Letter from Abroad

A good friend of mine has moved (temporarily I hope) to Thailand and he sent me this letter and photograph today. It is charming so I thought I would share it here.

This clan is fixing my first meal of the day pretty much since I moved into this apartment. They run a little street kitchen about a half block from my place. The lady on right makes the coffee, the two on the left do the cooking, and the guy waits the tables, or rather, the one table.

It has taken me five days to get through to them what I want.  The first day I ate there I saw them serve a basil chicken over rice with a beaten and fried egg on the side.  I wasn't fast enough to point to it and say, I want that.  The first time I tried to order it I got fried rice with egg and chicken all mixed together.  The second day I got them to keep the egg separate but It wasn't scrambled.  The third day I got the egg separate and scrambled but still the fried rice. Finally, today I got the scrambled egg on the side with plain rice and basil chicken on top.  Fortunately it has all been tasty.  

When I asked if I could take their picture today they were really happy to oblige.  Only the coffee lady seemed a little shy, perhaps uncertain that I wanted her in the photo. But when I waved her over she lit up and jumped right in with the others.