Breakfast in Bangkok

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Total visits: 96

Posted on: 1st Oct 2014

Chef Robert Oliver, in a recent piece on The Huffington Post, declared that Bangkok is �the Lady Gaga of Asia� and that her street food is the best on earth... It�s an understatement, insofar as Lady Gaga is quite restrained compared to Bangkok, and insofar as the English language�never very good at approximating the sensuality of food�strains at the bit when trying to render the movable feast that is the Thai capital today...

This has little to do with food but is worth mentioning as the seller is a glasses specialist sox and undies also glasses are 50TB image is intentionally shown large ...

Go through the Klong Toei market in the early hours, through the piles of sea snails and sea cucumbers and pig heads and writhing eels and live chickens, and pick your way through the alleys being hosed down in the heat. You can stop and eat anything... It is pure animality. Blood flows everywhere. One cruises through Bangkok at night in a kind of gentle astonishment... In a city of 100,000 restaurants (maybe twice that if you include street food) you are adrift in an unfathomable richness whose surface you can only scratch with a tin fork... Remember, there are 8,000 eateries in New York, and maybe 12,000 in Paris. You will never, no matter how long you live, get to the bottom of the City of Angels. You will never taste everything, not even once... "Quote"

Its 7.30am she has been out since day break selling sox underpants and reading glasses 50TB she is singing a happy song and knows me well . note the rows of bikes chained by their owners who long since caught a bus to work ...

many are fitted with seats for the kids bike are many here I ride one myself ...

That is Bangkok never will you taste everything not even once but that said after a living here for nearly three years now I am starting to see different dishes and see a pattern of eating . The fog is lifting ...

The streets are alive with small vendors operating from push carts giving them a moving kitchen with low rent or no rent most likely ... The prices are small by western standards and the food is great.. . To western eyes very different but I have never had a problem with the street food ... There are many different styles of cooking from the noodles sellers having a boiler and making the soup on the spot cooking the ingredients in the actual built in stock pot... This is kept on the boil with sometimes a gas ring or a charcoal fire .. All the ingredients are dipped in for the exact time in bamboo handled net baskets ... This is my evening meal and most of the carts have stools tables and umbrellas . Umbrellas are really needed at the moment Rainy season is happening and happening a LOT .. the soup will cost 30-35 baht and there is free iced water . On the tables there is a range of Thai add ons . Sugar , Thais love sugar then prikpon [chilly] ground peanuts all in a small glasses then there is Fish sauce as well . A box with chopsticks and a soup spoon what more do you need . Fish is a very big item on the Thai diet ...

But back to breakfast the main meal of the day and the main time to do any shopping for fruit and vegetables ... I buy bananas usually about 25 baht for a hand and I have to say there are many varieties here . You can also get cooked bananas ... Cooked on a charcoal fire ... The bananas are skewered and slowly roasted then the seller will bang them with a mallet deftly cutting them into bite size pieces and as with most take away food serve it to you in a plastic bag ... Even some coffee sellers still use a plastic bag for the iced coffee . Iced coffee is very popular its hot here .. Another favorite are this little bad boys [above] steamed with interesting fillings some spicy some sweet light and tasty morsels ...

Great respect for the Buddha here and one of the first things a Thai will see is you amulets ... I have a couple I wear and its customary and not prefabricated the mutual respect shown ... This guy had a large collection and was happy to show me as he dished me out a coconut ice cream 20TB . Lots of mobile street food ... There is a multitude of people doing the street food thing and they are out everyday except when they are not but most do it very regularly its an necessity of life .. The family is the only safety net here.

I am very popular here as are most Felangs .. White faced westerners .. This is Jak he is my friend in the local station . Thais love to have their picture taken and he jumped at the shot .. Later I was having a meal in a totally different place and a police truck stopped out jumped Jak and we shook hands and excitedly 'Swadeekuped " about ten times good to have a friend like that .. They are not so heavy the Royal Thai Police but if push comes to shove they can get it done .. They would rather not kill you but if they have to they will ...

I never really wanted a girlfriend but here its hard to avoid ... They call me "Catnip" fatally attractive to the feline species... Like in the big house [not that i have been there ] better to have one than be chased eternally by a mob . All jokes aside Apple has been and is the love of my life . She is so kind and thoughtful but does have a couple of kinks one is called Chang and the other is called Leo . [thai beer ] She can put 6 away and I can do 2 ... That was in McDonald's we were waiting for the rain to stop and having some of that good junk food ... The Scottish restaurant I have heard it called . With Apple I am never lost and can safely forget about finding my way she is my GPS and has taken me to so many places I would never have seen . And well she calls me Luckyboy and I know its true .. I am grateful . Oh smoking is alive and sick here fags are 60TB a pack of death...

THis is lady is a saintly person she sells sweets that she makes... They cost 20TB about 5 in the bag and each one is wrapped in a special fashion in a palm leaf ... When she is waiting to sell she will be reading the scriptures and is always smiling and happy ... I often buy from her and today I did later giving the food to a monk ... and getting a blessing for good luck .. I am sure its working ... Look at that face she is certainly in touch with her inner child I can see that . So good to be around this sort of vibration ... There is little stress here and life is simple ... The continual heat makes life easy . No need for heavy coats and warm clothing every day is 30 degrees and sometimes hotter ... The humidity is high . On arrival many are overcome by the heat and the intense energy of this throbbing city ... There is a real need to let go or have your finger nails torn off in the attempt to cling to anything that you see as important . Well after some time it all started to change and I was able to get important things done....

Two of Thailand's finest Chang beer 100TB....

Thai Coffee is usually made with four spoons of instant coffee and as many spoons of sugar . I have it every day Cafe Ron means hot coffee and costs 10 baht . Included is a glass of green tea... This morning I bought some sweet items ... There are many sweets available and I particularly like a certain old lady's items she is so serene . All the sweets she makes herself totally traditional and wrapped in origami like fashion in palm leaf ... Every morning Buddhist monks are on the street collecting alms and giving blessings and that is a big part of spiritual culture . Here the monks and the community are symbiotic one serving the other true spirit as against religion . They say Religion is for those who want to go to heaven where as spirituality is for those who have been to Hell and back ... Never more true here . ..

Article by Andrew "Catnip " Speers

Bangkok... MLM and mobile apps .. http://andrewtheblacksmith.com/

Skype Skullkandyman

the sense of humor is never to be underestimated .. we are all human and have needs ...

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