a little thai take out

we are not huge take-out people.  part of it is that i love the experience of eating out and the other part is that i hate the waste involved with getting take out.  of course there are exceptions, like pizza and i find it absolutely decadent to get indian take-out and eat it in front of the tv.  but with the assignment to go to ventiane for this round of thai-o-rama we made another exception.
and to be frank, vientiane has absolutely no ambiance for a dine-in experience.  unless you like to dine at bus stations, in which case this would be the perfect spot for you cuz you could get some tasty thai and not have to breath in diesel fumes.  there is a small selection of asian condiments that is fun to browse through while you are waiting for your food, so i think that's enough ambiance.
as far as the food goes, it really quite tasty.  we got fried spring rolls to start which were pretty average but the sweet, thin dipping sauce helped out.  for our mains we got yellow chicken curry that had lots of fresh veggies -- peppers, eggplant, green beans, basil -- but kind of scant on the chicken.  seth felt like the chicken was overcooked, but it was in a saucy curry so it wasn't really an issue.  the curry was creamy with a nice subtle burn.  we also got pad thai with 2 shrimp and scant chicken, but with lots of crunchy mung beans.  there was a good peanut flavor, and while it wasn't served with lime wedges (sorry dawn) i really enjoyed it.
they also have a really fun selection of canned asian beverages so we each got a can of thai iced tea and the cashier talked us into trying a can of jelly grass drink, which kind of tasted like tea w/ long pieces of jellied something.  not something i would try again.
we also got at jar of tom yum soup mix which reads: "remark: use fish, chicken or other meat also delicious."
i have heard rumor that there is something on the menu that is so spicy that it clears the entire shop as its being cooked.
after a summer break from thai food and blogging, vientiane was a great welcome back.  while they offer the average thai fare, vientiane does a good job at it.  its very convenient and we will definitely be going back for thai take-out.

the perfect morning

i initially started this post to describe a perfect day i had.  but i only made it to 11:30 am before i put it on hold to finish in a few days.  now i am coming back to it more than a month later.  so i think i will edit it a bit and post it as the perfect morning.  and truthfully, this is how most of my saturdays look, though i am not quite lucky enough to have a massage every saturday morning.
let me tell you what a perfect morning looks like in jenner's mind.
7:45am: okay so this was a little early for a perfect morning but i was getting up early for good reason.
8:00am: church tag sale just down the street from my house.  i have always wanted to be a regular tag sale go-er but i have only recently starting really started going.  i didn't have any unbelievable finds, but i still had a great time and spent $4 on 4 items.  and i got to indulge my obsession with cookbooks and add yet another one to my collection.
9:00am: massage w/ becca.  okay, i have been keeping this secret to myself for long enough.  the awake collective in the east end has massages for $40/hour!  yes, that is right, $40/hour!  and this is an AMAZING massage.  worth at least double what they are charging.  becca has gifted hands and she is truly a healing practitioner
10:00am: ice coffee and berry muffin from katie made bakery.  they have coffee ice cubes.  need i say more?  but i will say more -- greatest berry muffin ever!  i also really love their berry scones.  i have had a love affair with scones for years, probably made all the more intense because a good scone is hard to find.  my most favorite scone was from the original buckie's biscotti in dennis, massachusetts.  but ever since they moved locations (and the fact that seth works every weekend so we never make it to cape cod) i never get to indulge in this favorite.  finding these amazing scones at katie made is a happy discovery.
10:30am: farmer's market.  this is my saturday ritual and it really does make me happy.  this saturday i got to meet up w/ jen and her two kids.  one of my new favorite finds at the farmer's market is swallow tail farm's dairy products.  every morning i make a smoothie w/ their kefir and in season berries whenever possible.
11:30am: seth finally has a weekend day off ...
so that is what a perfect saturday morning looks like in jenner's mind.  not surprisingly, food is a major factor.