Never having been to Thailand before I was not very familiar with Thai food. Well if you haven't had it find yourself a restaurant and try it. Some of the most incredible food I have ever eaten. You do have to be careful there is nothing like Thai spice. Not all dishes are hot and the nice thing is that most restaurants will ask your preference of hot.
We have had our share of fine dining, Mantra being one of those places. Food was great but usually that's the expectation and why you go there. Also to pay an absorbent amount of money. No complaints there.
Have you ever driven up to a garage where there are cars parked next to the tables and thought "where the hell are we and are we seriously going to eat here" oh sorry, that was just me. This was our restaurant, The Garage. I still haven't quite figured out how one would choose to go to a place like this and expect great food but then again I haven't lived here for very long. I'm hoping to figure that out eventually. So we went and we ate and ate and ate. It was fantastic.
A man drives up on his bike with his cart attached ( this is a normal site) and sells us crickets and well, tries to sell us dried frogs. My brave Ryan and Erin eat crickets. They are actual crickets. Ewwww you say, yup my thoughts too.
A woman drives up and the kids get ice cream.
The people who own/run the restaurant cook the meal in their very own family kitchen with the father inspecting all the dishes as they are brought out to us.
We will be return customers.
Here is The Garage, check out the napkin holder ~ yep it's toilet paper inside. That is a typical napkin holder found in all restaurants.
A sign you see at all the best eateries. ;) Here it was at The Garage. I actually have seen this sign at quite a few restaurants. Comforting I know.
This was the guy on the motor bike selling the crickets and frogs. Isn't this how one would buy their bugs and frogs if one was looking to eat this stuff.
This is the front of The Garage, wouldn't you just be racing to go here if you found it in your neighborhood. Ironic that the health sign is upside down.
The Old Ladies is another fine establishment we go to. Actually we have been twice and I will continue to go back. The food is awesome. The surroundings are even better. Lets see if I can do it justice with describing it. Put a few tables right next to the street cover it with a blue tarp and stick a name on it. You've got yourself a store front, get a few refrigerator coolers, also hang a flat screen and your all set. Your next door neighbors are all right next divided by a small ally that leads to these peoples houses and the bathroom which is basically a hole in the ground with a european toilet over it ( did you realize that the toilets we have been using are not US toilets. The Europeans are given credit for all toilets here) Needless to say we don't use the toilet very often at the Old Ladies and not because they call them European toilets. They can call them whatever they want, Erin and I call them gross)
Both sides of the old ladies are open air restaurants. We show up and the old lady, yep she is the reason why its called The Old Ladies, is so excited she bends over backwards to get us whatever we want. There are no menus we (term used lightly because we dont speak Thai, Anchan does the honors for us) order food and the old lady goes next door to her neighbors and buys his food then serves us on her own plates. Seriously this is how it is. She only sells beer and soda but we sit at her place because she has the best service. Don't ask because I don't. I just show up knowing it will be an experience. Seriously the food is great. We order barbecue which we cook ourselves. We fight over this food, my kids included. Your question might be why don't you just go the place next door and just get served there. Again I have No idea.
Entertainment is easy to come by at The Old Ladies just by watching the streets. We play guess the gender? Gay or straight? Venders come by selling everything and anything, shoes, hair clips and stuff, awesome pretzels, these weird bamboo filled with rice and dried fruits, negligee. All things that any fine establishment sells, right? ;)
World class education is what we are giving our kids.
If I told you the pricee of what we paid for these dinners for 8 people you wouldn't believe me. Cheap doesn't even come close.
What you see there are the actual barbecues. Typical Thai style barbecues. They are a million degrees The meat sits on the top and water is filled in around it which comes to a boil and we cook our noodles, vegetables and spices. It is so delish!
Jack getting the chicken and pork ready to cook on the barbecue.
We have had some great restaurant experiences. You can get almost any kind of food in Pattaya. Havanas is our go to restaurant when we are looking for some pizza and salad. Not all restaurants are like the Old Lady and Garage but we feel extremely lucky that we have gotten to experience these places. I know we will go back.
Here is one of my favorite meals from one of my other favorite restaurants Khun Johns.
Coconut Green Curry Chicken. It is Yum!
Yep it's even served in a coconut. Steamed rice comes on the side.
Our days of restaurant eating have been reduced thank goodness. It is nice to be able to cook at home. Grocery shopping is fun, I use that term loosely but that will be another blog. We eat lots of seafood. Creative cooking is what I call it. So far no complaints, yet!
Elms daily news: Never dull in this house
Ryan has been sick for a few days. He is getting better. It has been a stomach bug not sure if its been from food or what. At all the restaurants you eat family style so we all have had the same food and he is the only one so not sure on that one.
9 days until he leaves. :(
Erin suffers from a 2nd degree burn on her leg. She has a nasty quarter size blister from scalding water. She and the water cooler went at it while she was getting water for her tea and the cooler Won. She will be fine. Probably will scar.
Just in case it does scar Erin has decided to come up with a new story just so she doesn't sound like a complete klutz.
Her story: Erin started chasing the elephant that robbed our house and took Jack. During the wild chase a flaming arrow came flying towards her and in mid flip it grazed her leg. Pushing past her pain she took down the elephant and heroically saved her baby brother.
I may enter Jack and Andrew into Thai boxing because that seems to be their pastime lately. Driving me up a wall. I WANT XBOX bad in my house!
My maid showed up today. Yipeeeeeeeee!!!! Turns out she will work for me for the rest of the month. She brought her friend with her to see if she would work for me come September. At first Khun Cat ( I swear that's her name) said no way, to big house, to many people, dog, to much work ( all said in Thai accent) but after hanging around us decided we are not so bad and house is not so dirty that she can work. Great now I gotta clean for the maid to come, since I had just picked up the house, done the laundry all weekend and finished washing the dishes because I didn't think a maid was showing today. Great!!! I will break her in slowly dont want to scare her away too. This maid said she would cook for us. Big thumbs up to that!
Our Thai Tournaments have begun ~ my kids are beating my butt regularly in cards. I believe I am losing most games.
Cheers
😘 M
No comments:
Post a Comment