Markets!

flower soaps

   Shopping at markets in Thailand can be an amazing experience.  You can find just about anything from clothes to food and everything in between.  And the markets themselves seem to spring up everywhere.  Parking lots and sidewalks seem to be the most common though.   You could literally turn the corner and be in the middle of a street market.  Lost in a sea of smells and trinkets.  I like to stop and look at everything.  You never know what you might find.  Unless someone is cutting up durian.  In that case all you are going to get is a face full of gaseous fruit enzymes that smells like a septic system being pumped.  My advice is to try and walk fast but not run over the old ladies buying groceries. 

      The food markets are even more exciting.  Some of the best food I have ever eaten, I had at a food market.  They have all  the Thai favorites steaming away in caldron's that look like they should have witches brew in them.  My favorite market staple is Cha Yen.  Thai ice tea made from turmeric tea with sweetened condensed milk.  The bright orange color may scare you, but the taste and smell will excite you.  Most places I got Cha Yen from would press the tea like espresso.  It made the flavor of the tea so much stronger then I had ever had it.  But the taste and smell to me is the best!  I notice that smell from around the corner and I have to go find it!  My husband Pete's, favorite Thai street food is mango and sticky rice.  He loves it!  And they drizzle coconut milk on it looks so beautiful and taste even better!   It seems strange to eat fruit and rice together but once you have had it you will never think twice about it.
    Markets and outdoor restaurants is how the Thai people eat.  Its simple but tasty!  The food markets are something to see but not for the squeamish.  They have everything you could imagine eating and also things westerners would never thing think of, like lizard and water bugs.  But I didn't eat anything strange this time so I don't have a story to tell.  I just ate some tasty treats!

     One of the top three best things I have ever eaten in my life,  I got at a little market down the street from the Hua Hin train station.  My husband and I were walking by and I could smell the Cha Yen brewing so I had to stop!  Its the best smell in the world!  As we walked through the market the food and spices for sale were overwhelming.  The combinations of food one could have eaten was ridiculous.  There were to many options and not enough time.  Someday I will have to go back!  As we were walking we noticed a tiny Thai Muslim woman making Thai kebabs.  They looked intriguing we decided to try one.  It was glorious!  Yes I said glorious!  The chicken was Thai flavored and the wrap was a small flat bread almost like a soft cracker.  She topped it with cucumber salad.  It was magical!  As soon as we finished the first, we got a second.  She thought it was funny, but there is nothing funny about how good they were. 

Thai fruit stand

   We had a lot of sweet treats on our trip.  We had Roti, which is a southern desert made of a thin crepe like pastry quickly pan fried in butter and  filled with bananas and then topped with condensed milk. Amazing!  Thai bananas are small and sweet with a flowery taste at the end. Very yummy and the prefect size.  All the fruit in Thailand is so delicious because it is picked the morning you eat it.  Noting is picked before it is ripe.  Which makes everything taste as sweet as it should.  We also had some little fried dough like treats topped with coconut cream. 
  

   The last night we were in Thailand my husband and I were wandering down the street and saw a huge market in a parking lot. We decided to go see what kind of food they had since it was dinner time.  And boy was I happy we did!  This market was so big it was in two parts. One half was food and the other half was clothes.  We ate before we shopped at one of the first stalls.  As my husband ordered some grilled pork, I found a stall that had what looked like wantons fried.  So I got some.  We then found a table in the middles of everything so we could people watch.  The funny thing is I'm pretty sure more people were watching us because we were the only white people there.   We then ate one of the best meals we had in Thailand.  The pork came with this chili sauce that was so tasty I wanted to lick the container but didn't because I didn't want to cause a scene.  And the wantons were not wantons. They were better!   Fried quail eggs in a wanton wrappers.  Amazing!  My husband and I love fried quail eggs so this was a pleasant surprise.  I felt like an animal because it was so good I gave up on eating with the stick and just started eating with my hands.  It made it more satisfying!

   There is one very strange thing about street food that I just could not get used to.  They eat everything out of a bag with one stick.  And when I say everything I mean everything.  From curry soup, to fresh fruit, to drinks, they put it in a bag.  If its hot soup they usually are nice and give you two bags.  Generous!  Nothing says yummy more then a crotch full of soup from a broken bag!  I got springs rolls one day, and I thought the lady was just going to hand me the spring roll.  Nope she cut them up into bite size pieces and put them in a bag and gave me a stick.  So I went the Thai way and ate my snack from the bag with a stick! 

sweetened dried fruits

Night market at On Nut in Bangkok

   All of the food we saw at the markets looked good. I just wish we had more time to eat it all!  I cant wait to go back!

Thai food

   I have wanted to go to Thailand for about 15yrs.  I was so excited when I finally was able to plan a trip.  Thailand has always fascinated me ever since the first time I ate at a Thai restaurant.   The moment I walked in the restaurant I was hooked.  Paintings of Buddha and Siam dancers filled the walls and the smells were, as always, amazing.  I can even remember what I ate.  I'll never forget it!  Yellow curry with chicken and pineapple. The fact that the dish was made with spices, coconut milk, vegetables and fruit was amazing to me.  I just had to go to the country where this culinary masterpiece came from. 
   The older I got, the more interested I became in Thai food.  And how hot it can be.  In the last few years I have become so obsessed with hot foods. And Thai food is absolutely the way to go.   They have so many regional ways of cooking that each meal can be its own experience.  And I do enjoy food experiences!  But the spices they use make each dish unique.  The vast number of spices they use for any given dish is remarkable, and how they use them is key. 
   When you go to a Thai restaurant in the US,  England, or Australia, its always an experience.  The decor is always gilded in gold,  mesmerizing and there is always at least one statue of Buddha.  The food seems to have names like emerald or jade curry.  And the price is usually fairly expensive for a plate of noodles.  But I would pay anything for Thai food.  In Thailand its a bit different.  Its just about the food.  As it should be.  If the food is good, you don't need to talk about whats hanging on the wall.  Most Thai people eat at food markets or stalls that line the streets.  When they do eat in a restaurant its just for the food.  In fact, the restaurants are usually very small and the table are on the street and sidewalks.   It keeps the price down, and you know the food is authentic when you are one of the very few white people.  That's how I like it, me in a sea of Asians, eating!   You can, of course, always find the exception.  In Bangkok and most tourists areas you can eat at a fancier place and pay double for it.  But you also face the chance of eating food that isn't as authentic.  Its most likely less spicy and slightly westernized.  If I wanted westernized Thai food I would cook it myself.  I want spicy.  Actually I was on the hunt for burn your ass hot.  The kind of food that hurts twice.  I think It was hot enough, but I was actually expecting it to be hotter.  I think because I was white they made it less hot.  Even if I did say "phet", which means hot.




Green Curry with chicken



   Normally, I would order green curry, but in Thailand their red curry cant be missed.  The proper use of galang and lemongrass will astound you.  I was mesmerized and I ate it almost every day.   I just couldn't get enough.  And of course there where always chilies and spicy basil in it.  Two of my favorite things!  I would pick them out of every dish.  They probably thought I was so weird.  Chilies in Thailand are hotter because their oil would last longer on your tongue.  It allowed the spiciness to last through the entire dish.  Spicy basil I noticed was referred to as holy basil.  I thought it was just an Asian typo at first.   But then I kept seeing it in menus.  And I must say holy is a perfect way to describe this herb.  I just love the stuff!  



Pad Thai with wide rice noodles, with chilies in fish sauce

 

Stir fried chicken and red curry




Minced chicken with spicy basil and chilies

 

Som Tum- Green Papaya Salad









 

 

Tom Yum- red curry soup with chicken