Street Food in Thailand
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Like other Southeast Asian countries, food stalls are
everywhere in the streets, markets and festivals of
Thailand, providing an endless smorgasbord of
aromas, color, sounds and flavors - food in Thailand is a feast
for all of the senses.
The next 'hotdog stand'
does have a grill, placed
over a large bin of charcoal, with flattened chicken quarters
sizzling on sticks that you eat like a popsicle; next door to
that is yet another steel cart heaped with fresh, ripe
pineapple, mango and papaya.
Having
a huge mortar and pestle for transforming the greener papayas
into a crunchy,
sweet-sour-spicy salad with morsels of shrimp or squid, chilies,
garlic and sugar. |
Thai Street
Food Barbecue Phuket |
But be aware, according
to my own experience
the change that you have a real stomach problem
afterwards is 90%. Don't listen what they tell you, the
problem is all this street vendors use water from the
tub and water from the tub in Thailand is, as everyone
will tell polluted, it wont matter if you boil or not.
A other problem is that
hygienic is almost below zero,
usually any vegetable, salad or whatever is only minimal
washed.
This philosophy even
don't stop at the big chains like -the Pizza Company-
which was Pizza Hut before. E.g. I encountered in
their Phuket -Lotus- branch worms and cockroaches in the
salad. On top of it they clean of the junk from the
table and the floor, after they throw the used dirty
cloth into the same compartment as the knives and forks
to be used for eating and so on, this actually is a
endless story.
What makes Thai food so delicious and distinctive among
other Southeast Asian food is this unique blending of
fresh herbs, spices and other ingredients
that combine for a perfect balance of sweet, sour, salt
and heat that leaves your mouth feeling clean and your taste
buds popping in the
afterglow.
Fresh fruit,
salads and even soups and noodles are ladled into
plastic bags with a skewer, fork, spoon or straw for eating on
the go or perched on a folding chair at a nearby metal card
table in the market.
Thai buses and trains become moving picnic grounds, with
everyone chatting, eating and sharing the fare hawked
through the vehicles' windows at roadside stops and
terminals: Gai Yang, the flattened barbecue chicken on a
stick, skewered meat and fish balls and sticky rice
wrapped in banana leaves. |
Thai Street Food Skewer and Calamari |
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Carnivals and markets feature huge woks at knee-height,
bubbling with deep-fried critters of all sorts, many
unidentifiable. Are they grasshoppers? crickets?
spiders?
baby birds? small frogs? -- my mouth and
eyes were constantly wide open in wonder
and amazement! I spent an inordinate
amount of time in the fresh produce and night food markets -- exuberantly fascinated
and often visibly discombobulated, to the great
amusement of the vendors and shoppers.After
traveling every aisle of food carts and
woks on my mission
to find the freshest, most interesting
and tasty-looking dishes, I was often
met with earnestly shaking heads or "No,
you don't want that - that's Thai food!"
by English speaking cooks or bystanders
when I pointed and gestured and tried to
ask for a |
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Thai Sea Food |
meal I knew I truly wanted.
On my first such adventure, I did not
know that the custom was for the cook to show the ladle
with the amount of the garlic and chili for you to
indicate how much you wanted: thinking she was simply
asking if I wanted those Thai ingredients, I nodded
vigorously at the heaped display, and in it all went!
Yes, it was Thai food, and I enjoyed every sizzling
touch to my lips under the watchful, laughing eyes of
the vendors and bystanders who |
Thai Food Koh Samui |
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had
gathered. I spent as much time learning about, admiring and
experiencing the food as I did with major tourist
attractions, often
spending hours strolling through streets and markets
taking in the sights and smells and sounds: quiet
clucking rising up from a heap of vibrantly coloured roosters or chickens
tied together at the feet - a Thai rooster's plumage is
extraordinarily beautiful; plastic tubs and buckets just
full enough of murky grey water to keep the fish, frogs
or turtles alive until a sale was clinched; mounds and
mounds of green and red, and purple and orange; the
pleasant stench of durian and jackfruit - pleasant
because I was just so thrilled and in awe of it all!
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Since we have the Chinese "Year
of the Rat" we would like to
give you a gourmet experience to
eat some delicious grilled or
BBQ rats in Thailand, no need to
rush to China
click here
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I tried deep-fried
grasshoppers
at a carnival in
Kanchanaburi
during a sound and light show of "The
Bridge On The River Kwai"
that ended with a fabulous fireworks
display recreating the Allied bombing
campaign that destroyed the bridges of
the Death Railway in 1945. I tried a few
tiny roasted wood worms offered by a
very thin host in a northern hill-tribe
village near the Myanmar border, and
feared that I was eating his family out
of house and home. I discovered
countless traditional dishes I had never
tasted and savoured authentic versions of some I had had
in Toronto's newly arrived Thai restaurants. As often as
I could, I watched their creation so that I could try to
replicate them when I got home and got a kitchen again. |
Thai Food Tom Yam Seafood |
Many people are alarmed at how daring I was with my
stomach. During two years
of round-the-world travel, including six months in
Southeast Asia, I only had one tiny bout of queasiness
over a couple of days on Sumatra in Indonesia. In fact,
I had never eaten so well or felt so healthy in my life.
I must have found the perfect balance of common sense
and adventure, or, some might argue, I was just lucky.
I don't recommend trying everything,
and I do recommend a few common sense tips for sampling
the full range of the food on offer throughout your
travels: at street and market
stalls, do watch the cooking for awhile to ensure that
the ingredients are fresh and the food is being cooked
thoroughly; if you have any doubts, move on to the next
vendor choose vendors that have a good steady flow of
customers - not only is the food probably very good, but
the turnover means fresher food
ask your guesthouse
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host and
any other residents you meet for their favourite
places to eat, and for recommendations
on dishes to order follow the other safe eating tips you find in travel
guides, like recommendations about water, ice cubes, and
peeling fruit and vegetables.
Street Food Karon Beach Hot Dog
and Fish Hawker Phuket Night |
Street Food Karon Beach
Spicy Stuff on the Move
Phuket |
Of course, you will find
an endless selection of sit-down restaurants
where you can savour some of the more familiar Thai dishes now
found in restaurants around the world: green curry with
chicken, red curry with beef, pad Thai and other noodle
dishes, and wonderfully aromatic sweet basil dishes.
Whether you plan to
samplethe fabulous Thai foods from the street
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vendors
and markets or stick to what you know, learn a few tips
on deciphering a menu or asking for a type of dish with
a few Thai Food Terms.
Many supermarkets are now carrying a range of prepared
Thai food sauces, curries and other
Asian products, but if you enjoy adventure and
creativity in your own kitchen, many Thai recipes are
fairly easy to create once you've mastered a few
essentials. |
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Thai
Beach Food |
Gai Yang, after all, is really just
barbequed chicken with a Thai twist! A good food
reference guide or cookbook with a glossary of Asian
ingredients will help you gain that perfect balance of
sour, sweet, salt and heat that is unique to Thai
cuisine.
© recipe-for-travel.com
Carolyn Nantais is a freelance writer, website
copywriter, world traveler and culinary xenophile who
indulges in temporary retirement from time to time to
travel and eat around the world.
Her new website, The
Recipe for Travel, is a food companion for travel lovers
and travel companion for food lovers, with stories,
recipes and practical travel planning tips gathered
through adventures in round-the-world travel and food.
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A taste of Thailand -
vegetarian
The Menam Chao Phraya
is a wide, muddy river that flows through the heart of Thailand. Its tributaries
drain most of the country, including the rice fields of the central plain which
have fed the Kingdom for centuries. Although modern Bangkok sprawls along roads
in all directions, the river is the center of the city. Along its banks are
Bangkok's oldest temples, its largest produce market, the Grand Palace and the
famous Oriental Hotel. Here, too, are the Chinese-Thai neighborhoods that are an
intriguing mix of residences, small manufacturing operations, offices and shops.
All day long, high-speed "long-tailed" boats roar up and down the river carrying
sightseers, while at night, floating restaurants carry diners in a long slow
loop up and down the river. River transportation is also a popular alternative
to Bangkok's grid-locked roads. From 6 in the morning until 7 at night, public
river boats travel the Chao Phraya. For less than 50 cents, you can journey for
miles past wooden houseboats, temples, riverside restaurants and newer luxury
hotels.
If you visit in the fall, you might notice crowds of people, bright lights and
colorful banners surrounding a small riverside temple, Wat Josue Kong (wat means
temple in Thai). This is Bangkok's vegetarian festival, the Festival of the Nine
Imperial Gods, which takes place during the first nine days of the ninth Chinese
lunar month. (This year, it began Sept. 23 and ended Oct. 1; next year it will
begin on Oct. 11 and end on Oct. 20. Getting off at the next boat stop to
investigate low the congested streets parallel to the river. You walk past
storefront machine shops where metal-smiths pound hot steel into boat anchors
and crowbars, past crews of young men braiding half-inch thick steel cables and
down narrow streets lined with piles of truck axles and engine parts. Then you
turn a comer and follow a growing stream of people moving toward a small,
crowded street aglow with fluorescent lights. Now you're in the Thalad Noi area
of Bangkok's Chinatown (near the end of Charoen Krung Road's Soi 20). It's about
a 20-minute walk up river from the Sheraton Hotel's River City complex, although
the Harbor Department express boat stop is the closest one to the festival.
Here, the grimy storefront machine shops are obscured by rows of vendors selling
lotus flowers, fruits, candles, incense and brightly colored religious objects.
Scores of other vendors are selling fried, boiled, steamed and roasted
vegetarian foods. Walk through the gauntlet of vendors and you find yourself in
a large covered square, half of which is filled with folding tables, chairs and
impromptu kitchens. The other half contains a large, raised altar bearing
three-foot tall candles and huge, smoldering logs of incense.
At one end of the square is a Chinese-Thai Buddhist temple hung with banners and
lit with neon lights. At the other end is a Chinese opera stage where characters
in dramatic makeup and sequined costumes act out scenes to the sound of gongs
and stringed instruments. In front of you, a woman and her daughter kneel at the
altar and male attendants carry a log of incense over their shoulders.
The vegetarian festival is a centuries-old Taoist celebration that began in
southern China. Legend has it that the festival originated at a time of flood,
fire and famine from which people were saved by Guanyin, the goddess of mercy.
To thank her, the people invited nine gods to join them for a festival of
purification in which their sins and those of their ancestors would be washed
away. As part of the purification, celebrants adhere to a vegetarian practice,
known in Thai as kin jeh, for the 10-day festival. Eating meat and eggs is
prohibited, as well as garlic, green and yellow onions and shallots. These
aromatic foods are believed to excite or heat up the body, a condition not
conducive to worship and meditation. (A similar prohibition against onion and
garlic exists in orthodox Hindu cooking.)
Today, most of the people who participate in the festival are Chinese-Thai.
The
entire event has a family atmosphere, with carnival games and even a small ferris wheel. At noon the first day, there is an inaugural ceremony during which
the gods are invited to the festival. On subsequent days, there are Chinese
opera performances, as well as a procession honoring the god of birth and death.
Toward the end of the festival, celebrants release turtles and fish to help
carry away their sins, and launch floats with candles and flowers to pay respect
to their ancestors and the gods. On the last full day, alms are given to the
poor, and in the evening a large and colorful procession of worshippers headed
by monks, drummers and a 12-person Chinese dragon circles the temple area three
times to bid the gods farewell. Ceremonies at noon the next day close the
festival.
Throughout the festival, street vendors dole out seemingly endless quantities of
one-plate vegetarian meals and traditional Chinese-style sweets. Most vendors
specialize in one or two dishes. The most popular one-plate meals are noodle
dishes. There are fried, round, chewy noodles of yellow wheat and thin rice
noodles served with mushrooms, grated radish, tofu, Chinese kale and soy sauce;
noodle dishes with mushrooms and faux meatballs made from wheat gluten; and
noodle soups made with tofu or several varieties of mushrooms.
Other stands offer vegetarian versions of common Thai dishes such as red curry
with green beans and faux pork, or stir-fried tofu with snow peas and baby corn.
All are available on a bed of rice for 20 baht (about 80 cents). Several
restaurants on nearby Charoen Krung Road (near Wat Mangkong) offer even wider
selections of Thai-style dishes for similar prices. In place of the traditional
fish sauce, they use a sauce made of soy sauce and herbs.
One of the most delicious dishes offered at the festival is also one of the most
dramatic to watch being prepared. Pak boong fai daeng is a simple stir-fry dish
in which a pile of pak boong (a mild leafy green with arrow shaped leaves and
hollow stems) is roughly chopped and heaped in a bowl, then topped with chili
peppers, fermented soybean paste and a dash of sugar. Vegetable oil is heated to
the smoking point in a wok, and the contents of the bowl are dumped in and
stirred quickly while a red flame (fai daeng) leaps up from the wok. As the
flame fades, the contents are turned out onto a plate and rushed to the diner's
table.
The snack foods at the festival include a variety of baked or deep-fried
Chinese-style snacks filled with sweetened bean paste, coconut or taro root.
There are also deep-fried egg rolls and vegetable fritters served with a sweet,
spicy dipping sauce, as well as fried taro root pancakes. A vegetarian version
of the popular Northeastern Thai/Lao green papaya salad, som tham, is also
popular. It combines shredded papaya, lime juice, palm sugar, chili peppers,
sliced tomatoes, green beans and julienned mushrooms, pounded together wooden
mortar and pestle and served on a plate with fresh greens and balls of glutinous
rice.
There are also vegetarian festivals in the southern Thai cities of Phuket and
Trang. These festivals are even more exotic than Bangkok's, featuring acetic
feats by young male followers, such as body piercing and climbing ladders of
razors. The festival is also spreading throughout Bangkok. This year, there were
yellow and red pennants with the Chinese symbol for kin jeh on restaurants and
food vendors' carts all over the city. During the festival, many hotels and
restaurants offer vegetarian buffets or add special vegetarian items to their
menus. Some of the larger restaurants advertise these offerings in Thailand's
English-language newspapers.
The festival is certainly the most exciting way to experience
Thailand's
vegetarian cuisine.
But any time of year, delicious and inexpensive vegetarian
food is fairly easy to find here. All you need is some persistence and a few
Thai phrases.
The Chinese restaurants along Yaorat and Chaoen Krung roads are generally good
places to look for vegetarian food. If it is not festival time, tell the waiter
that you are a vegetarian: "khon kin jeh." Your food will be free of meat, eggs,
dairy and fish sauce, and probably without garlic or onions as well. If a menu
in English is not available (many places have them), you can usually order by
pointing to the fresh ingredients that most restaurants prominently display,
pantomiming which ingredients you do and don't want.
In addition to the Chinese-Thai vegetarian tradition, there is a vegetarian
movement taking root in Thailand. The group behind this movement is called Santi
Asoke, a back-to-basics Buddhist group founded in the 1970s that advocates a
simple lifestyle, herbal medicine, vegetarianism and organic farming. Unlike
most Buddhists in Thailand, Santi Asoke adherents take the Buddhist injunction
against taking life as an exhortation not to eat meat or eggs. In contrast, most
Thai Buddhists (monks included) believe that eating meat is not equivalent to
"taking a life" - as long as they didn't personally kill the animal. Santi Asoke
has upset the mainstream Thai Buddhist hierarchy by criticizing mainstream
Buddhism's tolerance of meat eating, gambling, drinking, prostitution and
consumerism. In response, the Buddhist hierarchy challenged the legitimacy of
the Santi Asoke practices, forbidding the Santi Asoke monks from wearing
Buddhist robes or even calling themselves Buddhists.
Despite their disdain for meat eating, Santi Asoke cooks make every attempt to
replicate the texture of meat through the use of wheat gluten. Their restaurants
and food shops, or sala mahansawalat, are increasingly popular. They are only
open during the day, and are almost always packed. Food is served
cafeteria-style and meals are cheap even by Thai standards: a bowl of noodles or
a serving of food over rice costs about six baht (25 cents). They offer
vegetarian versions of many Thai dishes, such as sweet-and-sour faux chicken
with vegetables, or Northeastern Thai/Lao-style salad with chopped shallots,
mint leaves, onions, chili peppers and faux chopped pork. These restaurants
serve their meals with brown rice (most Thais like their rice as white as snow).
Their curry pastes and spicy dipping sauces use a vegetarian "shrimp" paste made
of fermented soy beans which looks and smells very much like the real thing.
In Bangkok, the largest Santi Asoke restaurant is on Kamphaengphet Road (behind
the small city bus parking lot near the pedestrian bridge) just south and west
of the large weekend market on the north side of town. There are also Santi
Asoke restaurants in many other cities including Nakorn Pathom, Korat, Ubon
Ratchatani and Chiang Mai.
Vegetarians can also eat their fill at a good vegetarian restaurant right around
the corner from the main train station in Bangkok. Just walk east about 50 yards
down Rama IV Road and you will find a small enclosed restaurant that offers only
Chinese-style vegetarian food. Bangkok's many Indian restaurants all offer
vegetarian dishes, as do most of the low-budget guesthouse restaurants. The
Seventh-day Adventist Hospital in Bangkok has a vegetarian cafeteria that serves
both Thai- and Western-style vegetarian food. There are also upscale restaurants
in Bangkok and Chiang Mai that mainly cater to foreign vegetarians.
You won't go hungry in Thailand any time of the year. But if you have a spirit
of adventure, come during the vegetarian festival. You'll be rewarded with
authentic Thai vegetarian cookery unavailable anywhere else in the world. It's a
countrywide festival of tastes.
Author
Stephen Carroll was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand for two years. He now
works as a baker in Kalamazoo, Mich.
COPYRIGHT Vegetarian Times, Inc. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT Gale Group
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