Opium? Lady? Elephant?

I was really frustrated by this article in the NYT today, particularly this part:

“Mr. Nattawut makes about 2,000 baht a day, or about $67, selling sugar cane to passers-by, good money in a country where a typical factory wage is 8,000 baht (about $269) a month.”

According to those figures, Mr. Nattawut, a mahout (elephant handler), is making about twice as much as I am, and after basic expenses I still have the money to support myself in a city (which costs a whole lot more than in a rural area) and save money for vacation and moving back home. 8,000 baht is not a lot per month to live on, but it can be enough (maybe not in Bangkok, but living in/near Bangkok is a choice, and most of these workers come from rural areas). I know a lady in Khon Kaen who gets along on 4,000 (which is not enough) and she has a son.

Elephant exploitation is a really important issue, and every time a mahout asks me to buy sugar cane (that he already owns) so his mal-nourished elephant can eat, I feel horrible anger. I understand that everyone wants to make the best living that they can, but that’s no excuse to so blatantly abuse and exploit an elephant. No matter how much I agree with most of the points made in this article (especially about the uneven distribution of wealth between urban and rural areas), I don’t appreciate the NYT giving an unfair assessment of the situation by not providing a fair representation of the cost of living in Thailand.

Although not as extreme as drug dealing or prostitution, this problem has similar causes and results from similar rationalizations. When people are poor and good jobs are scarce, compromising their morals for the often-fulfilled promise of wealth (and 60,000 Baht a month is wealthy*) becomes almost too tempting to pass up. Attempts to control the situation will never really be as effective as examining the root causes of the problem, whether the issue is dangerous criminals, loose women, or dangerous elephants on the loose.

*The latest data I can find is from 2001 (without wading through a whole lot of online pdf files), and then the average combined household income was 12,185 baht.

nam crook?

One of the best appetizer-type dishes that I’ve had here so far is nam crook. At least I think it’s nam crook, that’s what I say to the som tam lady at my favorite veggie restaurant, and this is what she always gives me. Of course one time she wasn’t there and then I tried to order it and the man taking my order had no idea what I was talking about. So I digressed into limited choppy Thai vocab/hand signals: “fried ball” (mashing motion) “leaf” (spooning motion). He got the idea and I got what I call nam crook. If you’re reading this and you know what it’s really called, please post it in the comments.

Since I can’t find a recipe (maybe because I don’t know its name), I’ll explain how nam crook is made in my imagination. You first make a kind of fried rice with chopped up kaffir lime leaves, these awesome dried roasted chilies, peanuts, and other magical Thai spices. You then form this rice into pool-ball size spheres and deep fry it. You leave the balls in this stage until just before you are ready to eat. (It is at this point that I actually begin to witness preparation).

When you are ready to serve nam crook, you place one of the balls in a bowl and mash it up with your hands (preferably gloved). You then add fresh mint leaves, lime juice, maybe something else if you think it would taste good. It is then served on a plate with fresh leaves, generally of the same unknown variety (occasionally supplemented or substituted with a less tasty unknown variety).

I then spoon the rice mixture into a leaf and wrap it up before popping the morsel in my mouth. However, I can’t say if this is the proper way to eat nam crook, but no one’s ever corrected me (although maybe they’re just too polite).

Like many Thai dishes, Nam crook has a nice balance of spicy, salty, sour, and sweet (not really sure where that last flavor comes from, but it’s there). The texture is also amazing, with the soft rice mixed with crunchy dried peppers, peanuts, and bits of the original deep fried shell wrapped in the smooth and fresh-tasting leaf. It is amazingly arroy (delicious-- one Thai word I know very well).

Since the Thai election was last month...

Although I'm not living in the USA, that doesn't mean I'm not paying attention to politics. I'm also not blogging to push a political agenda. I just think this website is really cool. Basically, you take a quiz on how you feel about 25 issues, and then it calculates which candidate (Republican, Democrat, etc.) most closely matches your ideals. Try it.

Out with the Old

No New Years resolutions here, just good news; I now know where I live.

For all of those official documents that want my home address, here is why you didn't get it.


Even if that sign did use the Latin alphabet, I still wouldn't have been able to read it. It has recently been replaced by the much-better-in-more-ways-than-I-can-count sign below.



I still don't have a mailbox though, so if you feel like sending me a letter or a large box of tortilla chips, please send it to:

Jordan Fields
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Khon Kaen University
123 Mitraparb Road
Muang Khon Kaen
Khon Kaen
Thailand
40002

Now if only my address would fit on those pesky online forms with their limited character boxes...