The only things I can say in Thai are food… Aloy!

The title is almost completely true. My conversational Thai consists of: hello, thank you, excuse me, I’m sorry, short, across, down, and rock paper scissors. Extremely helpful, I know. However I can say dozens of food phrases and I’m almost to the point where I can understand Thais when they are discussing what they should order. My personal favorites? Kawpat saparot (pineapple fried rice), kaitod kratiam (a chicken dish that is distinctly garlicky), nan soem pahn (orange smoothie), and malagoah (um…I’m not entirely sure what I’m eating, but it’s really yummy). Those aren’t actual phoenetic spellings, but simply the best I can do writing out how they sound in Thai.

Today was focused around food. It’s funny how when I walk out my front door and three blocks to my left I’m taken to a whole new world of food. Things that would make you gag in America, right across from things that I want to smuggle whole suitcases of home with me. I met up with four of my Level 1 students for lunch today and they took us to a new restaurant. I tried Thai curry for the first time. I have adapted to liking the Thai level of spiciness. (Heads up, I think every Thai knows how to say, “spicy” and “no spicy” in case you ever need to order without a Thai’s help.) Anyways, the curry wasn’t the exciting part. This was…

 Yeah.... that's squid. Cute tenticles, right?

The dish that the squid was in. (Delcious, by the way.)

Yeah. I ate that. My students were much amused with how much of a fuss I made about poking it before I put it in my mouth. It was actually really good, although I had to eat it with rice so I couldn’t feel the tentacles. I was a trooper.

Some of my Level 1 students and I out at lunch.

(From the left is: Champu, Nes, Mint, and May.)

The weirder part came at dinner. Kate’s students took us out again (the four from the photo in my last blog post); this time to Kate and I’s favorite restaurant so far. This was our second time going and the lady remembered us and repeated our order from the previous time to show us. When you are the only Americans for miles, and you visit more than just once, you kind of get a reputation.

Well, I’m sure our students have a reputation there because they seemed right at home. Two of them left to go order ice cream to bring to the restaurant and when they returned they asked the restaurant to put it in the freezer until we were done. They didn’t have the slightest problem doing so. Well, while they were gone Tuey (one of the girls) pulled a plastic grocery-esque bag out of her tote. In it was two fish. Two fish, which she handed over to the restaurant woman to cook for us. No joke.

It pretty much looked like this when Tuey handed it over...

That fish had been in her bag since before their class with Kate (which had started at 7pm) and we got to the restaurant around 9:30pm. I mean, this went against everything my doctor told me, but ‘when in Thailand’, right? I just tell myself, “if the locals eat it…” and I tell myself that a lot. Here’s the fish afterword:

Adam said the eyes are delicious... Apparently that's where my bravado draws the line.

But you can’t just end a day on that note. There’s got to be dessert, right? Let me explain ice cream to you… there’s no dairy. There’s very little dairy in Thailand in general, but absolutely none in ice cream. Ice cream consists of frozen coconut milk and I don’t know what else. It in itself is delicious (aloy in Thai). However, they always put toppings on/in it. And I’m not talking your M&Ms and sprinkles. Here’s an example of some Thai ice cream toppings: coconut jelly, sticky rice, corn, different kinds of beans, stuff I can’t identify but is definitely savory and not sweet, fruits you don’t have in the United States, and egg yolk. Seriously. Liquid raw egg yolk. It’s one of their popular toppings. Well, the students bought ice cream for everyone with tons and tons of said egg yolk. It wasn’t until it had melted (it freezes originally and we thought it was some sort of frozen fruit…) that we realized what it was.

So yeah, nothing like a day full of weird food to prepare your stomach for bed. I have to work on my lesson plans, and then I’m off for the night. To all you Americans just starting your day: have a good day and have fun eating foods and knowing you’ll actually wake up the next day!