food.

Looking back on some of my posts, I feel like I devote a lot of time and attention to what we eat here in Thailand. And I think that is because food and community is a huge part of Thai culture. Both New Vision Church (a Thai Baptist Church) and Lifepoint: Bangkok (a Southern Baptist church plant & my church while I am in Thailand!) serve meals to the entire congregation after every service! For the Thai people, building relationships centers around being able to share a meal together... so we get a lot of noodles/smoothies/food!

In America, living like that would put most people in debt within the week, but here in Thailand, food is incredibly affordable. The fresh fruit smoothies we get at Victory Monument in the evenings are only 50 cents! When Claire and I went to eat at the "Halo Pig" we bought 3 dishes of food (and not even the cheapest ones on the menu) and 3 water bottles (we were thirsty!) and the whole meal (together!) only cost $5. Usually a meal is about 30-40 baht. And we get 30 baht to every US dollar. So, "eating out" here is nothing like "eating out" in America.

[this is one of our favorite places to eat... as you can see,  the title is unreadable, so we just call it "halo pig"]

But, while I'm still on the topic of food-- I love the food here. I try not to watch them make it, and I don't want to know what's in it... but everything I've tried so far I've really enjoyed. I think I'm even developing Thai tastebuds. Meaning, that I've started eating spicy food for breakfast. I don't do spicy for every meal, but most meals I do... and I love it!

[eating breakfast outside at the bsc... cow paad gai, my new favorite dish!]

Last time I was here (in August) I was pretty paranoid about everything I ate. I was concerned that vendors/restaurants weren't clean enough, that I'd get sick, etc. After a couple days of living here I realized it would be completely impractical to worry that much about the food. So, I decided I would just eat whatever was nearby, and leave the food poisoning problems up to God... and charcoal tablets!

Apart from the rice and noodle dishes, I also have tried some new fruits: lycee, mangosteen, and this sweet-grapefruit-like fruit. All of which were aroy mak! (very delicious!) I also braved "som tum" today, which is a papaya salad. It is usually pretty spicy and has lots of vegetables in it. I thought my rice/meat/noodle diet could use some greens, so it was my attempt to be healthy! However, the one that I ordered had baby shrimp in it... and by baby, I do mean baby. I've never seen such tiny shrimp before. I could not handle eating them, they were way too crunchy-- but the rest of the salad was tasty!

[some kind of pasta/chicken dish on the left, and som tum on the right]