One final Thailand story before I finally bring my brain back to reality and accept that vacation is over! As you’ve seen, we ate a lot of food during our trip. We sampled enough curries and noodles and soups and regional specialties for two people twice our size, and most of it was delicious. But there is one special meal that will always stick out in my mind after our trip and it came from a very unlikely source.

We spent our first few days in the country on a beautiful island called Koh Yao Noi. Although the island is only a 45 minute boat ride from the popular tourist destination of Phuket, it’s still a relatively untouched community with a vibrant local culture. The population of Koh Yao Noi is 99% Muslim, and our visit happened to fall during the holy days of Ramadan, when practicing Muslims fast during the daylight hours. It was exciting to see the town during this time as people prepared each day for their big “break fast” meals after sundown. However, this also meant that most of the restaurants were closed for lunch.

Assured by the hotel staff that we would be able to find some restaurants in the center of town, we rented a motorbike and drove in to check it out. When we arrived, however, we found that all of the restaurants were shuttered until sundown. We stopped on the sidewalk to regroup, when a man walked out of an art gallery and asked if he could help us. We explained that we were looking for a place to eat, and he reconfirmed our suspicion that nobody would be serving lunch. “Most people here are Muslim, but I’m a Buddhist! I can make you something,” he told us, “Do you like squid?”

And so we found ourselves sitting on the porch of the art gallery, wondering if it was a terrible idea to accept lunch from a complete stranger in a foreign country. Maybe the art shop doubled as a restaurant, as many of the neighboring barber shop-clothing store-noodle shops in the town seemed to? When our host jumped on his bicycle and pedaled off, we panicked a little bit more. He returned just a few minutes later, arms laden with bags of fresh vegetables that he had picked up at the market. This was definitely not a restaurant.

But when our new friend, named Chalad, served us beautiful dishes of fried rice studded with fresh baby squid and vegetables, we relaxed. Maybe it was the fact that the meal had been specially prepared for us, but we both agree that it was one of the most delicious that we had during our trip. We sat and chatted with Chalad as we ate our lunch, learning that he had lived on Phuket until the deadly tsunami in 2004 had literally washed away the life he had built there. He relocated to Koh Yao Noi to rebuild his store, where he works on commissioned pieces. He showed us his artwork, which featured jazz musicians, iconic pop culture figures, and images of monks and the Buddha. I wished we could take home a beautiful piece he had done of Miles Davis.

When it came time for us to leave, Chalad did not want to accept any payment for the beautiful meal he prepared for us (we insisted on at least paying for the groceries!). He told us that it was so hot outside and we looked hungry; he only wanted to help us. I was so touched by his gesture. It’s always easier to not get involved in others’ problems, especially when those problems are really a minor inconvenience (we weren’t close to dying of hunger, and really it was our fault that we didn’t think about Ramadan ahead of time). Meeting Chalad and sharing a meal with him was easily the most meaningful experience we had during our time in Thailand. After all, we all know that the way to my heart is through my stomach!