Food Monday - Hot stuff

These small chilies we knew were hot. Gary avoided eating the altogether. He pulled one apart, wiped off his hands, then, later touched his lip and still felt the heat. The white crunchy julienne pieces Gary found out were hot when he ate some. I think I had the same stuff in a dish I had last week. The lady that served it to me assured me it was, "Mai Pet" (not hot) as I requested, but it was quite hot to me. I couldn't figure out what the hot part was. Now I think it might have been that crunchy white vegetable.

Gary tried a chicken burger at the KFC that is in the front of the department store. He didn't think he ordered a spicy one, but it was hot enough to bring tears and a little sweat.

Another surprise he had this week was when he asked for "Moo" (pork). He got pork liver (it was come kind of liver anyway). I ate it for him; it was good! I hadn't had liver in a long time, and never pork liver. Gary told me to make up a flash-card for liver like we have for squid, so we will know what to avoid. I made one up for "frog" too after we saw this tray of foods for sale at a market downtown.

Except for the KFC, these foods were all from the upstairs food court. Most of them have pictures and English words for their dishes. Even so, it is hard to tell what exactly

what the foods are that are pictured. One place has some corn chips in one section of their display. Those sounded good to me, so I figured out how to ask what plate of food they would come with. The lady pointed at three different bowls of white foods of different shapes. One was oval slices, one was white balls, and one was purse shaped things. I asked if they were “pla” (fish) and she nodded. Also she held up some rice noodles to show they were in there too. I went ahead and ordered it. She made up a soup of the noodles, some of each of the three kinds of shaped fish, and one corn chip. The soup tasted ok. I had it again the night I did aerobics after dinner since it was a light meal (it was mostly white, after all).

A couple of days ago I decided to try the crispy fried mussels. They are cooked in a crispy kind of omelet with bean sprouts. It tasted really good. I hardly noticed that the mussels were there. They have an oyster one too, but I think they would have more of a taste.

The best things Gary found up there are the popcorn and the soft serve ice cream. Those are becoming staples for him. The chocolate ice cream is almost meeting his chocolate craving. Chocolate is rare and expensive here, so he hasn’t had much of it.

Another good snack we found are roasted shelled peanuts. They are in a bulk bin downstairs. The attendant there let me taste a few before we bought them. Once, in an open market, we bought some in shell peanuts. They turned out to be raw. These roasted ones are very good, though.

:J

Babes in Thailand - food Monday

Pad Thai noodles with nuts and tofu has been my mainstay when I can't find anything else I'm willing to try. It is also usually the lowest priced item on the menu and often it's hard to tell what the other items will be.

Near where we are staying we found an open air market selling all kinds of foods. These we can see to choose from. The first evening a young woman had crispy, thin rice noodles in different colors and flavors with a few vegetables mixed in. She kept giving me sample of the different kinds saying, "Not hot! Not hot!" Then a lady next to me told me the flavors in English. I tried the pumpkin flavored kind and hoped she'd be there again. So far she hasn't been.

The morning we found it we were ready for a little bit of breakfast. Gary had some pork on a stick and I chose two sticks with white something on them. The long white one tasted like shrimp pressed together. The bits of hard things, maybe shell, I had to refrain from spitting out. The white cubes were soft, like scallops. All of these were roasted.

We also bought some fruit. They had oranges that were kind of like tangerines. Their bananas were cute and sweet.

We also got a green fruit that tasted vaguely like an apple, though not as juicy. They were quite willing to give taste samples of fruit we were unfamiliar with. One that looked like a yam tasted sweet, juicy, and gingery.

We've gone back for dinner a couple of times. Here are some of the things we've tried and not tried.

We tried a couple of what pastry pies. I thought mine was potato and Gary's was supposed to be chicken. They were filled with a kind of flavored paste, though, made from those things (we think).

We didn't try the squid

.

These rice dough covered items turned out to be pretty good. They were steamed. The green square was onion, the yellowish balls were bamboo, the brownish round balls were a paste of cashew, and I don't know what the roundish green one was.

We didn't get any fish baskets.

School was just getting out when we walked toward the market Monday. Many vendors were out catering to the students. This one, selling french fries, was popular. Gary got some when we came by again heading home. They were very good. You could still taste the potato in them.

So far we've managed to eat several different things in different places without getting sick! Thank you, Lord, and please continue to bless our food!

:J