what's for lunch?

I absolutely love Thai food, but when you have to eat it for every meal of the day, it can really get monotonous. The flavors of Thai food make it such an exciting food, but some days I just crave variety in my diet. Also being vegetarian, limits food options even more. The Thais don't seem to understand the concept of a no meat diet. Sometimes, I will order food with no meat or even say vegetarian, and they will bring a dish out full of chicken or even sometimes an entire fish! After being here for 10 months, the challenge of finding food has become much easier, but as ordering becomes easier, the less I want Thai food and the more I crave a big ol' sandwich piled with cheese (bread, especially whole wheat, and cheese are so hard to find here). Even a big healthy salad with fresh vegetables is hard to find. They eat their vegetables cooked and covered in oil or fish sauce. One thing, that Stephan and I have found, that is closest to a salad and that is fresh and delicious, is Sam Tam (spicy papaya salad). It really is one of my favorite dishes here. It is interesting because they use unripened papaya. Unripened fruits and vegetables are a common part of the Thais' diet as well. The unripened papaya has a sour, but really fresh taste. They use a citrus dressing, crushed peanuts, sliced carrots, chilis, soy sauce (or fish sauce), tomatoes and raw green beans all smashed together with the shredded unripened papaya. The salad is just bursting with flavor and the spiciness with the peanuts is perfection. It is often served with sticky rice which helps to soak up the extra dressing and add a little more texture to the food. They also always give extra green beans, cabbage, cucumber, and basil on the side to help cool your mouth off from the spicy chilis. This is my meal almost every day for lunch. There is a motorbike cart that sells the salad on our street outside of school. Often on Saturdays, Stephan and I will go to one of our favorite restaurants  that serves the papaya salad. You can sit in little picnic table huts with pretty flowers and geckos surrounding you. It's always a fun place to go! We like to cool our mouths off with a frozen orange juice shake. These are just some pictures from one of our Saturday Sam Tam lunch dates.P.S. Thais eat the salad with dried tiny shrimp and crab. Both are stinky and give the whole salad a weird fishy taste, so I choose to eat it without the stink :)