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Food
Entry 9 of 69 | show all | print this entry |
Have I mentioned the food? It's the one thing Scott Lingley, one of See Magazine's very good restaurant reviewers, always talked about when he would tell me about Thailand. (Actually he gets the credit for finally tipping the scales, convincing me to come here.) I'm going to go on about it here this once and then shut up about it from here on in (well unless I have another great thing to tell you about). Anyway, it is nothing short of amazing. Thai food is a balance of spicy, sweet, sour, hot.
First there are the pushcart vendors that sell things like fruit, fruit shakes, freshly squeezed orange juice, corn on the cob, meat on a stick, pad thai and other simple stir fries, loti, mango sticky rice, spring rolls, the list goes on. These items generally sell for about 20 baht or just over 50 cents. They are always fresh and tasty. Then there are what I like to call the make-shift restaurants/stalls. They're like the carts in a way but they will be surrounded by tables and chairs (open air) and often have a more complete 'menu'. The food is less snack-like, more sophisticated and mouth-wateringly good, freshly prepared and piping hot. Each one seemingly run by a gourmet Thai cook. As I mentioned before, the food at these places is better than any Thai you get at home. Prices at these joints are not quite double those on the carts. A sumptuous meal for a little over a dollar. Half the price of the beer you need to wash its usually spicy hotness down. Prices at the 'proper' restaurants are about double (or more for the really special spots) those again. I haven't even eaten at a proper restaurant yet and that's not why. There's really no need to.
Most of the time, I have no idea what I'm ordering. You just have to point and/or say things like 'noodles' or 'rice' and 'chicken' and 'vegetables' and wait to see what you get. One time it got me a bowl of soup which I hadn't expected (it was incredibly good). Another time I hit a place in the back alley behind the Shangri-la Hotel and asked for a menu. "No menu, what you want?" was the answer. I pointed to the plate that had just been prepared, some kind of fried rice, and told him that looks good. It was soooo good. As time goes on, I'll get more adventurous. Food changes with the regions as well. Can't wait.
The prices stay low obviously because they have virtually no overheads. Apparently some of the cooks at these makeshift stalls can become famous for a particular dish. As Lonely Planet says, "It is possible to eat well and cheaply without ever stepping foot into a formal restaurant". It's true. Hygiene is not a problem either. You can see the kitchen! The food is always fresh from the markets that day.
Oddly, beer isn't quite as cheap as it was in SA. Here a cold bottle of beer in the bar or resto will run you anywhere from 2 to 3 dollars. In 7-11 a Singha is about a dolllar. Funny when the price of a meal is half the cost of the beer.
All of this begs one question: who would come to Thailand and eat at Subway?
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