Food in Thailand- from hotels to restaurants

[william3rd]

A brief note about Thai food.

While you can get something that approachs Thai food here in America, real Thai food is much better. The ingredients in Thailand are much much fresher and there are no preservatives. From slaughter to table can be just a matter of hours.

Most hotels and guest houses have morning buffets but all seem to have the same menu. THe Thai daily menu may change but the American portion never changes. SOmething like hot dogs and either french toast or pancakes-not very good. You can use the pancakes for padding in contact sports or perhaps to line a boxing glove. Regular toast has improved over the years as have the omelets. Some of the better hotels have bacon but the preparation is week.

Thai food is cooked spicy but more spices are available table-side since it is cooked on the mild side for the Europeans. The standard dishes here are not as common there. More common meals there are "larb" steamed or boiled fish, somtom- a green papaya salad with lime juice.

You can still get a nice meal from a street vendor for about a dollar and a quarter, up from about 40 cents from years ago. A nice meal would be defined as a stir-fried mix of meat and some vegetables over Thai rice.

[william3rd]

THe picture in the gallery entitled What you get for six bucks goes here.

In the picture is a steamed fish, beef larb, sticky rice, somtom, steamed rice, sodas and water.

The fish had seasonings placed in the abominal cavity and was packed in salt for cooking.

Beef larb is a ground beef dish loaded with spices.

somtom is a papaya, tomato, lime juice salad of varying degrees of spiciness depending on your preference.

Sticky rice is a thickened rice that you can eat with your hands. The method is to use the RIGHT hand, pick up a small ball of rice, and then either dip the rice into a sauce, or pick up a portion of somtom or larb with the rice with the RIGHT hand.

HINT- using the left hand or passing things with the left hand is historically low class. Not so much since toilet paper usage became more wide spread but still- you EAT with the RIGHT and WIPE with the LEFT.