Globe Corner Blogs

The food does not take me back. Pad thai here is not pad thai there. And only rarely, if the chef is generous, can you get khao neao gap som tom (sticky rice with papaya salad). In DC I had a chef so excited that someone wanted it he brought the generous portion out himself. But it’s just not the same in a sit-down American restaurant. Sometimes the orchids in vases on a restaurant’s clean white tablecloth take me back to the early mornings in Thailand. Walking to my meeting room, raincoat hood dripping over my nose, I stared at the gracefully curving stems and regal flowers growing in hanging gardens in people’s backyards. One basket hung on each limb of a wooden stand, like impatiens or geraniums, but orchids. And misted to some kind of dewy perfection.

In Thai restaurants here, there is always one person who asks for chopsticks with their fried rice. While in Thailand, I saw no one eat anything but noodles with chopsticks. For everything else, a large spoon was used in the right hand, while a fork in the left shoveled food onto the spoon. If you were in the northeast near Laos, you may eat sticky rice and the whole meal with your hands. This was a great relief to me, chopstick impaired as I am. I often ordered vegetable fried rice or rice with vegetables when eating out (I could never remember which was which in Thai, so it was always a surprise to see what I got). I never got eating down the Thai way, though. I marveled at the precision with which Thai people maneuvered the fork, successfully pushing one piece of everything in the dish onto their spoon. I gobbled more than savored.

In the States, Thai iced tea or iced coffee costs at least $2.50. I always desperately want it at the end of my already rather expensive meal, but can’t justify the extra expense. With woe-is-me nostalgia, I am thrown back again to evenings when my Thai roommate and I would go to the outdoor food court and buy fresh Thai ice tea, which came in a bag. Squishy, tasty, and cheap. We needed it to wash down all the bah-bins, or tiny coconut patties, which came at one baht a piece. Then my roommate would giggle, grab my hand, and take me back to our room where we would stuff ourselves and never think about me going home someday.

Read more: Food & Wine, Thailand, Travel


Llalan specializes in all things Ohio, but has funny stories from all over the US and Canada, plus a few snort-inducing ones from Thailand. And not only does she read books from around the world, she also samples beers in as many languages as possible. Favorite style: the multi-national American Double IPA.

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