Well, how was Thailand, food-wise? It was HEAVENLY. Litteraly heaven on earth for foodies, with temptation at every street corner. I don’t even know how I’d cope if I lived there, I think I’d need to have a second stomach transplanted. However, let me warn you right from the start: the salty dishes are pretty spicy. I like spicy, but after a couple of days, I felt my stomach screaming “stop” (I let it scream, I couldn’t help myself it was so good). So today, I’ll tell you about the restaurants I discovered that got me drooling.
I had gone off “free-style”, and prepared no addresses: those that I am about to give you were given to me as my journey progressed, by locals that I met here and there. One single post about all that you must eat in Thailand won’t suffice so I’ll very probably do another one that will describe all the treats (not necessarily tasted in restaurants) that made me go completely nuts.
KHAO SOI SAMER JAI
( Near Wat Fa Ham, 391 Mu. 2 , Charoenrat Road, CHIANG MAI) : let’s start up North with this Chiang Mai restaurant that a very friendly Starbucks sales clerk told me about when I asked her where I could find the best Khao Soi in the city. Khao Soi is a specialty in the north of Thailand: it’s a soup, a mix of crispy fried noodles (on the top) and noodles in a curry and coconut broth. A-MA-ZING.
Everything is prepared right behind us, very informaly. The clients are mostly locals, which makes the address very authentic. And cheap. Aaaah, for yes, I didn’t tell you! The most incredible thing is that in Thailand, everything is delicious and costs virtually nothing!!! (a bowl of soup must be around 1 euro, so don’t even get me started on the disaster this can be on the waistline!)
The famous Khao Soi soup
Very spicy thaï sausages (can you spot those treacherous little red dots : that’s very finely chopped chilli inside the meat)
The Kuay Tiew, with rice noodles
MANGO TREE
(37 Soi Tantawan , Surawongsee Road. BANGKOK) : the address is a tad more touristy, but very pleasant with it’s Rainforest Café type decor (but much less fake). Here, you’ll eat on a luxuriously green terrace with a traditional orchestra playing.
There is even a little show with Thai dancers during the meal. The green curry is to die for (well to be quite honest it was to die for almost everywhere: it’s one of my favorite dishes). This mix of basil with curry and those small thai eggplants raaaaaa! Sublime!
TALING PLING
(60 Pan Road, Silom BANGKOK ) an indoors address this time (and it’s almost cold inside with the aircon pushed to the maximum). The most amazing dish there is their molting crab cake. I had already has some in Paris, in the 13th arrondissement. For those of you who might be a little bit at loss as to what I am talking about, it’s a crab that is cooked when it is still all soft (before it reforms its shell). That makes it the perfect dish for lazy people, no need to peel anything or get your hands dirty, you eat, you munch, you savor, and that’s all that needs to be done.
SOMBOON SEAFOOD
(169,169/7-12 Surawong Road, BANGKOK) :a great address for seafood amateurs. It’s a sort of canteen, with a couple of locations around Bangkok, and here, once again, you can eat your fill for a very cheap price. That day, we had sauteed water spinach with garlic (a truly romantic dish, prepare not to kiss again for the whole evening) a grilled grouper with basil (and chilli) and prawns with vermicelli.
And rice on the side … add drinks, and you’re not paying more than 9 euros per person….that’s the price you’d pay for a MacDonald’s menu here, can you believe it?!! (notice how I’m being the annoying tourist here, comparing everything with France?). I even went back to have their specialty: curry crab (no pictures, I was too hungry): very very good, but maybe a tiny bit too salty.
And to finish with a flourish, it’s not really a restaurant but a market stall near the fishermen’s beach in Bophut, on the Koh Samui Island, not far from Big Buddha (yeah, sorry about the more than basic geographical hints, but I’m sure you’ll manage to find it). Fritters are prepared right before our eyes: it’s kind of like angel wings but less sweet. Delicious!
And of course, skewers of all kinds (fish, chicken, pork…) that are grilled on the spot (on the picture they are only precooked, when you buy some they grill them some more). All that in a chilli sauce (again!) but you’ll be coming back for more!
On that note, I’ll leave you to your digestion, and to your healing ulcers after this extremely spicy post. Next time, I’ll be back with sweeter things, I promise! (English translation by Bleu Marine)
