Noodles and Rice, but Mostly Noodles

Kathryn Kehler is a student at the College of Charleston and an ISA Featured Blogger. She is currently studying abroad with ISA in Bangkok, Thailand. 

I love food. A lot. Maybe not much more than the average person, because the average person really loves food, but I really really love food. Although I wouldn’t consider myself a “foodie” per say.

One of the questions I had to answer on the application of this blog was “What are you most excited for?” So of course, along with other things, food made that list. In the States I had never had Thai before, but many of my friends and various others had told me that they love Thai food, so naturally I thought I would too. I really didn’t know what Thai food consisted of, mostly rice and noodles and various sauces. And also chilies. Essentially, I was spot on. The first traditional Thai food I had was sticky rice with black beans in a grilled bamboo stalk. It was mushy and sticky but sweet like condensed milk and coconut, and the beans offered a layering of texture that I was surprised I liked it as much as I did. Then I was introduced to authentic pad thai (super yummy, you can’t go wrong with that stuff) and fried rice with anything you could want. Recently I’ve found a dish called Tom Yum. It’s a noodle soup, and it’s delicious. I could get it every day if I wanted.

And that’s the scope of what I’ve eaten. Of course there’s various alterations you can make to your dish, but Thais primarily eat 2 things: noodles and rice. And it’s good, I’m not bashing it at all. I think if I spoke more of the language I would be able to order a bigger variety of food, but regardless, it’ll either have rice and/or noodles.

I’m homesick for food. I miss pizza. And tacos. A nice big vegetarian burger filled with black beans and a nice piece of cheddar on top sounds so good right now. I didn’t expect to miss home food this much, but here I am.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s fantastic food here. Ripe fruit is my favorite market snack. Pineapple. Mango. Watermelon. Bananas. All ripe. All cheap. All delicious. I got 3 ripe mangoes for 75 baht which is roughly 2 USD. TWO DOLLARS. And there’s these pancake things called roti that they fill with whatever you want. My go to is banana and nutella. Holy yum.

I’m not unhappy with my food options. There’s grocery stores all around us, so if I really need something, I can get it. But in Thailand, I’m going to live the whole experience, food and all.

The world awaits…discover it.