As I may have mentioned before, my host mom is a Thai dessert expert. I tell her that she is a Kanom Queen. (Kanom means dessert or snack in Thai.) For a while I thought that she just sold them to friends and neighbors around the village and occasionally at happenings at the watt. Not so. She makes her kanoms and they are sold at the store in Suphan Buri that has every kanom imaginable. When we went to visit, her kanoms were on display right in front of the doorway. Later, my host father showed me a video on the video camera that was a recording of a Thai children’s show that my mom was a guest on, showing the kids how to make her specialty: kanom kai bplaa.
Kanom kai bplaa literally translates as fish egg dessert, but that is only because the dessert kind of looks like fish and I think it gets its orange color from eggs. In any event, there is a yearly food festival in Suphan Buri, kind of like “Taste of…” festivals. My Ma has a booth there every year where she sells her kanoms, including kanom kai bplaa. I have been hearing about this event for a couple of weeks and have been told that I was to come and help one Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t until I got there that I realized what kind of event this was, but it was a lot of fun.
My job was to only sell the kanom kai bplaa, so I stood there saying to the people who walked past, “Kanom kai bplaa ka. Yee sip haa baht ka.” I got to watch as people walked past, hear me say this and turn right back around to come and buy some from me. Look at the farang speaking Thai and selling kanoms!
A man in a kind of fedora hat and suspenders stopped in front of my Ma’s stand and another man with a camera to record showed up seconds later. I quickly deduced that they were probably filming for some local program. As soon as I figured this out in my head, the host made eye contact with me, said “Farang!” as his eyes got wide and once recording began he immediately made this bit about me and what I was selling there. I was kind of excited to show off my Thai skills for TV.
In all, I pretty much sold out of my kanoms in about two hours. Not to bad! I then got to enjoy the rest of the evening looking at all the different foods available, listening to Thai rock music and relaxing with my Pa and my host sister Gift.