I must admit, I didn't travel very far for the subject of my blog today. I just poked my camera out of the front door! My neighbours used to have a laundry service and now they have switched to selling fruit from the back of a pick-up truck. They seem to be doing well as they first started with an old pick-up and then recently bought this brand new one. They told me that they have to go into Bangkok to buy the fruit in the evenings. They then sell it at three locations around Samut Prakan. Finishing at the top of our Soi.

My favourite fruit is actually the one I forgot to photograph! It is that red hairy one in the top picture. It is called rambutan. What I will do later on is to go into more detail for each of the fruit. In the meantime, if you are in Thailand, you should be aware that there are a couple of fruit festivals on at the moment:

** The Chanthaburi Fruit Festival
(1-9 May, 2005 : Chanthaburi Sports Stadium, Chantaburi Province)

** Rayong Fruit Festival
(1 May - 30 June, 2005 : The Tapong Fruit Market, and Fruit markets and orchards throughout Rayong province)

I was first introduced to these fish cakes, "tod mun plaa" in Thai, in the school canteen. The deep fried cakes looked interesting but I was a bit nervous of the "green" bits in them. It looked like they were green chilies. However, later, after I had started to pay an interest in how the street food was made, I soon realized that it wasn't chili but in fact green beans!

This is quite an easy dish to cook. The ingredients include: minced spinach mackerel, red curry paste, egg, finely sliced long bean, finely shredded kaffir leaves and seasoned with salt and sugar. After being mixed in a bowl, you use your hands to make small patties about two inches in diameter. These are then deep-friend until golden brown. Very delicious. Look out for them the next time you are in Thailand.

We had some friends from the UK visiting today. We took them out to a nearby seafood restaurant called Sompong which is on Srinakarin Road. It is less than 10 minutes away by car. The last meal I wrote about at Paknam Seafood worked out at about 200 baht per person including beer. That was about US$5 each. What do you reckon this meal cost? The six dishes we ordered were:

Normally when there are four people, you would order about five dishes. This doesn't include the rice but in this case, as it was fried rice I have counted it as a dish. We all drank beer. The total price was just under 1,200 baht, which is about US$7.50 each. Expensive for me, but for most Westerners that would be considered cheap.

Yesterday, I took you with me on the monk's morning alms round. Monks are not allowed to hoard food. Nor are they allowed to cook. So, in order to survive they have to go out in the morning to receive food from Buddhist followers. When they come back, they sort through the food. Some food they will eat straight away for breakfast. Other food they will save for their last meal of the day at 11 a.m. The food that is left over is not wasted. Some may be given to the nuns or children who help out around the temple. Other food is given to poor people who come to the temple at mid-day. Any left-over food is given to the temple dogs and cats.

Before Phra Daeng and Phra Nattawud could eat, they first had to offer some food to the Buddha image. They chanted in Pali for a while and then prostrated three times. As you can see from the picture, Phra Nattawud still hasn't learned all the words and is reading from his yellow book of chants. After they have made the offering, they then sit in front of the food that they have already sorted and chant a bit more.

Finally, they can start to eat. As predicted yesterday, Phra Nattawud tucks into the food that his parents had offered him earlier. Monks are not allowed to request particular types of food, however, his parents knew what he would like to eat.

What do Thai monks eat for breakfast?

Some monks only eat once a day. Others eat twice a day. However, all monks have to finish their last meal before mid-day. There are five categories of food that can be presented to monks only in the morning. These are: staples, desserts, preserved and dried food, fish and meat. The following five nutriments can be presented to and eaten by the monks at any time of day and night: honey, sugar and syrup, fat, ghee and butter, and cheese.

In the above picture, you can see that people have given the monks just about any curry and soup that can be bought locally. It doesn't really matter how much or how little you give. It is the intention of giving that is important. However, there are ten kinds of meat that monks and novices are not allowed to eat. They are: human flesh, elephant, yellow tiger, tiger, leopard, bear, lion, snake, dog and horse.

There are quite a few rules regarding monks and food. For example, they are not allowed to put food in their mouth that hasn't been offered to them first. If the food was offered to them yesterday, they then cannot eat it today. If someone told a monk that he will come with certain foods to offer the following day, then the monk cannot eat it. There is also quite a long list of 30 rules regarding food which monks must obey. It is worth taking note of these because Buddhism is so much an important part of Thai culture.

A monk should train himself thus:-

1) I will receive binderbaht food attentively.
2) When receiving binderbaht food, I will look only into the bowl.
3) I will receive curries in the right proportion to the rice.
4) I will receive binderbaht food only until it reaches the rim of the bowl.
5) I will eat binderbaht food attentively.
6) When eating binderbaht food, I will look only in the bowl.
7) I will not dig up the rice making it uneven.
8) I will eat curries in the right proportion to the rice.
9) I will not eat rice only working from the top down.
10) I will not cover up curries - or curry mixed with rice - because of a desire to get a lot.
11) When I am not sick, I will not ask for curries or rice for the purpose of eating them myself.
12) I will not look at another's bowl with the idea of finding fault.
13) I will not make up a very large mouthful of food.
14) I will make food up into suitably round mouthfuls.
15) I will not open my mouth until the portion of food has been brought to it.
16) When eating, I will not put my fingers into my mouth.
17) When food is still in my mouth, I will not speak.
18) I will not throw lumps of food into my mouth.
19) I will not eat by biting off mouthfuls of rice.
20) I will not eat stuffing out my cheeks.
21) I will not eat and shake my hand about at the same time.
22) I will not eat scattering grains of rice about so that they fall back into the bowl or elsewhere.
23) I will not eat putting my tongue out.
24) I will not eat making a champing sound.
25) I will not eat (or drink) making a sucking sound.
26) I will not eat licking my hands.
27) I will not eat scraping the bowl.
28) I will not eat licking my lips.
29) I will not take hold of a vessel of water with my hand soiled with food.
30) I will not throw out bowl washing water which has grains of rice in it in a place where there are houses.

Source: "Instructions for newly-ordained Bhikkhus and Samaneras"

I will be interviewing Phra Nattawud soon about life in a Thai temple. If you have any questions that you would like answered, then please e-mail them to me. You can also contact me with feedback on what kinds of blogs you like to read the most. And maybe what kind of blogs you would like to read in the future.

People often ask me what I eat for breakfast and whether it is the same as Thai people. For myself, I cannot eat anything spicy for breakfast. It is just too early in the day. I much prefer to eat a breakfast that I grew up on. That is egg and bacon on toast or corn flakes. Also, some marmalade or marmite on toast and a cup of coffee. Maybe a glass of orange juice too. I know some Thai people that just eat whatever was left over from the night before. However, a traditional breakfast dish in Thailand is "johk" ( โจ้ก ). This is a thick rice soup with pork. In the above picture you can see that a bowl costs only 20 baht (50 cents) and that it costs an extra 5 baht for an egg.

This rice soup is quite similar to another one called Khao Tom. But, the latter is more of a soup, whereas johk is closer to porridge. The rice is cooked in chicken broth (above left). At this stall, you can see that she has prepared the mince pork already, shaping it into balls and cooking it in boiling water for about five minutes. The rice is poured into a serving bowl and the pork balls added together with some liver and kidney. If you like she will also crack an egg into the soup which ends up being only partly cooked. Shredded ginger (bottom left) is added as garnish.

If you are Thai, maybe you would like to tell us what you eat for breakfast. I wonder what monks eat for breakfast? I'll have to ask Phra Nattawud.

I promised you a few weeks back that I will let you know about some of the cook books I have for cooking Thai food. Well, here is my first selection. Actually, the first one by David Thompson I don't have yet. I just this second ordered from amazon.com! I had seen it here in Thailand at Asia Books. But it was really expensive. Amazon has a 37% discount at the moment. As I was buying other books online I went for it. It is not your usual cook book, but over its 672 pages it does go into great detail about Thai food. It is the ideal book for people who are serious about Thai cooking.

Two other books I use a lot are "Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook" and "It Rains Fishes". This is mainly because they don't just give recipes. There is a lot of background writing about each of the recipes selected. The former book is probably more of a coffee table book as it is quite large! My other well read book here is the paperback size book from Lonely Planet called "World Food Thailand". Again, this goes a long way to helping you appreciate food in Thailand. Although it has some recipes, it is not really a cook book. Treat it like a guidebook to Thai food!

Don't you just love living in Thailand? Well, I do! I actually feel sorry for the people who enjoy Thai food but don't live here. Not only is it possible to get some of the best food in the world just around the corner, but we also get it delivered to the front door! A couple of weeks ago, I told you about the Ice-Cream in a Bun guy that announces his arrival with the ringing of his small bell. This afternoon I had a visit from the lady that sells khanom thuay which is called "steamed pandanus cake" in English.

In the picture above, the hawker is scooping the cakes out of the porcelain cups onto a tray. You can just see that the cake (more like a jelly) consists of two distinct layers. The green bottom layer is made up of rice flour mixed with some mung bean flour, pandanus juice, sugar and coconut milk. The white topping is made from rice flour, salt and coconut cream. It is the pandanus juice that gives this cake its distinctive colour. The green leaves are blended with water and then the resulting green juice is strained out.

The bottom layer of this cake is cooked first in a steamer for about five minutes. Then the top layer is added and then steamed for another five minutes. It is then left to cool before serving. This great snack only costs 10 baht for a tray. I wonder who will come down our little lane tomorrow?