Went to lunch with Nadda, Jaray, and Phon today. We went to a place on the next street over -- an open courtyard, with restaurants and food stalls all around the sides. They all want Japanese food -- works for me. So, we go to the Japanese place and they all order the same thing. I make sure there's no egg involved and then just order the same thing. I don't know what it is but I like Japanese food so whatever. We sit down and wait. And wait. And wait. They finally come over and tell us that they ran out of rice and it will take 20 minutes longer. Seriously -- you ran out of rice? In Thailand? At lunch? Basically every meal they serve here comes with rice. In fact the word for lunch and the word for rice are the same - "kaow." Turns out that they have enough for two meals, but not all four. So, Jaray and Nadda say that they'll go to another place to get something else and Phon and I stick with our Japanese meals.
We all convene back at the table outside. Jaray has some sort of chicken and vegetables over rice -- looks good. The food for Phon and me shows up -- it's basically stew but with pork instead of beef. But definitely stew -- carrots, potatoes, gravy. Over rice. It's tasty, but it's 90 degrees outside -- the perfect time for stew. Then, Nadda shows up with a bowl of noodles with some very odd looking things floating in there. I know it's rude, but I have to ask what each thing is. The first thing is fish paste mixed with flour, then fried and sliced so it kind of looks like sliced turkey, only grey and with air bubbles in it. The next thing looks like pieces of liver -- it's that shape and color -- but I'm pretty sure it's not liver. I ask what it is and she says, "blood." I say, "excuse me?" because I'm assuming I just misunderstood her accent. But no, she says "blood" again. I ask how it gets to be that shape and color and she says "you have to boil it." Okay, so she's eating slices of fish paste and blobs of boiled blood with noodles in broth. Seriously?
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