After 4 glorious days in Thailand (and probably a lifetime of less-than-desirable transmitted diseases for those who made poor decisions with local women in Thailand…) it’s back out to the ocean. Wow- what an AWESOME time! I could go on and on and on about what an awesome port visit we had. Unfortunately I only have about 3 days to do it because then we’ll be back on land and I’ll have a whole ‘nother port to blog about. However, this afternoon I burned all of my pictures to a CD so I can start to share them with you.
After only one day back to sea, my mouth is already watering for the amazing-ness that is Thai food, so that’s where we’ll begin. Now of course, very few people would argue that Thai food isn’t amazi
ng. But what you don’t understand is how the US does Thai ALL.WRONG. Sure, we went out to one few “fancy restaurant” where we spent almost $20/person on dinner. But that is just ludicrous when you hear about some of the other culinary options in Thailand- Street Food. And no, I’m not talking about the man who sells hot dogs in NYC.
ng. But what you don’t understand is how the US does Thai ALL.WRONG. Sure, we went out to one few “fancy restaurant” where we spent almost $20/person on dinner. But that is just ludicrous when you hear about some of the other culinary options in Thailand- Street Food. And no, I’m not talking about the man who sells hot dogs in NYC.The Thai people take street food to a whole new level. Basically, the food is sold from little shacks that are somehow jerry-rigged to the side of their moped (so the
ir food stand can be mobile, obviously). Here is a good picture of a meat street food vendor with the attached moped. And if you can put it on a stick, they will sell it to you from a food stand. My all time favorites were marinated chicken or pork or beef (I stuck with the chicken) on a stick, which were cooked over little burning fires on their stand. Here I am showing off my chicken on a stick. Total price for 2 sticks of chicken? Approximately $1.50. Then there were the fruit stands that would make you drool. Populated with watermelon, mangos, coconuts, cantaloupe, papayas, pineapples and whatever else they had that was ripe and exotic, 
you pointed to what you wanted (all the fruit sat on ice) and with a quick “chop chop” of a knife, they slipped the chopped fruit into a little plastic bag, with a stick. Total price for bag of pi
neapple? $.75 Here is a picture of both a fruit stand and me, beaming with excitement over my bag of pineapple (I had at least 6 in 3 days). I have never had pineapple like this in my life. We decided it must be laced with some sort of amazing drug- it is beyond delicious and ridiculously addicting.
ir food stand can be mobile, obviously). Here is a good picture of a meat street food vendor with the attached moped. And if you can put it on a stick, they will sell it to you from a food stand. My all time favorites were marinated chicken or pork or beef (I stuck with the chicken) on a stick, which were cooked over little burning fires on their stand. Here I am showing off my chicken on a stick. Total price for 2 sticks of chicken? Approximately $1.50. Then there were the fruit stands that would make you drool. Populated with watermelon, mangos, coconuts, cantaloupe, papayas, pineapples and whatever else they had that was ripe and exotic, 
you pointed to what you wanted (all the fruit sat on ice) and with a quick “chop chop” of a knife, they slipped the chopped fruit into a little plastic bag, with a stick. Total price for bag of pi
neapple? $.75 Here is a picture of both a fruit stand and me, beaming with excitement over my bag of pineapple (I had at least 6 in 3 days). I have never had pineapple like this in my life. We decided it must be laced with some sort of amazing drug- it is beyond delicious and ridiculously addicting. Then there were the “Indian Pa
ncakes”. What an Indian pancake, you ask? Well, other than that the guy behind the moped/stand was Indian, it really was a lot like a crepe. Here is a pict
ure of the Indian man who makes “pancakes”. The only difference between this and a French crepe is that instead of eating it wrapped up, they cut it into 12 small squares and to eat it you got (duh, what else?) a stick. Here I am with Nicole, enjoying our banana and Nutella “Indian Pancake”. Cost of Indian pancake? $.75. So that pretty much sums up the food that you eat and walk with.
Onto the “street food restaurants”. So the next step up from street food that you walk and eat, is street food that you sit and eat. This consists of a large sidewalk, covered with plastic tables and plastic law
n chairs. The menus are all picture menus with some loosely translated English- basically the people that make the food took pictures of the food and put them in whatever photo albums they could find (we had a mickey mouse and a Winnie the pooh photo album picture menu) Here is Nicole showing you the “picture menu”. Surrounding the tables are many many moped vendors, but also with a whole food stand of fresh seafood on lots of ice. They have scales there that they weight the fish to determine “market price” and then they show it to you in a plastic bucket. After you order, they get to work in the little makeshift shanty “kitchens” behind the seafood stands. There, they make any kind of Thai dish you have EVER wanted. Red, yellow, green curries. Beef/pork/veggies/chicken/prawns/fish in every chili paste or sauce you could ever imagine. Rice and noodle dishes. And at $3-4 PER DISH, it’s like Thai tapas! Each time, we would order 4-6 dishes and big plates of steamed white rice and pass everything around family style. On this particular night, we had yellow chicken curry, prawns 
in chili sauce, a spicy beef and glass noodle salad, pad thai (a staple at EVERY meal) and then something else that we didn’t think we ordered but showed up anyways and was delicious. We would each also get a little plate of steamed rice- all made outdoors in these little woks and frying pans and sauce pots cooked on an open flame on a SIDEWALK. So at ~$20 total, including a generous tip because we are Americans and are accustomed to leaving large tips, you could eat like royalty (well, royalty that eats on lawn chairs on a sidewalk :) forever here! And all of the “street food cafes” were packed with loyal families- a sure sign that the food was going to be good!
ncakes”. What an Indian pancake, you ask? Well, other than that the guy behind the moped/stand was Indian, it really was a lot like a crepe. Here is a pict
ure of the Indian man who makes “pancakes”. The only difference between this and a French crepe is that instead of eating it wrapped up, they cut it into 12 small squares and to eat it you got (duh, what else?) a stick. Here I am with Nicole, enjoying our banana and Nutella “Indian Pancake”. Cost of Indian pancake? $.75. So that pretty much sums up the food that you eat and walk with.Onto the “street food restaurants”. So the next step up from street food that you walk and eat, is street food that you sit and eat. This consists of a large sidewalk, covered with plastic tables and plastic law
n chairs. The menus are all picture menus with some loosely translated English- basically the people that make the food took pictures of the food and put them in whatever photo albums they could find (we had a mickey mouse and a Winnie the pooh photo album picture menu) Here is Nicole showing you the “picture menu”. Surrounding the tables are many many moped vendors, but also with a whole food stand of fresh seafood on lots of ice. They have scales there that they weight the fish to determine “market price” and then they show it to you in a plastic bucket. After you order, they get to work in the little makeshift shanty “kitchens” behind the seafood stands. There, they make any kind of Thai dish you have EVER wanted. Red, yellow, green curries. Beef/pork/veggies/chicken/prawns/fish in every chili paste or sauce you could ever imagine. Rice and noodle dishes. And at $3-4 PER DISH, it’s like Thai tapas! Each time, we would order 4-6 dishes and big plates of steamed white rice and pass everything around family style. On this particular night, we had yellow chicken curry, prawns 
in chili sauce, a spicy beef and glass noodle salad, pad thai (a staple at EVERY meal) and then something else that we didn’t think we ordered but showed up anyways and was delicious. We would each also get a little plate of steamed rice- all made outdoors in these little woks and frying pans and sauce pots cooked on an open flame on a SIDEWALK. So at ~$20 total, including a generous tip because we are Americans and are accustomed to leaving large tips, you could eat like royalty (well, royalty that eats on lawn chairs on a sidewalk :) forever here! And all of the “street food cafes” were packed with loyal families- a sure sign that the food was going to be good!To top off our street food eating (we only ate at 2 “real” restaurants the whole 3 day
s there), we swung by the “sticky rice and mango” stand for, you guessed it, sticky rice and mango (to go!) at a 
whopping price of $2. as you can tell, I cannot stop talking/thinking/dreaming about the Thai street food. It was absolutely out of this world ridiculously amazing.
s there), we swung by the “sticky rice and mango” stand for, you guessed it, sticky rice and mango (to go!) at a 
whopping price of $2. as you can tell, I cannot stop talking/thinking/dreaming about the Thai street food. It was absolutely out of this world ridiculously amazing. Sigh. I might have just drooled on the computer (ok, just kidding). I am going to stop now, mainly because I have to fold my laundry and it’s 2:14 in the morning. Up next is a feature on our hotel and activities other than eating in Thai and then a feature on my tailoring experience. That SHOULD sum up Thailand pretty well, and just in time for our trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! So I will leave you with a picture of the sunset from the balcony of our hotel- goodnight to all!
It sounds like someone who always says, "I don't like Thai food," would love real Thai food. Yum.
ReplyDeleteLove, Mom
that made me hungry! love your cute haircut!! cant wait to see it in person!
ReplyDeleteIt made me hungry too! And JEALOUS! and I love your haircut as well! Basically I just agree with everything Molly V says ;-)
ReplyDeletesomething about the pineapple in asia is different. The last morning we lived in Hong Kong I had 2 plates of pineapple for breakfast. that's it. It is still a bit of a running joke with my family.
ReplyDelete