Poutine on the shoes

While my past week was filled with job hunting and nutrition-related searching, I thought you might be interested in hearing a little about my favorite parts. What are the odds of me talking about food and adventure?

Last week us ladies went out for some Wednesday night bowling. I can now say that I have bowled in Thailand.  Ahem, "I have bowled in Thailand." - hmm, somewhat less impressive than I thought it would be.  So, yes, I had to rent shoes.  The lady had me place my foot on a sizing-mat to guess my shoe size.  She took a glance and scampered to the back.  She brought me some dashing, blue and silver chromed Velcro-strapped shoes, worn by at least 1,888 people with size 8 feet. I wear a size 9-9.5.  I crammed my feet in and thought, thank you mom for the gift of determination. Now if I can just pull that Velcro strap over - Success! Then.. my feet started screaming. Ok, so I go back and tell the cute Thai gal with size 4.5 feet that, "these are too small." She runs to the back before I finish my sentence.  She comes out and she and her co-worker smile at me from behind the counter; the one kindly hands me my new shoes to try on.  I try them on, as if I were Cinderella's evil stepsister. By trying them on, I mean I crammed and smashed my feet into the Velcro-strapped torture devices. By the miracle of Buddha, Velcro strapped in. Nope, that's not going to work - she gave me perhaps.. a size 7 shoe. I looked up at her and I said 'bigger,please' using my hands.  The two girls look at each other and giggled. Clearly a language barrier, ha.  She then brings me some baby pink and white saddle shoes. Fit like a glove. Now, those shoes weren't made for walking, they were made for dancing. I will leave that to your imagination.. crazy whitegirl on a frictionless surface, carrying an 11 lbs bowling ball. Just know that I won my game.  Conclusion,120 baht decently spent.

What's this foodie been up to you ask? One day for lunch I ventured out into the fresh markets near my stay.  To give you and idea of what this looks like, several fruit/vegetable stands..one after another, mostly beautiful and colorful fruit.  I usually take some time to get the best deal.  But I had a phone date with a cute boys so I had to speed up the indecisiveness and bargaining.  I made eye-contact with this pleasant Thai women.  She greeted me with a big smile.  I asked her in Thai, 'how much.' She said, 40 baht. No reason to bargain.  This was a good deal.  This is actually a lot of fruit.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  This lasted several meals.  Fruit includes: a giant wedge of watermelon (mmm) dragon fruit (so good), orange, mango, honeydew (perfect, I don't usually even care for it), apple, and a crisp white fruit (not sure what this was, looks like a peeled potato) - seen under the mango in the lower left corner.  The fruit was delicious overall.  I disliked the mango, not sure why - had an odd taste.  The apple was bland, but crisp.  I was excited to try the apple though, as there is only one type available here as far as I have noticed and I don't typically try fruits that have peels, no way to wash it properly.  I am eager to try some grapes, but I am not feeling adventurous enough yet.

One night, I went a little crazy at a coffee shop, Doi Chaang and purchased non-Thai food.  I am sucker for hummus. Too my defense, this place was one of the top ten small-medium businesses, awarded by the UN in a business conference. I ordered felafel, with pita bread, and warmed hummus topped with sesame seeds - 120 baht.  This was a nice treat.  The felafel was a bit dry for my liking, but who am I to complain, I am eating Middle-Eastern cuisine in Thailand!  I tried some of my friend's drinks. Mel ordered an iced-coffee, so good - one of my favorite places for it.  Susan had me try her banana-chocolate smoothie, yum. We actually loved the place so much we went there the next night.  I ordered a vegetable panini, it was so good.  I don't know that I have ever had a sandwich with broccoli on it (along with several other vegetables, some cheese), but it was amazing - I splashed it with some chili. Cost, 100 baht. We met up  with some friends we made at out hostel that evening for supper.  They were two guys that also met each other traveling solo.  One guy was teaching in Seoul, Korea and the other a Brit traveling through Asia Dec '12-present with a destination of Australia in the fall.  It was nice visiting with them about their travels.  Even better was the fact that they were NOT the stereotypical, immature lads in search of inebriation and loud music.  But to be honest, I don't see as many farangs as I thought I would, perhaps I am avoiding their hangouts.  If you want to find farangs, rule of thumb, you go to bars, pizza places, Italian places, coffee shops, or AC buildings.

One afternoon last week, after my interview, I had lunch at Connect Cafe, I love the ladies that work there,  they are so sweet. And I needed internet access.  I ordered sweet-sour vegetable and tofu stir-fry.  This was really good, and they know how to cook tofu.  The dish was colorful, containing tomatoes, pineapple, carrots, onions, cucumber, and green pepper.  On the side, whole grain rice medley, with a Thai garnish salad of lettuce, carrots, and cabbage.  One I spiked the dish with some fresh black pepper, all was good. A bit sweet, with the pineapple, but not bad at all. Cost, 99 baht.

Friday made its way to me, I welcomed it and the weekend that followed. What do I have for you that's going to keep you reading? Alright, so there's a.. Brit, a Canadian, an Aussie, an Ohio-an, 2 Thai's, and 4 American gals.  We visited in the lobby talking about our travels.  Then there was me asking about food.  The two Thai guys love music and always listen to it in the evenings (while working at the hostel). And by working, I mean smiling, enjoying some beers, dancing, and ordering snacks off the vender carts circling the night streets. They allowed us all to try some of the food and wouldn't take any money for it.  The first vender they tracked down was a fried donut vendor.  The donuts looked like fried break in the shape of an 'H.' I tried a bite, not my thing. The others enjoyed the treat.  The next vendor went by. You will see the sale in the picture above.  Fried squid with a spicy sauce.  I tried the squid, it was actually really good. The sauce was especially amazing, it had spices and nuts in it.  I would like to know the recipe.  The strips you see on the right are also squid.  There isn't a lot of fishy-taste, more of a mild seafood scent.  The strips were good, especially in the sauce. Something that I probably wouldn't have thought to try on my own.   You commonly see these types of strips in the 711s, packaged up.  You can find flavors such as shrimp, lobster, fish, cuttlefish, etc., I haven't tried them but guessing they are similar to the above, enhanced with salt and oils.  I would describe this as cheap snack food, low nutritional value.

As I visited with the Canadian, originally from Quebec, we started talking about popular foods.  He told me about the traditional fast food in that area.  He said, Poutine, was quite popular.  I asked him to tell me more.  Poutine is fries with a barbecue type of sauce, topped with cheese.  Me coming from the land of cheese, had to know what type of cheese. You never know this could be a trivia question someday. He said, I don't know what kind of cheese it is, its like cheese nuggets.  I knew right then he was describing cheese curds.  What a dish.  I then began to think that this dish mush exist in WI, how had I not heard of this before? Crazy.  As a dietitian, I don't suggest you indulge in this dish, but you should certainly try it.

Sidenote: I sent a picture of Poutine/Putin from a website to Nick and my twin, to see if they could pick up the cheese curd in the dish.  Amanda responded like I thought she would, it's a twin thing. Nick, you make me smile - I love how your mind works.  I think you are learning more than either of us anticipated. Did I mention you make me smile? ..everyday.

The evening led on.  I talked with the Aussie man for a while.  If I were to guess I would say that he was in his 40s.  He was telling me that he was just coming from a meditation retreat at New Life Foundation, 20 minutes from Chiang Rai via car.  He said that the foundation was for those recovering from alcohol or substance abuse, or those wishing to explore the dynamics of meditation/yoga.  He said that he was there for a month, part of the time as a volunteer.  I was fascinated by his experience.  I love that I have the opportunity to meet some quality and cultured passerby's. 

And then there was my weekend..