Not so far from civilization after all...and a food tangent

Today, driven by a desperate need for a blowdryer, and iron and some hangers I set off in search of some kind of shopping establishment that had four walls and did not consist of sweaty stalls surrounded by rabid dogs and ditches filled with smelly mystery liquid (Chatuchak I love you but sometimes a girls needs a little Western flavour).

I had been told that there is a big shopping center called Robinson/Carrefour somewhere near my house, I had also seen on the internet that there was a Jusco (yay Japan) near my house as well.



Me, being a stupid foreigner figured that there was only one of these shopping centers however after a fruitless mime game with, and subsequent abandonment from, a cab driver in the driveway of my apartment building, I was informed by the front desk staff that there are several Robinsons. She kindly radioed what I was trying to do to the driveway guard guy and he told a cabby where I wanted to go. Hooray!


As it turns out the shopping center is only about a 10 minute cab ride away which is great and there is pretty much everything I could want there. Office Depot, a home depot type place, big grocery stores, a Jusco and Daiso as well as some of my well loved Japanese favorites (Mr. Donut!!)



To make a long story short, I am now the proud owner of a blowdryer, iron and hangers, not to mention a garbage can and a cutting board. Small pleasures in the familiar world but quite exciting in a land where, for the moment, the smallest task is a huge undertaking.

What I did notice while shopping is that some things in Thailand are not that cheap, in fact they are pretty darn expensive!



I spent about a half an hour stolling through the aisles of Carrefour grocery store. I think it might be a bit of a fancy place since I think its actually an European chain but there definitely wasn't many deals to be had, at least where foreign food is concerned. For example, a small package of emmenthal cheese goes for 10 bucks Canadian! yowza! I also saw frozen burritos for 10$ for 2! Definitely not the land of 75 cent dinner I was told about. I guess I will once again be living in the land of no cheese...sad memories of Japan. Boo! I didn't find any dill pickles but I have a feeling that when I do, they are not going to fall into the rock bottom basement prices category.

It's become clear that those people who say it's cheaper to eat on the street than to cook for yourself aren't lying. Each time I go to the grocery store it costs me about 600 baht which is just under 20 bucks which isn't cheap. So, for the sake of my bank account I'm moving towards the street food.



Exhibit A:


Mystery plastic bag street food. What is it? Your guess is as good as mine but they only cost a buck each and as I found out after digging in they were quite tasty indeed.

What I have been forced to accept is that I am going to be spending a lot of time over the next two years fishing the meat out of my food. I don't eat meat but I've never been too terribly militant about it being in my food. I just fish it out or eat around it. I don't care if my food touches flesh, I just don't want to put it in my mouth. Yes, I know it makes me a bad vegetarian but I eat fish so technically I guess I'm not a good vegetarian to begin with.

Both of of my mystery bags had meat in them so I had to doctor them up a bit. Take some stuff out and put some stuff in and in an act that would probably make a Thai person gasp in dismay I mixed them together!


And the final result:


Yummy! Mystery bag food (post meat removal) and salad (washed in previous boiled water of course).
So far my digestive system is not revolting...it has only been a few hours however.



Cheers from a gastronomical guessing game
J