A pleasant and unforeseen surprise is that food in Thailand rarely ever looks like the ‘Thai food’ seen in western restaurants. I’ve seen pad thai served only a handful of times (mostly at the school lunch cafeteria) and locals indulge in much more interesting and healthier dishes. Below you’ll see some of the usual food we eat from local vendors and stalls, the best places to get breakfast, lunch and dinner, all usually for a few dollars.
Soups with clear broths are extremely popular and usually feature a wide selection of organ meats. This one had intestines, congealed blood, liver and kidney :)
Congee with a wonderful mount of ginger and an egg hidden beneath the surface.
Dumplings filled with delicious green onions and pan fried to perfection
Catfish and young bamboo shoots
One of the staple dishes across Thailand and always amazing, pork with holy basil
One of the few times we had pad thai!
Ordering food for take out or delivery makes a lot of sense in Thailand. Groceries can be surprisingly expensive and I can often order a full meal for less than the cost of 4 tomatoes. Below are a collection of meals eaten in and out, all for around 3 or 4 dollars each with a few exceptions (the large fish were around 8 or 9 dollars I think).
One super popular and delicious meal is the spicy salads Thai people love, Som Tam!. By salad I mean a super spicy sauce with some sliced papaya or vegetables sprinkled lightly over it. Then add either raw crab, raw mussels or raw clams, and sometimes some raw prawns or shrimp. Raw onions and bitter melon are also usually mixed in. It’s delicious. It also causes me immense physical pain every time I eat it and even local Thai’s end up sweating and crying, while exclaiming how much they love the spiciness.
One sad thing is the way food is transported and delivered. Small plastic bags and styrofoam are EVERYWHERE! Even incredibly hot sous are ladled into bags and tied off, and delivered by motorbike right to your condo. Sauces, spices and rice also come wrapped in plastic bags. It’s all incredibly convenient but I know its incredibly wasteful and bad for the environment. But considering the price of the food and the developing nature of a lot of Thailand, I can’t really expect locals working so hard to survive to eat the cost of greener packaging.
