Sawadee Krup TBF
Travelers!
Without a doubt the thing I miss the
most about Thailand when I come back to California is the food. Unless my wife
Worawan is still in Thailand . J I love Thai food,
and love the fact that it is almost available any time any where when in
Thailand ! That is one of the main differences about eating out here in the US
versus over there in Thailand : almost any hour of the day or night you can find
food, definitely in Bangkok , mostly on Koh Samui, and almost all the time at
quieter local destinations. It definitely helps to learn how to spot certain
types of Thai restaurants, food vendors, noodle carts, and roadside grills –
something you will develop a skill for quickly on our trips. But before that it
is good to know some basics about eating in Thailand that you may not learn from
guidebooks.
In Thailand each meal starts with
the rice. Rice, or “Khao” (sounds like cow) is the staple food of Thailand and
its main export; number one in the world in rice exports until just very
recently – so the Thai people never touch any of the food dishes setting on the
table until rice is on their plate. In fact, the Thai expression for “gonna eat”
is ‘gin khao’ or: eat rice. Once they are served rice then the various meat and
vegetable dishes will be added on top of or around the rice. Thai people eat
food with a spoon and fork at the same time, using the spoon in their dominant
hand to scoop and eat, and the fork as the assist hand stirring and pushing food
onto the spoon. This allows greater sensory approval of the flavors of Thai food
and helps in scooping up rice soaked in curry or mixed with a stir fried dish.
When it comes to Thai food you can
enjoy many different dishes by ordering a type of Thai curry with either:
chicken, pork or vegetables and tofu. You generally don’t want to order beef in
Thailand ; unless you are eating upscale and the beef is visiting from Australia
, and with fish it is better to enjoy the fresh flavor of the fish rather than
bury it in the curry. There are four types of curries in Thailand : green, red,
yellow or ‘panang’,
and ‘massaman’. In general: the green curry is sweet, unless they make it really
hot and you ask for it that way in Thai, the red curry is the local curry and is
usually very spicy to extremely spicy no matter how you ask for it, the panang
curry is the middle ground curry – it can be really spicy and make you cry, or
can be sweet and tingly and make you smile, and massaman curry is the curry with potatoes. Massaman is
never really spicy and usually has lots of Thai vegetables and sometimes meat on
the bone if you order chicken or pork. Not all the curries will be available
everywhere – and they will vary in flavor and ingredients from region to region
within Thailand , but you can always find them on the menu.
Chicken is always fresh and besides
being served in curry it is served over steamed rice, stir fried with garlic and
black pepper, stir fried with Thai basil and Thai peppers, stir fried with
oyster sauce, stir fried in spicy red peppers with green beans, stir fried with
mixed vegetables, or stir fried with cashew nuts. Pork is served basically in
all the same dishes as chicken, except for bbq pork tenderloin or ‘moo dang’
which is always recognizable by the long hanging columns of red pork loins in
windows and is served in noodle soup, and ‘khao kha moo’ which is stewed ham
hock over rice – and delicious! Down south at restaurants that are Muslim pork
will not be available, but there will be more seafood choices.
Most Thai dishes can be served mild
or spicy, some are naturally spicy, and some are never spicy. That is something
you just have to learn from ordering and eating Thai food in Thailand . A green
papaya salad that sounds safe is one of the spiciest dishes you can order and
basil chicken while sounding safe can in many places be a 4-alarm fire in your
mouth. You are reasonably safe though – at every restaurant, every waitress and
waiter understands “not spicy” in English. Actually, most of the time they will
assume that you don’t want spicy so unless you specifically ask for it spicy it
is likely to be ‘toned down’ because you are not Thai. A trick to insure that
your “super spicy please” request makes it through the local language barrier is
to ask for it in Thai by saying: “ped mog mog” which means: very spicy. This
will work with most Thai dishes while sometimes it will just get you a shaker of
Thai chili powder to sprinkle on your food.
Besides rice and the ‘main dishes’ a
big part of Thai food is noodles. There are many different types of noodle
dishes in Thai food with the most popular being ‘Pad Thai’. This is a noodle
dish served usually with shrimp or tofu, bean sprouts, peanuts and fish oil.
Another popular noodle dish is called: ‘pad see ew’ sometimes known as “chow
fun”. These rice noodles are usually stir fried in soy sauce with egg, meat and
vegetables, if you ask for them served “drunken” they will usually be extra
spicy. The types of noodles used in dishes changes from region to region. In
Chiang Mai a dish of local noodles would be very different from a dish of
noodles in Krabi or on Koh Samui. Most noodle dishes are not spicy with the
exception of drunken noodles or ‘pad kee mao’. If you find a noodle dish you
really like you can order it day after day and almost never get the same dish.
On my first trip to Thailand I really liked pad thai and ordered it every day,
sometimes twice a day and it was always different and delicious. Same same but
different, as they say in Thailand .
One of the joys of eating in
Thailand is the abundance of exotic fresh fruits and vegetables that are
available every day. You will get to sample a dozen or more new fruits and
vegetables and discover your own new favorites plus taste some really flavorful
versions of old favorites like bananas, mangos, pineapples, oranges, and melons
all grown in Thailand and more full of flavor. There are lots of Thai vegetables
eaten on a regular basis – you will have to go out-of-your-way to avoid anything
green when ordering and eating in Thailand . One oddity is that iceberg lettuce
is considered a delicacy in Thailand and is almost never carelessly placed as a
garnish. One of mine and Eats’ favorite Thai vegetable dishes is called stir
fried morning glory on fire or ‘pak boong fai dang’ in Thai. This is a mustard
green or spinachy-like green stir fried in oyster sauce with garlic and a little
or a lot of spicy red and green peppers. The ‘on fire’ part is in reference to
how many peppers are used.
Fresh fruit will be available every
morning at breakfast, which is served buffet style in all the places we will be
staying. Along with the normal breakfast offerings of eggs, cereal, toast,
fruit, yogurts, juices and other breakfast foods like pancakes, omelets,
bacon/sausage and such there will always be a couple of Thai food dishes
available. Breakfast is an important energy provider for the active days in
Thailand and all of the locations we are staying at have been tested and
approved in the ‘TBF Hearty Breakfast Challenge’. After breakfast we will always
make a stop at one of the local markets: Family Mart or 7-Eleven, to stock up on
water, other beverages (Thai energy drinks, juice, Thai ice coffees, mochas, and
teas, birds nest soup drinks or fresh coconut, guava or sugar cane juice), or
snacks. Plus we will always alert you to any road-side food opportunities as
they arise. One of the benefits of being hungry in Thailand is the abundance of
food choices. Some areas are known for certain types of food vendors and there
will be dozens of them lined up and down streets, markets spring to life each
morning and every night in every neighborhood where vendors and kitchens come
out and offer there specialties to the crowds, and tucked among every stretch of
rowhouse will be a ‘moo dang’ place or ‘khao man gai’ place or a noodle cart
serving marinated pork tenderloin in a noodle broth soup with fresh green
vegetables for about a dollar a bowl.
It is easy to eat ‘safe’ in Thailand
if you are not a big fan of spicy and exotic foods. Fried rice is always safe:
recognizable and not spicy. Cashew chicken is never served spicy – it is
probably the number one tourist ordered ‘safe’ food. Stir fried mixed vegetables
always supplies a delicious mix of familiar vegetables with some local
vegetables. If you are feeling a bit unwell (I will cover “gastric distress” and
how to prevent it and deal with it effectively in a later email) there is always
‘khao tom’ or rice soup which is a great stomach-filler and stomach-settler. If
you want to experience the ‘wild side’ of Thai food there will be plenty of
opportunities to sample local delicacies. There will be a chance to eat bugs in
Bangkok, have deep fried giant tiger prawns or mussels served in blood on the
coast, try the spiciest dish I have ever had in 12 years in Thailand at Khao
Sok, order dried squid that has been sitting outside for days or have the
smelliest fruit in the world that is actually banned in most restaurants and
hotels. Thai food is definitely one of the main features and attractions on our
Thailand Beach Adventure!
Bill
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