Part Two
One of the first things I noticed once I got to Thailand was the smell. Actually, there is a powerful, eye watering mix of smells. Every inch I moved it seemed to change. A mix of spices, trash, sewage, food, incense,
perfume, fish, exhaust and simmering coals bombard you. Much of the trash ends up on the sidewalks or in the streets and has a final destination of a field just outside of town. The sewers are underground but every five feet or so there is a vent that when you walk over is generally quite pungent. This is not to say Thailand smells bad, in fact, the most prominent smells spill out of the street markets.
There are street markets everywhere, much of the people eat in these markets and instead of set meals, they eat throughout the day. The smells that waft from these markets make it easy to see how the people of Thailand like to eat all day. The food is nothing short of incredible. They eat so many interesting things. The fruit alone is enough to make you believe God has an incredible sense of humor.
Alien fruit,
fruit that takes more time to get to it than it does to eat, fruit that made me wonder who thought to eat it in the first place.
Everywhere we went I thought I was smelling something that had died in the street and cooked in the hot sun for a month. Yes, you guessed it. It was a fruit. The somewhat famed Durian, a favorite in Thailand. Incidentally, a group of wild monkeys were scavenging it as though it were monkey meth.
It is a cantaloupe sized green fruit with spikes on it. Then you get to the “guts”, “the stinky,” the “most awful texture I have ever tasted.” I knew I had to try it but even Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods can’t stomach it. Not surprisingly, neither could I. It does taste very different than it smells. Imagine bringing a rotten carcass to your mouth and biting it to get a taste that isn’t all together better. Yeah, I couldn’t get past the initial smell either. On a side note, you have to get the mango on sticky rice with coconut milk on top. To die for! Ok, back on track. There was only one other thing I had trouble eating. Fish sauce. It is on every table for every meal. The Thai people drench their food in it. It smells and tastes so fishy that I couldn’t eat it. I guess it is aptly named!
That being said, I cannot say enough great things about the food.
They eat a lot of seafood and pork. Noodles, rice eggs, curry sauces, onions and bean sprouts compliment most of the dishes. They also eat raw pork. Pork sushi. Oink tartar. Bob told us they know of the dangers associated with it and the response they commonly give is that, “it just tastes so good.” I did not try any raw pork, it sort of came with a salmonella guarantee in my book. I did try many different types of fish. They bring it to the table wholly, scales bones, eyes and all.
They cook it so that the scales almost become like a batter, very crunchy, very delicious. The bones are tough to work around. They are extremely sharp and swallowing them could cause a myriad of problems as you can well imagine. I mention that they come with the eyes because it is sort of a delicacy there. So I ate one. Not as gross as I had envisioned. It was very hard and once bitten into, there wasn’t much flavor, but texturally it was too much for my mouth. Fried Grouper had to be my favorite fish. Amazing. They eat blue crab like we eat burgers.
They are quite the work to get to the meat but once there you just tend to stay awhile. The meat is so delicious, clean and satisfying. Prawns are also very prominent and they are big. Again, you do all the work. Take off the head, peel and devour.
If you are lucky enough to get a female crab or prawn, the eggs are wonderful. Don’t let the orange color scare you. It is like a fine cheddar cheese that crumbles in your mouth and fills your belly with happiness. I was very proud of my dad, whose preferred meal is a hot dog and baked beans, pretty much tried everything.
One of my favorite dishes here in the US in Chicken Pad Thai. I was very excited to try it in Thailand. As my order was put on the table I noticed it looked very similar to the way it does here. The taste was much more fresh and the sauce was much stronger than I had ever tasted in the US. I loved it but it was dwarfed by the many, many other dishes with better flavor.
I would have to rank the green curry with lemon grass as my favorite. They love their food spicy and this dish delivers. The fresh lemon grass stands out, yet isn’t overwhelming. Fresh is the key word there. Nothing comes from a box or a freezer. If you are in a market you can watch them prepare everything from scratch.
It was amazing to taste such wonderful food. The one thing that was problematic for me was the fact that they don’t use napkins. Cracking a crab or preparing a prawn lends itself to quite a mess. Instead of a napkin there is a roll of toilet paper on every table. One ply, generally. After every meal I would have a mountain of TP balls. I got used to licking my fingers as a main cleaning method. They put TP on every table. I wondered if this was why many of the bathrooms didn’t have any. More on that tomorrow. It is very nice if you are at a restaurant though, the waiter stands patiently at the end of your table near the cart that holds your beverages. When you are about at optimistic or pessimistic the waiter will refill your glass. The Thai people are so service oriented you will have a difficult time finding a more accommodating country and more friendly people.
You can get McDonalds in Thailand. Instead of a value meal you get a “set.” The fries are identical but the burgers were a bit different. They don’t eat cheese in Thailand so a cheeseburger just didn’t taste right. They also have KFC, Subway, Burger King, Sizzler and Pizza Hut among others, most of them deliver 24-7. You can also go to 7-Eleven.
Literally 7-Eleven is on every block. Don’t expect to get a bag of Chee-Toes but you can find Seaweed Lays and many other interesting Lays chips made for Asia. They have many of the foods we have here but they also sell fish, rice, a million teas, tofu and a host of regional favorites. Basically, if you want to eat like an American you can, but my advice would just be to stay home if that is your agenda. You will just miss the wonders and flavors and make us look bad.
Food brings people together.
Whether you are at a restaurant, in someones home or in the market, it is an important aspect of Thai society and socialization. Eat, drink and be merry. It was the first time in my life I saw this on an hourly basis.
Up next:
Elephants, beauty, beer, tuk tuks, the sex trade/katoi, Thai massage, the squat toilet and much more!
