Dinner and view

Today the weather was unbelievable.  It was overcast and breezy.  It was the perfect temperature.  I have been loving the weather change here as well and quite glad that I am not experiencing side effects from Hurricane Sandy and the snow that Ohio saw today.  Anyway my point is it is beautiful.

Our view out our back porch is gorgeous..... right!?!?

  Something struck me the other day though.  I got closer and realized that I could see completely through the restaurant across from us.  I could see the trees on the other side of it.  I could see cars driving by.  Then I realized how common this was.  The building to the left is the same thing.  Granted that building is not in use any more but still.  Open.  Many restaurants here are open.  They have fans to keep people cool and create a breeze but still completely open.  That means birds, animals and anything can come and go as desired.  I dont know why I had not pondered on this before but all of a sudden I realized how foreign this was to me.

I know it is hard to see here.  But the red dots are the lights inside the restaurant.  You can sort of see the light coming in from the other side of the restaurant.  At night time I can see the people eating there and walking around!  Crazy stuff but it makes Thailand Thailand, and not America!

Speaking of eating and restaurants, Moe and I have been struggling to find the balance between eating out and cooking our own food.  Thai food is incredibly cheap.  Generally we can eat a Thai dinner for about 100 baht.  We can eat an American meal for about 300 baht at the high end.  It is definitely a big difference, the thing is though that neither is expensive for our standards here. BUT then again we can go to MK (Korean restaurant) or a fancy Thai place and spend about 200 baht.  The low one translates to roughly $3.50 and the high one to $10.   For two adults.... cheap!

Anyhoooo you might know all that already.  In order to keep things interesting, we have been trying to cook more at home.  Moe has figured out how to safely buy meat at the grocery store.  While they do have selections of prepackaged and priced meats they also have other areas of meat.  Chicken, fish, shrimp, and I'm sure other types comes in piles of meat in bins, baskets, or boxes.  People come up use their hands (I know gross!) or the utensils to choose what meat they want.  Then they take it to the meat guy who packages it up and prices it.  This way you know exactly what meat you are getting!  It is lovely and I think smart.

We have begun cooking American meals that we are accustomed to that make my heart happy.  We have had Chicken Alfredo, Spaghetti, Beefaroni (with pork), BBQ Chicken and mashed potatoes, Italian Chicken and other things.  Moe has learned to cook pork quite well as it is most cost efficient.  Beef is a rarity here, sadly.  Last night we made BBQ chicken on a grill thing that we bought.  It is electric but worked well.

Moe made sliced taters and onions and mushrooms.  

Moe thought this picture looked really cool and insisted I post it! The electric part was actually red but photographed purple!  

The final look of our meal! We also had corn.  Here normal corn is about 4 inches long but looks like an ear of corn.  It comes canned in some type of oil.  I personally enjoy it but Moe isnt a fan.  Probably because corn is my favorite but who knows.  Anyway, it was a good meal.  By no means one of our best meals but it was still good.  And it felt good to make our own food.  

Chico is doing great.  We are teaching him lots of tricks.  Moe has been researching all the time to figure out how to make him the best puppy ever.  I am very pleased with them both ;)