be.


The students had ordered by phone before we got there so as soon as we were seated, plates started appearing. First off, there was a good sized whole fish split down the middle, breaded, fried and coated in a very sweet fishy sauce - delicious! This was served with a green-papaya and lime salad (sour to counter the sweet - Thai cuisine is all about balance). Next out was a platter of shrimp, or possibly prawns (I'm not sure what the difference is). They were HUGE and cooked whole. So yes, more shrimp eyes looking at me while I was eating. This time however, we snapped off the heads and peeled the shells off before eating them. Another plate was covered in ...scallops maybe? I'm not sure what they were, flat white shells (not like clams) and a very soft meat inside, it was absolutely doused in garlicky herb butter or oil, so they were mighty tasty. Sea-snails covered yet another platter. Crab curry and seafood fried rice rounded things out a bit. Then two or three whole boiled crabs arrived in a basin with the appropriate Thai utensils - a hockey-puck shaped piece of wood on which to place a portion of the crab, and a decently sized stick to whack it open with.


What you need to respect about this meal is it's authenticity. While it's kind of a pain to crack through all those shells, there was no question of exactly what I was eating, and it's origin was no mystery. Those critters were swimming around in the ocean last night .... that ocean - right there... the one I could walk out to and dip my toes in if I were so inclined. You can't eat more local than this! Needless to say, it was all delicious.


I used to think I didn't like fish or seafood, but it turns out I just didn't like it the way my mom cooked it. Rayong is rocking my little taste buds. I even tried the sea-snails, using a toothpick to stick and twist and pull the little snail out. They were not my favorite, but as far as snails go... not bad.


With that much food, you would have expected a whole crowd of people but it was just four students and three of us teachers. Nevertheless we did the meal justice. One of the guys was the designated crab basher and after cracking & shelling the crab would hand out bits of leg or body to us, and one of the gals beheaded & peeled a good number of shrimp for us before she started chowing down herself. Our hosts defined hospitality, filling our glasses with water & Pepsi and making sure we were well stuffed. They even explained the purpose of the bowls of lime-water placed at each end of the table (to remove the fish-odor from our hands), and we had a good laugh about how one of them had been served a glass of water with a slice of lemon in it when she traveled to Australia and wasn't sure if she should try to stick her hands in it or drink it.


Stuffed, and leaving a humongous pile of shells in our wake, we waddled out and as we exited we noticed the little tanks of water in front of the restaurant. Oh - there's the fish we just ate, and there are the prawns, and the crab! They were all just hanging out in the aerated pools ignorant to the fact that they were moments from fulfilling their culinary destiny.


Now, I know and respect a lot of vegetarians, and there is a part of me that recognizes the cruelty in killing animals for food. But on the other hand, that's life. Pretty much every living thing on this planet is meant to be food for something else, and as I learned reading Down Under, more than a few of these would be delighted to chow down on a person if they had the chance. Having accepted that, I have to say I'd rather eat an animal that got to live comfortably in it's natural environment up until shortly before mealtime than one that was born and raised as food, living it's short life in unnaturally constricted conditions and finally being packaged, frozen and shipped thousands of miles before ending up on my plate. This is really something I'm going to take home with me. I don't want to be a part of the industrial food complex anymore. It's scary, immoral, and unhealthy to boot. But I'm not going to worry about that at the moment. I'm just going to enjoy the food here while I can.


Yesterday I made it out to the mall and bought camera #3. This one is a Kodak Easy Share C913, and virtually identical in design to the first digital camera I had (and loved). It's amazingly user-friendly and I already know how to use like 90% of the features, so that makes me a happy camper. And yes... I shoulda/woulda/coulda taken the camera to the beach today but I didn't know we'd be having a photo-worthy outing. You'll just have to take my word for how awesome it was.


TAG: Code Mango













* and by rustic I mean, there's no way in hell it would pass health inspection in the States

The air is full of spices...

and then some.

I am a huge fan of the movie Sense & Sensibility (the Ang Lee / Emma Thompson version). In the movie, when we first meet Colonel Brandon, Sir John announces "We served in the East Indies together..." to which budding adventurer Margaret Dashwood eagerly asks "Have you really been to the East Indies? What's it like?" Sir John the Spoilsport replies "I'll tell you what it's like - HOT." but Colonel Brandon satisfies Margaret's romantic ideals by whispering "The air is full of spices."


I have no idea where exactly the East Indies are, but I'm pretty sure they're around here somewhere (to be fair, any time a European explorer got more than 1,000 miles from home he invariably thought he was in India). But I can say that I know exactly what Colonel Brandon was referring to.


Often when sitting at the Dive eating lunch, the wind will gust just right and blow in the fumes from the kitchen area. The super heated capsaicin from someone's spicy stir fry takes flight and heads right for us, and whoooo nelly! I imagine it's a bit like being hit with pepper-spray. Our eyes, noses, mouths and lungs are instantly stung with it and much coughing and waving and gulping of water ensues. It's not a romantic sight I can assure you.


Then of course, there's the durian. Lordy lordy lordy, the durian. I very narrowly avoided being fed durian again today at lunch. But I was subject to it's pungent perfume for the rest of the afternoon. Ugh. It's been explained to me that there are many different kinds of durian, of different flavors and intensities, and since Rayong produces a ton of it I really try not to insult it. Instead I just comment that it has a very strong flavor/odor. I've found that a good comparison is cheese - most Thai people don't like even the mildest of cheeses and would surely be repulsed by the stinkier of French cheeses. But I tell them how much I like it, and we generally agree that some things are just acquired tastes.


Of course then they ask me questions about cheese and I tell them about Cheddar and Gouda and Chevre and Havarti ... and then I start to cry. Honestly, the other day I was watching an ad for a company that gives tours of the Great Barrier Reef. There were stunning pictures of coral and fish... action shots of people snorkeling and diving. Then they mentioned lunch on the boat and when they panned across a buffet table showing a sizable platter of assorted cheeses I actually gasped aloud and got misty eyed. I'm having problems here people.


Sorry... what were we talking about? Oh yeah... the air is full of spices... and durian... and mosquitoes.... but no cheese. Don't you wish you were here?


TAG: Code Sticky Rice

How many eyeballs have you eaten today?

After 10 months in Thailand I've finally developed a taste for Som Tam, spicy papaya salad. They make it with peanuts and can actually make for a nice light meal, not just a side dish. I had it for lunch yesterday on the beach, and today for dinner.

But what are those little orange things?

They're shrimp. Teeny tiny little shrimp. And what are the little black spots on the shrimp?

Eyeballs.

Yup... teeeeeeny tiny shrimp eyeballs.

I'm eating eyeballs.

It's possible I've been in Thailand too long.




TAG: Code Sweet Chili Sauce

Ethnic Foods

The other day I ran into Donny (my half Swiss, half Filipino friend who's lived in Thailand most of his life) at Tesco. He was buying socks, and I was buying some food. We chatted and fell into step with each other as we continued shopping.





Donny "So what else do you need?"



Rebel "Soup."

Donny "Soup? Like noodles? Over here." He steered us down the ramen aisle. More packets of noodles than I'd ever seen in one place in the US. A good 1/5th of the aisle was just devoted to cup-o-soup type noodles, pork, chicken, shrimp, squid, spicy, super spicy, nuclear spicy, Thai style, Japanese style, Korean style.





Rebel "No, soup, like soup." I said and steered us back to the ethnic foods aisle. Or rather the aisle of miscellaneous canned goods of which about 2 feet of shelf space are devoted to western foods. I scanned down past the peanut butter and spam, past the mayonaise and nutella and found what I was looking for on the second to bottom shelf. Considering briefly the four varieties of Campbells Soup available, I picked up a couple of cans of Chicken and Vegetable soup and placed them in my basket.





Donny bewildered... "You really eat that stuff?"

My kitchen

TAG: Code Sticky Rice

Not my farang

Remember when all I would ever write about were my adventures in trying to feed myself? Well I seem to have mastered that skill, and have a few extra kilos on my frame to show for it. Apparently my dramatic weight loss was not meant to last. Mai bpen lai!

The Dive - it looks nasty, but the food is delicious.

My most recent favorite dish here has been moo tot kratiem - pork fried with garlic. OMG - yum! There's just a ton of crunchy garlic in each plateful, but it's not excessively strong. I think the frying helps mellow out the flavor. I'm not sure what else they use to cook the pork, but it is mighty tasty. Before I leave here, I'm going to have to work up the courage to ask them how they make it because I cannot go home without being able to make this dish.

No Thai table is complete without a roll of toilet paper and a jar of toothpicks. Classy!

However, after eating moo tot kratiem day after day after day after day, it began to occur to me that I might want to eat a few veggies once in a while. Thus far the only veggie-rich dish I've been able to order has been pad pak loom (stir fried veggies with...pork, chicken, whatever). It's pretty tasty and the kind of thing most food shops can make. But it's often pretty heavy on the tomatoes and baby corn. I'm just not a fan of cooked tomatoes or baby corn. Not eating half the veggies in my 'stir fried veggies' kinda defeated the purpose of me ordering it, so lately I've been ordering fried rice and hoping for a lot of cabbage and carrots.

Recently I talked to a student about my dilemma (I love having pre-intermediate / intermediate students for a change!). She gave me the name of another vegetable to order - pak boon (morning glory in English), but my pronunciation was so bad that she recommended another one - broccoli. Amazingly the word is the same in Thai and English, even more amazingly I really really really like broccoli, next to carrots and snap peas it's one of my favorite veggies. She also passed on some even more useful information. I'd been told to ask for my food "mai pet"/"not spicy" but she explained that in Thailand "mai pet" means only put one or two chilies in, not six or seven (which explained why my food was still too spicy for me), but that if I really wanted it not to be spicy I needed to say "mai sai prik" "don't put chilies in it."





So the next night I went to the market - found a booth with some broccoli out front and ordered chicken and broccoli, without chili peppers. Ordering new dishes is always a bit of a gamble, so I was *delighted* when that is exactly what I got. YUM. Buoyed by my success, the next day I noticed some asparagus in a basket at The Dive and decided to try ordering it. I asked what the word for it was in Thai, "nor mai falang" which sounds a lot like "not my farang (foreigner)" which makes it blessedly easy to remember. I then ordered asparagus with chicken, without chilies. Success! Delicious success!

Remember - eat with your spoon, the fork is just for moving the food onto the spoon.

Last night I went out to dinner and attempted yet another coup. I decided to try Som Tam (papaya salad - practically the national dish of Thailand) using my new & startlingly effective phrase "mai sai prik". It was awesome! Because they use a giant wooden mortar and pestle to make it (and why would they ever wash it out between batches?) there was plenty of spice left over from the previous 7 chili version to give it some kick. It was tangy and refreshing and while my mouth was tingling, it was not burning. You have no idea how relieved I am. Every time I had to tell my students that I didn't like Som Tam it was like I'd insulted their Mom's apple pie. Now I can tell them that I love it and hopefully regain a little face. A very little since, you know... without the 7 chillies, it's not exactly the real thing.

Som Tam mai sai prik

Finally... it's fruit season here! In fact last Sunday was the famous Rayong Fruit Festival... so famous that my students neglected to tell me about it until *after* it was over. Another drawback to not speaking Thai is not being able to understand any of the signs or news stories about exciting events around town. Fortunately I have not completely missed out on fruit season. I've already had two near-durian experiences (this afternoon I was at an open air cafe and some people in the street were snacking... again I smelled it far before I saw it). They call durian the king of fruits, and to every Yin there must be a Yang. Mangosteens are the Queen. I've been given two free bags full of mangosteens, first by the lady at the coffee shop, and then by my laundry lady. And the other day, my driver gave me a lapful of mangosteens as we drove to my off-campus class (and I had fun practicing my Thai "I have mangosteen, 7 pieces." nom nom nom "I have mangosteen, 6 pieces." nom nom nom). They are so yummy. Very sweet and slightly tangy.

The fruit is in sections sort of like an orange. One or two of the sections will have a big seed (and the flesh clings to it like a mango) but most of the sections will have only tiny soft seeds you can eat. The texture of the flesh is somewhat peach-like, but the flavor is almost like a grape... a very sweet, very ripe grape with a touch of citrus or perfume to it. (btw - have you guys ever tried describing the flavor of a fruit to someone who probably hasn't tried it before? It's nearly impossible! I mean, honestly how would you describe 'banana'?)

Finally I got the nerve up to try a custard apple (no idea what the Thai name is). It's ugly but it's really good.

The black seeds are really heavy & hard (and there are a lot of them) but they're easy to separate from the fruit. They make quite a clunk when you spit them out onto the plate. The flesh is, well, custardy, soft, not too stringy not too grainy. And the flavor... this one I can peg exactly! It tastes like honey-suckle nectar. Delicious!

Of course, somewhere in the midst of all this culinary exploration I picked up my latest digestive bug... so you know, I'm back to Ritz crackers, Pepsi & now that I have an appetite again - a double cheeseburger at McDonalds. DON'T JUDGE ME! Industrial food has it's merits you know.

TAG: Code Mango (you know, up until I woke up puking ;) )

It had to happen sooner or later...

I may have mentioned how much I hate Saturdays. Well, today was something special. I went up to my class and some of the kids in the classroom across the hall were SCREAMING. I mean, there's the usual level of ruckus you'd expect from a hundred kids tromping up and down stairs going in and out of classes, but these girls were putting out hypersonic squeels that nearly made my eardrums bleed. I looked in the door to see if a teacher was there but didn't see anyone, so I poked my head in and shushed them good. Of course then I turned around and noticed that the teacher *was* in there, just sitting at her desk preparing for the class. D'oh! I said a quick 'sorry' and left. But ooooh, not okay to go in and discipline another teacher's kids... but honestly - I couldn't believe she could sit there and even attempt to look at her book with the kids screeching like that.


Have I mentioned that I don't like kids?


Anyway, with that pleasant little encounter, and three hours of class behind me I came downstairs to get ready for round two. There's a computer set up in the hallway near the teacher's room for the kids to play on before & after class. No problem except when the kids all pull up chairs and make it impossible for teachers to actually *get* to the teacher's room.


This particular day I was attempting to maneuver around the kids when the most horrid smell I've ever encountered wafted over to me. At first it smelled like some unholy combination of body odor and garbage. But a second later there was a wave of eau d'industrial cleaner. When I opened the door into the teachers lounge it was almost unbearable.


"Oh you missed your opportunity to try Durian!" said Jim, an older teacher from England.
"Is *that* what that was?!" I replied stifling my gag reflex to the best of my abilities.


Despite the fact that the durian had been consumed and disposed of before I got there I could still smell it - FROM THE HALLWAY! That's some powerful stank! I'd had no particular desire to try durian in the first place... but this just solidified it in my mind. No way, no how. If I never see or smell it again, I'll be just fine!


I left the teacher's room as soon as I could, but still had to make a couple trips back in there for one thing or another. Gah! Horrid. Jim stated, quite placidly that while he liked the fruit he was slightly bothered by the disinfectant they use on it (the second layer I smelled). Good LORD it was nasty! It's like the smell of every bodily function left to simmer in the sun by the side of the road absorbing a day or two's worth of pollution. The idea of someone eating it - it just boggles my mind. I really wonder if it's a genetic thing or not - your ability to tolerate the smell/taste of durian.


But I'm really not willing to investigate the matter.


TAG: Code Durian (Get me the hell out of the teacher's room!)

Amazing Thailand

This weekend was one of the reasons I keep this blog. So I can have a place to record some of the amazing things that happen here. I'm so afraid I'm going to forget everything, that two weeks after returning to the States it'll all just be a big blur.

Monday, was a Thai holiday, and Sunday is my normal day off work. So I had an actual 2 day weekend, and more than that all the other teachers and I had the *same* day off. And believe you me, we all made the most of it.


Friday:

On Friday Bunny, Bobby and Jeb all went to Bangkok for various errands. Even though I'd been to Bangkok earlier in the week, I was jealous because - being the only one with Sunday off - I'd spent the better part of the trip alone. In any case, on Friday I taught a morning kids' class but then learned that my normal evening class was canceled. I called Bobby to see if I could meet up with them in Bangkok for dinner, and it turned out they hadn't left yet. They were at the mini-van station set to leave in about 10 minutes. I got there just in time and had the pleasure of having people to talk to on the 2+ hour drive. Once we got there, we split up for a bit - I went shopping and found some cute shorts that actually fit - yay! Then we all met up to do some more shopping at MBK. I found a scandalous shirt to wear on our trip to Phuket... then we all went out for Mexican food for dinner.

It was AMAZING. Yes... that was just the beginning of the amazingness of the weekend. Our enchiladas took on nearly mythic proportions of deliciousness once combined with two pitchers of fresh icy limey margaritas. Heaven. The ride home was slow... but having friends around makes all the difference.


Saturday:

Saturday was the one less than amazing interruption of an otherwise amazing weekend. We all had to teach. But it was Jeb's birthday so afterwards, we all went out again. The margaritas were swapped out for whiskey sodas...and enchiladas swapped out for garlic shrimp and cashew chicken. No complaints. Then, as we were sitting there I got an unexpected call from the boy from last Sunday's post. As dinner was ending and our party was disbanding, Bunny, Marie and I decided to meet up with Mr. Maptaput and his friends at the club down the street.

We had fun... it was interesting to hang out with new Thai people our own age. Usually the only Thai people I hang out with are Jeb's girlfriend or the office staff (and then only at work). There was a fair amount of awkwardness... I'm not good at meeting new people in the best of circumstances - let alone with a language barrier thrown in. But their English was good enough, and Bunny's Thai was adventurous enough to keep the evening entertaining if nothing else.


Sunday:

But the real fun came on Sunday. One of the teachers, Rex, lives with a family near the ocean, and he'd invited us all over for a party in honor of the holiday and Jeb's birthday. Also this was meant to be an informal, but highly authentic Thai cooking class for Bobby and I. Since everyone had the day off... it was going to be quite the do. Even LeBlond came in from Bangkok to celebrate.

I puttered around in the morning, and actually picked up a cute Thai-style dress (modern & cute ... not traditional silk or anything) to wear with my new shorts. I was excited to start blending in a bit more fashion-wise, I even have blinged-out flip flops & a Micky-mouse purse. Then in the afternoon we met up with Rex and his girlfriend Tiny (it's her family that he lives with) at the market. They'd already picked up veggies and meat but I decided I wanted to make my own specialty dish for the party and started gathering up ingredients for salsa. Tiny tried to dissuade me from getting more tomatoes (we have some already) and peppers (we have many at home), but I was not to be deterred. I take my salsa seriously. Thailand is mysteriously devoid of lemons, but they had limes aplenty so we finished up our shopping and headed to the house.


My camera, naturally, is broken again so forgive the extra thousand words as I describe the place. I say they live near the ocean, but I guess it's more precise to say that they live *on* the ocean. The family owns a series of three or four houses in a row (I think they rent two or three of them out)- from one at street level to one clear out over the ocean (currently empty). It's on stilts, low tide = sand underneath, high-tide = ocean below. The houses are Thai style... not western. They're pretty bare - and look a bit more like a rustic cabin or tree-house than anything that would pass building codes in the US. But there was running water and electricity, plenty of fans and even a CD player. There were two clean bathrooms - but both unfortunately had squat toilets.


In the main house there's a big open area downstairs for living, gorgeous wooden couches, a TV, some cabinets that sort of thing. Then there's another big open area for cooking. In the kitchen there's a counter with a sink and prep-space and one gas range with a big wok on top. Then there are a whole bunch of small ... I don't know what to call them... like a good sized terra-cotta flower pot, but you put charcoal in it and use it like a BBQ to grill food or stick another wok on.

Bunny and I were put to work washing vegetables while Tiny started showing Bobby and Marie how to make fish cakes. Too many cooks spoil the soup and all... so I decided to stick to my salsa rather than crowd around the wok. It was really nice. I feel so incompetent so much of the time here... but salsa... this is something I know I'm good at. And I was really excited to share it with the Thai family. Most Thai people have never tried Mexican food, and while I'm hardly an authentic representative... I felt like I could give them a taste, literally, of something new.



Tiny's mom was really friendly, directing us to do this or that and chatting with us in a mix of English and Thai (Tiny speaks English really well actually). And I had a fairly hilarious exchange with her as I made her taste the salsa. I started telling her what it was in English but she said "Poot passah Thai!" (Speak Thai!) aaah! She asked "What do you eat it with?" (or something) and I explained "Put on 'chips', don't have 'chips', put on rice... eat with rice - can!". "Is it delicious?" she asked very slowly and clearly "Yes." I replied "You like to make it?" again, slowly and clearly "Yes." Then smiling happily"Qeld adsflkp oidsfu adl foi e aoiuw alklu t alkwe utahn ldfa doit jalkdfout." "Uh.... uh....don't understand!" And we had a good laugh.

With Jeb's girlfriend's help (I can't remember if I gave her a nickname already... let's go with Gum.) I roasted some peanuts and cashews using the fire-pots. At one point Tiny's mom came by and gave us some mango slices. You know from the mangoes that grow in their garden. Amazing! Bunny, Bobby and I ate the mango with my salsa... it was really good. I really really enjoyed the camaraderie of being in the kitchen with all the women, you know... one of the universals again - sharing food, working together, laughing, it was beautiful. Of course the boys were all upstairs drinking already... it didn't so much bother me that we were doing the girls work - boys have fun thing until they came down and were reluctant to help us carry stuff back to the beach house. "In a minute..." Gah! What are you, like 12??? When a bunch of women have just spent hours preparing an awesome feast for you the least you can do is offer to help set it up. It's a little too easy for guys to develop a sense of entitlement here.



With all the cooking done we headed over to the beach house, eventually bullying the boys into helping us. There wasn't much in the way of furniture in the beach house, just several mats and a table for the drinks & CD player. But honestly, the fact that we were literally *on the ocean* watching the tide come in and feeling the sea air blowing on us more than made up for anything we lacked. We put all the food in the center of the mats and sat down to eat. Oh man... it was amazing. You know, if you've ever cooked a holiday feast how awesome it feels to sit down and enjoy the fruits of your collective labor. And I told our Thai hosts, repeatedly, that "Wan nee mee quam suk... mak mak." (Today I am very very happy.) Everything was delicious. The farangs devoured my salsa, and even Tiny's aunt ate some with her rice (which I feel allows me to now refer to my salsa as 'world renowned') ;). Rex and Bunny invented a new drink - essentially a Mojito but made with Thai brandy instead of rum... we called them Mosquitos of course, and they were the perfect compliment to dinner.

After dinner we played "two truths and a lie" a game I suck at, but still thoroughly enjoyed. We even managed to get some of Thai family to play along. There were two little kids there, running around and climbing on everyone...adding to the overall silliness of everything. Just being there was amazing, and it was amazing to be with such incredible people. I just couldn't stop acknowledging how amazing everything was. And moreover couldn't stop saying "We're in fucking Thailand. We are in fucking Thailand!"

We talked and listened to music well into the night, then the Thai family went back to their house while 6 of us farang teachers all piled into one bedroom. There were a lot of blankets and mats just laid out on the floor so we all just lay down and had a giant sleepover. You know, in a cabin over the ocean!!!!! There was silly chatting and giggling and playing 20 questions well into the night, and if you've ever been to a sleep over with me, you know you can hear me finally breaking down and begging "PLEASE... go to sleep! I need to go to sleep now!!!" which, of course was ignored... so I played along for a while and finally we all went to sleep, or tried. I couldn't sleep, just lay awake listening to the sounds of the people around me. For someone used to living alone, it's difficult for me to actually fall asleep with other people around, but I do still like it. I like being in a big group of people like that.


Monday:

Roosters started crowing at around 7am, as the sun came up over the water. The sun got up to window level around 7:30 and I could no longer pretend to be asleep. I got up and got dressed. Bobby was already up taking pictures of the ocean. Eventually Bunny and Marie got up and joined us. The boys, naturally stayed in bed (after their hard night of not cooking). Before long Tiny's aunt came by and asked "Gin coffee mai?" Bobby's Thai is probably the weakest of all of us, but even she could understand "Do you want to drink coffee?" and we all followed her back to the main house. She'd set up some coffee on the table in front of the house... I told her I didn't drink coffee and she brought me some milk. So we sat there, enjoying the amazing hospitality of our host. The houses across the street all had little shops out front - selling seashell 'curtains' you know, you can hang them up over a doorway, or maybe as a shade block on your patio. The ambiance was incredible. So warm, so Thai.


Shortly after our coffee, Rex and Tiny came out and invited us to go look at the family's garden. When I'd heard they had a garden, I imagined a small plot on the side yard or something. No... what they actually have is an orchard. We piled in the back of Tiny's pick up truck and headed out there. They have a nice sized field, a grove of mangoes, bananas, and jackfruit. There were passion-fruit plants and even a thai-pumpkin vine trailing around the ground. Again, I'm just wandering around an orchard thinking... this is Thailand, this is amazing. Then hop back in the back of the pickup truck (an amazing way to travel when it's hot out... getting all of the breeze, seeing everything) and off to a beach I hadn't been to before. I think it might be my new favorite beach. There's a longer stretch of sand between the restaurants and the ocean.... which makes it significantly cleaner... and the water was so clear it was unbelievable. I hadn't put on my swimsuit, so I just walked along the waters edge, soaking my feet in the calm warm water. Amazing! A-mazing people. Amazing!

After our trip through the orchard and stroll along the beach we learned that Tiny's aunt had finally gone in and woken up the boys to go eat breakfast. We headed back towards Ban Phe and met the boys at Christie's Pub... the place I love to go to on Sunday for my weekly western food fix. Again, it felt like I was back in college, with all my friends heading to the cafeteria for breakfast. It was so good and we lingered forever, some of the guys having two breakfasts - you know having worked up an appetite *not* hiking through the garden and not swimming. =P Regardless, a good time was had by all and we decided to call it a day... an amazing day... and go back home.


But it wasn't even over yet. We still all had the day off, so after showering and changing and attempting to nap, I met up with Bunny, LeBlond, Donny & Marie at a coffee shop, followed by an early dinner at the German restaurant. It was so nice. Soooo nice to all have a full weekend together. And getting to eat dinner when it was still light out was such a treat(we usually get dinner at like 8:30 or 9pm when we finish classes). Bunny and I enjoyed a leisurely walk home in the twilight and I was in bed by the time night fell. I was asleep before 8pm I think, and slept hard! Exhaustion from amazement is a good feeling.


Today:
It's Tuesday now, and my first class is at 6pm, so I've been lounging around at a coffee shop, listening to the rain and catching up with old friends on Facebook. I feel so good right now. I know it won't be long before the day to day rigours of Thailand catch up with me again... but for now... I feel amazing and am so full of happiness I'm overflowing and am so glad to remember why I came here.


TAG: Code Mango. Life is good baby, too good to be true!

The Facts of Life

One of the things about Thailand that's very different from the US is how much less prudish, how much more honest things are here. Don't get me wrong, women are modest here (well, aside from the bar girls, naturally). You don't see many bare shoulders, low cut tops or plumbers cracks. But they're not at all prudish. I remember one of my first days, one of the office gals was joking about her big fat belly (yeah, she weighs about 110 lbs - anyway). She went up to one of the male teachers, picked up her shirt and holding out her belly told him "Look I'm pregnant. No, just kidding - I'm on my period, I'm so fat." Now I know girls in the US who would say something like that to a guy friend. But I have never gone up to a male coworker, lifted up my shirt, and complained about being bloated. It's just goes against the social mores.

They're far less prudish about sex too. Condoms aren't hidden on the top shelf of the feminine hygeine asile, or in the back of the store next to the pharmacy. No, they're at the check out next to the gum and candy...so while you're waiting in line you can remember to pick some up. Not that I have any need... but you know...in theory.

Just this week Key told me one of the women in the office is pregnant. The woman had just found out that day. She's young & unmarried (although she lives with her boyfriend) & wasn't exactly planning this. I was surprised that Key had taken me into her confidence like that. But then the very next day the woman in question came into the teacher's room and told another teacher, and there were three other people in the room, "Chan mee baby laao." (which literally translates into "I have baby already."... when Key told me that I was like 'she has a kid?' but Key mimed pregnancy and I figured it out. I don't know if this is an idiom or what.) But there was no shame, no hesitation, just a statement of fact.

It was in a similar fashion that Key pointed out the prostitutes on the main street as we drove to dinner one night. She flat out told me there was a lot of AIDS in Rayong and that she and her boyfriend both got tested when they started dating. Again, I was still practically a stranger, but she shared this with me with no hesitation, as easily as she told me they went bowling on their first date.

It's not just their openness in discussing things of a sexual nature... I've also noticed a real honesty about food. In the US it's very easy to forget that the meat we buy boneless & skinless & chopped into unrecognizable bits was actually a living breathing animal at one point. Here... yeah, in the supermarkets you can get neatly saran-wrapped meats... but there are also whole animals and many more animal parts available.

And in the street markets... well, you can hardly get anything more honest than seeing a fish flopping around in a bucket next to a grill full of it's quickly sizzling brothers.

The food here has faces... and feet... and eyes... and bills. I think I've mentioned before that I've seen chickens roaming free in a yard down the street... a yard right next one of the restaurants where I regularly eat chicken. I'm pretty sure there's a connection.

Yes it can be a bit disturbing to see all these things at the market, I was buying some bananas and this guy walked by carrying a pig's head, but I eat pork. I love pork. So why should I cringe when seeing the face of animal that I, however indirectly, killed?

And I don't know, in some ways it seems more humane, less disturbing to know that these crabs were probably crawling around the beach this morning. They didn't spend days on end couped up in a supermarket tank.

It has been a shock to my western sensibilities, but I'm getting used to it. I actually like getting to see what animal it is I'm eating. And honestly from a purely gustatorial standpoint; chicken on the bone with skin & fat attached is MUCH yummier than boneless-skinless-97% fat free chicken breast. I'm willing to look at a real chicken in order to eat something that tasty.

Still not quite so interested in trying the squid though.

TAG: Code Pineapple. Everything's fine, but I'm getting a cold, and I've been staying up entirely too late for no good reason at all. Not a good combo!

Beauty and the Beast

TAG - I'm bringing it back to Code Mango... life is good today.


First off, it is with both deep pride and thinly veiled bitterness that I announce that I was named Vice Dork of 2008 DorkFest. Despite digging deep to reveal my inner dork, Rex Parker got top honors. Feel free to comment on one of his two truly dorky blogs and tell him you think I was robbed. ;)


Onward! There are a few very large ornamental pots/planters in front of my apartment, they're all filled with rainwater, guppies and greenery. Today I noticed a lotus flower and just had to take a picture.

Beauty

I have a really easy schedule at work this week. There's a big holiday on the 23rd... it's King Chulalongkorn Day; the anniversary of the death of one of Thailand's most revered kings. He is credited for bringing Thailand into the modern era, opening the first modern hospitals, establishing the railroad & postal system, and abolishing slavery. He also ended the practice of prostrating oneself in front of the king. So, all around a King well worth celebrating. I only have the 23rd off, but three of my classes were canceled because the students will be taking a long weekend. So instead of my marathon three classes today from 2-9pm, I only had two. I had plenty of time to eat breakfast, get to school to do some lesson planning, then head to Tesco Lotus to pick up a few things before heading back for my classes.


While I was at Tesco that now familiar monsoon rain started. It just pounds, the noise is really amazing. I knew it would stop within an hour, and I had a couple of hours before my class so I just hung out and had lunch.

The Beast

I can only assume that this is the Thai interpretation of a Grilled Ham & Cheese sandwich*. First off... they use this weird cheese type product that I just can't identify. It's creamy, and vaguely cheese tasting... but it's neither a flavor nor a consistency I'm familiar with. It's processed, that's for sure, and probably doesn't actually contain any dairy... but it's not altogether bad. The ham is identifiably ham. And the whole thing is, yes, breaded & deep fried. Yup. It's kind of weird, and not something I would normally eat... but it's got it's merits. Being a bread-based meal is one major merit, and not containing fish-sauce is the other. Today was the first day I had this particular sandwich; they also make a 'croque monseuir' that's got the same basic componants but instead of being deep fried, I think it's just sauted in some kind of herb butter. It's pretty tasty.


Now, here is the irony of the day: After eating that fat-o-rama sandwich, and while still waiting for the rain to let up I wandered over to one of those electronic scales and for 1 baht found out that I've dropped about 8 kilos (17 lbs) while in Thailand. As much as I complained about the food situation last week, I do actually eat here. It's just that I generally eat like a Thai person. My consumption of soda has decreased dramatically, and I just can't get the junk food that I love back home. Yeah, I've had KFC** a couple times and will jump at any opportunity to eat french fries... but most of the time I'm eating stir fry, with actual rice, meat and veggies. I eat far fewer processed foods, and overall I just eat less because I don't have a kitchen. I have a hot pot, and I could buy a fridge if I really wanted to... but for now I think it's better for me not to keep a lot of food in my apartment.


You know, humans are hunter/gatherers. My whole body and brain have evolved (or were designed - as you will) to spend a good portion of each day looking for and obtaining food. It's natural. Having a stockpile of calories at arms reach 24 hours a day is not natural, and was not good for me. If you look at the ever expanding waistline of the average American, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something is wrong. I'm living proof, that it's not about will power... or at least not entirely. It's about lifestyle and environment and as many external factors as internal ones. I don't know if I'll continue to lose weight, or if - now that I'm settled - I'll just start leveling out again. I'm trying not to worry about it, because, oddly enough - obsessing about one's weight doesn't actually burn that many calories!


























*Did anyone notice that it came in a plastic bag? They're sold in a bakery section where you grab a cafeteria tray and a pair of tongs, you put your food on the tray, and when you pay for it, they wrap it in a little sandwich bag, and then put it in another little grocery bag. The bags! The bags! They're everywhere!!!


** Interestingly, they don't have the same menu at the KFC here as they do back home. Notably lacking are biscuits =( and coleslaw. So basically it's chicken, french fries & coke (plus a couple of novelty items I don't understand... 'shrimp rings' for example). But man, the chicken here is worlds better than what they make at KFC back home... not sure what the secret is.

Breakfast of champions + further (albeit unnecessary) proof of my dorkiness

I'm happy to tell you that the mysterious mass-restaurant closure appears to be over. Yesterday while the electricians were working on my "hong naam fai see-a" issue I actually got to eat real food. Actually, the restaurant I wanted to go to was still closed... but I think maybe it was just too early. Anyway I ended up going back to the place where the girls had laughed at me. I dont' think I can adequately describe how much I was dreading going back there. But as you know I was pretty dang hungry.


This time I took the "nee arai" (what's that) approach and it worked okay. I noticed that here was a display with three different pots of soup near the front of the restaurant, so I just walked up and pointed to the most appetizing looking one and said "nee arai" - of course I don't know what the heck they said... but I smiled and nodded and indicated "one serving" and sat down. They then proceeded to bring me all these dishes. You know... there are a lot of things I *want* to take picture of, but I'm just so self conscious already... so I just sneak a shot here and there...and the quality shows. Seriously though, I dare you to go into a new restaurant, ALONE, and start taking pictures of the food and tell me how you feel.

Let's see what we've got here going clockwise from the lower left: little nests of thin rice noodles, the main dish - a yellow coconut curry with chicken, green veggies- mint, basil, long green beans, white sprouts, and shredded cabbage, um... other misc toppings sliced green onions, cucumbers, pickles, and maybe carmelized onion... not really sure, and finally the dish where you put it all together. Yeah... not quite scrambled eggs and toast. It ended up being really good, but a bit spicier than I generally want my breakfast to be. But, you know, not bad for less than $2.

McLOL

Ok... we need names for clarification... there's the restaurant where they laughed at me - "McLOL", the place where I've practiced my Thai - "Thai101", the little restaurant on the other street that's basically an extention of the family's living room, let's call it a "B&B", and the restaurant right behind the school, which unfortunately I'll have to call "The Dive".

Thai 101

So with access to food again things were looking up. I only had two classes today (which just gives me a bit of breathing room to plan for tomorrow)... the first one at 2pm. So I went to the B&B for breakfast. All of the restaurants I go to are family affairs, and I generally just give my order to whomever is looking at me when I sit down. So far this has worked okay. Today however... today I let my little farang dork shine. I get to the restaurant and I say hello to the cook and the other lady who work there. I sit down at an empty table. A familiar looking man comes over, smiling, and says something to me. Of course I don't know what he's saying, so I tell him what I want to eat. He smiles and says something else.... I smile and he walks away. A moment or two later the cook looks at me, expectantly and I repeat my order to her. Then I notice the first guy sit down at a table nearby and start eating and talking to a little girl. I've seen a little girl here at the B&B sitting on the couch in her living room watching TV... but this is not that girl. And soon enough the man and the little girl get onto his motorbike and drive away. Only after he leaves do I realize this isn't the dad who owns this restaurant... it's the soup guy from across the street from my school. D'Oh!


So let's recap from his perspective. You notice a new woman in your neighborhood - she's come into your place of business once or twice. One day, you're out having a nice meal with your kids. You notice the new gal and go over to say hi to her. "How do you like our city?" you ask (or some other general small-talky thing beyond 'hello') and she replies to you "I'd like a burger and a coke please." Double D'oh!


If that doesn't win me the crown for Dorkfest... I'm not sure what will.


TAG - Code Pineapple... if I haven't mentioned it twenty times already - I have two new classes with young learners tomorrow - three hours each.