Either we’ve been away from Texas too long, or these really are good steaks!!
I know it’s a long title for a blog post, but i couldn’t help it. On a whim, we decided to go to Chiang Mai last Friday. We mainly went hoping to take the boys to see the movie “Cloudy, with a chance of meatballs” but found out it had just left the theatres here in Thailand. No big deal though, there is still fun stuff to do and plenty of pizza to eat, and oh, yes, Mexican food!. We went shopping for some much needed kitchen items, like knives, which up until now, we only had one; and also took the boys to play at the brand new play area at one of the malls. Also, while we were there, we went to the Rimping Market. Rimping market is a God send in Thailand and is full of “American” goodies. From the moment you walk in the store, you feel like you are walking into a really fancy H.E.B. in Texas. They have all sorts of good cheeses, lunch meat, breakfast cereal, Hershey’s chocolate, and most importantly for this post, STEAK! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, good steak in Thailand is very hard to come by. A couple of weeks ago we made the mistake of buying some T-bone steaks that were from “Thai” cows. I knew it was Thai beef but honestly didn’t think it would be that different. Oh, let me tell you, it’s different!
We definitely know how to raise cattle in Texas, and i’m here to tell you, it matters what you feed ‘em. I know this sounds silly and is probably kindergarten stuff for alot of you ranchers that might be reading this; (ha, that’s a far leap to think that ranchers might actually know how to turn on a computer and get on the world wide web and read a blog). Just kidding, William, I know Darlene turns on the computer for you. Anyway, we went to Rimping market and found some really good imported angus beef and bought it. It was a little pricey but actually not that far off from prices in Texas. To be more specific, i bought sirloin and tenderloin.
We got back to Phayao on Saturday and on Sunday we had a barbecue. We decided to cook the tenderloins and grilled them wrapped in bacon just like a filet mignon. And, if i do say so myself, they were awesome!! now, i don’t mean to brag, but these were really good! i mean, they were gooooood. and that brings me back to the title of the blog. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve been away from Texas and Texas steaks for five months or if they really were that good, but either way we really enjoyed them. So, here are a few pictures of the steaks for you to look at and you can make your own judgment.
Camping Trip
This past Friday our family went on a camping trip with Haley and three of our other friends. We drove about two hours to a national park that sits on the side of a mountain named Phu Langka. It is a beautiful little campground set high in the jungle. We especially had fun getting there (well, I should say me and the boys had fun) because the last 20-30 minutes was four-wheel drive up the mountain through the jungle. It was already pretty late when we got to the campsite so I took the boys for a short hike up the mountain to a gorgeous overlook. We could see villages way down in the valley below and the sun going to sleep behind the mountains off in the distance. Our friend P’ Dome cooked some barbecued pork for dinner and then I made some good strong coffee. We all sat and talked and laughed for a while and then Tonya and I took the boys back to the tent to sit by the campfire for a bit and then read books. I had planned on going back to hang out for a while but when I woke up around 2:00 a.m. I realized that wasn’t going to happen. We got up the next morning, ate some breakfast, had some coffee, and then did a little bit more four-wheelin almost up the the top of the mountain. We parked the truck and then hiked the last kilometer or so all the way to the top where we could see all the way to Laos (about 50 km. away). On the way home we stopped at a tiny little village and had soup at a small roadside noodle shop. I think we were probably the first white people that had ever eaten there and I’m pretty sure we were the first white people any of them had ever spoken to. We had a great time and I told the boys that there aren’t very many people, especially little kids, that get to go four-wheelin and camping in the jungle. Click here if you want to see all the pictures from the trip.
Our first hike, this overlook was only a few hundred meters above our campsite.
Esan didn’t want to take a picture, so of course neither did Teagan, so I had to wait until they weren’t looking
Reading books before we go to sleep.
Wakin’ up is hard! Don’t worry, he wasn’t really mad, just pretending.
Monkey See, Monkey Do!!
On top of Phu Langka…almost.
Haiti Fundraiser
We’ve been watching some of the news about the earthquake in Haiti and all the people who are hurting. We’ve seen how they have lost everything and we wanted to do something to help. We came up with the idea of selling funnel cakes at the local night bazaar. We decided we would sell the funnel cakes and also take donations and then give all the money we made to an organization called Tents and Tarps that is helping the people of Haiti. Their mission right now is to provide shelter to 4500 families in the form of a tent and a tarp.
So, we found a recipe online from Rachel Ray and made a few “test cakes”, and I must say, they were pretty good. I don’t know if it’s just because it made me feel like I was at a local fair in Texas or if it really was that good, either way, they were tasty. Anyway, we got some of our Thai friends and neighbors to help and we were able to raise over 15,000 baht; that’s almost $500.00! We were really excited that we were able to raise so much money and had a lot of fun doing it. We sold cakes two different nights and had a good time meeting new people and sharing with them what we were doing. It was also neat watching people’s reactions when they saw white people selling something at the local night market. The video below is after the first night and before we decided to do it again the second night. Anyway, write us some comments and let us know what you think or if you have any questions. Enjoy the video and if you want to download it you can click here. You can also click this link –> Funnel Cakes for Haiti <– or click the link in the sidebar if you just want to see the pictures from our funnel cake fundraiser.