An essential part of experiencing another country and it's culture is obviously eating their food. This I have been fortunate to do very much of with the help of the local teachers.
At home I loved eating Thai food and have probably had too much of the popular dishes - Thai green/red curries, Pad Thai, Som Tum (Papaya Salad) and Tom Yum soup. Here I got to eat what seemed like countless variations of these popular dishes. I wish I had better memory and was more attentive in remembering the names of these dishes but to be honest, I was more keen on just digging in.
My all time favourite... Som Tum aka Papaya Salad eaten with sticky rice in little bamboo cups.
I went with Teacher Ay to a restaurant in Watthana Nakhon that had these amazing noodles. You were served the noodles in your choice of 4 different soups, the soup was in a small amount so that the noodles weren't completely covered. You then add your own choice of veges from the below tray. They had snake beans, cucumbers, beans sprouts and this odd cabbage/onion like vege. I think it might be shaved banana flower. The result was this awesome noodle salad - I would say hands down one of my favourite dishes I had from Thailand!
I went with P Ay on a day trip to her university in Chachoengsao. When I was wondering on the way home if I had gained weight from eating so much delicious food, P Ay told me there was one more stop. Thin layers of watery dough was poured onto steaming cotton before being tenderly wrapped around ingredients. There were chives and other different meat mixtures. The result was similar to a very thin and delicate wonton. This was then dropped into a broth with cubes of pigs blood. Luckily I grew up around pigs blood and love it loads. Delicious!!!!
The weekend I was fortunate enough to stay in Watthana Nakhon with one of the vice directors, we had a quick visit to the markets for some groceries for that nights dinner.
I still can't get over the convenience and amazing rawness of buying food fresh from markets in Asia. Greens plucked straight from the fields, fish caught fresh from the water and meat cooked right in front of you.
Did I mention the abundant use of chili in Thai food? Or did you already guess that from all the spicy Thai food you've had before?
Let's not forget the amazing night markets in Sakeao. A little different from the day markets selling fresh food to take home to cook, this was all cooked in front of you or prepared on the day.
Every Friday a portion of Sakaeo town would turn into open night markets at around 5pm. They had everything you could imagine, fried crickets, grilled chicken and pork organs, salads of all sorts and Asian fruits.
Usual method of transportation is scooter. Rows and rows of them parked outside the night markets.
The variety of South East Asian fruits are the best. Just to name a few they have:
Rambutans (red with green tipped hairs)
Longans (I'm sure you've had this before, brown coloured skin with white flesh surrounding a black seed)
Mangosteen (Purple/black outside with white flesh pieces similarly shaped like mandarin sections) and
Dragonfruit (Intense pink and green exteriors with contrasting white flesh and small edible black seeds).
As always, there is some kind of food in Asia which disgusts or intrigues the western world. This came in the form of fried grasshoppers, worms and some other odd insects. This isn't something just cooked up for tourists though, Sakeao has little to no tourists and most of the local teachers told me many Thai people enjoy the snack.
Some of the Thai teachers showing me how its done.
As usual I was only able to capture some photos, it seems nothing does the atmosphere justice then being in the centre of the chaos.
I was lucky enough to venture to the border markets twice when I was in Sakaeo. These are large markets selling cheap goods at the Aranyapethet / Poipet border between Thailand and Cambodia. They were called the RongKlua markets. Most goods are cheaper to Thai people as they come from Cambodia and labour is generally cheaper over there.
Flattened bananas grilled over charcoal. Very tasty!
The poorer Cambodian kids would beg for money to what seemed like richer Thai people.
I hope I have made everyone sufficiently hungry by now. Remember this is only the food in Thailand, I haven't even gotten to Cambodia yet!
As for those that know where I am currently - my blogs are severely delayed... as expected. So now that I have a whole week of doing mostly nothing I'm going to try my best to update loads!
