Food. We all think about food don't we? It's one of those topics we can go on and on about. It identifies a culture and a place. The smells of cooking distinct to each culture. In Thailand you can often catch a whiff of fish sauce on the street as you walk by a food vendor (lots of restaurants here are open air, which means you smell what is being cooked and served as you pass by. That can be a good thing, or maybe not a good thing (especially if you don't like fish sauce...) But some of the fun discoveries for my kids have been passionfruit. An abundance of passionfruit here!!! This first picture is of a passionfruit juice, seeds and all, that was served at one of the restaurants my friend and I visited. YUMMY!!! (Oh, and notice the bamboo straw, this restaurant was all savvy about no plastic use!)
And then there's my beloved Thai coconut. Mmmm. When we moved back to Florida we thought all coconuts were created equal. We couldn't understand why all the Floridians would leave their ripe coconuts on the tree and then hire a yard worker to come cut them out and take them away. After trying a few (we would ask some of these yard workers how to get our hands on these coconuts) we realized why Floridians don't appreciate coconuts. Blech. Nothing like the Thai coconuts. There were a few occasions when I would break down and pay $4 for a Thai coconut imported all the way to Florida. Here, we pay a dollar and they cut it open and serve it with a straw! (yes, a plastic one).
And then there are the drink offerings placed around town at sacred spaces. The Thai are Buddhist and if you come here you will see little (or big) spirit houses (a little version of a temple that marks a space sacred) with various drinks and food placed as gifts to the spirits. Here you can see passerby's placed a smoothie, and lots of red Fanta (a sweet red soda) for the spirits. Lots of plastic straws! :-).
And though not specific to Thailand--there's the comfort of finding something familiar in a foreign country. Ironically I don't usually visit Starbucks in the states, I prefer the local coffee shops. But when I come to Thailand I find that Starbucks feels familiar and comforting. One morning I had some time to waste and found myself inside of Starbucks. Notice how there's the golden touches in this particular Starbucks! You gotta hand it to them for making it "Thai" style, while keeping it's classic cool vibes going. There's still plenty of local coffee shops, but when I need that American fix, there's Starbucks to the rescue!
