Thai Strifes Living Abroad.

[Pink Mist]

We had a topic on Thai Women's quirks a while back and found out I wasn't the only one getting a "doonk" on the head, when the wife dream't about me playing up.

This one's is a bit different, how many of you're wives do the dishes under running water, rather than,fill the sink with hot water, dishes, detergent, let em soak for a while, then clean and wipe dry?

You guys with dishwashing machines stay out of this.

Another one is even though there are work benches in the kitchen she and her Thai friends still sometimes prepare food cross legged on the floor.

Are there any other things you guys have noticed?

[mandl]

Yeah - Got a nice dining table with 8 chairs. But if more than three of them get together, they spread a plastic mat on the family room floor and eat in there.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Yeah - Got a nice dining table with 8 chairs. But if more than three of them get together, they spread a plastic mat on the family room floor and eat in there.

Saves 'em from worrying about dropping food on the floor maybe. They sure don't go much on the table and chairs combination do they ?

[mandl]

Nah - those are for the farangs.

[stroll]

I confirm all the above, and furthermore:

-no good insisting that plates will be stored on this shelf, glasses on the other. I waste a lot of my time looking for the canopener and stuff...

-there is a row of waterfilled drums lining the walls from the bathroom to the kitchen, preparing for the next time the water will be cut off for half an hour.

It is what one grew up with and is used to, isn't it?

[Boon Mee]

Or how about all that evil-smelling stuff that's been in the Thoo Yen for ages taking up needed room for my beer!

[chingy_]

do the dishes under running water, rather than,fill the sink with hot water, dishes, detergent, let em soak for a while, then clean and wipe dry?

i do the dishes on running water, its an asian thing.

back in the state the weather is cold so the greese stuck to the plate or bowl, so people soak them before wash or using hot water to get the greese out, in asia they don't have the greese problem, so no need soaking.

Another one is even though there are work benches in the kitchen she and her Thai friends still sometimes prepare food cross legged on the floor.

would you like to stand prepairing food for a couple of hour, tiresome don't you think, sitting down is more relaxing.

[stroll]

'would you like to stand prepairing food for a couple of hour, tiresome don't you think, sitting down is more relaxing. '

..and it's fun to feed the rats and cockroaches while you're down there...

[chingy_]

i don't know what jungle or rat hole you came from, but my kitchen floor is much cleaner then your bedroom buddy

[Pink Mist]

do the dishes under running water, rather than,fill the sink with hot water, dishes, detergent, let em soak for a while, then clean and wipe dry?

i do the dishes on running water, its an asian thing.

back in the state the weather is cold so the greese stuck to the plate or bowl, so people soak them before wash or using hot water to get the greese out, in asia they don't have the greese problem, so no need soaking.

Another one is even though there are work benches in the kitchen she and her Thai friends still sometimes prepare food cross legged on the floor.

would you like to stand prepairing food for a couple of hour, tiresome don't you think, sitting down is more relaxing.

I'm not saying yay or nay to anything here just found it interesting, the habits that travel.

My strife makes and sells spring rolls, she makes 100 at a sitting and was preparing them on the floor.

At my insistence (for hygene) she made them on the kitchen table last night, now she reckons her shoulders are crook and it's my fault.

[thaimee]

i do the dishes on running water, its an asian thing.

back in the state the weather is cold so the greese stuck to the plate or bowl, so people soak them before wash or using hot water to get the greese out, in asia they don't have the greese problem, so no need soaking.

What you say about Asian practices cleaning plates, cutlery and alike seems logical. Like you say, they don't have a grease problem, so no need soaking or being overly serious about scouring with pads.

Although one quirk that get's my back up...

I'm not sure if anyone has picked up on it, which is, you'll see some Thai people give the left over's of a meal to the dog but from the plate they just ate out of! So if the dog has just eaten out of it and has a microbe stomach upset these bugs can be passed on to humans. What i'm saying is it's not sanitary to do so!!

Is that logical?

Thaimee.

[stroll]

'Is that logical?'

Yes it is, but Thailand isn't...

By the same token, I wonder which commutable disease I will eventually catch, when our Isaan friends all dip their spoons or fingers into the same bowl in the middle of the table-no,sorry-floor. Same with the 2 glasses they share between 3 families, usually all eyes on me waiting for me to drink up and pass the glass (I am notoriously slow at drowning a glass full of pure LaoKao).

[chingy_]

not sure i understand you right, you say that thai people give left over to the dog on the plate after the dog eat the food the people take the plate back and eat on it over again. not quite understand.

i see thai people give the food they eat on the plate and feed it to the dog, that mean the dog eat the food out of the old and use plate that we give them, after that the plate go straight to the sink not back to us.

did you know that for every breath you took, there are more germ than sharing a cup of water, when you walking down the road an see all those black smoke floating in the air.

[stroll]

Yes, but then it is being rinsed rather than soaked, and given back to you.

[thaimee]

'Is that logical?'

Yes it is, but Thailand isn't...

By the same token, I wonder which commutable disease I will eventually catch, when our Isaan friends all dip their spoons or fingers into the same bowl in the middle of the table-no,sorry-floor. Same with the 2 glasses they share between 3 families, usually all eyes on me waiting for me to drink up and pass the glass (I am notoriously slow at drowning a glass full of pure LaoKao).

Catching disease's...hopefully nothing worse than a stomach upset, fingers crossed!

Visited Udom with my GF to see her family last week. So I can understand where you are going with this post.

I was offered alot of food stuffs that i'm familiar with as being tasty. Really tasty!

However the white baby ants in a dish I passed on, yeah lot's of laughs, thanx not for cursing me mamma Thai.

Another thing I picked up on, not sure if it's widespread, but the mamma would repeatedly eat this red chewy baccy leaf substance. When finished she would spit in her homemade spitoon and move on to conversation freely, umm, while we eating for the record.

So there I was eating away at my favourite cusine and mamma was gobbing in her spitoon. For reference the spitoon was placed amongst the many food dishes. This I could not understand. Not a thing a foreigner would do , is it?

Thaimee. Well when in Romee...

[chingy_]

where did you get the idea only rinse, wash it with dishish soap and rinse no need to soak.

[thaimee]

I'm getting a headache after the dog plate episode Chingy.

Which part didn't you understand again?

Thaimee.

[stroll]

This is the question, is this good enough after an animal has licked the plate clean? I am not sure, to be honest, but haven't noticed any worrying symptoms(that weren't there before) on myself after several years in Thailand. You maybe right, Chingy.

[stumonster]

thought that was a standard bachelor trick in the west.. getting the dog to do the dishes.

as for the eating on the floor.. shoes are removed when inside in most of asia, and the tiles and timber are cleaned many times in the day

[pnustedt]

Another one in a restaurant is when they wash the crockery and chop sticks in tea before eating. I stopped my wife doing it with my stuff and she moaned that it may not be cleaned properly. To which I replied that if we can't trust the place to wash the dishes I sure am not going to trust them to cook and serve food.

She seems to have given up but the habit keeps recurring when she is with friends.

[Up2U]

Another one in a restaurant is when they wash the crockery and chop sticks in tea before eating. I stopped my wife doing it with my stuff and she moaned that it may not be cleaned properly. To which I replied that if we can't trust the place to wash the dishes I sure am not going to trust them to cook and serve food.

She seems to have given up but the habit keeps recurring when she is with friends.

This is standard practice in Hong Kong, and with Filipinas that I've been out with everywhere. Not seen it in Thailand though.

[chingy_]

restaurant is another ball game, anything goes, i wouldn't trust anything they do, but then again you eat just because youhave to eat

[stroll]

Another one in a restaurant is when they wash the crockery and chop sticks in tea before eating. 

Just did a search, apparently tea, specially green tea, is known for its anti-septic qualities. I wonder, do they drink the tea after they washed their chopsticks in it?

In another thread on Thai food, someone suggested not to drink beer straight from the bottle, because a rat might have peed on it. - I live and learn.

Maybe I could wash the beer bottles with tea, then serve it to the mother-in-law?

[somtaamgaiyang]

The whole pee thing about bottles is perfectly valid. I was suspicious in Thailand having never heard about in in the UK, presumably Health and Safety control warehousing very well there. But during a trip to Greece people were astounded to see me drign straight from a can. Apparantly, Weils disease killed about 10 people there from contaminated soda bottles that were contaminated with rat urine.

Never never drink from a bottle in anywhere except the 1st world, and then still probably better to use a glass

[stumonster]

I think cans are more of the problem.. I always wipe or wash the top before consuming.

with bottles the cap itself should keep it clean... depends on your consumption style

not just rats.. mice also piss to mark their trail..and I always considered them to be the main culprits

[Up2U]

Another one in a restaurant is when they wash the crockery and chop sticks in tea before eating. 

Just did a search, apparently tea, specially green tea, is known for its anti-septic qualities. I wonder, do they drink the tea after they washed their chopsticks in it?

In another thread on Thai food, someone suggested not to drink beer straight from the bottle, because a rat might have peed on it. - I live and learn.

Maybe I could wash the beer bottles with tea, then serve it to the mother-in-law?

No - toss that green tea away - get another set of glasses for the stuff you drink.

With regard to rat's piss - it doesn't go in the bottle - they use it as a path-marker and territorial marker - wherever they run. It goes on the crates, boxes, caps, bottles, cans. Wiping is not enough to get rid of the possible contamination. Drink from a glas, don't let the rim of the bottle or can touch the glass.

And I'm not a fussy eater or drinker - so for a health nut such things must be driving them to drink.