A Bunch of Burts

Today is Chinese New Year! Happy New Year!

Today begins the Year of the Rat.

Although we are in Thailand, this holiday is well celebrated here. Many people have some Chinese ancestry, and there is a large population of Chinese living here, especially in Chiang Mai.

Anyway, it is a celebration, and the Thai love to celebrate, no matter the occasion.

Tonight we are having dinner with the family of our Thai teacher, who also happens to be the wife of the pastor at our church. We have been getting to know this family, and are looking forward to sharing a meal at their house.

From what we have seen in the stores and the markets, chicken is the dish of choice for Chinese New Year. So many different kinds of chicken and some duck too, are lined up, or hung up, as it were, to be sold to fuel the celebrations that will be going on this weekend.

Of course there are other delicacies to be had as well, from some enterprising vendors along the streets here.
Anyone for roasted rat?

You never know until you try it!

We enjoy talking about food with people we meet. It is a subject that everyone is interested in and one we can converse on at a fairly adept level.

Chiang Mai is getting more and more ‘international’ restaurants all the time. When we want to go out for a special treat, there is one little Mexican restaurant, that does a pretty fair job of enchiladas, taco salads, burritos and the like. Unfortunately, the chips and salsa that are usually served free at Mexican restaurants are conspicuously absent. Oh well, helps us save room for the meal, right?

I have asked many of our Thai friends and neighbors if they like Western food.
Most will answer this way:

I like pizza.

I like spaghetti.

I like brownies.

Does that really sum up American food? Pizza, spaghetti and brownies?
KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, and Pizza Hut are doing well here. (Although be warned, just because the name is the same, that does NOT mean the offerings are!)

Not the most daring pizza we have seen offered, but different enough. Note that there is no tomato based sauce, but a Thousand Island type sauce instead.

So here is a question.
What is American food? Are we too big a country to nail that down? Too many regional differences?

What do you think of as quintessential American food?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Recipes/Food, Thai life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.