Home.

How do you know when a new place becomes home? For me, you know you're at home when you run into a friend on the train who does not live within 5 blks (arbitrary number) of your own home. On the way home from school tonight, we crammed into the BTS during rush hour, and who gets on at the next station? My cousin Jan and her boyfriend!

P'Jan lives in Rangsit (just north of Bangkok), so she parks her car at the first stop (Mo Chit), then trains into work. It takes her about 2 hours each way, yikes! We live four stops away from our school, so it is usually 20 mins tops each way, hooray!

Besides school, we've mainly just been eating and relaxing in our air conditioned abode. We finally paid rent, which turned out to be 8,000฿ (USD $240) for the month after electricity, water and internet. A major portion of our bill was electricity, which is pretty fair considering the a/c is always on. Oh, and I've been working on my mango cutting skills of course...

Goal: maintain the shape of the mango
Status: accomplished!

While prime mango season has given way to the next four months of monsoon season, we still have a few scrumptious mangoes from the farm slowly ripening in our fridge. I have also become fond of leaving a bit of the skin on the green mangoes when peeling because that is where stronger hints of the aroma come from. It's hard to describe how delicious a fresh and fully ripened mango is. If you bite a small piece off and leave it in your mouth for a few seconds, the flavor builds in the air and soaks into the taste buds... YUMMY!

We were hanging out with Jan and my uncle last weekend, and he brought some more fruit for us to take home. Siamese bananas from the farm!

Dragonfruit!

We're being very cautious with our spending because we don't want to accidentally blow through our savings in case we end up having to spend extra cash on visa renewals and border crossings (if you do not apply for an extension, you must leave the country, renew your visa at a local consulate and reenter to get the new visa stamped). This means Logan gives me the stink eye whenever I want to buy delicious snack foods from carts or iced tea/coffee... Good thing we don't go to class at the same time!

There are a ton of real coffee stands popping up all over the city, moreso around or in the BTS stations. If you order an iced coffee, they are made with a fresh shot of espresso and will run you about 20-30฿ (57-88¢). From an old school street vendor, iced tea or coffee (Nescafe style) costs 15฿ (43¢)...

I know I have a free fruit supplier, but they don't grow pineapples on the family farm! 10฿ (29¢) for the bag below...

At least the skewer isn't made of plastic too!

I'm working on compiling a list of mall foodcourts. There are a few more malls we won't hit until the end of the month, but so far MBK is still our favorite.

Som Tum!

Omelet with muscles

Most days, we pick up food from the supermarket or street and bring it home to eat.

Grilled pork with sticky rice

Chang beer (draught) over ice, sticky rice, veggies from the supermarket salad bar and grilled 1/2 chicken from the street with a sweet chilli sauce!

Removing the skewer...


This one restaurant near our house is by default our favorite because the menu is in Thai, English and Thai translated phonetically into English... and there are pictures!

Southern style grilled pork with chillis and lime... super spicy and delicious!

I feel like mooncakes are the Asian fruitcake. Everyone is always trying to give you friggin' mooncakes, yet no one ever really admits to liking them. Regift! If you've never been offered a mooncake and want one, I suggest you make some more Chinese friends.

Mooncakes are usually given to friends and family during the lunar festival. They are dough with a dense filling of sweet lotus seed paste and a salty duck egg yolk in the center. I was pleasantly surprised by a batch we received from P'Jan...
Unlike most mooncakes, which are overly sweet with a poor dough:filling ratio, these little guys have a perfect hint of jasmine, are not too sweet and perfect in the morning with a cup of green tea.


We are very lucky to live near a delicious Kahnom Krok vendor. Kahnom Krok is one of my favorite Thai desserts! It is a very thin, crispy rice flour pancake filled with a sweet coconut custard. Our vendor adds several different toppings (plain, chives, taro, corn, plus one more I can't remember the name of, but it's yellow and kind of tastes like taro) in a set for 20฿ (57¢)...


Last but not least, my undying love for all things elote: a sweet corn sundae from the KFC Soft Serve walk-up window!

Blinded by love, I inhaled the sundae, then remembered to take a picture.