Saturday, December 6, 2008

Thailand, Green Stuff, Grand Prix


Well, I'm back in the land of smiles. It was a long, tiring trip but it went without a hitch. It was approximately 39 hours of travel from checking in to the airport in Houston to checking into the hotel in Pattaya. I barely had the energy to walk down the street for dinner. But the prospects of seeing the friendly people there at the restaurant and eating my favorite meal (fried sea bass with chili sauce) propelled me.

I was very pleased to see that they are on the last day of the World Cup Grand Prix Jet Ski competition, right here just a few blocks from the hotel. It is Sunday so the shop is closed and I have a day to recuperate. I get to go watch the races today! Wow, what an excellent, unexpected bonus!

I decided to try a new dish from the breakfast buffet today. I had seen it for some time at almost every breakfast buffet in Thailand, but it never appealed to me. It is thick slices of bread kept in a steamer, with a large bowl of green gooey looking stuff sitting next to it. I rarely see anyone get it, but I assumed one was supposed to get a slice or two of bread and spread some of the green stuff on it. The "stuff" looked to have the consistency of pudding and it had a homogenous pale green color. I was not sure if it would be spicy, salty, or sweet in flavor. Things are not always as they seem in foreign countries. Today I decided to try it. I understood why the bread was sliced thick, the steam made it so soft that it almost came apart when I picked it up. I slopped a blob of green stuff on it. I looked around to see if anyone was watching me, not certain if I was doing this right. After all, I wasn't even certain if the bread and goo were intended to go together. I could have been doing the equivalent of pouring maple syrup on spaghetti noodles, or putting ketchup on pancakes. I sat down, cut off a piece of the bread-goo combination, put it in my mouth, and it was...delicious. It was kind of a vanilla pudding flavor. I was too full for seconds, but I will get some more tomorrow.
Now I'm off to the gym and then off to the boat races!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you are being exposed to a lot of local culture, especially in the area of Thai food. I read that Thai breakfast, lunch, and dinner could be interchanged in any order and you are still "etiquettely" correct. After reading this and a previous blog where you related to us the mysteries of Thai cuisine, I am thinking that the Burger King shown in one of your earlier snapshots, is sounding pretty good at the moment! Bon appetit!