The first time I had Yum Woon Sen I cried, and it wasn’t from tears of joy.
It was my first week in Bangkok, and I was eating at a random restaurant maybe on the third floor of CentralWorld, one of the huge malls in Bangkok. I had just met my boss, but hadn’t started work, and the two other Thai friends I knew from my UNC-Chapel Hill days were working that day, so I was exploring downtown Bangkok on my own.
As I sat in the mall restaurant alone at a table, I peered out the glass window at the hordes of Thais and foreigners ambling confidently with friends or family, carrying shopping bags, knowing exactly where they were going. It was one of those moments where I was surrounded by people, but felt so alone.
I had looked at the menu full of glistening pictures of Thai food, and the one with the clear glass noodles, colorful veggies and crushed peanuts jumped out at me—but no one was there to tell me how crazy spicy Yum Woon Sen could be. Especially for a farang (foriegn) tongue that wasn’t used to ped mak mak (very spicy) yet.
It was pretty common those first few weeks in Thailand for me to be scarfing down delicious food with tears streaming down my cheeks, and a huge smile on my face because even though my mouth and sinuses couldn’t handle the spice yet, it just tasted so good I couldn’t stop eating.