Day 117 - Food

When I get emails from people, everyone asks about the food in Thailand so I thought I would do a quick blog about that subject before I leave. I am definitely not starving here, in fact I LOVE Thai food (maybe a little too much :)). I had liked it before I left, because my friends in Chicago and I would frequent a couple Thai restaurants, but I have learned there are many other authentic dishes here.

All Thai dishes have fresh vegetables and herbs that you can get at the local markets, along with the main types of meat, chicken, beef, and pork. It is nice to just walk down on the street to pick up food here. They also have a lot of seafood dishes here. I don't usually like to get fish right off the street, because some local people fish in the polluted canals, but when I am near the beach I always have HUGE fresh prawns (the size of small lobsters), tuna, barracuda, oysters, and many different types of fresh white fish. There are three main kinds of curry here red, green, and yellow that they mix with different vegetables and dishes like cashew chicken, pad Thai, and pad see uwe (same as pad Thai with bigger noodles), etc. I also have found a nice spicy salad called som tom (bean sprouts, noodles, peanuts, chilies, green beans, and a nice vinegar sauce) and a soup called tom yum (chicken and seafood with morning glory and other herbs). Everything here has chili added to it, which I have really learned to enjoy.

Thai desserts leave a lot to be desired... I have not found any dessert I really like here. They use a lot of sugar and butter to make their cakes and goodies. SO for dessert and breakfast (and a snack) I usually have fruit, which is one of my favorite things about Thailand. The fruit here is amazing!! I can get sweet yellow mangoes, watermelon, leeches, papaya, tangerines, dragon fruit, and others on the street everywhere I go. I have been spoiled with the fruit and will miss it a lot when I leave.

I also have had the opportunity to take some Thai cooking lessons from two of the teachers at my school. Noel (an Australian art teacher) and Chanapa (a Thai nursery teacher) have been kind enough to invite me over for dinner about once a week (sometimes more) to learn to cook and of course eat different Thai dishes. It was a great company and a good experience to spend time with them! Chanapa grew up in the mountainous region north of Chiang Rai and her family grows coffee beans. Noel and Chanapa are building a coffee shop outside of our condo complex where she will brew fresh "Chanapa coffee" and he will offer art lessons. It has been fun to watch the progress of their shop over the past couple months. I missed it opening by just a couple weeks!

One of my favorite types of Thai restaurants to go to in Thailand is "clay pot" restaurants. Here each table is given a clay pot filled with water and coals burning underneath and each person can go to a buffet filled with meats, vegetables, noodles, and other things to put in the pot and cook. Everyone just uses their chopsticks to eat from the pot once the food is cooked. It is a fun way to cook!