Jim in Thailand: Street Food I

This is the first of three separate posts highlighting the amazing and varied street food available in Bangkok. The other two posts will be interspersed into my Thailand blog series, so as not to overwhelm.
A big part of exploring another culture, in my book, is the food. Julianna and I both love food and love trying new foods. We have always taken great enjoyment in exploring the culinary tastes and traditions in the countries we've visited, from Poland to Paris, Beirut to Cape Town. I missed Julianna sorely throughout this experience - it's not half as much fun exploring a new place in the world without my partner, companion, and friend. But I felt this most keenly when I was trying a new dish, snack, or morsel.

Yes, they have crepes! Not quite as good as our favorite Parisian vendor (remember him, J/K/S?), but a fun surprise and a treat.




I picked up 2-3 skewers of chicken from the woman below. They were simply amazing and I will miss them!


Yes, waffles. The ones with a stick protruding contain a hot dog - you can see the special waffle machine for those on the left. The flat ones contained either sweet or savory fillings. Sweet: raisins, chocolate, or creamed corn (corn falls on the sweet side of the sweet-spicy spectrum in Thailand, which makes good sense if you think about its flavor). Savory: green onion and a rutabaga-type veg.


Freshly squeezed orange juice.



That's Matt, one of my classmates, ordering a light, fried snack. The vendor kneads and shapes the dough into a square which he fries in the small pool of oil on the left. It puffs up beautifully, then he adds requested toppings, such as jam, bananas and chocolate, corn, or spices.

Jim in Thailand: Welcome to Bangkok

Bangkok, or Krueng Thep in Thai: the City of Angels. I have spent the past three weeks in this amazing place with nine other IU students and one professor. This constitutes a credit-bearing course for us entitled, Service-Learning and Educational Consulting in Thailand. Our professor, Nancy Chism, has contacts at several universities in Bangkok and set up this course as an opportunity for students to learn about the role of educational consulting and to gain a better understanding of higher education in Thailand. We were split into teams, each team working exclusively with one assigned institution. My team, which included Brittany Graham and GaoLing LeBeau, was assigned to Chulalongkorn University (or "Chula", for short). In addition to providing presentations on issues ranging from faculty development to student activities to internationalization, we also attended classes, met with administrators, and had many informal discussions with our peers in higher education at Chula.
It has been an amazing opportunity, not only to experience another part of the world (sights, sounds, people, and of course, the food!) but also to gain a better grasp of the complexities of international, cross-cultural communication and collaboration. I have learned so much, both from the standpoint of serving in a consultant role (not easy! This requires patience, humility, and careful listening in order to understand how one can best serve the institution) and simply through observing and experiencing the way academia is done in another part of the world.
The opportunity to build relationships with scholars and fellow higher education doctoral students has been especially sweet.
In the following posts I hope to provide a glimpse into my experiences here. More on the university later. For now, welcome to Bangkok!


Elephants are special animals in Thailand. Wars used to be fought over them centuries ago.


Buddhism is the dominant religion in Thailand. One component of the religious belief system is a belief in spirits that live in certain places and are associated with certain activities. Thus, nearly every home, business, and office building has a small, raised house outside that is dedicated to the resident spirit, to serve as a place for it to live. Typically, these houses are decorated with miniature furniture, candles and incense, and are always kept very clean. Small dishes of fresh food are placed inside them each day. I know I said "small house," but some are more mansion-like, such as the one below, which is located outside a large mall.


Yes, they have frangipani in Thailand! I think they are also known as plumeria, but Julianna and I first met them while we were living in Cape Town, South Africa, where they are called frangipani. So beautiful and always blooming.



Thailand, and especially Bangkok, its capital city and hub for business, fashion, and tourism, is a busy, bustling, urban conglomeration of concrete, (some) green space, small canals, many shrines and temples, a grand palace, tons of street food vendors (which deserves its own post - I love food, and these have been a highlight of my Thailand experience!) and a big river running through it, the Chao Phraya.
Our accommodation was situated very near to the main shopping district of Bangkok - one can buy anything one needs in the 4 huge malls in this area. In addition, if one has a craving for American fast food, it's nearly all here: KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, even Subway and Swenson's Ice Cream (which I thought existed only in one place on earth: Jackson, Mississippi. Gieser family: Do you remember going there with the college students during our Canton days?).





One of the national pasttimes is muay thai, or Thai boxing, which combines punching and kicking. The mall across the street hosts an outdoor match every Wednesday evening.





There is a 7-Eleven on almost every corner (notice the sign below?). The one in Wheaton went out of business long ago, but apparently they are thriving elsewhere in the world.

Thanks for the idea, Mom

At Mom's suggestion, I decided to use the shiitake mushrooms in a quiche - this one was with salmon, cheddar, and fresh herbs. After I baked it I realized I had forgotten to throw in some of the garlic scapes too! (from our CSA box) Oh well I will just have to put those in my omelette on Sunday night instead. I had no trouble gobbling down two big slices of quiche for dinner, along with fresh salad greens (from CSA box) and some homemade mustard balsamic vinaigrette. Ah, the glories of land beginning to produce its wonderful vegetables. If only I could be in Durham to participate with Rachel & Craig in the 1st year of their Sweet Heaps CSA venture. Best of luck, guys!

Meanwhile Jim regales me on Skype with stories of all the interesting fruit and other foods he is discovering in Thailand - mainly via food cart. Mangosteen, durian, papaya, chicken satay, pad thai, iced coffee, doughnuts stuffed with a sweet corn center. Yum. Perhaps he will do a post himself one of these days.

And in Gemma news, she continues to enjoy her bananas & avocado - particularly because they smush well into one's hair. (I still think it's cute...it's early yet.) Our 9 month old is officially 18 lbs 2 oz and 28.25". About average weight and a bit on the tall side. In the last week, she has figured out how to pull herself up to standing and is quickly gaining mobility by walking around the rooms, holding onto furniture or the wall and anything else she can reach. She will even fling herself out of my hands and take 4-5 steps on her own before falling. Watch out, world!

Outdoor Breakfast - with avocado!

With hot (90s) & humid days recently, we have been grabbing any semi-cool temps outside when we can - which means breakfast on the back patio. (For those who have seen it, you know that "patio" is a generous title.) Gemma loves to listen to the birds and point in the air and say "biiiir" (or something like that). Today on the menu was bananas and avocado to start the meal. Previously she didn't like avocado when I mashed it into her cereal, but this time I cut pieces and she liked to eat it that way. (Is this a sign of independence already?!) At one point, she was so excited for more that she grabbed her bib and starting sucking on the leftover bits that were sticking to it. In the last photo, she was vigorously waving arms and legs. I think that may be a "more" signal...notice the furrowed, intense brow...she gets that from her father...

We miss you already, Daddy

On Thursday morning Jim took the bus from Indianapolis to Chicago, spent the night in Wheaton with Mom & Dad, and then on Friday began his flying journey: Chicago - Los Angeles - Bangkok, Thailand. He is supposed to arrive in Bangkok at 6 PM on Saturday (our time, which is 6 AM Sunday in Bangkok!), and later convene with his other classmates. They will have a few days to adjust to the time change and get to know the city before they begin their consulting assignments at various universities. We miss him a lot already!

Gemma in particular misses her daily wrestling matches with Daddy. She's a bit of a crazy girl...

Also, who is going to eat all these glorious shiitake mushrooms? At Friday's pick-up of our CSA half-share, there was a bag of these beauties (in addition to field greens, garlic scapes and radishes). While I don't care for mushrooms and have never seen the 'point' in eating them, these may convert me - plus I have a bag of them waiting to be consumed! All I know is to slice and saute them as a side to a nice breakfast (or supper) of bangers & mash & fried tomatoes. Which will be delicious, I know. Shiitake mushrooms are quite meaty and with a mild scent and flavor. Anyone else have suggestions?