mk

The best part about going shopping at Lotus is talking Husband into eating at MK.

MK is a chain restaurant that Thai people say is Chinese. The food tastes pretty Thai to me, but OK. I guess they have dim sum and roast duck in addition to the usual Thai stuff.

Mom tells me that there are restaurants like this in America, but I've never been to one. It's sort of like fondue, in that the food you order comes to the table raw, but instead of frying it one piece at a time you throw everything into a put of broth, and eat it all together like soup. You can get all sorts of vegetables, which is one of the reasons I like it so much, but as usual most of the menu is devoted to meat. Pages and pages of meat. Pieces of beef, pork, fish, shrimp, crab, and various processed meats. Livers. Kidneys. Hearts. Stomachs. All with pictures, which is another reason why I like to eat there--unlike at most other places, where I have to rely on the small number of dishes that I already know how to ask for and can reasonably expect any cook to know how to make, at MK I can point at a picture of what I want and know exactly what I'm getting.

Illiteracy. The Thai written language remains as incomprehensible to me as it was when I first arrived. I can't read official documents, university memos, menus, street signs, or warning labels. I can't even write my own name. I have been reading in English for almost my entire life; I can't remember being unable to read. I'm experiencing it now, and it's humbling, frustrating, and humiliating. The obvious answer, of course, is to learn. That has been my approach to everything else in my life. Knowledge is power, right? It's always worked for me so far (I was in school for how many years?), but I think I've run up against a firm barrier this time. It may not be true that I cannot learn to read Thai, but it is certainly true that I cannot learn it while continuing to devote most of my time to my job. I am illiterate and will remain that way for the foreseeable future.