Let’s be honest, we like our food and one of the main reasons we wanted to spend some time in South-East Asia was for its food specialties!
So, between two sites’ visits, we always end up wandering in the streets to find little stalls and food vendors, ready to try mysterious treats (our guesses, ingredient-wise, are rarely correct).
In Thailand, we have not been disappointed so far, our taste buds are more than tickled!
Thai food is not super light, they use a lot of oil to cook and fry their rice/noodles/chicken/eggs…but what is fried can’t taste bad, right?
Pad Thai
One of the most popular dishes in Thailand is the Pad Thai. Made of stir-fried rice noodles which are cooked with an egg and served with shrimps or chopped chicken, it’s then flavored with fish sauce, garlic and red chili pepper.
This dish was used to promote Thai nationalism and support the economy. As Thailand was the main exporter of rice, Thai government promoted Pad Thai, hoping it would increase the exported amounts of rice. No problem for us, we’re in when it comes to help local economy especially if it means eating a lot of Pad Thais! It’s so delicious it even became Oscar’s favorite for breakfast…
But Thai food is very diverse and offers alternatives to the traditional Pad Thai. Some of our favorite were:
The guay teaw lord
Basically a brown soup with rice noodles, tofu, mushrooms and Chinese sausages. We went to the guay teaw lord expert to try it: operating for more than 40 years in her little stall, this lady knew her shit! It was a little sweet but light, flavorful and super tasty, definitely a must-try!
The fried boiled egg brochette
We tried this without even knowing what the brochette was made of but some risks are worth taking and this one was a lucky one! Boil an egg, cut it in small chunks, roll them in a thin circle shaped rice dough and fry it. So tasty we made it our regular snack on our way to the subway. Unfortunately, we didn’t take pictures of it, it was too good not to be eaten immediately…
Thai fried rice
There are some days you don’t feel food-adventurous, those days are fried rice ones!The name of this dish speaks for itself but the Thai version differs from the Chinese one. Made of jasmine rice, it normally contains meat (chicken, shrimps or crab), egg, onions, garlic and tomatoes. Seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and some chili sauce (it can be spicy), some versions also include pineapple or basil.
This common dish is perfect: not only delicious, it’s also pretty simple to cook, hence it’s very cheap. And you can’t make mistakes ordering fried rice.
Sweetnesses
We never considered Thai food as the best one for deserts and sweets but we found some surprisingly delicious sweet things on the street!
From the traditional mango on sweet rice and coconut milk which is pure delight to the taro filled balls, Chinese pancakes and flower shaped banana puddings, our sweet tooth was satisfied!
Street food markets in Thailand are real shows: tons of colors, a lot of smells (some delicate noses wouldn’t be able to bear everyone of them) and a lot of mystery for Westerners but so exciting!
We found the street food heaven in Bangkok at the Train Night Market: From the octopus grilling on the BBQ to the crispy fried pork chops, whole fishes cooking in salt, kids eating insects as candies, roasted ducks, spicy papaya salads, dark green boiled eggs… our stomachs were as fulfilled as our eyes and nostrils.
Bon appétit!
