Dinner at my House

Contrary to popular belief, Thai dinner time is much more different than in America. Okay, well maybe you already figured that, but it's different in the way your probably thought it would be different. If that makes any sense... LOL

Well let's get to it!

99% of the time when we have meals, we eat outside. Usually, at this white table set you see here, but there are other times when we just sit on the porch floor at eat too. We eat at least three times a day and we don't call each time "breakfast", "lunch", and "dinner". This is because, unlike in America, Thai people eat the same general stuff at all times of the day. We will eat the same foods for breakfast that we do for dinner. So we have no need to label the different times we eat. Instead we just call the times we eat ginkhao, which is basically "meal" in English.

For this meal, we have salted and dried fish, fried onions, green vegetables, hard boiled eggs, pineapple, and of course rice. Rice is eaten at just about every meal, unless we should have noodles. Food in Thailand is very cheap, so there's plenty to go around. As to why it's so cheap, well that's because Thailand's tropical climate allows all the food to be raised and produced here.

Joining us for today's meal is, from the left, Film, Parn, and mom. My dad is here too! Pictured below.

Now time to dig in! Did you notice how all the food was placed in the middle of the table instead of on our individual plates? Thai meals are always served family style and we take little parts of each dish and put it on our plates to eat. See my plate below.

As much as Boom wants me to hand him a piece of my fish, he's not allowed food. However, he does get his share once we're all done. My family doesn't ever buy dog food. Instead, we give Boom our leftovers in his bowl. He loves every bit of it!

Now that the food is running low, we usually bring out some sort of desert. In the left corner in a plastic bag, you'll see some orange yarn-like material. This stuff is actually edible, and quite sweet. Perfect Thai desert!

Did you see how we didn't have glasses by our plates when I showed you the table? Thai people generally do not drink much. The only time we actually drink is at the end of the meal where we pass around a cup and bottle of water, each taking a glass full.

Since we all done, it's time to collect the trash in a bag and stack the dishes so they can be washed. Because I was taking the pictures, I got out of dish duty. But normally this is when I do the dishes. Parn is the one who does them in the morning.

   

Done!

That's pretty much how I have my meals with my family everyday. Except having different foods each time and all. LOL