EAT! (food porn for courtney)

So whenever I wander the world and try writing about it I usually get a message from my dear friend Courtney to post pictures of FOOD.  So this time, my friend, I'm being proactive....

One of the the first people I met in my new town is Note.  He saw me trying to communicate with a guy about buying a moto and came over to help because he speaks English (really well, actually).  Anyway, that first night here in Singburi he gathered his friends and took me out to dinner.  I insisted on paying, but of course he refused...."My country, I welcome you." Here's what we ate:

So that is a crispy fried catfish with dried red pepper, flash fried basil, and fermented egg, which you take tiny pieces at a time and add it to the catfish and basil.  Totally incredibly, by far my new favorite food.  This dish is about 90 Baht, or 3 dollars.

This is pretty standard around here....thai salad with prawns.  It's really common to see this sort of salad, or the papaya salad (which I don't care for too much).  Here you have your veggies and bamboo shoots and cashew nuts and dried peppers and huge shrimps.  It's generally one of the more spicy dishes you will find, and by Thai standards that means for most Americans it's nearly inedible.  For me, I totally loved, and the shrimp were so tender.  This dish was 70 Baht, or just over 2 bucks.  One of my faves...

Morning glory here, or so I was told.  A chinese dish of course but pretty sure it's a common thing around here too.  Couldn't quite figure out what the sauce was though....wasn't quite fish sauce but wasn't quite soy either, and not too salty.  Delicious.  45 Baht, or just over a buck.

The final dish was a crispy fried pork, heavy on the garlic and REALLY heavy on the pepper.  Pretty sure that's about the most common thing to find around here.  Looks like I didn't grab a picture of that....50 Baht, or just under two bucks.

And that would be my new friend Note on the left chowing, and on the right is his friend Maks who I have also come to really enjoy.  He speaks a bit of English too, and one day before I bought my own moto he drove me around for like a billion hours helping me shop for random stuff for me new apartment.  Both really amazing, nice guys....but who isn't in Singburi?

So these two kids joined us for this dinner too but I can't remember their names.  They are 'brothers' of Note, but not actual brothers.  The translation was a bit broken, but from what I understand they were both orphaned and Note has sorta taken them under his wing...hiring them in his shop and having them live in his home.  The one on the left is 13, his parents "ran away" when he was 11.  I couldn't really get more information than that because the English was rough.  The one on the right is 20 and is Laotion.  His father died when searching for metal in the north to sell and was killed by unexploded ordinance.  His mother then moved to Bangkok for work but couldn't support him, so he ended up here in Sinburi working for Note.  They both kind of do a lot of odd jobs around town to support themselves, and Note shelters them and feeds them.  I have started hiring them for small errands and the like as well.  Both are really sweet and seem interested in learning English from me.  We'll see...

This is a realllllly poor quality close up of that 'fermented' egg I mentioned above.  But, I'm not really sure if it is actually fermented.  I tried asking what it was and Note said it's "put in jar with many salt for many months until finish."  It's incredibly salty, and they seem to take tiny pieces of it and put it on a spoonful of that catfish and rice.  Any idea what's goin on hear Courtney?

This is what I'm eating for breakfast pretty much every morning, or a variation of it.  Ground pork stir fried with morning glory and some peppers over rice.  Usually I get a fried egg on top, and everything always comes with that side of fish sauce that apparently you are supposed to just drench everything with (as if fish sauce isn't consumed enough here already).  I usually buy this at the food cart out in front of my apartment for 20-30 baht (just under a dollar) depending on whether I add that egg...and I totally always add that egg.  Cucumbers are always thrown in on the side to cool the palate after all that spicy stuff...but if it's from a street cart I never eat them because I get freaked out about food poisoning ever since my 'incident' in Cambodia.  My rule is....if it isn't cooked, I don't eat it unless it's in a shell, or I washed it myself.  This dish here is usually my standard food throughout the day, those first dishes above are actually kind of expensive so that was more of a 'special' occasion.

My new favorite snack!  I can't remember the name of this fruit but I bet Marissa will.  It's found everywhere here.  You peel off the soft outer skin and inside is a grape-like fruit, but slightly more bitter.   I think it's like ten baht (a quarter) for a bunch of this stuff...they just sorta wrap it up in old newspaper and give it to you.  Oh...and the other little sticks with the plastic ribbons there is NOT food.....you stick money on those and then give it to the temple as merit during hollidays or just when going to give thanks or something.  I can't remember how they ended up there in my bunch of fruit...but there it is.

So there you have it, Court!  Hope you enjoyed....next time I'll take actual video of me slurping curry while moaning or something....I totally know you will love that.

Peace and Food!