Thai food is world renown for it’s diversity, excellence and flavor…not to mention it’s spiciness.  What many people do not know is that Thai food has not always been this way.  Prior to the 16^th century the food of the common people and royalty in old Siam consisted primarily of plain rice, fish and fresh vegetables.  So what is it that caused such a flavor explosion in Thai food?

Throughout most of Thailand’s history the Thai people had eaten their indigenous fruits and vegetables such as bananas, taro, sugar palm, mango and Thai oranges.  There were no domesticated animals up to the 17^th century, even though the pig had been domesticated in western Asia sometime around 6000 BC so any meats came from wild animals, fish and shellfish.

These meats were primarily grilled and food was cooked in clay pots.  There was no fried or stir fried dishes until the wok was introduced to Thailand from China in the 16^th century.  Primary dishes included yum (salads) and kruang jim (dips) which can still be seen as a mainstay in Thai cuisine today.  Spices were mostly added to food to mask gamy flavours from wild meats or bitterness from some vegetables.  In addition, fish was made into nam plaa (fish sauce) and kapi (fish paste) to add flavour to the plain foods.

All of this began to change in the 16^th century as the outside world discovered Siam and Ayutthaya became the commercial and political center of Asia.  At that time it seemed that all roads, both land and water based led to Thailand.  Traders and merchants came from all corners of the globe, beginning with nearby China, India and Malaysia, and later expanding to include travelers from Europe who arrived via the sea lanes.

As you can imagine these merchants and travelers brought with them the foods and cooking methods of their homelands, since many foods and spices were alien to Siam at that time.  Caravans would set up on the outside of Ayutthaya and sailors would be anchored in the river outside the city for months at a time waiting for the winds to turn and send them home.

As the merchants and sailors were cooking the foods of their homelands the delicious fragrances would be borne on the winds for all to smell and undoubtably drew the attention of the Thai’s.  One can imagine them asking about the wonderful smells and tasting new spices, fruits and vegetables from the visiting travelers.  And after tasting these intriguing new dishes they would logically ask about the recipe and ingredients.  Over time these new dishes would become incorporated into the Thai cuisine that we know and love today.

Northern routes brought the Chinese to Thailand and with them came tea, dried fruit, the wok and bamboo steamer, rice noodles and the concept of sweet and sour flavours together.  The Thai’s expanded that even more by including spicy and salty as well to form the current well known Thai dishes.  From the west came Indians, and later Europeans, carrying curries, coffee and spices.   Thailand’s nearby southern neighbors contributed betel nuts, satay and massaman while eastern Thailand was influenced by Lao cooking and less so by Vietnamese and Cambodian cooking.

 The arrival of the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese in the 17^th century created a huge impact on Thai foods.  Europeans brought the onion and shallot to Thailand which are now irreplaceable in Thai cuisine.  Merchants also brought garlic, peppercorns and chili’s which were surprisingly unknown in Thailand prior to this.  Other common Thai ingredients introduced at this time include lychees, papaya, watermelon, pineapples and cashews.

Europeans also introduced the white potato, corn and wheat to Siam at this time.  Along with the new foods, Europeans also brought new cooking tools and methods of preparation.  For example, the Portuguese and Indians introduced the addition of coconut milk to curries, which is now famous in Thailand and they also added tomato’s and eggplant.

Thai food is some of the most delicious and complex foods in the world.  Because of Thailand’s central location in Asia they were able to collect the best of the foods and cooking techniques of many lands and peoples.  They then took these as there own and made them uniquely Thai, combining sweet, salty, sour and spicy in sometimes amazing combinations to make some of the best tasting food one can find.  So next time you eat a Thai dish remember that it took many hundreds of years and the contributions of many lands to make Thai food what it is today…absolutely delicious!

Golf has already given us many of her Thai dishes to enjoy.  I’m wondering if there’s any specific Thai foods that you want to know how to make?  Or any recipes you can share with us.  Leave us a comment and let us know.

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Hi everyone, I’m really sorry that I didn’t post this recipe 3 days ago because I’ve been sick since Sunday and just feel little better by today. Alright now it’s time for Lad Nar Moo Muk – Thai noodle dish with pork gravy. Let’s see how it’s going to be…

This recipe will be a little complicated because have to prepare noodle dish, vegetables and gravy separately. Also it will take time for fermented pork because have to marinate them overnight. But its worth it, especially for the taste of gravy…It’s just about right, get a little
bit sweet and tender from pork mix with noodles and veggies. Just the only one word to say is AWESOME!!!

Recipe for noodles (serve 2)
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 200 grams Pad large strip rice stick noodles (or if you can’t find you can use any
kind of rice noodle and should be soaked in warm water for about half an
hour or so depending on your preference).
- 2 tsp Thai Dark Thick Soy Sauce
- 4 medium-sized Chinese kale plants (normally I use Kale that I can get from grocery
in here because Chinese Kale hard to find either from Chinese grocery or
Vietnamese grocery)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp soybean paste
- 1 1/2 water or pork broth
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp Thai seasoning sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp Tapioca Flour
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Seasoning : chili powder, pickled chili, fish sauce and
sugar

Recipe for Moo Mug (fermented pork)
- 150 grams sirloin pork
- 2 tsp Tapioca Flour
- 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 egg (white egg only)

First cut the pork into thin and small pieces ( about 2 inches length). Toss with light soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Then mix well with
white egg and tapioca flour. Put the pork in the refrigerator and marinate overnight.

Next day take the pork out and let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes or so.

Wash the kale thoroughly, peel off old leaves and the tough skin covering the stems. Cut the kale into 2-3 inches length. Bring the water to the boil, add 1 tsp of salt, add the kale and blanch until just done. Transfer to soak in cold water until cool, and drain. Put aside.

Toss the noodles (after soaked in the warm water) with dark soy sauce until thoroughly coated. Place the wok over medium heat until hot. Add 1 tbsp vegetable oil and spin the oil all over around the wok. Put the noodle in and stir until it is soft and cooked. Sometimes you have to add a little bit of water to make the noodles soft and cook thorough. Put the noodle onto the plate and wait for sauce.

Place the wok over medium heat until it is hot. Add 2 tbsp vegetable oil and then put the mixed pork and stir until pork start to cook. Add soybean paste, water (or pork broth) and season to tase with light soy sauce, seasoning sauce and sugar. When the soup starts to boil again
put the tapioca flour in mixing with 3 tbsp of water into the wok. Stir until the tapioca flour cooked and become thicken then turn off the heat.

Put the cooked kale on top the noodle dish and pour pork gravy on top of those. Before serving garnish with pepper and serve with the seasonings.

I hope you enjoy with Lad Nar Moo Mug and will see you next week with Khao man Gai – rice steamed with chicken!
Take care…

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Sometimes make me and Steve surprise ourselves a lot that we both want to have spicy food almost everyday. The answer is maybe we’re just addict for spicy and that’s why he have it almost everyday but still crave for spicy food (on and on). I made Laab Gai for both of us yesterday and also just like I have promised with you guys before I left to Thailand trip that I will present Laab Gai. So let’s see the recipe…

Laab Gai (Serves 2)

- 200 gram breast chicken coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup shallots, sliced thinly
- 2 spring onions, coarsly sliced
- 2 tbsp coriander, coarsly sliced
- 2 tbsp mint leaf, coarsly sliced
- 3 tbsp lime juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
- 1 tbsp (or less) Thai chili powder
- 1 tbsp Roasted Rice Flour (can use breadcrumb)
- 1/4 tsp seasoning powder (Rod Dee)
- 1 cucumber, sliced

Put the chicken in a wok, fry over medium heat until it is white and done. Turn off the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add shallots, spring onion, coriander, and mint leaves and toss lightly. Season the chicken to taste with lime juice, fish sauce and Rod Dee. Sprinkle chili powder and ground roasted rice over the mixture and mix well.

Arrange on serving dish and serve with fresh vegetables like cucumber.

And will see you next week with Lad Nar Moo Mug (Thai noodles dish with pork gravy)…really delicious, can’t wait!

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Thai style barbeque rib (serves 2)

- 1/2 kilogram pork sparerib cut into 2-3 inch pieces
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy oil
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp chopped garlic
- 2 tbsp Thinly sliced Thai Fresh Lemongrass
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
- 1/4 Thai Fish Sauce
- 1/4 coarsely sliced coriander

Start with cut the sparerib into pieces about 2-3″ long and put them in the big mixing bowl. Toss the ribs with sesame oil, soy oil, light soy sauce, lime juice, sugar and fish sauce. Add garlic, lemon grass, fresh ginger, coriander and mix well. After that cover with clear plastic or put them in the zip lock bag and put the mixed rib in the freezer. Let the ribs marinate for over night.

Take the ribs out when you’re ready to cook and let them sit at room temperature about 30 minutes. Start the oven at 300′F and warm the baking dish for cook first. Break the ribs into the pieces before baking and put into the baking dish. Bake the ribs in 300′F for 45-60 minutes until well done. Between that take them out and turn the ribs upside down and paint with the oil (that come out from the rib) once a while. When it is cooked you will see the edge of ribs start to open then take them out and let them sit for 5-10 minutes before serve. Between waiting for the ribs cooling down you can start making the sauce…

Thai style barbeque rib sauce

- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- 2 tbsp coarsely sliced coriander
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil

The sauce would be easier than rib of course! Just put everything in the mixing bowl and then start mix well until sugar melts.

Serve rib with sauce and also rice …hmmm awesome! I hope you’re enjoy with this recipe,ok?

And same same see you next Wednesday but probably we will in Thailand on that time…next week I will show you how to make Laab Gai (spicy chopped chicken)!

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A lot of Thai food that have coconut milk for the main of ingredient and today I’m going to present one in a hundred dishes that have coconut for main ingredient. Actually I got this recipe from my dad and he cooks really great “Lon Dtao Jieow”. Lon Dtao Jieow is the easy menu because not so many ingredients and also will be done within 15-20 mintues. So if you want to have a quick Thai soup, Lon Dtao Jieow is the one that I would recommend. Let’s start!

Lon Dtao Jieow Recipe (Serves 2-3)

- 1 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 100 gram minced pork or chicken
- 3 tbsp fermented soybeans
- 5-7 Fresh Thai chile peppers, sliced into short length
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallot
- 1 tbsp Thai Palm Sugar
- 2-3 tbsp tamarind juice
- 1 cup water

Place the coconut milk and water into the pot over medium heat until it boils. Add minced pork or chicken in coconut milk and wait until it starts to boil and pork is cooked. Season to taste with fermented soybeans, palm sugar and tamarind juice. Follow with chillies and shallot. When it returns to the boil, remove from the heat. Serve hot with rice.

The taste will be a great combination between little bit salty from fermented soybeans, sour, sweet and also spicy from chillies. It depends on what you want for your taste and can add more for your own favourite taste.

Steve likes this menu a lot because he said he likes the taste and also texture from soybean in the soup. So let me know what do you think after you try it already…

Next week please don’t miss because I would like to present Thai Style Barbeque Rib for you guys…SEE U!

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Naam Prik Oog is a local food from North of Thailand, and also one of the favourite dish of Thai people from there. If you have a chance to travel to North of Thailand I’m sure you will have a chance to try this recipe too because it is a regular meal for Northern Thai people.

Nam Prik Ong recipe
100 gram minced pork
1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
5-7 Thai whole dried chile, soaked in water
3 tbsp coarsely sliced shallot
5 cloves garlic
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 tbsp Thai Fresh Lemongrass, thinly sliced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp Thai Shrimp Paste
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup finely chopped coriander and spring onion
vegetables : cucumber, yard long beans

Put chillies, salt and lemon grass in a mortar and pound thoroughly well. Add onion, 5 cloves garlic and shrimp paste and pound well again.
And then follow with minced pork and tomatoes. Pound lightly for each adding to mix well pork and tomatoes with chillies.
Place the oil in a wok over medium heat until it’s getting hot and saute the garlic in the oil until golden and fragrant. Reduce the heat and then add the pork mixture. Stir until fragrant and a red film from the oil surface. Add water and season the taste with sugar, continue cooking until most of the liquid reduces and the chilli paste becomes fairly thick. Turn off the heat and transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with chopped coriander and spring onion. Serve with fresh vegetables, rice and enjoy!

For Thai people they usually have this chilli sauce with boiled vegetables, so you might try this recipe with boil vegetables like yard-long bean, eggplant, winged bean or pumpkin. They’re not too bad at all!

Next meal will meet me with “Lon Dtao Jieow” (coconut soup with fermented soybeans). Let’s see what and how is it going to be…SEE YOU!

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Hi everyone,
How’s ur weekend? Mine wasn’t bad at all, went to work and got the new recipe for post today and like I told you last Wednesday, today we will try the new menu about the eggs. Eggs can make like a hundred of Thai’s menu either by itself or use for ingredient, but what I am going to present today is about the egg itself.

Kai Look Kai or Son-in-Law’s eggs (in English), and please don’t ask me why Thai people named this menu like this. Because I have no idea about where and how they got this name from. Must be something that inspire though. I can only imagine! that’s why they named Kai Look Koie!

This recipe’s really easy and not so many ingredients at all. Alright it’s time to prepare…

Kai Look Koie’s recipe (Serves 3)

- 6 boiled eggs
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallot
- 1/3 cup Thai Palm Sugar
- 1/4 cup tamarind juice
- 3 tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 cups cooking oil, for deep-frying
- 5-10 dried hot chillies, crisp-fried
- coriander leaves for garnish

Preheat the oil over medium heat. Deep-fry the boiled eggs until whole egg turn golden brown. Remove and drain on an absorbent paper towel.
Fry shallot with vegetable oil over medium heat until golden and fragrant. Remove and drain on absorbent paper towel.
Prepare the sauce by using the same oil (from fry shallot) over medium heat. Add palm sugar, tamarind juice and fish sauce. Stir well until the sauce thickens and then turn off the heat. Cut the fried eggs into halves and put them on a serving dish, sprinkle with fried shallot and crisp-fried chillies.

Follow with the sauce thoroughly on top. Garnish with coriander and serve!

For the taste, it will be just like a great combination of sweet and sour of the sauce and little bit spicy from the fire of the chilies. And for the amount of the palm sugar and tamarind juice can add a little less or more than what I posted, like if you prefer sour more can also add like 1/3 cup tamarind juice.

Alright I hope you’re enjoy with Kai Look Koie and will see you next Wednesday with a famous chilli sauce from north of Thailand called “Nam Prik Ong”. Have a good day!

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Neua Naam Tok (Thai Spicy Grilled Beef) is really popular in the shops around roadside in Bangkok. And normally when Thai people order Som Tum (Papaya Salad), grilled chicken and sticky rice will have this dish beside along with them most of the time. Alright now I’m ready to present Neua Naam Tok recipe for you.

Neua Naam Tok Recipe

(Serves 2-3 people)

200-300 grams beef london broil or top round
1/4 cup coriander, coarsely sliced
1/4 cup spring onion, coarsely sliced
1/4 cup mint leaf, coarsely sliced
1/4 cup lemon grasses, thinly sliced
1/3 cup shallot, thinly sliced
1 tbsp Thai chilli powder
1 1/2 tbsp roasted Rice Powder
3 tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
4 tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp seasoning powder(Rod Dee) or if you can’t find can use 1/4 tsp sugar
1 cucumber, sliced

Wash the beef and grill over medium heat until medium rare. Slice thinly into bite-sized pieces and transfer to a mixing bowl. Follow with coriander, spring onion, mint leaf, lemon grasses and shallots.
Season to taste with fish sauce, lime juice, seasoning powder(sugar) and chilli powder, toss well to combine. Add ground roasted rice and toss lightly again. Arrange on a serving dish and serve with cucumber sliced and rice.

Neua Naam Tok is the first favourite choice when me and Steve starve for spicy food. When I make this dish for both of us, Steve will ask me always “please put chilli powder more”. And of course for me definitely use chilli powder more than just 1 tbsp…And this will give you some idea if you’re the one who crazy about Thai spicy food, you can add as much as you want…

See you next Wednesday…with eggs menu! [...]

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Seems that on Monday in central London 3 streets were shut down and homes evacuated for 3 hours while police searched for a possible biological terror threat. The cause of this commotion? A Thai restaurant, the Thai Cottage in Soho, was burning chillies to make Nam Prik Pao.

Now if you’ve eaten Thai food before you know that the spiciness of some dishes is legendary. Lots of cold Singha or Chang is in order to cool the fiery heat of the Thai chillies. Nam Prik Pao is a dip made from chillies, garlic, shallot and shrimp paste. The chillies for Nam Prik Pao are deliberately burnt to release the oils and give the chillies a smoky flavor.

I’ve experienced this first hand when Golf makes Nam Prik Pao and can vouch for the fact that when you are first exposed to chillies being burnt it will make your throat, nose and eyes burn. The first time I cam home and she was making this a coughing fit immediately ensued and I thought my eyes would melt from their sockets. This was from a small handful of chili’s being burnt. The Thai Cottage was making 9 pounds of burnt chillies! No wonder the smell and smoke from these caused a bit of a commotion.

Maybe from now on I need to contact my neighbors and warn them before we make Nam Prik Pao. I certainly don’t want to be mistaken for a terrorist because of my spicy tastes

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So, I’m doing my usual nighttime blog reading and I come across this video of Goong Then or Thai Dancing Shrimp. Boy they look great! I’ve had crickets and grubs and cobra venom before, but never any dancing shrimp. Thanks to Vern from ThaiPulse! for the great video. I hope the dancing shrimp treated you better than the scorpions Vern Aroy mak mak!

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Boiled Rice – Kao Tom
Steve asked me 2 days ago to write the post for boiled rice because he wanted eveyone to try this delicious Thai menu that he likes. So finally I’ve just had some free time today to write the recipe.

Here we go the recipe for boil rice (2 servings)…

2 cups cooked jasmine rice
100-150 grams minced pork or chicken
1 cup of pork broth or chicken broth (depending on what kind of meat that you’re going to use)
1 TBS light soy sauce
1 TBS Golden Mountain Thai Seasoning Sauce
1/2 TBS salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 cup shallot,thinly sliced (you may use more because it will make your boil rice more tasty)
1/4 cup coriander,chopped
3 cups of water
3 TBS of cooking oil

You will be able to tell that not much for the recipe for this menu at all. Easy for your rushed morning even if you want to spend your nice time with nice meal. Or can cook in the evening and re-heat again in the morning it’s not going to take the good taste away at all.

Ok, first put the chicken broth and water in the pot over medium heat. Add soy sauce, Thai seasoning sauce, salt in the broth. During this time you can put 1 TBS oil in the wok and start to cook minced pork until it cooks. After the broth starts to boil remove the cooked pork from the wok and add it into the broth and wait until it starts to boil again and then decrease to low heat. Saute the shallot in 2 TBS of oil until fragrant and turn golden brown, remove and drain on absorbent paper.

And now it’s time to serve, put 1 cup of cooked rice into a serving bowl, add the broth with pork into the rice (just enough for abundance rice). Arrange on a serving bowl and sprinkle fried shallot, chopped coriander and pepper. Best when served hot and eat with another dish or by itself.

Next Wednesday I will present the recipe for everyone in your family “Peek Gai Todd” (fried chicken wings) and I guarantee everyone will love it. See you!

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As much as I love Thai food there was one dish that, when I first heard about it, had no draw for me at all. It’s kao tom – literally “rice soup” and also known as boiled rice by some. Yeah I know you’re thinking the same thing, boiled rice sounds sooooo appetizing.

So, it was with some trepidation and the image of a gruel like bland substance in my mind that I first went out with Golf in search of boiled rice.

And you know what? kao tom is NOT anything like what I would have imagined. Yes it is a soup, generally from chicken or pork stock, and it is full of rice, but it is so much more too.

Boiled rice is a combination of soup stock, rice, ground chicken or pork, coriander and (my favorite part) fried shallots. It is warm and filling and savory and even though the the Thai’s eat it for breakfast, but I’ve found it’s good anytime – morning, noon or night.

Golf has promised to share her boiled rice recipe here soon and I highly recommend you give it a try, it is fantastic!

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There are many spicy foods, but none seem to come even close to Thai foods. I’ve had Indian food in India and Mexican food in Mexico and neither one brought tears to my eyes the way Thai food, real Thai food, did the first time I had it.

It seems like Thai’s like to add chili’s to every dish and you’ll find a variety of chili condiments on the table at any Thai restaurant. The most common are simple dried chili powder and nam prik which literally means “chili water” and is a combination of fresh chili’s, vinegar, fish sauce and lime juice.

Thai’s use a wide variety of chili’s in their cooking, but the most common are the prik kee nu and the prik chee faa chili’s. Both will curl your hair, but the prik kee nu is definitely the hotter of the two. Tread carefully with these chili’s if you’re not used to spicy food and I mean REALLY spicy food, not what you typically find in America.

Prik kee nu chilis are green or red and about one inch in length. You can find them in most major cities in the U.S. in Oriental grocery stores and they freeze well (up to one year) so if you’re just visiting the city for the weekend you can buy lots and freeze them. Simply wash the chili, dry thoroughly and put it in a Ziplock freezer bag to freeze.

When the prik kee nu is dried it is called prik hang and is even hotter if that’s possible. You can also find these in Oriental groceries and the smaller the chili the hotter it will be. Golf and I get these shipped to us by her dad from Thailand by the kilo, we typically use about ½ pound a month. You will very likely get better mileage

When I started eating with Golf she would always tell the waitress to make our order paed mak mak. I had no idea what that meant for weeks until finally she told me, paed means “spicy”. So my introduction to spicy Thai food was extra spicy from a Thai perspective. In years before that I know that any Thai food I got was served for Western tastes and even now if I am by myself and order food paed mak mak they won’t make it nearly as spicy as they do when I am with Golf.

Don’t think though that Thai food is just about the spicy chili’s. The spicy dishes usually combine other elements such as sweet, sour and salty together in intriguing ways. If you haven’t tried real Thai food yet then I suggest you subscribe to my feed and keep coming back. Golf has promised to start posting at least one authentic Thai recipe a week so you should be able to build quite a recipe base very quickly.

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I am definitely a coffee addict. Morning, noon or night it doesn’t matter I love it. And Thailand I found has some of the best coffee I’ve ever had! There are little street vendors making coffee everywhere you go in Bangkok. There are also small shops scattered about that make the wonderful sweet and delicious Thai version of iced coffee.

Forget Starbucks. It just doesn’t compare at all. I’ll walk blocks out of my way in the 100 degree heat and humidity to get to a Black Canyon Coffee shop. They are hands down my #1 choice for coffee, especially iced coffee.

I usually go with their regular Black Canyon Iced Coffee which they describe like this:
“Milk mixed with the old “Black Devil” poured into glasses over crushed ice… sweet and refreshing. This is a two-straw drink, something to be shared with your sweet heart or with your favorite group of yuppies. The most popular and best iced coffee you’ll ever taste. Try it and taste it.”

OK, I agree with them that this IS the best iced coffee you’ll ever taste. They do serve it with two straws, but I’m not sharing it with anyone, except Golf. And good luck for me, because she doesn’t really like coffee!

A Black Canyon Iced Coffee will cost you just 80 baht which is a bit more than $2.00, expensive by Thai standards, but not bad at all if you’re used to Western prices. You can get cheaper iced coffee for sure, but you won’t get better.

Black Canyon coffee shops can be found all over Thailand from Pattaya to Chiang Mai and everywhere in between. They also have locations in Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar, India, U.A.E., Cambodia and Malaysia.

Have you had Black Canyon coffee? Tell me what you think.

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One of the greatest things about Thailand is the amazing cuisine. The food choices in Bangkok and all around Thailand are, in my mind, the best in the world. When Golf and I go to visit one of the first lists that we make together is all the places we want to go to eat! I’m pretty sure that Bangkok has the most restaurants of any city in the world and I have yet to get a truly bad meal at any of them whether we are in Bangkok or out in Tak province visiting her parents or vacationing on one of Thailand’s amazing islands.

Top on my list of fantastic food in Bangkok is the street vendors. You can’t miss them because they are everywhere and the food is outstanding. Everything from fresh fruits to fried chicken (Thai style) to noodle shops to desserts. I am amazed that I don’t gain 25 pounds every time I visit Thailand. The great thing is that Golf lived in Bangkok for 7 years and knows all kinds of great street restaurants where we can both eat for less than 200 baht for dinner (US$5). One of our favorite places is at the end of Silom Rd on the right side. It is an outdoor restaurant right on the corner of the street there and the food is amazing. I can taste their garlic and pepper duck just thinking about it.

I know that everyone warns you about getting sick from eating at them, but hey you only live once right? Anyway, the worst I have ever gotten is some diaharea and one time a fever for two days, but it was still worth it. And it seems even the Thai’s worry about the safety of some street vendors. I still remember once when I stopped at a stand near one of the ferries and got some sausages. They were fantastic, but when I caught back up with Golf she was pissed at me. All afternoon this lasted and I had no idea why, I thought it was just because I didn’t tell her I was stopping. No, it turns out she was pissed because she was worried that I was eating from a food stand that wasn’t clean. She wasn’t all that familiar with the area and didn’t know if it was safe to eat there. Turns out that it was fine. My suggestion is that you take a chance sometimes because the street restaurants in Bangkok and all around Thailand have some of the best food in the world.

It definitely isn’t the only reason to visit Thailand by far, but the amazing food of Thailand is one great reason to pay a visit to the land of Smiles.

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