There are other choices

Back home we have so many ways of greeting each other: ‘alright’; ‘what about ye’; ‘what’s happening’; or ‘how’s it going’. All just another way of saying ‘hello, how are you’, or ‘hello, what’s the craic’ to be more dialectally specific.

Any one of these greetings usually initiates a ‘yarn’. This can cover a lot of ground, sometimes interweaving the entire town, county, community and anything else that can be knitted in along the way to add more colour and substance to the story.

But in Ireland, that’s just catching up. It’s an enjoyable way of sharing the highs, lows and whatever life throws, usually with someone who’s interested.

So while negotiating the tangled ropes of Thai culture, it was funny to find out the equivalent street side greeting in Thai language is: ‘have you eaten rice yet?’.

After considering the scale and regularity of the average Thai’s daily rice consumption, it almost made sense. Rice definitely seems to hold the same essentiality in Thai daily life as ‘craic’ does back home.

In the beginning I would recount my last meal, usually with great passion and detail. Sometimes I found myself explaining that I had eaten, but I chose something other than rice. Rice is good, but there are other choices. Don’t you know that?

It didn't take me long to realise regurgitating my lunch wasn't on the menu. A simple ‘yes’ suffices, regardless of what your belly might be telling you. It isn't a question, it’s just their traditional greeting. Food (rice) is so intrinsic to Thai culture, it would be rude not to enquire, but it is simply a greeting.

During an English lesson, I asked my group of seven year olds about their favourite food. I wondered which foods Thai parents rationed, as in my experience that’s how the tooth-rotting culprit rises to the hyper-heights of favouritism.

No doubt, a class in Derry would be dribbling over their jotters while concocting a pic n’mix of every naughtiness under the sun, from ice-cream to flumps. They might finally have to agree on chips, but only if they had to pick one - just one.

But the Thai students wasted no time deliberating; it was an easy pick - rice of course! They probably thought I was crazy for asking. If only I could eat three plates of my favourite food every day. Then again, I have absolutely no doubt it would loose its rank after the third day, or at least by the sixth.

So how does this nation of carboholics stay so incredibly svelte despite their anti-Atkins/South Beach/diet-of-the day regime? Let’s just say the logic of this culture follows a programme proven to achieve the most curvaceous results.