Saturday Wha Hin - Joe

The food in Thailand seems to express all that the Thais keep subdued under their cool and gentle exteriors. Brash and complex with texture and color, it is varied and evocative of a world that seems thousands of years deep. It beckons you to come in further, and before long you begin to imagine, if they like it, why you shouldn't give it a try? The swallow saliva beverage, good for your skin. After all, why, with all the tasty choices they have would they waste a snack? Made from unsuspecting swallow nests and rock sugar, it was not in fact gross, but like so much else curious. Spent an afternoon at the local market with our friend Poe who wanted to give me a cooking lesson in his home. What an extrodinary experience. There was nothing harried about the experience. We bought some flowers, some green curry paste (unlike Indian pastes, Thai pastes are made from fresh ingredients pounded in a mortar and pestle), fish sauce and a plastic bag filled with some home made chili paste. We bought vegetables: grape sized eggplants, plumb sized eggplants, garlic cloves the size of peas, kaffir lime leaves, galangal root, lemon grass, sweet basil and lemon basil, kale, limes, coconut milk, beautiful prawns and tiny clams and some pork and chicken. All this for under $10. Back at Poe's around 5:00 pm we sit out doors on a straw mat on the deck and prep the vegies for the meal. I take orders and before you know it we are actually putting the meal together. In about 30 minutes he has created 5 dishes all tasty and distinct. The four of us each take a portion of rice and then 1 spoonful of an item at a time, and we devour all the food. Dinner is followed by some local pineapple, white and sweet, developed by the king who has a summer palace here. Next 2 kinds of custard, one coconut and one with palm sugar. The most memorable thing of all was plain sliced papaya with sticky rice. Stop what you are doing and have this combination immediately. Yum, everything is in tiny portions by American standards.
In Bangkok we were zipping up the Chaia Phrya river in a long tail boat and bobbing past us were clumps of water hyacinth. To me they seemed like fellow travelers looking for a place to get caught up and perhaps put down shoots. So for now we must bob on. More later.
Joe