Raya Visit

We went for our first open house this morning.  There were a few family members (and us) there.  Apparently they had all already eaten since we ate and they watched us.  Then we sat and talked a bit.  There is a custom where you give some cash in an envelope to the kids.  I guess its normally something only the host does but we wanted to do it, too.  They said it was the first time the kids had gotten those gifts from foreigners.

The guys looking sporty.  Sorry you don't have a good look at my skirt.  We'll try to get some full body shots later.
Of course, the food is awesome!  We'll put together an entire post on the rice wrapped in leaves and boiled.  Its in the bowl at the back with the spoon.  I was trying to teach Bethany how to act like you are eating while not eating but she wasn't getting the hang of it.

Deck the Halls

Since our neighbors are breaking their fast month and celebrating we are getting to see their homes get totally decked out!  Some houses are getting new paint jobs, new tile around the front, new covered patio set-ups and more.  

More commonly, everything is getting cleaned and spruced.  Some folks are hanging lights outside or placing little lanterns (that look sort of like tiki torches or things from Survivor).

We hear fireworks every night and are seeing lots of neighbors leaving to go home for the holiday.  Some have been joking that since we are foreigners, we will be the only people left on the block and so we have the whole responsibility for the Neighborhood Watch all by ourselves!

Tomorrow is the big day and we are going to be visiting in some homes and eating.  Everyone has new clothes and will be looking sharp, so we'll get lots of photos posted as soon as we can.

Don't Treat Me This Way

This is $8 worth of cornmeal that we bought at the import store last week in the capital.  Now believe me that most of what we don't have from the USA is not missed too deeply by yours truly.  But cornbread...that is a different deal altogether!

We got this golden delicious goodness and thinking ahead--put it in the freezer to forestall any meal worms.  So out it comes today for our maiden corn muffin voyage and what do I find inside?  BUGS!!  Actually, FROZEN BUGS.

It makes me wonder, do they put the meal larvae and bugs in at the factory or do they somehow get into the box afterward and grow up once the box has been on the shelf too long?

It was an awful thing to find and quite heartbreaking.  Even more so than when I dropped the $10 jar of pickles as we carried our imported groceries in.  Because everyone knows man can live without pickles...but not cornbread.

The Artist!

Isn't this great?  Its Hudson's Play-Doh version of himself and Bethany!

The Anniversary Dinner That Wasn't

Here is the ending: Craig had Trix, Angie had nothing.

Here is how it all began:  Angie had been out doing some things and when she arrived back we decided to go out for dinner.  We are still out-of-town so without childcare (actually it would have been the same at home)  thus we were all five going out together.  

We went to a nearby mall and by the time we got there it was nearly time to break the fast; so we knew we were in trouble. We picked a restaurant based on its name and found it was little too "food court" for an anniversary dinner so we went to TGIFridays.  They had an hour wait.  Hmm.  It was time for everyone to eat.

We walked through the mall to find every restaurant had a sign or a person saying, "Full."  Even places like KFC had no room in the inn for weary travelers like us.  As a last resort we decided to go to a nearby Indian place where we often eat breakfast.  Interestingly, it had quite a different fell at night.  Also important, Angie had already rejected the idea of eating Indian food on our special evening.

We placed our orders and waited a couple of minutes.  As the food came we noticed a problem. It was all coming out wrong. Almost all of it was wrong.  Finally we decided not to bother and we paid and left without eating.  As we were leaving all the food on the table a waiter asked if we wanted it wrapped up to go.  "No thanks," we said and headed home for our Trix and nothing.

Yep.  I am one awesome, adventure planning, anniversary celebrating husband. 

Happy Anniversary

Just a note to say that after 14 years I still think I have the best wife in the whole world.  Sometimes its a bit more stressful living in Asia but she still maintains here position as The Nicest Person I've Ever Known.

Thanks ANGIE, I LOVE YOU!!!!

Food

Yes, I know almost all our posts during fasting month have been about food.  We are traveling a bit this week and so folks want to know how its going.  So far it is going like this: Chili's, Chili's, Wendy's, Subway.  (Actually, yes, we went to Chili's twice.)

Now, of course its not worth mentioning we have been also eating Indian food and curry puffs as much as possible.  We can always get those (also not mentioned are KFC and Dominos).  That would be like writing an update about the fact that I eat cereal almost everyday.  I do.  YUM!

We are trying to specialize in restaurants that we normally don't get.  The other day I thought, "Capital cities are like that.  Great, different places to eat and new things to see."  Then I remembered KY's capital; Frankfort.  Its an anomaly.  Frankfort is a dump of a little town with almost NO place to eat ... but I digress.

Here we have been eating and seeing people from all over the world and really loving this part of living in Asia.  There is so much to see and do and experience.  That is the kind of thing that makes me so thankful for the place I have in life!

An interesting experience

Thursday night we had an interesting experience.  Caleb got to hit a few balls in the only batting cage in the country.  It was kind of surreal: helmets, bats, the guy even has an mlb.com subscription and so he was playing WGN Cubs radio over the sound system.  Sort of like you could just go and buy a Big Red and some sunflower seeds at the snack bar.

The weird thing was seeing the stack of USA Today Sports Weekly.  I was seeing Manny Ramirez in a Dodgers uniform, Brett Farve dressed up as a NY Jet, and other crazy sights.  Obviously those are bootlegs since sports stars and their teams are just like we left them last July, right?

Thinking About Food

Here is one of our great fruits.  The dragon fruit.  Its full of seeds and so can get a kind of blackberry thing going on with your teeth but its good.

It peels super easy when sliced like this.  The hardest thing for me describing fruit here is getting the texture.  This is soft, much softer than cantaloupe but not as fibrous as a watermelon.  Can't do much better than that though.  I'd just name 10 fruits its NOT like (OK, here you go: grapes, apple, pear, banana, peach, mango, cherry, pineapple, durian, jack fruit.)  WOW, in making the list I thought of kiwi.  Maybe the texture is a bit like kiwi.  What a fruitful exercise (sorry).

 

Speaking of food, this is a look at our full moon.  This means we are right about the halfway mark through fasting month.  

Folks are starting to wear a bit, I think.  The other day Bethany's friend (who is 7 and fasting) sent Bethany home and the parents explained how they all get tired in the afternoon right now.  I guess so.  All this fasting makes me extra hungry and I am not even participating!

Food Market

We have been talking in various places about the food markets that pop up all over the place in the afternoons during this fasting month.

They are awesome and you can get lots of great food for pretty cheap.  Like tonight: we got all our supper and leftovers for under $10.  Its so super good!  

Here you see some action shots of guys cooking one of our favorites--Murtabak.  

First these guys take some kind of bread dough and throw on a ton of melted butter.  Then they toss it about like pizza dough getting it thinned out.

Then it gets a mixture of egg, meat, and veggies.  This guy tonight was different since he was cracking the egg and then rubbing it around with his hands.  Then he would take his eggy hand and reach into the box of precooked ground beef and throw a handful in.

Now what we really love about this guy is that his veggies (onions) are separated.  And that he cooks with a bunch of tools you normally find at Lowe's in the Paint/Drywall section.

At some point they are cooked to a golden brown and then wrapped in paper, packaged with some awesome curry and sold for $1.  WOW!!

Speaking of curry, Randy has taken to treating us like addicted people.  Last week he asked us, "How many times have you eaten curry this week?"  To which we, of course, answered, "Everyday.  Sometimes twice a day."  

Ewww .... we are hooked.  But at least its a good hooked.

Anyway, here is a shot down the lane at folks buying their food to take home and eat at exactly 7:06pm when they can break their fast!!  

It was raining there this afternoon.  Its raining here almost everyday but at least then it cools off a little.

Two Things From Thursday

The first was when Craig was at McDonalds drinking a Diet Coke.  After he went for a refill (asking for it in our new language) the lady in front of him just stood there staring at him with her tray in her hand and her mouth wide open.  Those moments are great, its always fun to surprise people.

The other was Angie's discussion with a neighbor when the lady asked, "Do Americans really eat hamburgers every day like they do on TV?"  Of course not Angie assured her ... then we had them for supper!  No wonder when CNN World carries a story about a goober like this!  

The weirdest thing is not only has the man eaten that many Big Macs, he kept all the receipts.  What do you call a man like that?  SINGLE!!  Get a life, dude.  If you are noting the irony of us being at McDonalds and making fun of a guy at McDonalds, thank you.  We throw our receipts away...

Whoa! Is that what I think it is?

Today we were in a pet store and they had a fish with TWO HEADS!  Seriously, TWO HEADS!  So I asked the lady, just to be sure, if the fish had TWO HEADS.  And she said, "This guy speaks our language."  I am not sure who was more surprised: me--who usually only sees fish with TWO HEADS on The Simpson's or the Drudge Report or her--who doesn't get many honkeys who speak her language in her little fish store.

So, as we discussed the TWO HEADED fish in her language, a man stepped in to offer his assistance.  He wanted to interpret since I obviously didn't understand what the lady was saying in his language. When she told him I asked "Kalau ikan itu ada dua kepala?"

Its funny people here don't expect us to speak their language so when we do, they think we actually spoke in English since most people understand both.  They have to stop to realize we didn't speak English.  Then they are shocked.  But not as shocked as I was at seeing a fish with TWO HEADS!

**editor's note**

I am like so really totally sorry or whatever that I didn't get a picture of the TWO HEADED fish.  He was kind of gross and could barely swim but they said it had been alive a long time. Just imagine what the "fish head curry people" could do if they could breed freaks like that!  WOW!

Where are we headed?

Where we live I get to listen to the BBC each day.  Its interesting to hear the European perspective on the US presidency, housing market, economic status and such.  Its also interesting to hear how far Europe has moved from any sort of religious moorings it used to have.

On Monday it was a story about Spain's parliament trying to decide if great apes should have legal rights.  You know, basic "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" type stuff.  So the host was talking with a British professor at Princeton about the morality of zoos and should one intervene if two gorillas were fighting.  They also discussed if other animals should have legal rights, like birds and things or just animals who are "like us".

Then a social commentator came on and said this line of thinking of course has an end that is still very far off.  The debate is philosophical, you see, and has to do with the soul.  He said that humans because of their religious leanings decided we had souls but other animals did not.  But since we now know that God is dead we have to decide: do any of us have souls or do none of us?

It seems the only choice we have is that BOTH my cat and I have souls or NEITHER of us do.  Or to put it another way, all animals have souls or none do.  That gets to be a pretty sticky wicket insofar as chicken nuggets are concerned, right?  Doesn't every hen out there have the basic right to life and hence its wrong for them to be chopped and fried up with some mashed potatoes and gravy?  

If its OK for them to be thus treated ... how about other humans?  I mean as long as we are denying civil rights and all.  Hmm, I wonder about marriage?  Could a cat and dog be married if everyone got civil rights?

The most interesting thing along the whole line is that these folks are trying to make decisions (actually standards) of what is right and wrong and yet they would spend the rest of their lives debating if there even is such a thing.  Right or wrong?  Only where animals are concerned, I guess.

That is Good Eating!

We made it to a local food market to pick up some supper the other night.  They have a ton of traditional favorites and we bought it all and had leftovers for under $10.  Bethany is, of course, having fried chicken and potatoes.

Despite his face, Hudson was loving his supper.  Some kind of bread cooked with chicken and eggs and a ton of butter.  Good for the heart, too.
As you go down the table the food gets a bit more adventurous.  Curry puffs, curry, fried things a bit like taquitos that have chicken and some veggies.
This big glass has watermelon juice.  Its the kind of thing that you know will taste delicious, you just hope it won't cause your stomach to fall completely out or put you in the hospital :-0 Notice the Louisville Bats cup we've carried everywhere with us!
This is the key.  Whatever you get, open the bag of curry that comes with it and pour it on top.  Then dig in.  Absolutely delicious!!  

The Drink in a Bag

I have to be honest.  I am a HUGE fan of the drink in a bag.  I am not exactly sure why because a cup is a little easier to deal with but there is something about ordering a drink to go and them putting it in a plastic bag that appeals to my cowboy side I guess.  Seems like the kind of thing they would do in Dodge.  You know, order a sasparilla to go and they put in a plastic bag and you get back on your horse and get out of there.  Well ... maybe not.

At any rate, Angie has taken the drink in a bag to a new level: MEAL IN A BAG.  Lots of special foods make their appearance this time of year including lots of drinks.  At the afternoon "food carnival" the other day Angie was offered a special drink, which she purchased for just under $1.

When we got it home we had a big sip and immediately spit it into the sink.  It came with a huge straw that allowed a ton of food to come up and into your mouth.  EEWWWW!

It was sweet, brown and had lots of rice and stuff in it.  The ice had all melted while we waited for 7:15pm to drink it.  Being pretty grossed out by it, we decided to investigate further what made it so bad.

Here are the basic parts: liquid and solids.  People are strange, aren't they?  Someone thought this up and someone else liked it enough for it to become popular.

Here is how I think it happened.  Someone took the delicious New Orleans dish 'red beans and rice' and started brainstorming.  Now obviously this was a single guy or group of single guys.  The conversation probably went like this Guy One says, "I love you guys.  You're my best friends." 

Guy Two responds, "Dude, we love you. You da best."  Then Guy Three chimes in, "You know what would be awesome?  Red beans and rice!  I'm starving."  The guy two goes, "No, no, no, no seriously.  You know what would be over the top? If you could DRINK red beans and rice! Oh man, that'd be the best."

Now I know you're wondering why these guys have to be SINGLE.  Elementary my dear Watson.  Had even one woman been present she would've chimed in, "You guys are so stupid. That would be the most disgusting drink ever.  I think you need to stop drinking altogether."

Most of the world's great calamities have been avoided by having someone's wife say, "Do you think that is a good idea?"  The things that have happened did so because no lady was there to add reason to the mix.  At least that is what my Mom always said.

Breaking the Fast

Around here most everyone is fasting all day long this month, that means no food or drink during daylight hours.  I've always heard about it but its interesting to actually see it in action.  It starts about 5:15am and so people get up to eat breakfast about 4:30 then maybe they go back to sleep (that is what I would do).  At around 7:15pm they break their fast, most usually at home with their family but not always.

Normally around here someone is always eating.  For instance I have never seen an empty KFC.  Never.  People just eat when they get hungry and not on a certain schedule.  And they eat like hobbits: breakfast at 7ish, lunch from 12 to 2 or so, tea from 3-5, dinner around 8pm, and supper at 10pm if they feel like it.  And each family member is on their own schedule.  

KFC even has a special discounted "happy hour" (i.e. tea time) menu from 3-6pm where a bunch of little meals are around a dollar.  People like to go out for breakfast food late in the evening too.  The latest Craig has eaten here was supper ... one night at about 11:45pm.

So anyway, back to the fasting.  As you can imagine when 7:15 rolls around, people are ready to eat.  At our house when its "time to eat" we still have 15 minutes of stuff to do.  Napkins to get, drinks to fill, etc.  But when its time to eat dinner now people EAT.

Tonight we were breaking our fast at Pizza Hut (OK we are not really fasting but are waiting until everyone else eats supper to eat ours and not eating or drinking around any neighbors out of respect).  We walked in knowing it was about time but saw some fasters at tables with food and drinks.  "Hmmm, is it already time?" we ask ourselves.  Nope not yet.  We realize people have food and drinks but they are not touching them.  

Then at 7:15ish we hear the sound that lets people know its officially time and they can eat.  Around Pizza Hut straws go into people's mouths and the Pepsi starts to go down.  Then folks start to eat.  Thus confirming our idea that people aren't still cooking and preparing at 7:15.  When its time they are EATING and I don't blame them!

Another interesting thing we are seeing is kind of a food carnival or flea market.  Since so many families here are two-income households, there are places all over town where you can stop on your way home from work and buy the special kinds of food people like to have this month.  Imagine if there was a place where you could swing by and get some homemade meatloaf and mashed potatoes and a big bag of sweet tea (more on that tomorrow) and carry it all home ready to eat.  That is what its like right now.  For foodies its the most wonderful time of the year.

A real sweetheart

Since I am such a sweet husband I got these orchids on the way home the other day and they were only about $5 each, too. 

Aren't the tropics GREAT?!?