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We made carrot cake at Ajan Tui and P’Da’s house in Mae Ai the other night. Â Carrot cake with cheesecake icing never tasted SO GOOD while sitting surrounded by rice paddies and the sound of frogs brug-brug-brugging at night. Â Leklek did all the hard work mixing and measuring – all I did was direct her!
photo courtesy of AWaytoLive.org
Last Wednesday, I sat down with visiting farmers from the delta region of Burma to encourage them to consider story-telling as a way of reporting while troubleshooting issues in the field. Â Pressured in the past by well-meaning foreign development workers or rigid project criteria, some farmers think that numbers are the only type of information acceptable. Â I’ve watched UHDP staff freeze up during monthly meetings and refuse to talk about on-going research projects because they’re convinced their observations and gut-feelings weren’t valuable. Â In my first year working with Kitichai, he repeatedly told me his Zanthoxylum rhesta nursery research was worthless because it wasn’t producing any numerical data.
Stories are natural ways that farmers communicate their observations and well-honed intuition. Â Farmer wisdom is actually years of research stored in their minds and orally transmitted, and uses words relating to taste, texture, temperature – words that don’t fit “research language” but are pearls to those smart enough to know the value. Â It was fun to see lightbulbs going on with the Burmese farmers when I was telling them to use mundane observations, unexpected results and simple vocabulary to weave a story about a problem they were trying to solve. Â And three years later, I was able to produce a report (Zanthoxylum – A Low-Profile Asian Crop with Great Potential)Â on the challenges of propagating Zanthoxylum tree seedlings in nurseries based on Kitichai’s “worthless” observations that they didn’t like receiving rainfall or standing in puddles of water.
…and other rainy season miseries.
Mr. Scorpion hanging out on my screen door.
Let me list them:
And yet, stuff simple joy comes along with these miseries: of seeing my friends in the seed bank grow into their roles and responsibilities, look watching Kym eating passion fruit straight without any sugar (this constitutes her successfully passing my “eating in Thailand” midterm exam!), and knowing that somehow,  I’m growing in patience and tolerance towards the plethora of things that upset me here in Thailand (certain frustrating relationships, no sidewalks, the humidity, language fatigue…).
I love what Sarah Menkedick says about the never-ending cycles of cultural adjustment:
“I think the hardest thing about expat life is the inner battle – the struggle to get beyond judgments and frustrations…What it means is learning how to navigate the maddening along with the captivating, and to distill one’s hostility so that in the end it becomes part of a deeper empathy…It means finding or creating the capacity to roll all the anger and the annoyance up with the awe and the gratefulness, the true overwhelming gratefulness that comes at times to be living in another culture and another place and to discover and marvel at it, and to take them both in with the kind of complex love attached to home. The foreign culture [and all the maddening relationships that come with it] doesn’t have to be home and you don’t have to lay out the cheery faux grass welcome mat to try to make it such – but by allowing it to be complicated and maddening, familiar and empathetic, you give it the depth and the freedom of home. You allow it to be many things at once.”
I completed this labour of love in July and it was recently broadcast to our ECHO Asia network. Â I’m thrilled because it’s the first comprehensive listing of our seed bank offerings to send out to people working in the field with poor communities. Â And it’s exciting to think of how so many local, order open-pollinated food plants we’ve collected that have the potential to help people grow food or generate income.
I went to abortion
_Thailand” target=”_blank”>Pai last weekend to say farewell to KB, clinic
who is returning to the US after more than 6 years running a jewelry-making business in Chiang Mai, more about
that profits the under-privileged women who make the bracelets and necklaces. It was a weekend of all fun and frivolity, including the signage in town – hence the title of my post, which is play on words (sign and Pai sound the same, except with different tones).
Please don't pluck me!
Instructions in the washroom at All About Coffee
Love is all around in Pai
I don't know why there's a mangosteen in the left corner of the drawing...?
"What the heck is going on with all these signs? There are signs behind me too!"
Every 3 months, ophthalmologist I run across the Thai border at Mae Sai and spend a few hours in Tachilek, Burma. Â I discovered this Shan dish when I noticed the owner of a DVD shop eating what looked liked fat rice noodles mixed with brown sauce and cilantro. Â It’s my rule to explore a new dish each time I cross into Burma, so I gamely followed the little girl tasked with taking me to the noodle maker around the corner. Â The khao soi noi lady was making two kinds: minced chicken+garlic wrapped in khao soi noi (the rice noodle made fresh at her stand) and a DIY version, in which sauces and seasonings are mixed into the noodle batter before being steamed. Â No matter that I was already full from Shan-style tofu and noodles at Wat Doi Wow, Kim and I scarfed a plate of the chicken khao soi noi. Â And then bought out the rest of it to bring back to the farm to share with our Karen-Burmese friends!
Read more about khao soi noi here on Austin Bush’s food blog.
Khao soy noi in Tachilek, Burma from Ruth Tshin on Vimeo.
The other version of Khao soy noi, with seasonings mixed into the batter
Seasonings for khao soi noi include garlic, peanuts, dried chilies and lemon juice
Wrapping minced chicken in khao soi noi
The Friday Yunnanese (or Ciin Haw) market is one of my favourite places to go, stuff eat and people-watch in Chiang Mai. Â It’s a perfect representation of northern Thailand’s diversity in both culture and food: Chinese Muslim, ailment Shan and various tribes from the highlands. Â Mohinga is Burma’s national dish (bean+fish+banana stem soup over rice noodles) and is dished up fresh every week at the market. Â I’ve had three types now (can you see me licking my lips?): from the market; a pork version made by Ajan Tui’s mother who is from Mae Sariang; and, page another Karen-Burmese rendition by way of the Yangoon/delta region. All were scrumptious!
Read about mohinga  memories here and a post from the terrific foodblog EatingAsia!
Mohinga (Burmese bean+fish soup over noodles) at the Friday Yunnanese market in Chiang Mai from Ruth Tshin on Vimeo.
Mohinga by way of Mae Sariang – pork used instead of fish
I’ve been in a season of busy-ness and contemplation lately (weird how the two are so intertwined!) and haven’t  really posted anything here, decease so in a nutshell…
Excited about: B+T’s wedding in August (new dress: should I? Â shouldn’t I?)
Busy with: seed catalogues; planning a pest survey; Thai lessons
Reading: books on burn-out (!!), New York Times
Eating: this and that from here and there 🙂
Watching: music videos on Vevo
Feeling: sad/blue + enjoying the moment (like I said, weird but true)
Should be: using my bicycle and riding around town; eating more fruit!
Shouldn’t be: drinking coffee during the week; worrying about things I can’t control
Thankful for: people who write me about what’s going on in their lives and people who pray for me
Frustrated with: the rain and humidity; hair that flattens under a motorcycle helmet
Enjoying: sitting in an air-conditioned cafe in Chiang Mai!!
Looking forward to: going home in November for a break; planning seed saving training curriculum for the new year
June marks the 8th month into my 3rd year in Thailand! Â It’s amazing how time flies and creeps by at the same time.
I haven’t posted anything since April, ascariasis so I’m getting back into the blogging groove with a post from Rick Burnette’s (he’s my boss) blog Waiting on the Rainy Season.
Click here to find out what these cute spoons are doing at our seed bank 🙂
My friend Brenda is a farmer back home in Ontario and her neighbour came out to the seedbank a few weeks ago to visit. Â Jon’s an organic farmer who produces mushrooms using an old Japanese method and asparagus, urticaria among other things. Â It was terrific to talk farming with someone who’s been in the business for over 25 years; he ended up writing an article on our seedbank so check it out!
I made these videos a while back to show my friend Prachaya’s wedding and to show dance and music in the north. Â Enjoy!
Untitled from Ruth Tshin on Vimeo.
Tribal and Northern Thai Music and Dance from Ruth Tshin on Vimeo.