Thai food gets dull (2, final)

No matter where you live in Bangkok, if you never left the soi (street) you live in, it would be easy to survive on Thai food alone.

The 7-11 convenience store doesn't stock much. They can sell you pre-packed slices of carboardy pizza or hamburgers, which they heat in a microwave.

But I feel guilty buying such food, as if I haven't bothered to organise myself a decent meal. It is there for when you fall hungry in the middle of the night and nothing else is open, or for when you have been drinking.

But if you want to cook with fresh meat or vegetables, you have to visit a supermarket. And not everyone lives next to one of those.

My boyfriend visits a supermarket every couple of nights. Sometimes he goes to a 24-hour supermarket about 10 minutes away, other times to the tourist centre in Silom.

He comes back with fresh meat, vegetables, and baking ingredients such as chocolate and cream. Unbelievably, the 7-11 does not even sell cream.

For the last four days, Maiyuu has made beef or pork steak for lunch. One day, he made it with pumpkin, the next potato, and then diced vegetable salad.

Today, he served a pork steak with large slices of garlic bread, which he made himself. When I came home last night, I saw he had also made several chocolate cakes.

I am enjoying eating western food again. Before the boyfriend started cooking western food every day, I seldom ate it, as no one sells it in the market.

If we visit the local shopping mall, we would rather go to a Japanese restaurant, or one which makes decent Thai food, which of course costs more than the food on sale at carts or market stalls.

Notice I say 'we'. My Thai boyfriend gets just as bored with the Thai food on offer around here as I do, which is why he has started making western food for lunch instead.

We all like a break occasionally, even from Thai food. It's supposedly among the best in the world, but in the hands of some Thais, can taste little better than the cardboard from the 7-11.