Table of contents for Living Like a Thai
- Living Like a Thai
- Living Like a Thai Day 1: The 200 Baht a Day Challenge
- Living Like a Thai Day 2: Losing Money in My Sleep
- Living Like a Thai Day 4: Pee Baa Falang
- Living Like a Thai Day 5: It’s a Wash
- Living Like a Thai Day 6: The Frugal Tightwad
- Living Like a Thai Day 7: I’m Bored
- Living Like a Thai Day 8: Going AWOL
- Living Like a Thai Day 9: Falling Down That Mountain
- Living Like a Thai Day 10: The Belt Tightening Begins
- Living Like a Thai Day 11: Tofu, Really?
- Living Like A Thai Day 12: Going Native, Almost
- Living Like a Thai Day 13: Lunch with the Ladies
- Living Like a Thai Day 14: The Late Edition or Quiet Be
- Living Like a Thai Day 15: Halfway there!
- Living Like a Thai Day 16: Beer & Vegetables
- Living Like a Thai Day 17: Red Moon Eclipse Edition
- Living Like a Thai Day 18: Once in a Blue Moon
- Living Like a Thai Days 19 & 20: Ringing the Bell
- Living Like a Thai Days 21 & 22: Aircon Down Pigs Cooking
- Living Like a Thai Day 23: Put a Fork in it…I’m Done
Honestly today was much ado about nothing, just working on projects and fielding text messages. I finally figured out what the jar on my spice shelf contains…it’s a soy based chili paste that tastes incredible.
For breakfast today I had a mangosteen and some rice flavored with chili paste and it was very good and filling but I really needed to get myself some meats to cook and some veggies. Luckily Ning brought by a small head of cauliflower yesterday that I forgot to mention as well as a few mangos. I think she was going to cook something for me but ended up nixing the idea. I noticed that she picked up the cauliflower at Villa Market and it was a pretty good price at 29 baht ( $1.00 ) and thought it might be a good idea to check out Villa for other deals.
So, about lunch time I headed to the market looking for some chicken, veggies and maybe a bit of coconut milk so I can make some proper meals in the following days. I decided I needed to spend my limit on this today and on water.
First stop was a full water refill of both jugs and my first 10 baht ( $.34 ) of the day was spent. After I lugged the water back to the condo I figured I would check out Villa Market to see what they had meat and veggie wise. The chicken breasts they had looked good and had a good weight and at 65 baht ( $2.21 ) they weren’t going to break the bank. I could have easily gotten chicken cheaper at carrefour/Big C but I almost cringe when I see how they leave the chicken and pork out for everyone to handle…the Thai markets I just don’t trust too much for raw meats.
After picking up some chicken I needed some things to add to the mix of chicken and cauliflower. Cruising the vegetable isle I found exactly what I was looking for and cheaply at that. A bag of Chinese kale which is delicious when lightly cooked and added to any meal and of course some red peppers for the spicy. The peppers were 10 baht ( $.34 ) and the kale was 12 baht ( $.40 ). Not too bad with 7 baht to spare. and it looks like a good dinner will be had tonight.
Oh but he spoke too soon!
Sometime around 5pm the power went out and stayed out until 9pm. No power no cooking. I had some rice left over from this morning and I ate that for dinner and now I just don’t want to cook. Eventually when I do cook what I bought coupled with Ning’s cauliflower purchase will make 4 nice meals easily.
As I finish this post up today I am looking at my last cigarette as well and can’t see any way I’ll be able to purchase more on my budget, looks like quitting is in the cards for now unless I can get one of the ladies to call and want to come over with a pack of smokes and perhaps a beer or two * he says with a sly grin as a plan begins to form in his nicotine deprived mind*
Well, I had better wrap this up as I have a phone call or two to make 
Observations today: While I have never gotten sick from food purchased at a Thai market or supermarket I am just too Leary of raw pork and chicken that is left out all day and handled by many people. I paid a bit more than I could have for my chicken today but I know Villa Market well and have always bought my meats there…they are packaged well and kept cool. I also have to remember that although I hate many vegetables I love most vegetables cooked in Thai food…Cauliflower and kale are awesome and I need to get back to doing more cooking as I did after I first moved here.
Living Like a Thai Day 15 Expenditures
| Purchase | Amount | Cost | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | 2 refils | 5 baht | 10 baht |
| Chicken | 2 breasts | 65 baht | 65 baht |
| Kale | 1 bunch | 12 baht | 12 baht |
| chili peppers | 1 pack | 10 baht | 10 baht |
| Today’s Total | 97 baht ( $3.30) | ||
| June Total | 2253 | 2350 baht ( $80.01 ) |
Well, I lost power again but it came back on and just in time to give you a teaser for tomorrow…I love this this country
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Wow, your buying the chicken?? After all the stories in the news recently about the poisoned chicken.
I’ve never purchased meat from any Thai supermarket, not that i’m that picky just never had the kitchen to cook it it in.
Great day for your there, half way through and under budget by the looks of it! Keep going…
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Farang, haven’t heard about any poisoned chicken stories round these parts.
kinda of funny to see the ‘living like a thai’ title with the supermarket bought food photo underneath ^ ^
but i get it, you’ve had a bad experience. . .where’s your avocado?
Lani recently posted..what i miss most. . .
Lani, I see quite a few Thai’s shopping in Villa Market and the Thai families that live in my condo occasionally shop there as well so it has to be Thai to some degree.
Haven’t had a bad experience buying chicken or meat at the Thai markets but don’t wanna have one either…that stuff sits out a long time from what I’ve seen.
I can’t abide avocado…too green for me
Talen, I’m with you on the meat opinion and Villa. Too many times the other grocery stores sell meat that is off.
I no longer shop at Villa because of the hormones. While Paragon has hormone free chicken.
Btw – wanting to boil up a bunch of chicken stock, one week I bought whole chickens from different grocery stores. The chickens from Villa and Paragon roasted normally. The chickens from the other finished in a pan of water. So someone is punching the chickens with water for additional weight. I don’t know how that works… but I’d rather buy more expensive chickens with real weight – ones that are not off.
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Cat, at Big c and what used to be Carrefour the pork and chicken are just kinda out in a big pile for people to pick through…that bothers me, I like packaged or fresh kill.
This is not directed at Lani but at various commenters who declare that Villa etc are teeming with foreigners. The customers in my three area 7-11s and 1 Family Mart are 99.99% Thai. They buy water, sweets, fastfood, liquor, cigs, etc. I walk through my Teso Lotus morning, noon and night (it’s air-con’ed path to MRT) and 99.99% of customers are Thai. How could they not be? In Suk 33/1 Villa, there are a few more pale faces, but most of the shoppers are mid-so and up Thais (Indian, Chinese and ethnic Thai) and the not so rich (beer cheap and cold!). No store could survive on just foreign customers. And there are tens of millions more Thais than foreigners.
The only place I’ve seen with many foreign faces (Euro, Arab, Indian, and others) is MBK. But the dominant customer is Thai. By far.
I say this just so that we don’t think too highly of ourselves as a dominant retail force.
Talen, Happy Halfway Day!!!
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Talen, I think you might be “bending” the truth a little (will power and alcohol).
For “reasearch” purposes, a mate asked me if there were any decent women in Pattaya (true), earlier today I was checking out your picture of Ning and low and behold in the background I can see a fairly full bottle of the Captains favorite, Captain Morgan Dark rum.
Please explain
Lloyd, I wish I was bending the truth…I can’t stand Heinekin
But I did get some smokes out of the deal…all that to come in the next post. I covered the Rum in an earlier post, I have had that bottle around way before the experiment started and in one of the previous days I splurged on a 24 baht bottle of coke so I could indulge one evening.