Delightful SE Asian Wife In Europe – Thought For Food

It's not just that the fridge is fuller now and the corridor more orderly. When I pop into the kitchen to grab another cup of tea, more often than not I am stared at by – a dead fish in the sink, next to a frightening imported Asian
knife, waiting to be processed for yet another whopping Thai dish.

And looking around me, the new pots on the window sills and out on the balcony are full of lovely flowers, but even more full of anything edible from chili to Chinese leek, from Thai basil to lemongrass, then scallions and a lot of stuff
I can't name. We get these plants from specialised mail-order houses. Nahlee, my SE Asian wife, also brings seeds in from her home country and grows offshoots from potted herbs she finds on local markets in Europe or in the Asia stores. She
happily also grows Euro things like Italian basil, oregano or thyme. Interestingly, though, she refuses to eat the spicy and vitamin-rich leaves or the mild sweet flowers of the nasturtium which we keep for their lovely yellow and orange blossoms.
All the stuff she grows looks green and happy – I'd never get it growing like that.

My Nahlee surely is an avid gardener.

<Is it only be who thinks these two images are somewhat phallic looking? – Stick>

— DRIED FOOD —

One friend has a special considerate present for Nahlee: She brings a small chili bush from the flower shop – full of fruit. Nahlee smiles! Says the friend: "And these are real spicy chilies, I was told by the shop clerk. Edible and
spicy! Not just decorum."

Nahlee can't hold back any longer. She picks a chili fruit and stuffs it into her mouth and – her face drops one meter! She looks shocked. "What is this", she asks? "This tastes like – absolutely nothing. Hans, try, even
you could eat this!" Never did I see such an disappointment on her face.

The chili pot remains untouched where she dropped it, near the stove. After two weeks the bush dies from not getting any water at all.

My Nahlee surely is an avid gardener – if the results do please her eyes or palate.

— THOUGHT FOR FOOD —

We drive through a remote forest area. I spot a cute squirrel scurrying over the ground and up a tree.

“Look, a squirrel”, I go! “You have those in Thailand, too?”

“Sure we have. Can kill, grill and keep in whiskey. Good for body.”

We keep driving through the remote forest area. I spot a cute deer. I don’t speak.

— FOOD FED —

Nahlee and I already agreed that Europeans have a tendency to finish a dish until the plate is empty; while Thais'd rather leave something on the plate and in the bowls, so they don’t appear to be hungry and unfed. I pray to Nahlee
to give me just another spoon of rice and curry, but she scoops another plate. Once this is in front of me, I find it difficult not to finish the whole – unwanted – plate, of course sending out the wrong signal.

And it's not just her cooked food. She offers me a glass of juice, coffee or wine. If I say "just half a glass, dear", the glass will still be mostly full. Again, I have problems not to finish this, even though I shouldn't.
Due to my inability to simply reject the food shoved onto my plates, I'm getting fatter. This is ok for her, actually I suspect this is her plan. I wonder if other Thai wives serve too much all the time too.

— FOOD FIGHT —

On Wintery mornings, she walks out into the cold to buy her – favorite dark bread for breakfast! Even if she has lunch alone, she polishes off som tam and rice with a self-prepared cappuccino; a drink she didn’t know
when she lived in Thailand. But of course, our imported Toshiba rice cooker is under steam several days a week.

"Haha", I say, "you really changed: You drink coffee, you eat dark bread and corn flakes – are you a Thai any more?"

"Why", she shoots back: "When I cook dinner, now you eat much more spicy than one year ago!" She wears a triumphant smile.

Stickman's thoughts:

Nice report and nice pictures. And yes, most guys who settle down into a serious relationship with a Thai woman do seem to put on weight.

You really do have a knack for producing very nice, very readable submissions.