Thursday, 17 November, 2022 – Elias spent his first day in Chiang Mai today. I think this is where he is staying; it is called Hostel Lullaby. (Hee hee. I hope it is as cute as it sounds and looks from the website.) It would appear he could be staying there for as little as $12 per night, which leaves money from his daily budget for LOTS of food. And this is where it is in, in the city.
While he was still in Bangkok, Elias ate one of my favorite dishes, jook. Or congee, as I think most Americans know it. It is ridiculously simple but it is the ultimate comfort food to me. It’s soup made of rice, usually with other things in it, though simple jook with green onions on top is really good, too. Elias sent a picture of it, the menu, and the restaurant where he ate, presumably. I cannot believe I got the conversion correct because I think the menu is saying that a bowl of jook is about one dollar. Could that be right?
There is a very nice restaurant near us, in the Prairie Village Shopping Center, of all places. It is called Café Provence and I can count on one hand the number of times I have eaten there. It is what I consider to be expensive. The food is always excellent but $75-$100 per person seems like a lot of money. Maybe I am revealing my plebian background but there it is.
In any case, I was thinking about how good the food has been to Elias, since he arrived in Thailand and what it cost him. I don’t really have a judgement to make; cheap food or very expensive food, both can be excellent. And since I know Café Provence is family-owned and intentionally very authentic, I expect it to be expensive.
I am not sure what my point is, except that the difference between what we consider haute cuisine and what we would call street food seems to be more a matter of perspective, than real, substantive difference in taste or ingredients or expertise required.
But what the hell do I know? As I have said, I am not the chef in the family. I am glad Elias has been able to enjoy so much of the food he loves because he could afford it. He could not have done this trip and eaten at a Café Provence every night.