Whistle up a treat

We’ve taken to buying lunch from the Siam Paragon department store.

In the year or so since this blog was last running, Maiyuu has all but abandoned his interest in cooking, and now buys most of our meals.

The kitchen, which once ran hot with activity, now lies dormant; the many pots, pans and other expensive equipment we bought sitting idle in the cupboard.

While no longer interested in cooking, however, he insists he still places a high priority on good food.

In fact, he won’t visit a market close to home, which I know sells reasonable lunchtime fare. I have visited small off-road eateries there which do a good trade with office workers.

He is even less keen that I buy food from outlets near the local 7-11, which adjoins a slum, but includes a smart looking place, recently opened, that makes a mean yum thai (thai salad).

Nor is he keen on my buying another favourite, som tam, which is available from at least half a dozen carts around our place. Some of them have a more or less permanent look, and like the market eateries do brisk trade.

 ‘It’s unclean. They don’t care about the health of their customers. They just want to make money,’ he says, insisting the daily trek into Siam Paragon is worth it.

We dined last week on dishes like this one, a cold version of Japanese ramen. It was Japanese food festival time, so we bought Japanese cuisine.

‘What shall it be today…the usual?’ Maiyuu asks.

Maiyuu takes the subway to get to Siam, and if he gets there too early must sit outside the store waiting for it to open.

In the last week he has rubbed shoulders with the amnesty protesters, who assembled there briefly before heading to the main protest site at Ratchadamnoen Avenue.

He returns about an hour later, usually exhausted, having performed his outside activity for the day.  He will spend the rest of the day playing games on his smart phone, or resting.

Maiyuu’s health has now largely recovered, after a persistent sinus problem led to a constant, nagging cough.

The cough lasted a good couple of years, in fact, and required many visits to the doctor before he finally obtained an accurate diagnosis.

He also suffered from an attack of jeet worms (see previous post), which like the cough has now cleared up. Every morning he applies skin lotion to his body in the hope it will one day remove the scars left behind.

Asian skin is sensitive, and shows the slightest marks. Outdoors, he keeps himself well covered, though he is growing less self-conscious over time.

I tell him not to worry about the scars, as I am sure no one cares.

However, I suspect the days when I could persuade him to don a pair of bathers and join me in the condo pool for a quick swim are well over.

The health scare has left Maiyuu with an abiding concern, even obsession, over germs and other nasties which could get into our place. He regularly wipes the floor, inspects under the sofa and fridge, and vacuums for dust.

He keeps the doors of our place closed during the day, and makes sure two air purifiers we have bought to rid the place of dust stay on at all times.

That concern extends to the quality of food we eat: he won’t leave anything covered on the kitchen bench, even if it’s already in bags. If I leave a dish in the sink, he will clean it within minutes.

 I can’t do much about Maiyuu’s phobias but feel sorry for him occasionally. Life carries on, despite them. We enjoy each other’s company, and that’s enough. 

So what is we have to eat overseas fare from the humble Paragon every day?