food

The first three pictures are from the Barbeque Resort, my pleasant surprise, as I don't generally love barbeque.

The barbeque is actually a wonderful soup; the turine is a charcoal-filled brazier with a soup-moat around the perimeter. The top is primed with two pieces of pork fat; you're invited to go up to the buffet line and help yourself to unlimited quantities of raw pork, beef, fish, chicken, seafood--then you return to your table with its own private brazier, braise the meat on the top section. Meanwhile, you've also chosen a variety of vegetables and flavorings (raw ginger, basil, chilis, etc.), and add those to the water in the moat.

The drippings from the meat flow down into the soup, flavoring it further. The meat is crispy and delicious on its own, of course. A variety of sauces, ranging from a simple sweet-and-sour to very spicy. And then there are prepared papaya salad, a variety of fruits, sweet desserts if you're still hungry. All for 190 baht/person, about $5.

I've been treated to many variations on that theme--a central soup with constant additions, all in the party digging in with spoon or chopsticks. This was probably the most picturesque--

The seafood is another adventure. The shell above is all that was left of our crab feast at the seashore on July 4th. We remembered the Americans celebrating at Rockport and throughout the land; I'm pretty sure none of you ate the variety of tasty seafood that we had. A special treat (not likely to ever be my favorite, though thoroughly enjoyed by Boom and Lek): tiny crabs, maybe 2" including legs, crisp-fried with shell and all, spiced and breaded. Pop it into your mouth and crunch. I ate one; it's definitely louder than a potato chip. So I enjoyed the big crab, also fried clams.

I actually didn't eat any of the lovely squid; I have tried bits of it several times, don't seem to enjoy it nearly as much as the Thai natives, so I leave it to their enjoyment. I have, however, learned to thoroughly enjoy crispy fresh-caught fish, served with heads and tails intact. Hello, fish--mmm, delicious!

Yesterday morning I ate bamboo with oysters, rice and a fried egg. I didn't ask for the egg, but the cafeteria lady looked askance at my choice, said "Paet!" ("spicy") and added the egg for balance. I was grateful for her addition, enjoyed the whole meal.

This morning I decided to try a few crispy nuggets--turned out to be fried dough (rice flour?), pretty tasty. I declined the offered sauce, am still being wary of spicy red sauces.

I learned to make a delicious sauce, though; I'll share when I can get the ingredients. It's a shrimp paste (ground-up shrimp and salt, aged 6 months or more) with garlic, chilis, basil and lime juice. For my batch I put in 5 chilis, spicy but good. Boom put 20 chilis in the same-size batch she made for her and her friends.

My favorite is the fruits. Durian is hard to open, delicious inside. Dragon fruit in both white and red (magenta flesh, beautiful!). Mangosteens are my current favorite--the beautiful bas-relief flower at the base of each fruit has the same number of petals as the number of succulent fruit sections inside. Mangos are just now ripening, hanging heavy on the trees. Many wonderful fruits whose names I don't remember, just enjoy them.

I'm getting better at eating noodles with chopsticks. I think the entertainment value of watching me try is half the fun of inviting me for meals--

I have learned to say "I'm full!", probably the most important Thai phrase in my vocabulary so far...