My favorite mission food was when the maid used to make lemon-merengue pie. Some elder from ancient times had also taught her to make brownies - those were good too. Of course, her home-made bread was great as well. The street vendors selling satay, tom yum soup, cashew chicken, and all other forms of Thai-food goodness at rock bottom prices were good as well.
Then I got kicked out of Thailand and went to the Philippines. While our houseboys in the Philippines did the laundry and cleaned and such, they weren't much for cooking. Fish or chicken, along with rice and a combination of soy sauce and lemon juice - that's about all they could muster each day. The shock of going from some of the best food in SE Asia to some of the worst was enough to make me sob bitter tears of despair.
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