Green Curry

I said the resort where I am is a little more lay back and I like staying on Chao Pao Beach with Saad and his family but have found myself venturing at night recently to the night markets in town for dinner. You see Saad and his family run a good low key resort. You won’t find ice creams, chips, pringles, chocolates, imported drinking water and other western snack foods here like other places which is fine by me wanting to explore the Thai menu. Now I have tried to eat home but the scope of the menu seems to fail when you order. Casting my eye over the menu a few nights ago looking for something with seafood I asked Saad for Fish Curry and was informed, ‘sorry, no have fish’. OK I thought looking again, what about the squid curry. Sorry, no squid. Hum, Massaman curry? One moment, (talks to the chief in Thai) no, not tonight. Again, I thought I was in the cheese shop episode of Monty python. Do you have a red curry. No, sorry not red curry. Green curry? Yes, we can do green curry. I have found no matter what else you will always find a green curry in just about every kitchen in Thailand including Saad’s but it is not quiet the image I had of eating fresh BBQ seafood so recently I have been riding the ten odd kilometres into Thong Sala where the seafood is fresh out of the bay and cooked on coals while you wait. It is not only the food but the experience of being out under the stairs on a hot night sitting at cheap furniture with a ratio of locals to tourist of about 3 to 1. It is nice to laze around at the resort and sit and eat, sleep and lay back and watch the days come and go but I like to get out and mix it with the locals a little also and food is a good way to do that. I also feel that these street vendors might just miss out on the tourist trade if a few westerners did take the time and effort to venture onto the local’s turf. It is well worth the effort. I had a whole large red snapper and a huge plate of Thai stir fry for around $7 and a huge piece of barracuda and prawns for around $6. So, with this on offer just down the road you can see why I have been tempted off base. I missed out on Tuesday night as I’d had such a heavy night before and last night the weather beat me. We’ve been getting evening storms here over the last few days which aren’t a real problem as they tend to move on fairly quickly. Last night I could here the storm off in the distance and waited almost a couple of hours waiting for it to pass over. As the storm didn’t seem to be getting any closer and as my stomach started to tell me it was time to eat I decided to chance it. I made it about half way to town before a few spits started to fall and then start to get heavier. I don’t know if it was my motorcycles sixth sense but I stopped the bike to decide whether to push on, wait awhile or turn back. There was something about the smell of the rain and the size of the drops not the frequency that I decided to head home and I didn’t get home a moment to soon. The rain front was following me down the road it seemed and I could feel it breathing down my back. Just as I pulled into the drive to the resort it began to sheet down. Wow, I’ve been lucky dodging whether lately. First the monsoon, apparently large parts of Thailand and Bangkok are flooded thanks to the Chao Pao River, and now the downpour. It was time to eat. Give me your best green curry thanks Saad.