Time for an update to the ol’ blogarino. It’s May Day in Queensland today, so most of my peeps are off work today, luxuriating in laziness. It’s a holiday today in Thailand too: Coronation day. Which is unfortunate.
You see, last night our air con stopped spitting out cold air. Which in Bangkok, in the hot season, officially “sucks”. It’s 36 degrees at the moment, and I’ve moved my computer and internet to the lounge room, working on the dining table, so I can get a cross breeze with the front and back doors open. Mint is currently still asleep in the over that we call our bedroom.
On Saturday I saw Iron Man at the cinema, which was great, and then met Mint at Robinsons to do some grocery shopping at Tops. Nothing particularly exciting, but mangosteens and rambutans are currently in season, and delicious. Oh, that reminds me: coffee in Thailand. Thai people universally like their coffee sweet and iced. For anyone wishing to recreate the experience, I have noted the recipe from the street vendor and report it here.
Take a glass mixing recepticle and add: 1tsp white sugar, 1tsp brown sugar, 1tsp artificial whiteneer, and 2tsp condensed milk. Add 200ml of hot coffee, stir vigorously. Take a large plastic cup, over-filled with small ice pieces to form a mound over the rim of the cup. Pour the hot coffee directly over the ice, and swirl some evaporated milk over the top. Voila. I think you can agree without even trying it that it’s pretty sweet.
The second alternative for Thais drinking coffee is sweet and hot. Not quite as sweet as the iced variety, but still pretty sweet. If you buy instant coffee (which is unfortunately turning into a habit) the most common variety is a “trio” pack: a packet of individual sachets with coffee, whitener and sugar premixed. This way, you get the recommended Thai level of sweetness to your hot coffee, and if you add some additional sugar, you could probably pour it over ice and enjoy it cold as well.
I read on an expat forum recently that someone was having trouble locating a breakfast cereal called “Grape Nuts” which is apparently common in the USA, particularly. Incidentally, grapes nor nuts have ever been ingredients in the cereal. I was interested enough in the Wikipedia page for Grape Nuts to vow that if I ever saw it, I would try it. At Villa supermarket, Soi 33, I saw a small box (453g) for 165 baht, and thought, “why not?”. So I bought it. It’s interesting: like a combination of eating rocks and all bran. It’s particularly touted as being good as a diet food because all the fibre fills you up. It certainly does, and you also have to chew each mouthful for a thousand years before you can swallow it. In short: Grape Nuts are an interesting experiment. Will I buy more? All signs point to “Maybe”.