Food

It turns out that adjusting to the climate has affected my metabolism. It's hot, humid, sticky, and I walk everywhere. So I'm hungry pretty much all the time. Which works out well for the most part, because I get to eat delicious food every few hours. The portion sizes are much smaller than in the states, which is nice because then you don't have to be rolled home in a wheel barrel after a meal. My typical day usually consists of three (or four) meals and a couple of snacks. I eat breakfast at home, and I have my 50 cent lunch on campus if I'm working, and I'll find dinner somewhere close to home.

Lately my breakfasts have been a hard boiled egg and a bowl of oats or bran cereal with this tasty strawberry yogurt drink that's pretty popular here. Milk is a little more expensive, so I've been trying these yogurt drinks and soy milk.

My favorite rice dish to order for lunch has been a plate of rice with a mish mash of egg, veggies, and I think there is some seafood in the mix. My favorite soup for lunch is called kow soy, and it's a dark broth with thick rice noodles, cilantro, crunchy fried onions, and they throw in a boiled egg, a chicken drumstick, and a small piece of liver. You eat it with chopsticks and a spoon. I admit I leave the liver.

My favorite snack this week has been green mangoes with salt. Try this at home if you can: peel and cut up a green mango. Don't use yellow mango; yellow mango is much much sweeter you're better off saving the yellow ones for sticky rice (another good dish for dessert). Green mango is more like the texture of a crunchy pear or apple. Mix some table salt or sea salt with some red pepper flakes. Just dip the mango pieces in the salt and enjoy your little piece of Thailand. Yum. It's spicy, salty and sour. I buy a mango and a bag of salt every other day from my 10 baht fruit stand lady down the street (about 30 cents).

Another popular dish here is called som tum. It's a papaya salad and veggies mixed with a mortar and pestle. You are defined my how many peppers you put in your som tum. None, you're a wuss. One is for beginners, two is when you want a good kick, and three is authentic Thai. Som tum is a pretty big deal here. They are just releasing an action movie here about a white guy who is fed spicy som tum by a young Thai girl and he turns mean and red and strong like the Hulk. It looks so entertaining, I think I'll go see it and report back: http://www.somtum-movie.com/

Watch the preview. You'll want to see it too.

They have sushi here too - lots of seafood and caviar. Those have been my dinners lately. Cost me about $1.25 for a roll. I didn't expect to find a lot of sushi in Thailand, but I've been pleasantly surprised. Many of you know this about me and my eating habits: I don't do well with spicy. That has definitely changed. In the last week I'm finding myself adding more spices and peppers and hot sauces to my meals, more wasabi to my sushi, and no longer saying "mai ped ka" (not spicy please). It's funny how you adjust to things like that.

All this talk about food is making me hungry, so it's time for me to go find my way to the tastiest looking street vendor and get some grub!