Thankful in Thailand

It's kinda crazy to think that it was 2 years ago and we had just gotten off the boat in Thailand and had made our way back to what we had considered our "home" in Bangkok at the Ascott hotel. We were preparing for our Thanksgiving feast in a whole new way... We had researched what grocery stores would be best to find "thanksgiving" themed food. The closest we could come to finding a Turkey was 2 small chickens. The store we bought them in was huge. It was the size of a Costco but filled with probably over 50% of food items that we had never even seen or heard of before. The meat and fish department might not have carried turkey-but they did seem to carry every other animal and all of their body parts that you could imagine. Including every single part of a pig... From its tongue to its toes-I mean hooves. The fish department was the largest I had ever seen. Big fish, small fish,fish eyes, fish eggs, fish heads, fish, fish, fish and some octopus and no ice to be seen... Let's just say that when we were looking for the baking powder next to the flour--you could smell FISH. In the midst of all of this, it was crazy to think that turkey was such an exotic food. And as for baking... There was no baking powder or soda... Who knew it would be such a rare find-and yet so critical to our pastry desert world. We managed to find most of the ingredients for an apple pie. We were all beginning to find all kinds of new reasons to be "thankful" this day.

Just before catching a cab back to our hotel/home we decided to indulge in some good ole American cuisine--since the theme of the day was already about America. No turkey and no baking powder or soda but they did have a McDonalds in this mega shopping store. It had been over half a year since we had partaken in the King of all fast food. Let's just say I am now even more confused about what actually goes into an American McDonald's hamburger than ever before. You see my whole life I have tasted and enjoyed the classic McDonald's hamburger. I have had many fond experiences starting in my childhood-usually just after having to go to the Dr. For a checkup and needing a treat and a quick lunch before heading back to school- of biting into this burger and knowing down deep inside that it tasted nothing like steak, beef, or any other meat I had ever tasted. All I knew was it was good and I usually got a cool toy with it. I was skeptical about what went into a McDonalds hamburger, but had embraced it much like when you are at a friends house and they say they are having lasagne for dinner and you get super excited until you take the first bite and realize that it's nothing like your mom's lasagne-but you're not sure why? So basically I had grown to enjoy this taste and had officially bought into the fact that somehow this taste was what McDonalds cows/beef must taste like. So once I took a bite of this Thailand McDonald's burger--my confusion hit an all new level. It tasted nothing like the American version!! My taste buds went into convulsions--the big question was "is this what real beef McDonalds burgers taste like or was this a whole new type of Thailand "beef" --or were neither of them beef at all?? All I knew was that somehow potatoes were potatoes and the classic skinny McDonalds fries were the same in Thailand and America. And milkshakes are milkshakes - even though they were sold at a completely different counter than everything else. Needless to say once we got 'home'-the fight for who got to the bathroom first -was on!