Alloy mak mak!

(Very very delicious!)

This blog wouldn’t truly be of me if I didn’t have an entry about food.

I’m very grateful that Thai food is so easily accessible and delicious back home – the first time I ordered pad see ew, without a menu, my Thai coworkers were impressed. Yes, pad see ew and pad Thai are very common dishes here! Since I never eat pad Thai because of the peanuts, I can’t speak to its taste here in Thailand, but I have had really good pad see ew. I will say, however, that maybe Thai restaurants in the States jazz it up a little bit for American tastes, because I still think the best pad see ew I’ve had is at Three Spice Kitchen in Gardena.

But not to worry, I’ve definitely had plenty of mouthwatering obsession-worthy food – food that totally lives up to international love of Thai food.

Here in northeast Thailand, one of the most traditional and staple dishes is som tam, or papaya salad. They shred the green papaya and mash it up with tomatoes, chili, and fish sauce. For me, no fish sauce and easy on the chili. So delicious and refreshing! The best way and very common way to eat som tam is with sticky rice, or kao niao. You take a bit of sticky rice with your hands and use that wad to scoop up some som tam. Yum!

Here in the village, celebratory or communal meals (i.e. farewell parties, birthday parties, weekly Monday dinner) are always eaten on the floor usually in the sala (patio) or on a raised bamboo platform (I don’t know the name of this yet) just outside the house. All the food is placed in the middle and everyone uses their hands to take food. Sometimes the people don’t need their own plate. They just take and eat.

At work, we also all eat lunch together. Because we sit cross-legged on the floor, I had to get used to keeping my plate such a far distance from my mouth. At first, I would hold my plate in one hand and raise it closer to my mouth (I noticed others eating like this sometimes, so I knew it wasn’t impolite). But after a couple days of work lunches, I noticed the way that Kate, one of the Thai Good Shepherd staff, eats. I noticed how carefully she loads her spoon, making sure that nothing is hanging or dripping off. Taking her time like this ensures that her food doesn’t go all over the place on the longer journey to her mouth. So now I try to do the same. I keep my plate on the floor and am more conscious about how I’m eating. It’s a nice practice in simplicity and gratitude as well.

So continuing on with delicious food I’ve eaten…Normally there’s a lot of savory pork or chicken and vegetable stir fry. The vegetable stir fry is so simple but probably one of my favorite dishes here and in Malaysia. There’s also a lot of fried egg around. I’ve had a really good coconut curry, bamboo shoot soup, ginger and tofu soup, fried vegetables (like tempura), and barbecue pork.

Of course, with my major sweet tooth, I’m obsessed with kenom, the equivalent of kuih in Malaysia, which is basically a word for snack. But my favorite kenom are the rice desserts – for example, sticky rice mashed up with sweet beans, wrapped in a banana leaf. Boonlai, who lives in the Garden here, makes the best. I’ve had really good cassava and pumpkin kenom as well. Sticky rice mashed with taro and coconut milk, baked in a hollow bamboo – so amazing. There are banana chips everywhere here too and they are so addicting. So are the pumpkin chips. And Court, guess what – I have found fried banana to rival Henritta’s. There’s a woman on the side of the road who deep fries these bananas and sometimes sweet potatoes, til they are dark dark golden brown and very very crispy. She mixes sesame seeds into the batter and it’s seriously like eating a piece of heaven. I’m salivating as I type this. I went to the Sunday market today and wanted to buy everything at the kenom section. But don’t worry Ana, I’m pacing myself. I’ll buy the pumpkin pudding next week.

Fruits and vegetables are abundant here and so cheap. I’m happy that the markets here carry pretty much the same veggies as in Malaysia. Jungle veggies, winter melon, okra (except Thai okra is ginormous!), Chinese broccoli, long beans, tomatoes, and the sweetest carrots ever. For fruit, there’s durian, jackfruit, guava, dragonfruit, lots of papaya, of course bananas, mangosteen, langsat, and mangoes (though mango season is not until May). Last week, one of the women gave me a lotus flower bulb…I knew they use the lotus to cook, but she showed me how to eat the seeds fresh! Wild. I felt a little bit guilty, but I honored the lotus by really enjoying it. I’ve also had a moon cake made with lotus seeds.

So I get to eat a good amount of authentic Thai. But I also get to cook because I eat breakfast and dinner at home. Breakfast has been oatmeal or muesli with soymilk. Tons of soymilk here and it’s cheap. The muesli is imported from Germany and surprisingly is also cheap. I’m excited to go back home and eat more muesli, rather than cereal. For dinner, I’ve been doing stir fry vegetables with eggs or beans. I buy dried black beans and dried green mung beans. Yum. I’m proud to say that I’ve also made a really good pumpkin curry, a la Malaysia. Today I bought the ingredients to make banana bread (Court, we have an oven like RTC!) because Kia and Katrine have never had banana bread! Scandalous. I’m excited because they made a chocolate cake a while ago which turned out delicious. It’s been ages since I’ve made banana bread and I’m so excited to try it!

Hopefully this entry has successfully persuaded you to come visit me. Because you know that was the goal from the beginning  When you do come, we can eat all the curry and pad see ew and fried rice and papaya salad and sticky rice that you want. We can even try the fried grasshoppers if you’re feeling up to it!

 First dinner in Thailand.

 At Boonlai's house for Ying's birthday! We're sitting on the bamboo platform.

Amazing egg crepes with fresh vegetables and ground pork.

 Kenom! Sticky rice and yam and coconut milk in a bamboo.

Fried crickets!