A Look Back – Andrew’s Diary

by Andrew Moncada

Looking back at these last four weeks, I think the best way to commemorate them is through Top Four Lists. Without further ado…

1. The food

It’s not just that the food was good, but also the importance of it. My days seemed to revolve around food. It’s part of the culture, the overall identity. Not since my freshman year of college has so much of my time been devoted to eating. During the homestays, the families would bring out bowls and bowls of food containing various curries, fish, vegetables, and fruits. Definitely discovered some new favorite foods along the way, such as the Thai omelet.

Now a Thai omelet isn’t a traditional omelet, or one that you and I would imagine. For one thing,you can have a Thai omelet any time during the day. Usually it’s more of a lunch or dinner food. Also, a Thai omelet doesn’t have an excessive amount of things in it. Actually, it’s just the egg…and usually some bits of meat inside, such as chicken. Chicken, egg. Nothing complicated, rather stupid simple. But it’s absolutely amazing. Put some chili paste over that thing along with some rice, and it’s complete heaven. That’s another thing about Thai culture that will probably be a running theme in this post — everything’s simple. The ingredients in the dishes are kept to the bare minimum, it seems. For most meals at the homestay, the foods were collected from the garden or freshly caught at the sea.

Couple of sidenotes:

-Because of this innate ability for a Thai person to cook up a fantastic meal with only a handful of ingredients, if a Thai were to ever be a contestant on Hell’s Kitchen, I’d put it at 2:1 odds that he or she would win if they aren’t required to know a handful of Eureopean dishes. Those challenges where the cooks have to make a meal by only using ingredients they find in a half-stocked fridge would be no contest.

-You eat with a spoon and fork by using the fork to help scoop food onto the spoon. Kinda takes a meal or two to get used to, but it’s a highly efficient way of eating. Very easy to clean up your plate, because you can destroy every grain of rice with the spoon-dominated method.

-Mangosteen is quickly climbing my favorite fruits pyramid. It looks like something that Link from Zelda would eat. Purple ball with a cartoon-ish green leaves at the top. Open it and there’s white flesh. Really good.

1b. Bua loy
My absolute favorite dessert. Sticky rice balls in coconut milk. I need to figure out this recipe. Ok, I need to stop thinking about this or else I’m going to pass out.

2.Having fantastic beaches everywhere
Not fair.

3. Being able to walk down the street and smile and talk with people
Try doing this in LA, and people will think you’re crazy.

4. Not having to follow the LeBron James fiasco.
With limited internet access and no TV, I’m glad that I didn’t have to be bombarded with LeBron James news or “The Decision.”