Good morning everyone!!
After a bit of absence, I'm back to talk about Thai cuisine. The timing is pretty well chosen. After the holidays, you've probably been stuffed with foie gras, chestnut turkey, snails, oysters, smoked salmon, Christmas logs and more! You may want to change your diet and eat a little lighter to relieve your stomach. So I'm going to present some of the dishes that I'm used to eating there.
In Thailand, eating on the street is a real institution for the average Thai. One can eat there very well and for a more than correct price. In general, it takes between 30 and 60 baths for a meal. The price depends of course on what you eat but also where you eat it. Sometimes you can eat exactly the same dish but in a more touristic place. The price can then be higher. The portions are not very large and good eaters will stay hungry by eating only one.
One of my favourite dishes: noodle soup with meatballs or kuaytiao naam. It is a basic dish that can be eaten anywhere in Asia and one of the rare Thai dishes eaten with chopsticks. The broth, which is always hot and stays in a kind of large stewpot, makes it possible to cook the noodles and to heat up (to thaw even) the pieces of meat. Different varieties of noodles can be chosen, such as fine, medium and wide noodles. The preparation of the dish is therefore very fast.
Another noodle soup and meat soup tasted and paid for at the high price (65 baths or twice the normal price) in Sukhothaï (historic park), a highly touristic place. Which in no way is synonymous with quality. This is the most insipid noodle soup I could eat.
The classic meal kit. In the jar there is crushed chilli pepper. Most of the time, you will see small blue boxes with four containers of sugar, crushed chili pepper, chilli sauce and other spices on the tables of street restaurants. Thai people eat very spicy food. Sometimes the dish is already spicy, but they often add more. In bottles, there is usually a chili sauce, or oils that enhance the taste like a fish oil.
Many dishes, as you can imagine (we are in Asia anyway^^^) are based on rice. Here, it's rice with chicken and wok fried vegetables. You can also always ask for an egg fried with it. More basically but not in the picture here, you can eat a khao pat khai or a khao pat moo. The first is a fried rice dish with chicken (cut into slices) and the second with pork. In general, it is accompanied by a few slices of cucumber and a piece of lemon. It can be eaten on the spot but also carried in a tray. This is the case for all the dishes that can be put in plastic bags for noodle soups or in paper for the Thai pads that we are going to talk about now, for example.
Here are the famous Thai pads! These are fried rice noodles mixed with vegetables, seeds, eggs and shrimp. It also incorporates a sweet lime sauce. One can also add meat, crushed peanuts, spices... A quick search on google also taught me that it has "become the national dish of Thailand after the economic recession that hit the country after the Second World War. To reduce rice consumption, the government under the leadership of its Prime Minister Phibunsongkram is launching a campaign to produce rice pasta by distributing the recipe throughout the country" (source: Wikipedia).
We quickly get used to his little habits so here is our Thai pad thai cook from the neighborhood: at the table!
Here, it is a typical dish from Chiang Mai (and even from northern Thailand) - kow soi. It's a curry noodle soup with coconut oil and cream. It's very good, spicy and the noodles are slightly crunchy.
In general, this is what a street restaurant kitchen looks like. One can assume that hygiene is not always the priority but personally I was never sick and I always ate very well. In addition, the food is always cooked or boiled, so the risk is minimal. A good way to eat well can also be to choose places where there is a lot of traffic. Thus, we can imagine that due to the frequent renewal of products, freshness will be better assured.
If you are still not satisfied, you can also eat Japanese food in a restaurant. You'll tell me yes, nothing very exotic. Well, maybe. The interest is that by paying 300 baths (about 7.5 euros), you can access an unlimited Japanese buffet during 1h30. So if you don't have to eat before coming all day long, it's fine then!
It's the kind of place that doesn't empty and sometimes you have to wait for space.
For sushi and makis, you will have to travel to taste them. For the rest, extend your arms...
... and prepare your own hot dishes. With the help of your small pot connected to a cooking plate under the table (whose cooking power can be controlled), mix fish, vegetables, meat, seafood, spices... You might as well say that normally, I don't come out of Japanese smeared. However, with the unlimited time of an hour and a half, things are different! Beverages (non-alcoholic) and ice creams are also self-service.
For the little hungry, you can also find street vendors of grilled meats everywhere. Chicken, pork chops, pork ribs, meat skewers, seafood, sausages, meatballs... You can find everything and the quality of the meat can vary a little depending on the merchants. You can taste it with a pepper sauce for the most courageous. Here you can see rice dumplings surrounded by pork. At the top, they are dried dry. Those who have had the chance to taste it recently in France probably remember it, even if it is much less odorous!
Still not convinced? All right, all you have to do is pick the ones you want:
Yes, yes, yes! The happy look of the seller might suggest otherwise. But these are all insects.
Well, you'll tell me, they're cooked, we're not going to make a big deal out of them! But if so precisely because it is very nourishing as you surely know!
Crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, lizards, various worms and also cockroaches!
I rather remained sober: I opted for small grilled worms;) A rather strong taste in the mouth but it is not so bad.
As proof, I'm in my second and I'm keeping a smile on my face.
To finish the meal well, you will have a small dessert no? Nothing extravagant here, but it's super good and rather caloric. It's some kind of pancake. At the beginning, the itinerant cook has a ball of dough. Like a pizzaiolo, he then rotates his dough until he has a round and thin disc that he cooks on his plate. Chocolate and banana, it's excellent according to me but you have lots of variants! Sometimes it is even hyper-caloric because some people mix eggs in it and add a lot of sugar, chocolate, oil and concentrated milk!
And here's the result! Enjoy your appetite!
I hope to have put some water in your mouth (or not) and I will see you next time. =)