This is a common meal found in family-owned thai "restaurants". It's called crispy pork with garlic. They are not necessarily served with crispy basil but you can ask for it.
The cost per meal in this humble establishment is 55 baht to 100 Baht. It's typically cheaper than a place inside mall and a better type of establishment.
There are also family-owned place that sells food in buffet style but you have to pay depending on the menu that you picked. For 2 type of dishes, it typically costs 45-55 baht and that's already included with rice.
Stir-fried vegetables and meats are common menu in these places. It's as delicious as the other family-owned places where they sell menu such as pad thai and pad see ew.
In some place, they also serve raw bean sprouts for free. I don't know why but it's pretty crispy and fresh. I personally love munching on them.
Bonus: I forgot this dessert cake name but it has this gooey yellow custard. My friend said it's duck egg but who knows? It tastes pretty weird though and 2 out of 5 for me haha.
" Let's go to restaurant!"
" Which restaurant?" I asked
" That small green roof restaurant" my friend replied.
" that's not a restaurant..." I added while trying to explain this concept to my friend.
To my mind and at least in our family, a restaurant is an air-conditioned eatery with servers and offer a fine-dining experiences. What my friend would call restaurant is something we call "Warung Makan" back home which is a humble establishment and typically family-owned,hygiene is out of the question. You just sit there to enjoy the best homemade meal of your life, pay and leave. It's also typically cheaper than what we refer as " Restaurant". The chairs are also not-so nice and it's a place that won't make you stay longer than 30 minutes.
Then, when I was home, I told my mom that I've been eating at restaurant but when I showed her the picture of the place. Her reaction was something similar, " That's not a restaurant". But Thais, love to call these places as "Restaurants". I mean, they could be right because according to the word definition such establishment is indeed a "restaurant".
When I first arrived, I was pretty much skeptical of these places. I mean, there are some food from the market that I ate which gave me reactions. But overtime, as I hangout more with the locals, I found places where I can eat and not having too strong reactions. I also avoid some menus that I know, it won't end well if I eat that. So, I mostly eat menus like fried pork with garlic, pork sausages and accompanied with some crispy basil and sometimes just stir fried vegetables. When I hangout with them, I noticed that my friend would rather eat pad kra pao than pad thai. Whereas a lot of my foreign friends would go for Pad Thai and pad see ew. Me, I love my crispy pork and they would always offer me, " let's eat, you wanna mu krop, right?". It's pretty known that I love only crispy pork and it's something I jokingly tell to them, the reason I wanna be a Thai citizen, it's for the galore of crispy pork and delicious one.