Bangkok Waffles: Snack Of The Gods

Waffles: Salt and Sesame, Mixed Fruit, Maple, Coconut, Rum Raisin, Creme, Taro, Almond or Plain... they're all delicious.

As if there weren't already enough "series" posts on the site, here's another one: Snacks.

As mentioned here before, the Thai aren't regularly scheduled Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner folks as most of us are in the West. Their personal and work schedules certainly have something to do with it, but they tend far more often to eat when their hungry and not eat when they're not.

The above is a generalization, of course; but it seems to have held true with people I've met and gotten to know over my years of visiting there. Now, if only I could learn the lesson myself it would probably help battling my middle-age waistline.

An example of Thai dining timing (or lack thereof): one afternoon I was meeting a friend to take him out to dinner at a place he really likes. While we were walking the few blocks to my room so I could change for the evening he suddenly detoured into a 7-Eleven store. I followed and looked around a bit while I waited, and as I was approaching the register with my Pepsi Max I saw him over at the prepared food counter, pulling a chicken sandwich out of the store's microwave.

"You do remember we're going out to eat in a half hour, don't you?" I asked, more than a little surprised. "Yes," he answered. "Why are you eating now, then?" I waited a minute while he put condiments inside the bun. "Hungry," he finally said, matter-of-factly. Not having a logical comeback for that I just hushed up. Later at the restaurant he did eat, but not as much as he usually did at his favored place.

On my many walks there I've seen dozens of things to eat for sale throughout the day from vendor's carts and in small shops and street side eateries there, but one of my favorites are the hot, freshly made waffles. You'll usually smell their aroma drifting in the air before you actually see them, and what a treat they are. Waffles in the West tend to be drier and sometimes having an almost crisp outer skin to them, but these are more moist and soft.

If the person's standing there making them (as the woman up top today is doing) point to the waffle maker and ask for one hot off the griddle - they're amazing: steaming, moist, soft and delicious - truly the Snack of the Gods. I'm fine with them just plain, but I haven't tasted a flavored one so far that I haven't liked. They'll run you about 15 baht each.

As a vaguely related side trip today: In the US there was a cable station comedy show about a man stranded in space, forced to watch terrible Grade "B" movies with only the company of some robots he'd built. The show was called Mystery Science Theater 3000, and every week they'd sit and make ad-libbed snide comments about the movies they were being subjected to. There are a LOT of clips from the show on YouTube, and it was pretty funny.

To break up these horrible movies they also did set skit pieces, and one day they were all about waffles. I think of the song along about 6:20 in the clip below every time I smell waffles there now.