so the grilled cheese thread made me think of an incident during my military career.
in 1985 we were doing some work and training with the Thai army and stayed for a bit of time in Lop Buri (north of Bangkok a ways).
normally we ate at the local market or with the Thais in their mess hall, but one of our guys got the idea to hire a local to cook "American type chow".
so he explained to her what he wanted and she said it would take a few days to lay in supplies etc.
on opening day, my team went down to her kitchen (she set her grill up next to a sitting area with overhead cover) for lunch. She had a chalkboard menu that our guy who coordinated it set up - had a couple of items but what I remember was roasted chicken and hamburger.
I ordered roasted chicken as that is what they cooked a lot in the market, and you could get 1/2 a chicken, roasted, for a buck.
bunch of guys on the team ordered hamburgers cause I guess they were craving some traditional mess hall lunch.
my chicken came out just like I was at the market, half a bird cut up with dipping sauce .
then the hamburgers came out and the guys were all smiles.
I watched one - first he took off the top bun, then the big ol' tomato, then the leaf of lettuce to get a view of the meat.
I started laughing and he looked sick.
it was a 2 inch by 2 inch square of supper thin HAM!!! The lady was like "what, it's a HAMburger".
nearly 40 years later and it still makes me laugh.
and I was so glad I order the thai market chicken!
in 1985 we were doing some work and training with the Thai army and stayed for a bit of time in Lop Buri (north of Bangkok a ways).
normally we ate at the local market or with the Thais in their mess hall, but one of our guys got the idea to hire a local to cook "American type chow".
so he explained to her what he wanted and she said it would take a few days to lay in supplies etc.
on opening day, my team went down to her kitchen (she set her grill up next to a sitting area with overhead cover) for lunch. She had a chalkboard menu that our guy who coordinated it set up - had a couple of items but what I remember was roasted chicken and hamburger.
I ordered roasted chicken as that is what they cooked a lot in the market, and you could get 1/2 a chicken, roasted, for a buck.
bunch of guys on the team ordered hamburgers cause I guess they were craving some traditional mess hall lunch.
my chicken came out just like I was at the market, half a bird cut up with dipping sauce .
then the hamburgers came out and the guys were all smiles.
I watched one - first he took off the top bun, then the big ol' tomato, then the leaf of lettuce to get a view of the meat.
I started laughing and he looked sick.
it was a 2 inch by 2 inch square of supper thin HAM!!! The lady was like "what, it's a HAMburger".
nearly 40 years later and it still makes me laugh.
and I was so glad I order the thai market chicken!