The 'e' is Silent

The town of Pai bears more semblance to a North American hippie community (like Canmore, for example) than it does a small Thai town. Specialty coffee shops and restaurants dot the main street, their occupants more likely sporting Rastafarian dreadlocks, hemp knit clothing and multiple body piercings rather than contemporary Thai fashion.

Unfortunately for me, that particular demographic’s demand for vegetarian/vegan/organic/imported food has created a vacuum of inexpensive local cuisine (stickmeat in particular) in its wake. Case in point, I was stalking the aisles of the local grocery store this afternoon, looking for some snacks to include in tomorrow’s picnic lunch. Most of the items stocked catered to the hippie/foreigner pallete and were therefore well beyond my budget. I decided to break the bank when I happened on this one (80 baht – the equivalent of two street vendor meals including drinks). The ‘e’ is silent:

This one was just around the corner for another 15 baht:

I imagine lab coated Japanese scientists spending months perfecting the recipes for these products, sacrificing evenings and weekends with their families, losing sleep over ingredient ratios, their hair greying with each passing day until the products are finally ready for the assembly line. Then Keiichi in marketing goes ahead and names it after a portion of his lower digestive tract.