Sunday, July 15, 2012

The hotel staff have taken a shine to me. Maybe it's because I practice Lao with them sometimes, maybe it's because I let them work on their English with me sometimes. Maybe it's because they got a kick out of the fact that I like to eat sticky rice with my fried eggs. (The waitress still giggles when she brings me sticky rice.) Maybe the old lady in the kitchen just wants to fatten me up. For whatever reason, at some point, they decided that they weren't going to give me the regular falang breakfast. Instead, one day, the old lady who seems to run the kitchen and do the actual cooking--who I'd never met before--comes out, not with the fried eggs that we eat every time we have breakfast here--but with a plate of pork fried garlic and ginger. (She pointed out the ginger several times, saying the word in English. G thinks perhaps it's supposed to help you get pregnant.) The plate was clearly for me: G got his eggs and toast. Now, of course, I don't normally eat meat, and when I eat it for politeness's sake, I don't eat that much of it. But these kitchen ladies hide behind the wall and watch us eat! I didn't want eat just a bit and then ask for some eggs--I couldn't have eaten both and I didn't want her to think I didn't appreciate it. So I ate most of the plate they brought out. (It was delicious.) We didn't have breakfast there for two days. Today, we went down again. I was hoping it was a special treat. Nope. Today it was some sort egg souffle thing with noodles and chicken. Again, just for me. Again, delicious. I'm wonderfully, terribly trapped. It's really nice. I might just have to wander down to the kitchen and ask how they make the food and see if they'll let me hang around and watch. Maybe I'll sneak in a statement about how I don't eat all that much meat--but they might think that just means they need to start serving me liver and blood to make up for lost time. Maybe I'll just eat a few more meat breakfasts to avoid hurting the old lady's feelings. My soul for the price of a cooking lesson.