SuperSized Me

Brandon and I have started somewhat of a tradition of going to the Treasure Pot in Paramount for lunch on Saturday.

We’ve been going there for the usual of Brandon’s favorites–panang beef and pad krapro ground chicken (chicken with garlic and Thai basil)–and my occasional cravings for Kai Palow (stewed eggs with pork and tofu), Kao Ka Mhoo (rice with stewed pork legs), and Kuay Teow Rua (boat noodles).

Back in Thailand, 3 things for 2 people would have just been enough with no leftover. But check out American portion of one bowl of Bahmee Moo Daeng (egg noodles with BBQ pork).

We usually order at least 3 entrees and rice. 2 entrees in American portion are already plenty of food. Way more than the two of us could eat. But here’s the beauty of American portion.

Leftover.

Imagine the same size bowl but filled with Kai Palow. That would make 3-4 meals for days to come!

I – Love – it! I don’t have to cook for the next few days, and better yet we could have Thai food everyday for the next few days.

Back home, we don’t seem to be taking leftover home too much. I mean, we either finish everything, or there just wasn’t enough left to be taken home. Occasionally though, we did take things home for our service folks, and even less frequently for ourselves.

Thai portion is a good size. Brandon agrees. He likes the fact that nothing seems to go to waste. He despises restaurants like Claim Jumper here in the U.S. which is famous for serving up gigantic portion of everything. It’s just too darn much.

As for me, I like the fact that you can order all sorts of different things because the plates are small enough. Instead of one bowl of one kind of noodles, you can eat 2 smaller bowls–one “dry” (no soup) and one with soup. You can have your Som Tumm and your grilled chicken too. And yet, you still have room for the little cup of dessert with shaved ice.

Why waste the energy eating a huge portion of something when you can eat a little bit of everything and be full all the same?

Then again, like we’ve mentioned before, Thai people can EAT. Sure, we may not be able to eat a lot in an hour, but give us 2-3 hours and we can really do some damage.

We Thais enjoy our food. And company. The more the merrier! More people, more variety of food, more people to help eat food, more conversation…more SANOOK (fun).

P.S. My apology for the lower post frequency, folks. Been busy at work as well as preparing to leave town for a week. On Friday, Brandon and I are getting on the train heading out to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to spend a week with his parents up in the mountain town of Red River, another 3-4 hour drive from Santa Fe. I probably won’t be spending much time on the internet there. Hope to post one more time before I head out. If not, I’ll see you guys back on July 10!