French Farm house - written around March 18th
These English blokes at dinner time are funny because they rarely have tried half the things that Poi, our Thai chef, makes. Today there was a discussion about tofu, and a few people wouldn't try it. I don't think any of them had had pad thai before. For the lamb curry, Katherine said it was a shame there wasn't any mint sauce and Yorkshire pudding to go with it. And they can't really handle their spice. Where as Mei and I were adding more peppers to our pad thai today, some of them found it too hot. They are all really good sports about it, and find it delicious, though sometimes i've noticed the boys just won't go near certain stuff. The things these English people say are also adorable. Every meal at some point Dean will try something and say, "that's good, Innit?" And after eating something delicious, Katherine will say, "Well, that was just lovely." (her accent reminds me of Wallace and Grommit films. I love it).
it's not just the main courses either. Today Poi gave us a plate of tropical fruits for desserts, including lychee, mango, japan pear, and longans. All of these fruits I ran into on a regular basis in Hawaii, but none of the English had never seen longans before. Nor had they eaten japan pears. They couldn't figure out what it was. Since I was so familiar with them all, Dean said something about how these things must grow in my back yard as a joke – but thing is in Hawaii they really do grow in the backyard! Now, i was aware that i'm lucky to have a mango tree in my backyard in Hawaii, but until traveling around Europe, I didn't realize how lucky I was as an American to have so many chances to try different cuisines on a regular basis – Indian, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Lebonese, even occasionally Ethiopian, Tibetan, and Mongolian. Sure it's because I'm an adventurous eater, (and growing up in such an Asian culture like Hawaii helps) but here in Europe, most places (London excluded) you can't find such a mix of cuisines even if you wanted to. I thought it was just Spain that lacked the mix of cuisines. But France doesn't have it, nor, now that i think about it, does Italy, Belgium, Denmark, or anywhere that I've been here (to my knowledge. I could be wrong). Regardless, the mix of cuisines is something I will never take for granted again when I go back to America.In the meantime I'm grateful for the Thai food.
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