coffee is my HAPPY

Over the past weeks I have been having all sorts of adventure.  From summer camps to Surat Thani (ST) exploration, I have been enjoying time.  Several of my mornings have started with 3-4 year olds.  They keep my energy up and have me smiling often.  There are 17-20 of them depending on the day.  I work with their English speaking and motor development, but also creating fun activities for them.  Mostly I take advantage of playing with gooey, messy, colorful things.  My best discoveries so far, playing with color, duck-duck-goose (they say duck-duck-goot or gooth - ha makes me laugh).  I just showed them the game two days ago and they are in love with it.  It's the simple things.

Everyday, I walk around the ST, looking for new and interesting things to see and do.  Depending on the day and time of day, there seems to be a variety of new happenings.  I came across a local fair on the east central area of ST a couple of weeks ago. It was neat to see.  It was different that the fair by the river.  It was small but with different foods and venders.  Everyone seemed like they were having a good time.  Kids were just getting out of their summer classes, walking towards the fair, enjoying games and rides.  In one of the clothing stalls, I saw some skirts for 100 baht each.  I decided it was a good price and that they were good quality, I purchased three.  I know I will get some good use out of them working with a more strict dresscode, black skirts and pants.  Interestingly, there are always 40-50 year old working at all-female clothing stalls.  I had to laugh as the man assisting me (in his button-down shirt and boxer shorts) was telling me what size I needed. 
 
I have tried different foods after school or during the lunch hours.  I have had some good luck finding some new and interesting food.

 Khao paht - chicken fried rice 

I am not a big fan of fried rice, you see a lot of it in Asia. This however was probably the best I have had.

 

One day after class I stopped and order an item in the window mostly because I had no idea what it was.  I found out later, from Chanphen that it was beet root with egg. The flavor was good, it was a sweet/salty-tangy taste. It doesn't look like much, but it was worth a try.  With it, each table receives the long beans (shown above) and the table condiment is the soy/fish sauce with minced chilies to add flavor and heat to nearly any dish.  Overall it was good, but there was more rice than the actual dish. I have a feeling I was suppose to add another entree to the rice. Next time I shall get it figured out, cost 25 baht. Some free ice water included, much appreciated on 90+degree days.

Chanphen (pronounced Shawn-Penn) met up me several times in the past two weeks, we went for several city strolls.  One days I decided I'd treat her to a coffee outing.  She suggested the spot.  Chanphen LOVES coffee. She always tells me, "coffee is my happy." She says she drinks 3 cups a day, when she would rather drink 5. She cuts back because she believes it's healthier. She enjoyed her hot coffee and I tried my first Thai ice-coffee.  Mine was a bit too sweet, but not awful.  Thais' like to add sugar and condensed milk to their ice-coffees.  Custard breads are available all over, typically at the street side or in mobile street carts. She encouraged me to try it.  The color is natural, comes from the pandan leaf.  The sauce or custard is coconut milk, sugar, and a pandan leaf.  The bread is also colored by the pandan leaf, steamed.  The leaf is used in many dishes, favored for its aromatic properties.  The bread is very soft and has a sweet chewy feel.  To concluded the afternoon stop, we enjoyed some hot tea.

Chanphen and I have had several dates lately.  She was remodeling a bathroom so she asked if I wanted to got to Tesco Lotus.  I was picturing the small grocery store (more like a grocery/convenience store) that I see all over Thailand.  I met her at her place. He nephew then drove us to the outer limits of the city, where we ended up at, I would describe as a mall.  There was a 'home center', called Home Pro on the upper level.  It was similar to a Home Depot.  It wasn't exciting but it was a worthwhile experience seeing more of the region by vehicle versus foot (somewhat limiting). In addition, I think the workers hadn't seen such white skin walk through their doors.  Interesting culture piece for you, if Thai's aren't working they sit and talk, and sometimes sleep. So it's really obvious that I am not a typical sight, when I walk by a group of workers sitting in an aisle talking, they all stop talking to watch me.  The funniest thing I experienced was waiting for Chanphen at the checkout.  The man holding her bags was lifting the bags in one hand as if they were dumbbells, staring at his biceps - all 80 lbs of him. He would casually look over at me, I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud.

On the way back we stopped along the river and went to a Vietnamese restaurant.  Her nephew joined us, not saying much of anything the whole trip. I tried talking with him, and eventually ruled out him knowing any English.  I would say he was in his early thirties.  At the restaurant were given a list of menu items on a tablet, all in Thai.  We then checked off what we wanted, I had no idea what any of the food was aside from a few menu pictures. Kind of exciting.  Chanphen encouraged me to order a few items so that we could all share them together, common practice in Vietnamese and even some Thai restaurants (family style).  As we waited for food, I began to ask Chanphen several questions about different foods.

My interest was spurred by a large dish of herbs and greens placed before us on the table.  I tried some new herbs, the Thai basil is still one of my favorites.  The others were still quite good. Slowly her nephew began to contribute to the conversation. After about 2 hours of knowing him he started to talk to me after he heard me say that I grew up on a farm.  He spoke English after all.  I soon learned that he was going to school for nuclear engineering, hoping to start his own sustainable farm through natural energy.

Soon enough the food came.  This was such a fun way to try some new cuisine.  Between the two of them I was able to get some good translation and food info from them. And so the course went.  As a customary welcome, her nephew paid for the meal.  He was very happy to do it and wanted me to feel welcome in ST. Check out some of our dishes..

 

 Spicy Tuna Salad - tomatoes, lemongrass, chilies, green papaya, red onions, chilies, herbs, sauces.

  Vietnamese fish and vegetable rolls with a spicy peanut and vegetable sauce.

  Steamed pork in leaves, rice noodles with crisp onion, and spicy peanut/chili sauce.  The pork was really good, looks interesting in the leaves but was really tender and flavorful.

 Fried tofu with a sweet honey/toasted peanut sauce.

Each dish was really good.  The sauces were all different.  I look forward to revisiting this restaurant, nice location along the river. Sadly I had all the Thai names of these foods, but my papers got rained on and now I don't know where I put them to keep them 'safe.'

PS I am a little behind on my posts with my moving and Malaysian visa run. Stay tuned for more fun.