Laid Back Day

Yesterday (Friday) was nice and laid back. Rich and I ventured out ALONE to get coffee from the coffee lady. Janel had written down what we were supposed to say and we were successful! Janel had fixed us Brown Sugar Oatmeal Pancakes - yummy. After breakfast Janel had a little writing work to do so we lazed around and read. Finally everyone was ready to get moving. The plan was to go out and get the 2 most quintessential Thai Foods: Som Tam and Pad Thai. We were also going to pick up some ingredients at the market to cook tonight - whatever looked good.

We headed out in a taxi and ended up at Carrefour which is a HUGE indoor supermarket that is filled with nicely packaged food and beautiful displays (certainly NOT where we want to shop for our ingredients. . .!)

Janel begging to buy some Monster Munch

We glanced up and down a lot of the aisles and then headed outside to Janel's favorite Som Tam lady. Janel asked her to make it just the way she likes it - 2 chiles, dried shrimp, green papaya, lots of other secret ingredients which she puts in a big vessel and begins to mash and mix. the "chef" actually tastes it when she is done to see if it will be what you ordered. Evidently Som Tam is very customizable. We pay her the 30 bht (about $1) for a huge portion (in a baggie, of course) and move on to the Pad Thai man.

Ordering the Som Tam

Janel insists that this particular Pad Thai man makes the best. His wife also cooks at the stand on occasion, but her Pad Thai is not as good as his. Watching him cook it is a thing of beauty. He add ingredients to his simmering flat pan one at a time and gently stir-frys them as they cook. He puts in noodles, sugar, fish sauce, sprouts, scallions, dried shrimp and other goodies. The crowning glory when it is finished is a fried egg that he cooks very thin and then wraps up the whole thing in it.


We sat at the communal tables and enjoyed our 60bht ($2) feast. I think I could live on Som Tam - it is refreshing and filled with sooo many flavors. Delicious. The Pad Thai was a little more spicy, but wonderful. We loved them both.

Our Feast

On to the market to secure our dinner ingredients. We decide that we want some clams and mussels to steam, some large (and still alive) prawns to grill and some chicken for the grill. We quickly locate a sea of chicken parts and I zero in on the thighs. I hold up 4 fingers to signify that I want 4 thighs and they are quickly selected and bagged. Rich pays and we move on to the seafood.

"I'll have 4 of those"

The mussels and clams are easy to find. We ask for a 1/2 kilo of the clams and are successful. We try the same tactic for the mussels and the woman keeps filling the back while we are all protesting - "no - too much" "half" etc. We are gesturing wildly for her to put some back but before we know it the huge bag of mussels is closed and handed to us. Oh well - for 25bht (less than $1) we can throw away most!


Rich thinks he remembers where the live prawns are located so we go on a hunt. We quickly locate them and they are beauties. We decide we would like to have 8 of them and the guy indicates for us to pick them out - YEW - I am not sticking my hand in a vat of live prawns who are squirming and pinching. Rich begins to choose some and the guy helps out. Somehow we end up with 7 prawns, but we are very happy with our 120 bht ($3.50).

"Give me the jumpy ones"

We grab a few fruits (jackfruit and some other orangy round delicious fruits)and things and are ready to head home. Once we get home we are hot, hot, hot and decide to jump in the pool. There is a fantastic pool at Janel's house and nobody uses it. Janel, Carlos and I grab a beer and head out the door. Rich decides to stay in and finish his book in our air-conditioned room. We all relax in the pool for a couple of hours and I think we solved some of the world's problems.

relaxin'

Time to make dinner. After discovering that the light out by the bbq is blown out we determine that we should sautee the meat/prawns. Rich makes us a spice mix from items found in the pantry and takes over the prawns. I season the thighs simply and brown them in the skillet. We also saute the mussels/clams in butter and garlic and steam for a couple of minutes. Dinner is served! Everything is delicious and we chow down.

Ewwwww!

We are all pretty tired tonight and turn in early. Tomorrow is a BIG shopping day so we need our strength. All in all another great day with our girl.