Potpourri, Thai Style (It's a Little Spicy)

Post title credits go to my husband. :)

These are some shots from our daily lives....What we see, what we eat, the things we do, etc.

A park within walking distance of our house with a wall of Buddha statues. It is pretty and peaceful. My son didn't want me to take this picture because it didn't seem respectful to him.

Our first bill in Thailand! This is the bill for our internet - $20/month for fast cable connection. We've also since gotten the water bill ($3/month) and electricity bill (a little over $50/month). Yup, all of our bills here total less than $100/month. So off we went to 7-Eleven to pay these bills (What? Doesn't everyone pay their bills at 7-Eleven?).

The soi (street) right outside our neighborhood (Soi 164) has everything from restaurants to hardware stores to...a plastic surgery clinic (Medical tourism is a big industry in Thailand).

Lipton ice tea in Thai.

Ketchup.

The view to the street from one of our favorite restaurants, Mr. V and Family.

A delicious dish of stir-fried pork over rice, which cost less than $3.

Chicken noodle soup. Doesn't look very Thai, but tasted awesome and very Thai.

As a friend said, "There's a lot of 'Porn' here in Thailand." Yes, not only is it an industry, but also a person's name. The head nurse at the school is named Porntip. There are also other "Porns" at the school!

The Fish Place, we call it. A place that actually sells live fish. We may get some for the pond in our yard.

A great bakery, also on Soi 164.

Would you like a "smootie"?

All the beautiful, yummy cakes.

A slice of chocolate truffle cake. Wow!

My husband had one of the Thai teachers at school write up a card to instruct motorcycle (motorcy) taxi drivers to take us to the hospital in case of a medical emergency. The hospitals here are like hotels in the U.S., some being very high-end and with great service. Medical care here is excellent and cheap in general.

We also had a card written about my son's food allergies to show restaurant staff when we go out. It's worked very well so far! My husband laminated both cards to preserve them.

I think this is one of the first dishes I made here: seasoned ground pork with greens. It actually tasted pretty good! I've given up on following Thai recipes for now because it's so hard to figure out what the ingredients look like at the markets and stores, so we're just experimenting and making things up as we go.

Treats from a friend....On the left are cookies she made from scratch (she has an oven) and on the right are Thai pastry treats. Neither lasted through the day.

On Mother's Day, we went to lunch at an authentic, "off the grid" food stall. There were no farangs to be seen there and no one spoke any English there. This is the extent of the "restaurant," which served one dish - a noodle soup. There was one big pot with broth in it, and the smaller pots on the left had bean sprouts, basil, and other things to put in the noodle. The noodle was put into the broth for a few minutes, then served with bean sprouts and basil. Took about two minutes to cook and serve. We sat at a picnic table to eat.

The noodle soup. So simple, and yet one of the best I've ever tasted. It cost 20 to 30 baht (30 baht ~ $1). But because we are farangs, the guy charged us 40 baht (still cheap, but still)!

Add-ons for our noodle soup.

A soi cat lounging by my feet while I ate.

Thai treats from our landlady.

Noodle soup I "made."

I love the English translations on Asian food containers. This is on a box of crackers. Love that it even tells you what "brunch" means!

Our health insurance manual. I wonder if I could get a job editing these things. They sure need it!

Our first pizza delivery! Neapolitan pizza fresh out of an outdoor brick oven! [The Italian restaurants here are amazing and rival any that we have tried back in the U.S., even some of the three- or four-star ones! The food is amazing!]