I was wallking around the shopping mall two weeks ago and I stumbled on two new sweet shops recently opened in the food zone in the basement. These two sweet stalls made traditional Thai sweets with premium ingredients as they were well known vendors with long family tradition of making Thai sweets. So, I was very glad to find these Thai sweets shops a few meters from my favourite wine shop.
At first, I didn’t want to look at these sweets closely as they would be very expensive and too tempting for me. I circled around the area three times while having an argument with myself whether I should just get a Thai sweet just to appease my longing for delicious treat. I told myself this would be an incentive to do regular exercises as Thai sweets were full of calories.
As soon as I found out that the prices of these Thai sweets were very reasonable and some were much cheaper than those I used to buy in other markets, I decided to get one piece of Thai crepe. These Thai crepes (kanom bueng) has been my childhood’s favourite sweets. There were two kinds of fillings: the sweet filling and the savoury filling.
In the past, the size of these crepes were quite small, about three inches long so one could eat five to six pieces at a sitting. And the prices would have been very cheap. Nowadays, a single piece of Thai crepe would be about six inches long with lots of fillings. The price of modern Thai crepe could get me fifteen pieces of the smaller crepes in the past. I preferred to have smaller pieces of crepes with lighter filings so that my taste buds could slowly enjoy all the intricate ingredients. The ‘giant’ size of the crepe made it quite an effort to munch it without spilling the various fillings. So, I had to munch it with more effort and force. The enjoyment of slowing tasting the fillings was impaired.
Usually, people would buy at least five to ten pieces of Thai crepes. But I told the vendor I wanted only one piece for tasting. She looked quite disappointed as she prepared a big bag for my order. The vendor in the next stall told me to buy lots of Thai sweets as this vendor has just arrived two weeks ago.
The economy has been slowing down quite drastically lately. Several shops and vendors had to give up their businesses as customers seemed to have disappeared. The turnovers of new food stalls and vendors seemed to have speeded up during the last three months. I always talked to vendors and shopkeepers about their sentiments on the economy. Even the monk complained to me that there were very few people offering food to monks during the alms round in the morning. The monk told me that the situation was much worse than during the plandemic.
I told him that the numbers of sudden deaths and sick people in ICUs have been rising since the beginning of this year. More people could no longer work and became bed ridden while the statistics of funerals for young working people had tragically increased. So, there were less breadwinners to buy and consume goods in the market. I read several posts on social media that many families had used up all their savings on operations to cute the blood clots in their brains and blood vessels. Many had passed away brcayse of strokes and heart attacks.
The situation would be getting much worse this year as those with 3-5 jabs suddenly became sick with Covid symptoms; they took the living mRNA and hydrogel shots. Those who didn’t manage to do some detox have started to have strange allergies and symptoms, partly due to antibody dependent enhancement (ADE). Luckily, I could secure some free medication (ivermectin) from my medical friend to help some people and villagers to get over their sickness.
It took me several minutes to finish eating the big piece of Thai crepe. I was glad I could buy my favourite Thai sweets within ten minutes’ journey. Then, I had the urge to buy some Thai sweets from the adjoining sweet stall. This one offered almost ten different kinds of Thai sweets. the vendor had special offers in late afternoon. I could get four boxes of sweets at the price of three. It took me some time to choose the combination of four sweets. It was very difficult to make my decisions and to let go of some other sweets.
I settled for sticky rice with egg custard and sweetened fish garnish. They were very delicious as the vendor used fresh ingredients. But the coconut pancakes were a bit hardened as I put them in the fridge. On the other hand the coconut milk in jelly was just perfect. I did put on two kilos after indulging in these sweets for three days. I had them for my dessert in the evening. Luckily, the vendor didn’t put in too much sugar as more people were afraid of getting diabetes. But those calories were stubborn to be shedded. I had to starve myself in the evening without proper dinner for four days to burn excessive calories. I hoped I had learned my lesson for a while!
I had to be careful what I wished for. A few months ago, I was wishing for having nice Thai sweet shops closer to me. Usually, whenever I craved for traditional Thai sweets, I had to take a bus journey to the old part of the city of Bangkok to get authentic Thai sweets. Within two months, I found two Thai sweet shops inside the mall in my area. I thought ot could be the result of my good karma for feeding stray cats at the temple.
We, as Buddhists, believe that we would never go hungry if we had offer food to monks and stray animals. As I didn’t have regular income to do more meaningful karma, feeding stray cats offered the cheapest and satisfying experience in doing something good in this reality. I could feel when those stray cats were waiting for me as there weren’t any people dropping food for them during the weekdays. The rainy season has finally arrived with heavy downpours causing traffic jams and floodings in several areas. I hoped that the rain would go somewhere else when I had to feed those stray cats at the temple.
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
#marketfriday created by @dswigle
