Shanks' Pony

While K met her running partner for a quick 5k at 7 o'clock this morning, I lay indolently in bed, before feeling guilty, getting up, and making breakfast.

Pineapple cucumber salad

I say "made", what I mean is "got the leftovers out of the fridge". On second thoughts, the som tam was looking a little sad and there wasn't much laab 'left over', as we had greedily wolfed most of it down on Sunday. So, I freshened the papaya salad and made a pineapple, cucumber, tomato, mint salad to accompany it.

Banana mint smoothie

With a bunch of fresh mint, the meal suddenly became a celebration of the cooling herb, including this magnificent mint-banana-coconut smoothie.

Once again facing a shortage of tofu, and having been told on good authority that none existed in the village, we decided to widen our search net.

We used our search as an excuse to tackle the steep path across the island to Khlong Nin beach, where the roving market takes place every Tuesday. This involved a 20k roundtrip and quite an incline up the hill at the centre of the island, with which mopeds struggle. Announcing our plan to one of the shop owners in the village, she offered to loan us her moped, as the route was too long to walk. We politely declined, making the excuse of 'getting some exercise' and, passing through tiny villages and along monkey-filled jungle, we eventually made it to the market. We swiped a bag of tofu while the stallholders were still setting up and then moved on.

Khlong Nin

A few steps away from the market is Khlong Nin beach (หาดคลองนิน), which takes its name from the nearby natural canal (khlong means canal). The weather has been cloudy and showery of late, which has been poor for Christmas tourism to the island, as people seek to escape to winter sun. Today was no exception, but the weather stayed dry for our inter-coastal walk, and it was the temperature of a pleasant English summer's day.

Still, a shower rushed in as we arrived at the beach, so we sheltered in the first establishment we found on the less developed stretch of beach. Not our usual choice, it was a reggae café. It was the kind of place where people strike up on the didgeridoo and djembe. Indeed, while we there just such a jam occurred, only the didgeridoo was coiled into a spiral, like a furled up snake. As a tuba is to the alpenhorn, this instrument is to the straight aboriginal pipe.

A roti stand just behind the beach brought us a mid-afternoon sugar injection. This stall offered a slight twist on the Muslim 'pancakes', in that they were coloured and flavoured with pandan. The pandanus leaf is often used in Asian confectionary and imparts a green colour and aromatic scent. It can also be used in steaming rice. I once offered some green cakes to people in the UK, but the name of the additional ingredient put most of them off, sounding a little too much like "panda anus" for some to stomach.

Pandan roti

Unlike the banana roti we tried the other day, which was dripping with butter and condensed milk, this version was light and crisp, filled with salty toasted cashews, complementing the sweet chocolate sauce on top. It powered us through the walk back.

At home, K had dominion over the kitchen and made us a feast of mushroom salad, Thai basil omelette, rice and garlicky morning glory. The salad used shredded oyster mushrooms we picked up this morning, alongside choi sum, beansprouts, and cucumber. It was fabulously chewy, crunchy and flavoursome.