Eating Thai-style

To visit Thailand, is to eat.

The second we hit the streets, we are hungry again. It doesn’t matter if we just ate the free “ABF” (“American Breakfast”) at the hotel. We walk, we pass the vendor selling ready-to-be-squeezed-just-for-you orange juice. We walk further, we pass someone selling chicken, meatballs, and all manner of foods speared on sticks, I want a few of ‘dem hot wings. A few feet down, I want to buy a dozen of those giant, crispy prawns and start tearing the heads off right on the sidewalk.

Food is everywhere and available almost anytime. And portable. Although lobster-flavored potato chips and poxi sticks are accessible at any nearby 7-11, fresh, ripe fruit is always close at hand from a street vendor. You can easily score pineapples, watermelon, and strawberries from any street vendor. Getting your 5 a day in Thailand is not an issue. Oh, sure, you can get plenty of fruit in the States but will there be someone there to peel, cut, put in a plastic baggy for you and send you on your way? C’mon, pineapple? It’s just too much dang work. And for less than what you’d probably dig out from the bottom of your purse (15 cents), you can walk away happily spearing pineapple chunks out of a plastic bag. Bags of unripe mango are sliced up and accompanied by even tinier bags of a sweet-salty pink mixture. What makes it pink, I’m not so sure, but it’s probably a safe bet to guess it’s some sort of shrimp product. And despite the stomach aches I got every single time I ate unripe mango, its combination of crunchy-sweet-sour-y goodness, made it impossible for me to resist, especially knowing I would not be able to duplicate the flavors back in the States.

Meanwhile, the S.O. is like a bloodhound sniffing out vendors selling the holy triad of chicken, papaya salad and sticky rice. He doesn’t have to look far. Entrepreneurship is strong in Thailand. If you’ve got some floor space and a wok, you’re pretty much ready to set up shop. Motorbikes rigged with side carts outfitted with propane tanks and tiny charcoal grills roam the streets, stopping anywhere hungry-looking people congregate. Walking around the city streets, amidst the smoke and exhaust, you can occasionally get a welcome whiff of grilling meats and fish. So good. Glass cases of rotisserie chicken popped up everywhere, crispy, golden skin covering meat infused with lemongrass and galanga. Almost every street corner has makeshift eateries with plastic tables, little plastic stools and what looks like rolls of toilet paper on each table serving as napkins. Thais must be a nation of neat eaters, dabbers. Napkins there are the wispiest, tiniest rectangles of paper. How one is supposed to keep dribbles of noodle soup off one’s lap with these napkins was a skill I failed to master the short time I was there.

The most interesting things in Thailand happens down low. I’m not referring to clandestine occurrences that happen on the downlow or DL. But, if you keep your line of sight close to the ground, you’ll see life happening. Naked toddlers drinking water out of a bucket. Mothers taking a break from the heat lounging on cool, tiled floors. Tiny old ladies, comfortably squatting next to large woks, gently stirring simmering green curry. Mmm…just in time for my next meal.