A few of my favorite things!
Monday, September 15th, 2008I haven’t written nearly enough about food. Sure, I’ve mentioned plenty of meals and commented on the ‘amazing dinner’ more than a few times, but the food here deserves a dedicated post (or 20). After five months, I still get excited about each and every meal, and still marvel at the ridiculously low costs. I’ve completely adjusted to living without a refrigerator and going out anytime that I want to eat, and purchasing nearly every morsel from a cart on the street doesn’t feel strange at all. For those of you who are interested (cough*blair*cough), here is a rundown of a few of my favorite delicacies:
*khao neeo ping sai puak – This is the sticky rice confection that I eat for breakfast. No exceptions. It’s made by cooking sticky rice in coconut milk then spreading it onto a banana leaf. Then a ball of soft taro (similar to a potato, but is sweeter and has a purple color) is mixed with palm sugar and placed into the center of the rice. The whole thing is then wrapped up, secured with tiny shards of bamboo and grilled over a makeshift barbeque. Other versions put pieces of banana inside, and still others fill them with sugared black bean paste – you can tell which is which by the style of banana leaf folding. These cost 12 cents apiece and are highly, highly addictive.
* Som Tom – This is the quintessential Thai dish, a salad that is served with nearly every meal, especially in the north. There are variations, but the general preparation involves mixing shredded green papaya, tomatoes, long beans, garlic cloves, dried shrimp, lime juice, palm sugar, fish sauce, carrot shreds, chiles and crushed peanuts into a big wooden mortar and then pounding it together with a pestle. It’s eaten with cabbage (used as a chaser for the spice) and, always, sticky rice. It’s unbelievably fresh and incredibly spicy, though that part can be adjusted. They always ask how many chiles you want and often have you taste it along the way to make sure it’s to your liking. A big bag of this (easily for two people) costs about 80 cents.
* This one I cannot, for the life of me, grasp the name of, but the ladies at the corner know to make it if I show up at their cart! Gabe can be credited with discovering this dish after he used a little trick call ‘alikerdie’ – the Thai word for “whatever.” It’s useful when you don’t know what someone makes but want to find out firsthand! It’s pretty simple, but amazing – they put big chunks of pork, some sort of bell pepper, whole chiles and huge basil leaves into the wok and quickly fry it with lots of oyster sauce and some other unknown spices in mysterious bottles. It’s scooped onto a pile of rice then topped with a runny fried egg; you then season it with the appropriate amount of fish sauce and sugar and take that first blissful bite while the cooks giggle at the farang’s surprising spice tolerance! (80 cents)
*Roti Gluay – This enters heart attack territory, but with one bite you don’t care. After finding a guy with a shallow wok and a pile of eggs on a push cart, you smile at him and he gets to work. First comes the oil on the wok, then an impossibly thin but very wide circle of coconut milk batter is poured on top. An egg is cracked on top of that, it’s all spread around and then left to fry for a moment. Next he peels a banana and cuts it up into the center of the batter, following with a sprinkling of sugar. The sides of the batter circle are now firm enough to fold over the banana chunks so that it forms a nice neat square. He lifts it up with his spatula, throws a bit of lard on the wok and fries the thing just a moment longer. He then cuts it into small squares, lifts them all together onto a piece of wax paper, douses the top with sweet condensed milk, sprinkles on more sugar (!!), sticks a wooden eating spear into the center and hands it to you in exchange for 70 cents. Incredible.
*Fruit vendors – Probably the coolest thing about Thailand. These guys walk around with a push cart made up of 3 or four glass cases. Each one is filled with ice and stacked with fresh fruit, all peeled, de-seeded and ready to go. The standard selection is half a pineapple, hefty chunks of watermelon and papaya, and entire guavas, rose apples and pomelos. You choose your fruit (I’m hooked on the pineapple – it’s otherwordly here) and he places it into a small plastic bag. He then takes his huge cleaver and with a few swift whacks (THROUGH the bag, mind you!) your fruit is cut into perfect snack sized bites. The standard wooden spear is stuck into the fruit, you are given a bag of condiment (a mixture of sugar, salt and chile for pineapple, similar variations for the others) and it is handed to you in exchange for 30 cents. This is seriously some of the freshest fruit I’ve ever had, and it comes with a show and ready-to-eat convenience for next to nothing! Perhaps this is the secret to promoting healthy eating?
*While I’m on the topic of fruit, I should mention the smoothies. You can always find someone who will blend together a huge cup of whatever fruit you wish along with some ice and, if you want, a bit of sweet condensed milk. This never costs more than 50 cents on the street (something that would easily cost upwards of $4 anywhere in the states).
*Laab Gai – This is actually the national dish in Laos (I can’t wait!) but is found all over Thailand as well. It’s a spicy salad (salad has nothing to do with lettuce here) made with minced chicken (that’s the ‘gai’ part…it is also made with pork and seafood), green onion, mint leaves, fish sauce, lime juice, ground chiles, lemongrass and ground roasted rice. It’s super fresh, spicier than you’d ever expect, and always eaten with sticky rice! It’s rarely found on the street here (more popular in the north) but I’ve found it at several restaurants for no more than a dollar.
*Thais like to put corn, kidney beans and sweetened sticky rice into their icecream. It’s delicious.
*Oh, the things these people grill on the side of the road! There are Thai sausages, which are generally muu (pork) or pla (fish) with khao (rice) and hidden prik (chiles) used as fillers. They’re never greasy and are always served with extra whole chiles and cabbage/ginger to fight the burn. There are the skewer carts with all sorts of crazy things stacked onto wooden spears – fish balls, pork balls, hot dogs, tofu, bacon wrapped things and many, many variations on these. They are quickly grilled and served with delicious spicy sauce, which makes them all taste the same – like spicy sauce! There are guys that do nothing but skewers of roasted squid – I love it. There are grilled, roasted and fried chicken legs on every corner (a necessary companion to som tom and sticky rice) and baskets of grilled prawns the size of my hand go for about $2. Skewers of liver are also popular, as Gabe found out the hard way, as are dry-roasted whole fish stuffed with herbs and garlic. These are actually great, but unfortunately I’ve seen the condition of the river in Bangkok and I just can’t do it here… Needless to say, the Thais do not understand vegetarianism.
*Corn – it’s just basic corn on the cob, but it’s hot, buttery and costs about 30 cents for two of them. They even cut it off the cob for you and stick in a small spoon for ease of walk-eating!
It isn’t all great, of course. There is the aforementioned liver, many curries and ‘point’ places use innards (just look carefully before you point!), a lady downstairs does bullfrogs and I’ve seen more than a few dessert vendors that have trays of fried grasshoppers and roaches mixed among the coconut-y treats! I’ve heard rumors of rat, but I have a feeling that those sorts of things will get much more prevalent in northern Thailand (not to mention Cambodia!!). Overall, however, food is one of the most wonderful things about this place, and will absolutely be the most missed aspect of my experience here. I’m not quite sure how I’ll adjust initially once I’m back home…
I plan to get better about taking photos of these foods, as I know that I’ll want them and I figure that some of you would like to see what I’m talking about. I’ve got a LOT more to add to this, but it’ll have to wait a day or two – right now I need dinner!
allisonrae