Sunday, September 12

And...it’s the weekend! On Friday evening, we took the bus to Yaowarat (Chinatown), which was lined with open street food carts for the first time since June. We headed to our favorite hidden alley spot to get guay tiew khua gai (fat rice noodles pan-fried with chicken and egg). It may have had something to do with the fact that we were hungry and tired and the walk in the rain seemed to take longer than usual, but it seemed to us to be the best version of the dish we’ve ever had.

Then we wandered up and down Yaowarat, huddled under our umbrella.

I picked up some khanom buang—crispy little crepes filled with meringue, and Roman got patong go—Chinese style doughnuts, with pandan custard. I got two kinds of khanom buang: one with meringue and egg floss and one with meringue and what I think were dried shrimp? I was not into those but, happily, Roman shared his doughnuts with me.

On Saturday, we headed to Khlong Toei market. Before leaving, I gathered all the items I’ve learned, from experience, are essential for the market. I had a mental image of an illustration detailing that list and—though I wish I was a better artist—I couldn’t help but attempt to recreate it:

Khlong Toei can be stressful—it’s hot under those tents, and crowded, and the smells of live birds, blood, and seafood can be a lot. But we’re getting the hang of the market, and it wasn’t as hot of a day, and I found I enjoyed myself the most I ever have.

A worker moving some wares

The covered part of the market is the least busy (and least stressful) part

A woman chopping chilies

A vendor relaxing

Roman buying duck eggs

Ducks in a row

Roman in the market

We also took an (essential) break to drink coconut shakes and admire the strikingly blue butterfly pea flowers we bought on impulse.

We picked up everything on my list (and a few extra things): head-on shrimp, a fillet of salmon, firm yellow tofu, two duck breasts, duck eggs, lemongrass, galangal, limes, chilies, shallots, cucumbers, broccoli, asparagus, two kinds of mushrooms, baby corn, dried chilies, dried shrimp, rice, palm sugar paste, and those butterfly pea flowers. In total, it cost us $27.

Back at home, Roman washed the duck eggs (they are always so dirty!) while I repackaged the meat and seafood, and cut the antennae and unicorn horns off the shrimp so they wouldn’t stab me—and got stabbed anyway.

Sybylla, who knew all about the pea flowers, said I could make groovy indigo beverages with them, so I looked up a recipe on the internet and made two kinds of concentrated teas—one with palm sugar and one without. Blue food will make an appearance before the end of this blog post.

Totally unedited photo!

In the early evening on Saturday, I started to prepare the mushrooms I had bought. They looked like the straw mushrooms we bought at the market last month, but seemed almost more...truffle like? But maybe that was just because they were so dirty.

Like, so dirty. I wouldn't normally submerge mushrooms in water, but these were kind of an exception. I filled a bowl with three changes of water before the mushrooms looked clean, and then I wiped each one off with a kitchen towel.

I'm not really sure why I took photos as I prepped the mushrooms?
Maybe I thought I'd be reporting on the incredible meal I made with them? What folly!  

They're cool mushrooms—the outside is smooth and oval-shaped, but when you slice them open you see they have a little hidden mushroom inside:

Anyway, I started to sauté the mushrooms, and then I prepared the shrimp (shell and head on, which the internet told me I could do) with some garlic and chilies, and plated the sticky rice. And then I tried one of the mushrooms...and got a mouthful of grit. The second mushroom was fine, but the third one? More grit. I decided to put the mushrooms in bowls and serve them alongside dinner—Roman and I could decide whether or not to eat them. We did not. The shrimp, at least, was delicious.

On Sunday, we headed to the ceramics store we like to pick up some jars, dessert plates, and a couple other kitchen items. We walked past the pet section of Chatuchak market along the way, and saw lots of interesting things—we saw meerkats in cages (which is adorable and maybe not, yah know, the best for the meerkats)...

We saw three turtles that had stacked themselves one on top of the other...

We saw lots of fish in bags for sale...

And bunnies!

And we saw very cute (but hard to photograph) sugar gliders...

And across the sidewalk from the animals you could buy as pets, we saw insects you could buy as food!

Water beetle close-up

We also stopped for lunch at an outdoor food stall (The thrill of this has not gotten old yet), where I got moo krob with Chinese broccoli and Roman got moo krob with egg noodles.

And then we returned home to chill for a bit.

I am feeling some anxiety about proving my vaccine status here.. I can’t believe it, but I lost my vaccine card from Utah. Augh! It’s so maddening, in part because of my own ego stuff—it’s important to me to be someone who is responsible and doesn’t lose important stuff, blah blah blah. When I went through all my paperwork (like, four times), I found all the other important things I’m really good at saving—my birth certificate, every short-term lease agreement we’ve signed since arriving, my IUD card that I’m sure I’ll manage to hang onto for five years like I did the last one, etc, etc, etc—but NO vaccine card. AUGH!!!

I emailed the place where I was vaccinated in Utah to see if they could reissue my card, but didn’t hear back from them. So then I bought a short-term international calling plan from my phone company and called the health center in Utah. The woman I spoke to was very nice, and said they could reissue my card…I would just have to show up in person with photo ID.

Damn, damn, damn. So, I have a pdf of the card, front and back, so it’ll probably be ok? But I feel anxious about it. Thailand has just implemented a policy where anyone taking a domestic flight has to prove their vaccination status, using an app that the Thai Health Ministry has created that collects everyone’s vaccine and Covid testing history. And people suspect that this will soon be required for entry into malls, restaurants, etc. I don’t know what this will mean for either of us—Roman has his vaccine card, but he got his in the US too, so it’s not like the Thai Health Ministry will have his vaccination info, either.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. I have been vaccinated, and I do have some proof of it, so hopefully that will be enough.

ANYWAY. For dinner on Sunday I made Thai omelets with butterfly peas, served over (butterfly pea) blue rice:

And then we went out and got out first foot massages in months.