"Farang ting tong mak mak!"
The weather is beautiful in the Netherlands. A reason to get out and about. My girlfriend, who has exchanged Thailand for the low countries for three months, is visibly enjoying nature in full bloom.
She especially likes cycling through the countryside. She looks with some envy at the many beautiful and safe cycle paths. "It's a pity that we don't have that in Thailand," she sighed. Our country is well liked. “How green and clean the Netherlands is. All those beautiful trees”, she marvels. As the daughter of a 'Farmer', she can even be happy with the many corn fields we encounter along the way. However, there is a small downside to our country, which every Thai will notice, as it turned out once again.
On Sunday we went cycling for about four hours. Via idyllic villages such as Empe and Tonden we ended up in Zutphen, a beautiful Hanseatic city with many old sights. We took a break at the railway bridge. There is a restaurant 'Het IJsselpaviljoen' with a view over the IJssel. Because she had worked up an appetite, she wanted a cup of soup. Chicken soup in this case. I already saw the corpse floating in the IJssel and just to be sure I added that it was 'clear soup'.
After ten minutes the soup was served. A small cup with some vermicelli and some traces of vegetables. She looked at me in surprise. “Where's the chicken?” I stirred the soup and came across 1 piece of chicken, size 2 centimeters long and half a centimeter wide. “This is it”, I said somewhat explanatory. She tried again: “No chicken leg in the soup, only hot water?” “Mmm, well, this is what we call chicken soup”, I replied and understood her surprise.
When we continued our bike ride and again enjoyed meadows, cows, sheep and other Dutch views, I told her what I had to pay for the cup of soup. “I paid € 4,75 almost 200 baht for the soup…”
She burst out laughing and it lasted for a while. Tears rolled down her beautiful cheeks: “Farang ting tong mak mak!” and she shook her head.
“If you want to live in Holland you must be a millionaire” and she continued to enjoy the Netherlands in all its summer glory.
Well, she's not entirely wrong of course...
A very nice story. I can imagine that she had to laugh out loud because of the small, poorly filled cup(s) of chicken soup. Those are the wonderful cultural differences, but she sees the Netherlands as it is, so she has a lot to say when she is back in Thailand.
Another pleasant stay.
Jan
Nice story and I recognize the story. My Thai also thinks almost everything (with the exception of the food, but there is a Toko almost everywhere) better than in Thailand. How we separate our waste (in Thailand everything in one heap), our medical care system (not perfect, but fair) that is accessible to everyone. In Thailand, the poorer Thai can get a cheap hospital pass for a few baths, but practice shows that you don't get certain treatments unless you pay extra. So that medical care in Thailand is often only accessible to the wealthier Thai and wealthy farang. In addition, she also knows that the Thai in the West will be treated more fairly than the rich farang in Thailand who has to pay double for almost everything and is used as a cash cow by making visa runs. Funny to read that the Thai are generally more positive about the Netherlands than the pensioners and expats who live in Thailand. I also often hear my wife complain about certain abuses in Thailand, including corruption, while the Dutch often have no problem with that. Apparently, the rose colored glasses of many Dutch people living in Thailand must be maintained at all costs.
I give the Netherlands another year or three and then we will be on the same level as this chicken soup with the social safety net, including the health care system.
The first time I took Kanok to the Netherlands it was winter. No snow, but it remained dark while we were on the train. First question; is it night?
When it became light, she saw that there were no leaves on the trees. Second question; all the trees here are dead.
She wanted to see snow, so I arranged a weekend in Winterberg. Lots of snow and she was cold. After being home for two days, it started snowing in Q8. Third question; Are you crazy?, you drive 500 miles to see snow and now it's on your doorstep.
Those Thais must have strange ideas about us.
Haha, yes, a clash of cultures does happen. As we sometimes talk about Thai logic, it will also be the other way around. farang logic…
Peter, then she can look forward to a well-filled chicken soup tonight and of course according to a Thai recipe.
Isn't it ashamed of you as a Dutchman, you have a well-filled meal in Thailand, isn't it strange that the Dutch no longer go out for dinner in the Netherlands, and they are right, the operator of the said restaurant had better close quickly. Can't believe the price of hot water, which the chicken also flew over with raised legs.
Too crazy for words just disgusting, the Thai lady in question is right, that she had a good laugh about that.
Shame on you (restaurant owner) dutch man, bad advertisement for your business.
Greetings from a sun-drenched Thailand, by the way we are going out for a "nice" dinner tonight, think I'll just order a nice whole Thai chicken.
Hans-ajax.
You should take a good look at the price list of a Thai restaurant in the Netherlands.
It is not inferior to a price list of a Dutch restaurant.
That the price list of a Thai restaurant in the Netherlands should be different from, for example, Dutch restaurants, is something that completely escapes me. Those prices are geared to the Dutch market and that applies in particular to purchasing, where many products and ingredients are imported from Thailand and that makes it extra expensive!
Our restaurant is in the higher market segment, at the level of French culinary restaurants. In short, a restaurant for gourmets. We only carry quality products, including Pandan rice, chicken fillet, duck, roasted bacon, pork tenderloin, round steak, small squid, prawns (13/15) and four different types of fish and lots of imported Thai vegetables. I'm really scared every time we go shopping.
However, our place settings are well filled and so is our soup!
Hans-Ajax.
I wouldn't be the first to blame the owner.
Here in Thailand we don't have that huge tax burden, just imagine if you had to pay road tax for your dog here and poop tax for yourself.
You wouldn't see a dog here anymore.
The Dutch talk like a chicken without a beak waiting for a rooster to come forward at last.
Rooster Jan and his mate were not so fortunate
Rooster Pim not at all, so that he had to spit prematurely.
Mother hen Theo must have known that he too had eaten for the last time .
If I hear it every now and then, even on the Dutch beaches you sometimes have to pay 6 euros for 1 bottle of tap water.
Before you finish it you flee home, they come to bother your wife again, that curly scum.
Even if your car is stationary, it still costs money even if you sleep while it is in front of your door.
It is not only the owner who has to pay for The Hague caviar .
There they talk like a headless chicken.
If they are not clucking in that room then they are sitting on a stick .
Moderator: Please don't elaborate too much.
I agree with your girlfriend, the soup you describe resembles the description of a cheap "soup" from a can with some meat leftovers in it. That is of course not a real soup. You buy something like this at a C brand in a budget supermarket and then you get little quality for little money in return.
We haven't got around to cycling yet, slept late on Sunday morning, bought groceries at the toko and in the afternoon it was too hot (too much sun and she doesn't want to get a tan). But she really enjoyed the little trips over the past six months (as I wrote in my diary: weeds were photographed, etc.). Everything is expensive to rent, but a lot is also good here in my girlfriend's eyes. But such a soup is of course quite absurd to cry (or laugh).
Enjoy the rest of your stay here in NL!
Maybe a stupid question but what does "Farang ting tong mak mean!" ?
@Mary There are no such thing as stupid questions, only stupid answers. Farang=foreigner; ting tong=crazy, weird; mak= a lot, so mak mak is the superlative of a lot. I would like to translate it as: Foreigners are crazy.
Dick that is a fine free translation. To be more precise for those who are interested:
– Farang (ฝรั่ง) = Non-Asian person, white foreigners. So westerners.
– Khon/chao tang chaat (คน/ชาว ต่างชาติ) = foreigner. Literally: Khon = person, Chao = people/people. Tang = other, Chaat = land.
– Khon tang dao (คนต่างด้าว) = Foreigner. Literally: dao = land
– Khon/chao tang prathet (ต่างประเทศ)= from outside, abroad(er). Literally: prathet = land.
– Baksida (บักสีดา) = Isan dialect for foreigner.
There was a blog about it a while ago:
https://www.thailandblog.nl/taal/farang-geen-guave/
In short, farang seems most likely to come from the Persian word "Farangi", which was used for Europeans. This can be linked to the Germanic Franks, with which the name of France is connected.
I hope I haven't strayed too far off topic.
Speaking of tingtong and duration (Thai: peng). We were just in town, usually we park with friends or just outside the center. This time it was inconvenient, according to my girlfriend no problem, until she saw what you had lost in parking costs.. We sometimes find that expensive, by Thai standards, those machines are almost golden ducats! So next time we will avoid the parking garages and payment machines again if possible.
The worst part is that there is more and more truth in the last part.
If you still want to have a good time here, you will need a good penny or a generous salary.
Dear Fred Schoolderman, the statement is about a watery chicken soup with exactly 1 piece of chicken. If people come to eat in your restaurant, I understand that there is a card attached, eeaivm possibly. imported ingredients, not to mention the VAT charged in the price (now also 21%, if I'm well informed), and people make that choice themselves. Again outrageous, to serve a cup of chicken soup with nothing in it for the price of 4,75 euros, in my humble opinion you don't even have to import a chicken, even in the Netherlands, and neither do some vermicelli and some celery and a sprig of parsley hear.
Kind regards from Thailand.
Dear Hans-ajax, I am not responding to the watery chicken soup, but to Ruud's comment. Food falls under the low rate, so 6%.
Moderator: chatting is not allowed.