Mice from the Garden, Fried with Tons of Chili!

Spicy Field Mice for New Years 2016

           - Nakhon Sawan, Central Region, Thailand.

...and after almost a day of waiting - here it is!  The awesome, ultra spicy, Field Mouse Fried with Basil.
Lots of small bones but the bits of meat you can find are quite tasty!  Uncle said that he would
prepare something special, and he did not fail!  He shot 7 mice in his rice fields, and this dish
was both insanely spicy and wonderfully prepared after much anticipation!

A Beautiful Field of Basil!!

Happy New Years!

After riding down from Sarakam to Pak Chong for a Christmas English camp, I continued on to Bangkok to visit my best buddy for New Years celebrations.  My ideal weekend these days is one long ride on Saturday, and then Sunday morning full of long slow sips of coffee, church in Khon Kaen, fruit shakes in the morning after a long walk or slow ride exploring new villages in the Thai countryside... and then enjoy a feast of local food in the afternoon with good friends, old or new.

This weekend in Nakhon Sawan was lovely, a great break from the life I live in Esaan, and a great time to connect with my buddy.  He had recently visited the country of Bhutan, a very difficult place to reach for anyone on a normal travel route, or a normal travel budget, and he was lucky to have been sponsored to go!  You can check out one of his articles here (LINK).

I was able to ride my 1st Kilometre of 2016 on a too-small bike with both tires almost flat, but it was fun :)

I had closed out 2015 with my personal longest ride, 253km from Chumpuang to Pak Chong, and I left my bicycle behind when we escaped from Bangkok.  I was definitely happy to ride when I got back home, but this week was just a great time to chat about, or reflect alone, on all the great things that 2015 provided me...

Here are some photos, and please let me know if you had anything unexpected, weird, or awesomely weird, unexpected yet welcome!, for your own New Year's celebration.

Walking from the house where we stayed to their Garden...

The size of this garden was incredible, their entire family could easily survive off of their own land,
I counted 15 different types of vegetables (and there were a few I didn't recognize on top of that).  Such
a peaceful corner of the town, these few days were just relaxing to the max, a beautiful weekend.

New Years eve in Nakhonsawan, West-Central Thailand.

One of the most awesome chefs this world has every seen, unimpressed with the heat to which a coal fire
was heating the oil.  She is used to a high-pressure propane wok pan...

...and after almost a day of waiting - here it is!  The awesome, ultra spicy, Field Mouse Fried with Basil.
Lots of small bones but the bits of meat you can find are quite tasty!  Uncle said that he would
prepare something special, and he did not fail!  He shot 7 mice in his rice fields, and this dish
was both insanely spicy and wonderfully prepared after much anticipation!

If that's not a drinking snack I don't know what is... well, the Pig Brain in Laos definitely rivaled it,
but overall there was just so much more meat on this table, and a total lack of anything green,
someone caring about their health would not find themselves anywhere near this spread...
(FYI, I have stopped eating things like this as of last year, but I have definitely tried them all!)

Chicken Intestines, deep fried.
(I now eat mostly fruit, but the days of sharing food like this with Esaan men
visiting my front porch were many... good memories, for sure!)

For one of the other New Year's meals, we had some Thai-Chinese food and a locally
famous restaurant, and this was my favorite dish.  Pumpkin and Squash Greens!
A deliciously simple combination adding just some oyster sauce, some garlic,
a few chilies (green and red), and then all flash-fried at extremely high heat!

Sticky Rice, cooked inside bamboo (keeps it very moist), Sweet coconut milk and black beans added
in, this is just one of the best treats to find from a roadside vendor.  This place was locally
quite popular, we tried 3 times before we were able to get there before they sold out!

I enjoyed the 2 weeks off, gave me enough time to have a beard!