Food in Thailand

Leave a reply

Thailand is the ultimate foodie paradise. There is an endless variety of different dishes and with the food so cheap you could almost spend entire days going from one meal to the next.

Since street food and vendors are so popular just walking down the street in Bangkok could provide your next best meal.

You’ll see woks with noodles being tossed about, large wooden mortars where shreds of papaya are lightly crushed, fruit stands, smoothie stalls, and many more .

Besides street food another great alternative for a cheap meal (and with more comfortable seating arrangements) is at the malls in Bangkok.

Not to be confused with American mall food courts, these Thai food courts have tons of different stations set up specializing in certain dishes and you walk around until you find what your heart desires. We’ve tried many dishes and all of them have been significantly better than anything I every had in a US mall food court.

And when I say that the mall eateries are more expensive than the street food, it’s a matter of a noodle dishes going from $1 to $1.33. Not a big difference.

A into to some of my favorite Thai dishes:

Green Papaya Salad :

This is practically the country’s national dish and can be found everywhere. Unripe papaya is shredded into long slivers and mashed in a wooden (not stone) mortar along with long beans, dried shrimp, tomatoes, chilies and crushed peanuts. The sauce is a mix of palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice and is a perfect balance between sweet, salty and sour. Thais can handle up to a handle of bird’s eye chilies in their salad but I suggest you start out with just one. This dish is incredibly refreshing and perfect after a hot day out.

Pad Thai

One of the most famous dishes abroad Pad Thai is a noodle dish made with thin rice noodles, stir fried with shrimp, eggs, and bean sprouts. The dish is served with a sliver of lime, crushed peanuts, and dried red chilies for additional flavor. Seemingly simple it is quite difficult to get the balance right in the sauce, making sure to add enough of each ingredient to just highlight the next without overpowering all of them. You’ll see vendors making Pad Thai all along Khao San Road (the backpacker district in Bangkok) and there the prices ranges from 30-50 baht ($1-2).

Thai Curries

Unlike the curries of India, Thai curries incorporate a completely different set of ingredients and spices. The curry pastes are traditionally made in a mortar with bird’s eye chilis, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, garlic and a wide array of roasted spices. The curries vary in consistency, with green curry resembling a soupy mixture and red curries generally thicker and can be ordered with seafood, chicken, or meat. Coconut milk is always in the cooking process to create the sauce and the flavor is truly incredible. The store bought curry pastes do not even come close to the home made ones and any restaurant with its own curry paste is bound to be a winner. The smell of the sauce alone will have you licking your fingers in anticipation. Some of my favorites are the red and green curry but do take the time to try the other as well; penang, yellow, massaman, etc.

Fish

Thailand has some incredible fish dishes that can be prepared just about any way. Ranging from deep fried, to grilled to steamed the fresh fish is delicious with the accompanying Thai style sauce. Look out for the salt coated grilled fish at the floating markets, and the steamed fish served in a lime soupy sauce in the restaurants. The fish is fresh and the preparation may be simple but the flavor really comes through in the various sauces which perfectly complement the soft and rich fish. My favorite fish dish by far is X X X served in a long fish shaped metal platter elevated on top of an open flame which is lit at the table to allow the surrounding sauce to come to a boil.

Wide Rice Noodle Dishes (Pad See Ew)

I personally love rice noodles. I find them so much tender than the Italian pasta counterpart and especially when fresh the asian style noodles just melt right in your mouth. I find this to be the case specifically with the wide rice noodles – the main component of Pad See Ew – one of my all time Thai favorites. The noodles are stir fried with meat or seafood, greens, an egg and a soy sauce based sauce. The sauce combines regular soy sauce with a thicker sweeter soy and additional spices. This dish simply melts on your tongue. Better than ice cream I tell you!

On your next trip to Thailand be sure to check out some of these dishes and let me know what some of your favorites are!

Pho

Leave a reply

Pho is one of the most famous Vietnamese dishes and is well known around the world. It is served at various street side stalls and cafes all over the country, usually ranging from $2-3 a bowl.

Pho (pronounced faa) is a soup dish, traditional made with either chicken or beef broth which is simmered for several hours. It is served with rice noodles, meat and herbs.

Historically Pho originated in the early 1900s in northern Vietnam. It didn’t come to southern Vietnam until the 1950s and is served differently there.

For the beef version (pho bo) the broth is made by simmering beef bones, with spices, charred onion and charred ginger (added to remove the strong scent). For the chicken pho (pho ga) the broth is made with chicken bones and spices, omitting the charred onion and ginger at times. The spices include star anise, cinnamon, cardamon, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cloves. During the cooking process it’s important to skim off the foam that gathers at the top in order to produce a clear high quality broth. The soup is then served with a particular width of rice noodles, various cuts and meat and garnishes on the side, for each person to flavor their bowl as they desire.

No trip to Vietnam is complete without sampling both the Northern and Southern versions.

In the north the soup is a bit simpler. The northerners go light on the garnishes and the soup is slightly less sweet than the southern version, but loaded with more green onions.

When ordering pho in the south the table is lined with various garnishes. Bean sprouts, thai basil and coriander leaf are a must, with limes and chilis on the side for additional sour and spicy flavor.

For a final kick make sure to add in the hoisin sauce and chili garlic sauce (not so spicy afterall) before sampling.

The soup itself is not spicy and has a very smooth rich brothy taste. The noodles are soft but retain their texture and the crunchy bean sprouts mixed with the fresh herbs provide a touch of freshness.

As you might imagine the Northerners prefer their version, and the Southerners theirs. As for myself? I prefer the Southern version – more garnishes = more flavor and variety in my book.

One place we loved the pho was at Pho Le in Saigon.

Fruit Spotlight: Mangosteen

Leave a reply

Vicky and I first stumbled upon these fruits in Vietnam at the local markets. She was vaguely aware of what they were. I on the other hand had never before seen one in my life. As I’m not the most adventurous eater I was willing to keep moving, but she said it was healthy. That’s my one weakness, and she knows it. Also, it was cheap, which happens to be my other weakness. Put the two together and we have a guy from the states trying his first ever mangosteen at the ripe old age of 25. Lucky for me I had a bit of guidance, otherwise I would have bitten right into it – skin and all.

It was delicious!

It has since become one of our favorites, and whenever we are able we’re quick to purchase a kilogram for usually around $2. Unfortunately, these fruits are not very popular in the Western diet though perhaps at selmect stores like Whole Foods you can buy them. Let’s dig a little deeper into what a mangosteen is, shall we?

The Lore
Legend has it that Queen Victoria offered knighthood to any subject who could bring her a mangosteen fruit in prime condition. No one succeeded as it was virtually impossible to preserve the fruit for the entire week’s journey. But, thanks to the Queen’s admirable quest, the fruit achieved the title, “Queen of Fruits,” a name still used around the globe. [1]

Origin
The place of origin of the mangosteen is unknown but is believed to be the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas. Today it is cultivated mostly in Thailand, the main exporter of Mangosteens. [2]

Description
Mangosteen is a tropical fruit that is grown primarily in hot, humid climates of southeast Asia such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Don’t confuse them with mangos as they couldn’t be more different! It is a dark purple fruit about 2 to 3 inches in diameter – the size of a small peach or apple. Mangosteen comes from a tree, which grows from 20–82 ft tall. In order to get at the fruit, you have to break open the outer later. Inside, you usually find a very small fruit, which is sweet and tangy, juicy, and somewhat fibrous, with an inedible, deep reddish-purple colored rind (exocarp) when ripe. [3]

Culinary
Due to restrictions on imports (scared that they will transport insects), mangosteen is not readily available in certain countries. Although available in Australia, for example, they are still rare in the produce sections of grocery stores in North America and Europe.
Upon arrival in the US, fresh mangosteens sold up to $45 per pound in speciality produce stores in New York City, but wider availability and somewhat lower prices have become common in the United States and Canada within two or three years. Nowadays, fresh mangosteens sell for around $8 a pound in the US. This, unfortunately, is still over four times the Asian price. [4]

Medicine
Mangosteens are widely regarded as being high in antioxidants and thus great cancer fighters. In more Eastern practice, it is popular in fighting dysentery. Moreover, it can be made into an ointment and applied on eczema and other skin disorders.

Sources
[1] http://www.xango.com/science/mangosteen
[2] http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mangosteen.html
[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_mangosteen)
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_mangosteen#Culinary

Drunken Sailor Cafe on Koh Lanta

2 Replies

Koh Lanta seemed like the perfect place to learn how to ride a motorbike. The island is fairly small – less than 30 km from north to south, with only one main road going down the west coast of the island and with limited traffic.

It felt like we wouldn’t find a better opportunity to test out our driving skills. Also, unwilling to splurge on a whole bungalow by the beach we were staying at the hostel by the pier so we really needed said motorbike in order to get to the Koh Lanta beaches.

Luckily our hostel only charged us 150 baht ($5) for a full 24 hour rental (including helmets). With that we were off. We spent 6 days on the island so each day we went to a new beach, to keep it interesting you know.

One of our favorites was the beach at Kantiang bay. With cliffs hugging both sides of the beach, the setting is more intimate and romantic than some of the other beach that go on for miles. This one was smaller, cozier and more secluded.

Before we got to the beach though, we made a quick stop for lunch at the Drunken Sailor cafe – just down the street from the Kantiang Bay beaches. A lot of the cafes on Koh Lanta have a very relaxes and laid back feel and this one was no different. With white and blue paint, bean bag chairs and hammocks this was the perfect place to stop for a bit.

From the extensive Thai and international menu we opted for two veggie noodle dishes and while waiting for them whipped out our laptops to find an incredibly reliable and fast wifi connection.

Comfortable atmosphere and good wifi? Score.

Bring in the good food and that’s a winner. Dave ordered the fried noodles with vegetables and I got the wide rice noodles with vegetables.

I’m a sucker for the wide rice noodles and these did not disappoint They literally melt in your mouth and the sauce was delicious. A winner right here.

We only tried the two noodle dishes, but we’ve heard that some of the other dishes are good too, like the samosas, and veggie tom yum soup so feel free to branch out.

There are tons of little cafes and restaurants all over Koh Lanta but if you’re heading down to Kantiang Bay stop by the Drunken Sailor for a good meal and even better free wi-fi!

Thai Eat vs Don’t Eat

Leave a reply

Don’t eat up top way, Eat on the bottom way

Here in Thailand there are many ingredients that are added during the cooking process simply to add flavor – and not to be eaten. Many times this is determined based on how the ingredients is prepped or chopped. Naturally, all the Thais can easily identify which ingredients are added for flavoring and which ones are meant to be eating. They have been eating this food their whole lives so there’s no question for them.

For foreigners on the other hand, this can be somewhat difficult to figure out at first.

So let’s start with a few basic and essential Thai ingredients.

Galangal or Ginger:

When preparing the eat me way the galangal is finely diced or the ginger is sliced into matchsticks

For flavoring the galangal is sliced into large rings.

**If you take a bite out of these large rings you’ll see why these are not meant to be eaten**

Bird’s Eye Chilis:

When preparing the eat me way the bird’s eye chilis are thinly sliced, resulting in small rings, or the larger chili is sliced into thicker rings on the diagonal.

**If you wear contacts don’t cut the birds eye chilis without gloves as touching your eyes afterwards is not recommended!**

For flavoring the birds eye chilis are smashed with the side of a knife to release and open the pores.

Kaffir Lime Leaves:

When preparing the eat me way the kaffir lime leaves are tightly rolling up and finely finely sliced, resembling almost shreds of the leaves themselves.

For flavoring the leaf is folded in half lengthwise and the stem torn out of it, to release the flavors.

**While doing this be sure to smell the kaffir lime leaves, they are incredibly aromatic and a must for Thai cooking**

Lemongrass:

When preparing the eat me way lemon grass is thinly sliced from the bottom of the stalk until no violet rings show and then finely diced.

For flavoring the stalk is first smashed with a side of a knife and then cut into 2-3 inch segments on the diagonal.

There are so many different ingredients added into Thai cooking that might seem completely unfamiliar to a Westerner but with many Asian shops and supermarkets all over the world many of these ingredients can be found locally. Though Thai recipes sometime use a long list of ingredients, you generally need to stock up on a handful of staples and you will be good to go!

Welcome To Traveling Through Food!

Leave a reply

Welcome to Traveling Through Food, we’re glad you found us. This is a new blog launched by Dave and Vicky, adventure travelers, who also run ACoupleTravelers and AvocadoPesto. Let me tell you a little bit about this blog and what to expect.

Six months ago when Vicky and I were preparing for our two year trip through Asia and Europe we had an idea to take her food blog and integrate it in into our travel blog. We thought it made sense to condense all our writing activities. But after talking with some other bloggers we realized that it was better to branch out and keep things niche as opposed to trying touch upon too many themes at once. Therefore, the food blog remained only for recipes while the travel blog remained only for travel stories.

But how were we going to showcase the food from our travels?

We tried to include it in posts we were writing on the travel blog but the articles became too long and the process too tedious. It just wasn’t working and after a few attempts we gave up. Still, we always harbored the idea of having a website dedicated completely to food from our travels. Not in a recipe way, simply displaying photos and writing about the different cuisines.

This is where Traveling Through Food comes in.

We are dedicating this site solely to displaying food from our travels – and writing about it. For example, the following types of posts will be the backbone of our website: