When it comes to food, Thailand doesn't mess around. And sometimes the street vendors or motorbike-sidecar-turned-kitchen or halfway restaurants with plastic tables and chairs setup under an awning have the best meals. For just $1.50 or so, too.
I haven't always known exactly what I've been eating (nothing too extreme), but it's been delicious. Except some grilled meat on a stick-I got chicken breast and some other chicken part I didn't understand....I couldn't handle that mystery meat. After some research I believe it was heart or liver. Would not recommend. Here's a sampling of some better stuff:
Nothing like a cool mango smoothie to cool off. They do like their sugar added to just about everything here, unless you specify "no sugar," BUT Americans on average consume 4.3 times the amount of sugar as Thais....
They'll typically double check or hide a laugh if you order an Americano (black) coffee on ice, no sugar. But Chiang Mai is very much on top of their coffee game, with fresh beans from the hills just to the north (recently replacing opium as the crop of choice due to some government and NGO nudges).
Here's a secret: Thai people don't actually eat pad Thai much...having said that, this pad Thai cooked in front of me at a Bangkok night market is likely the best pad Thai I'll ever eat.
A simple restaurant in Chiang Mai with "no view, but tasty!" Thai food. As I enjoyed this yellow chicken curry streetside at sunset, a motorbike made a delivery of fresh produce.
Khao soi is a standard Burmese-influenced northern Thai dish that comes with crispy deep fried noodles. Refreshing longan juice on the side.
Rice noodle salad mixed up fresh on demand at Chiang Mai night market.
Standard beef/pork and noodle soup. When I was fighting a cold, at least hot soup was never hard to find. Still haven't adjusted to having this for breakfast on a HOT morning, though.
Standard beef/pork and noodle soup. When I was fighting a cold, at least hot soup was never hard to find. Still haven't adjusted to having this for breakfast on a HOT morning, though.
Duck over rice on the side of the road (not in the roadkill sense).
A gal in a cowboy hat serves up roasted pork leg (khao kha moo) or pig intestines...I opted for the leg, but it definitely came with some intestines (I ate them, and kept them down). This was at a small night food market across the canal from where I stayed in Chiang Mai. Anthony Bourdain has paid her a visit.
Coconut ice cream on a bun, topped with peanuts, from a push cart outside of Lumpini Park in Bangkok. So good under the hot sun.
A dessert they were selling on the train-looks like Grinch hair, tastes like coarse cotton candy on a coconut tortilla.
Shredded coconut and marshmallow(?) on some sort of sweet crispy crepe.
A dessert they were selling on the train-looks like Grinch hair, tastes like coarse cotton candy on a coconut tortilla.
Shredded coconut and marshmallow(?) on some sort of sweet crispy crepe.
I was introduced to durian by signs on subways, buses, and hostels that said, "NO DURIAN ALLOWED." Turns out that is because this exotic fruit smells so bad. But curiosity got the best of me.
The taste is slightly less repulsive. I tasted pineapple and onion with a stringy texture like spinach cooked for too long. It's supposed to be rich in vitamins in minerals, but I think I'll get my nutrition elsewhere.
I think anything eaten, on the street, with this view, somehow seems to taste just a little bit better:
The taste is slightly less repulsive. I tasted pineapple and onion with a stringy texture like spinach cooked for too long. It's supposed to be rich in vitamins in minerals, but I think I'll get my nutrition elsewhere.
I think anything eaten, on the street, with this view, somehow seems to taste just a little bit better:
And if none of this looks delicious, never fear. Even in Thailand, Ronald is here to greet you with a "wei" and serve you that Big Mac.
