Poor Circulation .. the motorcycle misadventures of Blue88: Post 282: Street Breakfast

Every morning in Thailand, just after sunrise, if you go down onto the streets you'll find saffron robed monks making their way to the temple. They'll carry their monk bags, a container and the obligatory iPhone ... all monks have iPhones. As the monks pass, I put a little food into their bowls, usually rice and a bottle of water into their bags. Apparently once inside the temple, monks can only consume that which has been grown or donated, they can not buy food. Why? ... I have absolutely no idea, ... but it's nice to 'give'.

Once my charitable deed for the day is done, it's time for 'Kow Dom', my favourite meal of the day, breakfast. Kow Dom is basically rice soup, and in Korat I buy it every morning from this happy girl a little way down the road from my room. It might not be the best kow dom in Korat, but it's served with the warmest smile. If I'm on the move, she'll serve it into a plastic bag and then drop a raw egg into the top and I'll eat it when I stop for my first coffee of the day. If I'm being idle, then I'll eat it at one of her plastic picnic tables while she chats to me at the speed of sound. I think she wants to marry me, or failing that perhaps one of her many daughters .. but it just feels great to sit surrounded by happy people on their way to work at 6:30am ..... that doesn't often happen in and around London.

Kow dom is rice soup with the addition of Pak (Vegetables), chunks of Meat (Neua) and Egg (Kai). It's not too spicy and it's a hell of a lot nicer than cornflakes. It probably wouldn't taste the same back in Blighty, few things do, but it's one of the things that makes me love this place so much. It's not simply the food, it's the whole opera that seems to surround it. It makes you sit back, take in the atmosphere and realise just how lucky you are .... mai pen rai