Anna's 100th Post!

877 days ago I wrote my first blog post ever. I did not know it at the time, but April 25, 2007, was also the 500th anniversary of the first time anyone ever referred to "America" in a book.

I had a very good reason for posting. Dara Moskowitz (now Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl) had just named us the Best Thai Restaurant in City Pages' Best of the Twin Cities for 2007. Dara is very special to True Thai because her review of our restaurant has been quoted many, many times by bloggers and online restaurant search sites.

Since my first blog post I have learned a lot about a lot of things. It is one thing to think you know something, it is another to write about it. Thanks to Wikipedia and Google I have learned a lot of things I did not know about food, Thailand and even my old church in Chanthaburi.

Spending time on the internet has led to many new discoveries. I have now seen what my family's farm looks like from a satellite. For one terrible moment I thought the Bishop for whom I made chili sauce had died, but then I realized he had only retired. Whew — that was a close one!

When I did not post very much, hardly anyone ever read my blog. Now I can count on about 40 visitors every day. Mostly you are here in Minnesota, but Anna has readers in Thailand and other places as well.

I think this blog is best if you are here in Minnesota. That way if I write about something that sounds good, you can come in and order it to see if you like it too.

I like blogging. My next goal is to write another 100 posts before True Thai's eighth anniversary on December 1, 2010.

Something to perk you up

The other day I confessed that I do not drink beer or wine, even though True Thai serves very good beer and wine. Today I am writing about Thai iced tea and coffee, which I do drink.

Now.

When I started working out at Los Campeones, my trainer Carla told me that I needed to start drinking tea and coffee to "speed up my metabolism." Caffeine certainly does that.

Before I started drinking tea and coffee I wrote about 30 blog posts over two years time. Since I started drinking tea and coffee about ten months ago, I have uploaded another 70 posts! I think I better understand now why tea and coffee are so popular.

Thai iced coffee and iced tea aren't really Thai. Many people think of them as Vietnamese, but they aren't really Vietnamese creations either.

They are French, a legacy of their colonial years in Southeast Asia. The French are gone but you can still find French style coffee and iced tea throughout Southeast Asia. And croissants!

Most people enjoy our Thai iced tea and coffee after a meal because it is very sweet. (More proof it is French and not Thai!)

My favorite fruit

Asian pears, like Anna, aren't very big but do not be fooled by their size — they are one of the best fruits ever!

There are two kinds of Asian pears. Japanese or Korean pears are big and round and they are OK, but the pear I am holding in this picture is a ya pear, or Chinese white pear. They are soooo delicious!

Eat them like you would an apple. They are often quite green when you buy them, but still flavorful. Let them ripen and they get even better but watch out for mold as they go bad very quickly once you see spots on them.

We did not grow pears on our farm so ya pears are as exotic for me as they are for you. Their name in Chinese means "duck pear" because the Chinese think they look like ducks. The important thing is they do not taste like ducks.

Sadly, ya pears are almost out of season now, but the good news is that I've seen pomegranates at the warehouse. Still too early for them, but even unripened pomegranates are very good for you if you can get past the very sour taste. If you wait until early December, then they should be good to buy.