Annual trip to immigration, time to renew the one-year visa. Immigration is always bizarre, it’s a massive operation in a simply massive building located well out of town.
You see loads of people in various forms of trouble- from overstay to working on a tourist visa- while you rarely see a person dressed in a collared shirt that is tucked-in to long pants and wearing closed-toe shoes. Really people, it’s not a trip to the beach (not that I would wear many an outfit I have seen today to the beach, or anywhere), it’s a visit with the government.
To the point of this post- how long will a trip to immigration take? 4-5 hours, maybe longer.
How does one pass the time? In Thailand, where there are foreigners, there is the opportunity to sell and so up springs stalls and a market on the ground floor.
…to see the last gasps of rainy season
I’ve got no idea as to when this product or advertisement was a good idea….go ahead, think of your own caption.
Bangkok offers a peek at the unique- day and night.
Realization- I’m becoming a local.
Event that lead to realization- thinking a Tom Yum style dry noodle soup with fish balls is a ‘comfort food’.
Few weeks into the new year, Christmas spirit still going strong in this Buddhist country.
Damn, looks like this is becoming a food blog, I need to move past posts on food as far too many good blogs on Thai food.
Yesterday I wrote about Jook and eating breakfast. Today I had a totally different style of breakfast- 3 items on rice.
As you wander around Bangkok and look at the food on offer from street venders and in food stalls, you’ll notice many have pans of food. Ordering is simple, the seller will scoop out some rice, you point to the dishes you want and that’s it. My meal was egg, stir fried veggie and spicy ground pork- three good flavors and a great breakfast (if you’re in the mood for rice and spicy food for breakfast) for thb30.
Suggestion- if you are going to buy this kind of food, go to a busy vender/stall, avoid the sellers that seemed to have cooked the food prior and left the food sitting out all day.
Breakfast in Asia has always been a challenge for me- I was raised on breakfast foods primary consisting of eggs, breads, muesli, cereals with some sausage or bacon. Salmon would be the only fish I’d eat for breakfast, but that came as an adult.
Rice or noodles were never on the menu.
You’re not going to find breads, cereals or a western breakfast on the streets here, rice and noodle soups are the staples. What you will find is jook (pronounced joke). And good jook is, well, goooood.
Jook is slowly boiled rice- done properly it’s not runny or sticky- with some meat and fixings thrown in; it’s a porridge. Generally the meat is ground pork balls that have been boiled and other parts of the pig, like sliced intestines, thrown in for good measure. Spring onions and sliced ginger are the primary garnish, eggs- soft boiled, hard boiled or salt- can be added.
The rice is cooking in a massive pot, joke is served piping hot and each bowl is made to order.
I opt for the ground pork balls and spring onion- I’m still not big into the intestines and such and ginger is too strong a flavor for me. The picture above is without any egg. Like all Thai dishes, condiments are added by the eater, the common condiments are white pepper and a vinegar that includes some mild chili.
If you want to order a bowl of jook as shown in the picture, here is it in Thai: เอาโจ๊กใส่หมูอย่างเดียวไม่ใส่ขิง
Try it, it’s great and will cost around thb30, that’s about US$1 for a great breakfast.
Follow up- the day after I wrote this I did indeed have rice and spicy food for breakfast, have a read about that breakfast here.
Farang ( ฝรั่ง) In Bangkok 