Who Cooks?

[jaideeguy]

In our family, the wife and I alternate dinners and I cook my breakfast and eat leftovers for lunch. The reason I cook is that i miss my falang food and my wife refuses to learn. Thai food used to be exotic and I ate it more frequiently, but now that i've been here 10+yrs, I find falang food exotic.

Plus, it gives me something to do and plan for. I bake breads, make jams and jellies, cookies, spagetti, meatloaf, gravies, and learn new recipes on the internet. I also eat 'international' foods. The best part of this arrangement is that she does the clean-up.

It is good to get a 'rice break' sometimes.

I also observe the prejudice that Thai wives have against falang food. I can say that I have at least tasted most of her 'ethnic delicacies' but they are either too spicey, stink fish, or fatty and one taste is enough.

Just wondering if there are many other falang husbands that cook?? And Thai wives that are prejudice against falang food??

[Curt1591]

I do the ribs, pastas, omelet (slow cooked) and such. She does much of the Thai stuff.

Surprisingly, she never cooked before we married. She has picked it up since. She has amazing instincts!

[PeaceBlondie]

I don't cook. Only eat fresh fruit for breakfast. Boyfriend buys sandwiches for lunch. I don't understand a Thai woman who won't learn to cook for her husband. My partner learned to cook delicious, non-spicy 'Chinese' food for me.

[TheWalkingMan]

Wowser...

The wife doesn't cook non-Thai food? Hard to fathom. Maybe she is worried that if she does it and learns to like it, it will make her chubby?

TheWalkingMan

[bkkjames]

I cook (very well), one of the reasons the Mrs married me - certainly can't be for looks or money.

[thaigerd]

I cook (very well), one of the reasons the Mrs married me - certainly can't be for looks or money.

Same same with me

[tutsiwarrior]

my wife doesn't cook much because there are many others in the house that do and there's always food on the upstairs family table at any given time mostly prepared by others...I have my own kitchen and cook western food but I always meander about the family kitchen to see what's cookin'...many times folks will bring back something from the countryside that they've found that's cheap and plentiful...

sometimes the wife, MiL or one of the other in-laws will cook something I like (mostly vegetables stir fried with pork fat, garlic and ginger or boiled rice soup) and send it downstairs and sometimes I'll have 2-3 dishes sitting on my counter prepared by others...I reciprocate usually by making ribs that I know everyone likes or by getting some roast chickens from the market or big bags of farmed shrimp, when available...

when we were living overseas for my work we useta share the cooking and the wife is fairly proficient at western food preparation...now at home she doesn't bother...

[bonobo]

It is the same here as when I was married and in the US.  I do most of the cooking while my g/f does a few dishes she knows, and while I teach slowly teach her new ones.

My ex couldn't boil and egg when we met, but she became quite an accomplished cook.  I hope the same occurs here.

[bkkjames]

It is the same here as when I was married and in the US.  I do most of the cooking while my g/f does a few dishes she knows, and while I teach slowly teach her new ones.

My ex couldn't boil and egg when we met, but she became quite an accomplished cook. I hope the same occurs here.

What - become your ex?

[tutsiwarrior]

^hey, this is serious stuff...my ex in the UK couldn't cook shit until I taught her...then she became ambitious and went for 'road kill' cuisine like pheasant, rabbit and goose when she could barely make tuna salad...got up my nose as her 'experiments' were always expensive and inedible and she refused to clean up the kitchen afterward; ever try to clean up tempura batter after it has dried?

I said 'fer that failed attempt you get an X...and fer that other miserable attempt you get an X...'

see what I mean?...'ex' indeed...when my thai missus got into the kitchen and smashed garlic with the flat of a knife before peeling just like me I said this association will definitely succeed...

(now we better watch out as we're gratuitously bad mouthing white women )

[SantiSuk]

We have a two month old, so I do a lot of the cooking. We have lived in our own new house only 8 months so I'm still learning Thai food - have perfected about 10 dishes to the point of 'alloi' comments from TW and shall now have to browse for more.

Wife finds most falang food bland, but likes roast chicken and chips and loves Pizza - grotty thick crust unfortunately, so we have to go to Pizza Company and avoid the classiest and proper pizzas (Marcos in Ubon). She also loves spaghetti bolognese - there seems to be no rhyme or reason in what she likes!.

Her family live round the corner and cook Issaan food for the local markets, so no shortage of cheap curries to buy if all else fails, some of which are nice.

I sympathise with jaideeguy. I'm already finding I need to cook a falang dish at least once a week and I've only been here a couple of years

[NanaFoods]

Both wife and I cook...sometimes her sister cooks Japanese (she had spend a few years in Japan) as well as Thai dishes and shares with us.

Fortunately, my wife is quite open to Western food. Other than Thai food and Italian food, we also eat a lot of Mexican food. She can make flour tortillas like any Mexican mamacita, but I make the frijoles, mexi-rice, and main dishes.

But she does love to eat just about whatever I cook, be it American (stews, salads, casseroles, BBQ, NE Clam Chowder, etc.), Jamaican, African, Mexican, South American, Chinese, etc. She loves other Euro foods like Shepherd's pie, etc... and enjoys a good Chicken Kiev as well.

We eat pretty well around here, but we try to keep it healthy food whenever possible.

[DP25]

Only I ever cook. Girlfriend can barely make mama noodles and isn't interested in cooking at all. Lots of people growing up in Bangkok and other cities eat out every single meal of their lives and never learn to make anything.

[Ciocco]

Usually it's me... i started cooking at 13... veeery young, being a Chef at around 23...

me too sometime i suspect she married me because my cooking

for sure friends (both europeans and thais) they love this also!!

She can cook for herself but if she do i cannot eat quiet nothing because she love spicy, sour and sweet, too much for my opinion.

[slapout]

We both cook but not at the same time, who and when depends on our moods. She can do American breakfast, pork chop/fried chicken dinners, pie, etc. as well as Thai food. I take on holiday meals, turkey and all the fixings, while the wife tells me how I should do it, then she is banned from kitchen again. She has never accepted that I can cook and wash up as items are used. She was amazed that people could learn to cook from a cook book and it did not require going to school and then she did it.

[Deke]

My wife does most of the cooking but the barbecue is my exclusive domain.

[Sarge]

I cook, even though the wifey is quite skilled in the kitchen, we shop for groceries together. I let her to cook me breaky though every time and taught her how to you use a moka. Lunch is almost always on the go. Recently her family starting commenting how my kaeng keow wan khung was more delicious than hers, it didn't go down too well with her

[kennkate]

My Wife does all the cooking She won't let me do any she says it's not my job to cook. I tell her I managed perfectly well when I was living on my own.

I have to say she takes to cooking English food like a duck to water. Dinners are no problem to her I only have to show her once and she is away.

Since we got to the UK my Aunt has shown her how to make Scones and Bread. She loves to be able to do these things.

She won't let me wash up, Says it's not my job. And for the fist time in my life I have put weight on. Been together 3 Years 1st march Happy as larry.

I Thought all Thai ladies were good cooks Looks like I was wrong. Certainly glad mine is.

[ProfessorFart]

The servants cook.

Low class expats......pah!

[kennkate]

I only get the servants in at the weekend. My wife likes Cooking and looking after me. So I let her do it during the week

Only get the servants in to cook at the weekend. During the week they are busy looking after the Estate Cleaning the silver Ect

[Bizz]

i made the mistake of bulls*** how well i could cook both Thai and western, bread apple tart mango tart, even to make beautiful wine.

now I'm screwed. it is expected of me all the time now.

there is a lesson to be learned.

[drbill]

The family would go hungrey once they tasted my cooking. Not my area of expertise unless it's the eating part.

[bonobo]

It is the same here as when I was married and in the US.  I do most of the cooking while my g/f does a few dishes she knows, and while I teach slowly teach her new ones.

My ex couldn't boil and egg when we met, but she became quite an accomplished cook. I hope the same occurs here.

What - become your ex?

 After I put her through medical school, she thought she would be a better match with a medical doctor, not "just" a Ph.D. (like me).  

[kikoman]

My wife dose most of the cooking, she make flour tortillas every morning ,taco's ,tostadas always has frijoles on hand, makes them refried with cheese and chile, chile rellenos, can make homemade chorizo, pickles, kimchee, mashed potatoes, hamburgers, pizza , I show her once and she can make it. we make sausage/hams together, my wife and girls eat most of my food. I am learning how to make Thai sausages for them, I do not want them eating to much western food ,to fattening.

We have family making pizza days, they like Hawaiian pizza and I like ,the works on mine. She make excellent Albondigas and Cocido soup.

My wife is an excellent cook and I eat a lot of Thai food as she makes it very spicy to my liking, When we were 1st together she would not let me do anything in the kitchen, now we cook my food together. We bake bread and do a lot of bar-B-queing)

I have the best wife in the world, and I thank Buddha everyday~

Cheers:

Edited February 28, 2010 by kikoman

[Gary A]

I'm quite lucky. My wife is an excellent cook. I'd much rather eat at home than go to a restaurant. I did teach her how to make tuna salad and chicken noodle soup. I still make chili soup and beef stew because she is still afraid to use the pressure cooker. To cook Thai beef, you definitely need a pressure cooker. Dry kidney beans also need to be soaked overnight and pressure cooked unless you have a lot of time and patience.

[krading]

LOML can cook but admits it's mai aloi.

With a noodle shop across the road and a krapow stall 100 mts away why bother cooking. Two of us can eat for 50 bht.

She does a mean spag bog after touching up the Thai style sauce with a few extras.

Cooked me a steak in the microwave once. I told her to do another one so I could make myself a pair of thongs. (sorry, flip flops)

[ChangMaiSausage]

Luckily the wife was brought up in a restuarnt kitchen thus she is a great cook (something I did not know for a long time until we settled down) what has surprised me is that she has taken to cooking western food so easily risoto's, yorkshire puddings, chicken/beef pies etc... she has even started to make her own bread! God bless BBC Food, 24hr marathon of cooking.