pet mark

thus far the food in thailand has been good. nothing mind blowingly delicious, but also nothing stomach blowingly awful. i have eaten a lot of rice with a bunch of things mixed together, and a lot of noodles with a bunch of things mixed together. a lot vegetables, a little bit of meat, sometimes a bit of spice. when i can't eat any more rice i go for a sandwich, which is always on the menu along with thai food. 

most of the time i have no idea what i'm eating. 

on the way to krabi from ranong the bus stopped for lunch at a cafeteria of sorts, where all number of local dishes are served. none of the signs were in english i walked around and looked for something appetizing. behind the glass at one stall were three different trays of food to go with rice. the first one was green curry, i'd already had it a few times. the middle one was kind of reddish brown, with some vegetables and what not in it.  the one on the far right was kind of orangish i think, and looked like the other one. i went for the one in the middle.

the nice lady gave me a scoop of rice and a nice little ladle of the reddish brown stuff. i paid her, said "korp koon khrap" and headed to sit down. before i left though, they handed me a plate of raw vegetables-cucumber, green beans, and cabbage. i didn't particularly want to eat them but they insisted so i took the small plate. 

i dove in, it tasted good. i took a sip of pepsi frome the returnable glass bottle. life was good. then it occured to my pallette that this dish of rice and reddish brown sauce with vegetables and little fishes, (yeah there were little fishes with skeletons in it) was incredibly spicy. i sipped more of the pepsi, but looking down at the dish and feeling the rapidity of which the heat was invading my soul, knew the soda wouldn't last out. i kept eating, and it seemed to get hotter. at first it was just on the tongue, but then it moved into my whole body. i was soon sweating profusely (profusely because there is no better way to describe sweating in large amounts) with my nose acting accordingly but with snot. in the dish's defense, it was about 90 degrees out which may have contributed to my james brown on stage sweatiness.

i don't know if it was the hottest dish i've ever had, but it was pretty spicy. i realized towards the end of the meal that the raw vegetables may have been meant to offset the spiciness. 

back on the bus i looked up spicy in thai, (pet) and very spicy (pet mark) and my insides burned for the next 4 hours of bus travel.

i had ang document my sweaty, spicy adventure.