Regular readers will remember my struggle with 7-Eleven staff in Bangkok to get them to cook my chicken hamburger properly. The argument involves how long it must be in the microwave oven before it is edible. In 90% of cases the staff put the micro on a time which is too little to transform the chicken from a frozen lump to a meal.
I have developed the “haa!” method to deal with this problem, and to avoid unpleasant ice bits in my burger. I stand next to the micro and say “haa!” (five) when they put the micro on four or three.
I have to be quite insistent when saying “haa!”, or else they will overlook me. Who am I to tell them how to do their jobs?
The latest complication arose on the night shift in the 7-Eleven in the soi. As usual I wanted a “sa-tek gai” (steak chicken). As usual the guy put the mirco on 4 and as usual I said “haa!”.
- Haa? asked the boy, confused.
- Haa, I confirmed.
The boy stopped the microwave oven and I expected him to change the setting to 5. But instead he went to the freezer. He came back with a plastic bag with frozen chicken burgers. Next he began putting chicken burgers in the micro; one, two, three, four, five.
I had not forseen this interpretation of my “haa!”. I was reduced to wave with my arms and point to the “5″ button on the microwave oven.
The issue was then resolved.
No Tags
July 24th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
If God had intended food to be cooked in a Mircowave Oven, he would not have invented Fire!!
Get with it. Buy your frozen “sa-tek gai†and take it to the handsome Thai man out front, with the cart. Let him grill it to prefection!!! And you can chat with him while it if turning from ice bits to a succulent late night snack.
July 24th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Actually, that just might work…
July 26th, 2006 at 12:43 am
or try giving your instruction in thai: “sai micro wave haa nartee, krup”
July 26th, 2006 at 2:30 am
OK, you’ve got my curiosity now…how
many baht does one of these cost?
[You must be on a budget…and who isn’t?]
I don’t recal many street vendors in the area.
Maybe you don’t have an option.
I used to stay at M’sia hotel, and lately
Pinnacle up the street…so I know the
neighborhood, and can readily invisage
the 7-11 nearby (they’re everywhere, right?).
I never once saw a cute guy working there,
mostly it was girls. Maybe it was time of
day.
I’m enjoying the nostalgia. Even when Farang
get the wrong reaction, Thai boys are so sweet, we just want to hug ‘em…can’t resist ‘em.
Maybe they know this? You’ve gotta laugh, huh?
ralfyboy
July 26th, 2006 at 6:29 am
The Chicken Burger at 7-Eleven is 30 baht.
Regarding the roasted chicken on a stick a man sells in the soi, it gave me Bangkok belly a few times so I am careful about it.