Food (Thailand)

The following image might be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of food in Thailand.

If it is so, please read below and it would transform completely. Bugs are not the only thing that Thai people eat. Thai cuisine is popular all over the world. Thailand is a place for foodies. Apart from the popular red, green and yellow Thai curries, there are plenty more to discover in food here. Every city in Thailand has streets filled with vendors selling traditional Thai street food. You can never go hungry here. Vegetarians may find fruits and corn being sold everywhere in mobile food stalls. They have tofu as the vegetarian item in every dish. Thai people use plenty of green vegetables in cooking everything. Some of the most popular items which we ate and you may eat too, are as under:

Corn

Steamed or roasted or kernels tossed in butter, this is the most popular street food in Thailand for vegetarians. The butter one is too buttery so be careful of those cholesterol intake.

Satay/Grill

These skewered grilled meats of your choice are available at almost every corner of every street. These succulent juicy satays can be a great snack anytime of the day. Marinated in special Thai sauce, grilled to perfection on barbeque, these are excellent when eaten with the Thai chilly sauce as a side.

Deep fried snacks

You will find many deep fried crispy chicken, prawn or fish fingers almost everywhere in Thailand. Cut into bite size pieces and then marinated in typical Thai sauce and then covered in a breadcrumbs or corn flakes, these snacks are a good go to starters. If you like having KFC type deep fried items, you may surely head over to these counters and enjoy your snacks.

Pad Thai Noodles

The iconic Pad Thai noodles are fried noodles of your choice (flat, round, yellow, thin, thick) served with a lot of veggies, bak choy with a dollop of lemon juice with as much crushed peanut as you like on top. This is a complete meal with a explosion of flavors in your mouth. It is awesome when accompanied with iced lemon tea. You can live on it for your entire stay like we did. It used to be our lunch and in dinner we tried different things. It will save you a lot of money. You may chose the meat or eggs you want in it or you may opt for tofu also. It is cheap, starting from 45 THB only depending on where you are having it. It is one of the best dishes in Thailand to definitely try.

Tom Yum Soup

This soup is popular in Thailand and very delicious in taste. Tom basically refers to shrimp in Thai. This soup typically has shrimps or crab meat but you may find chicken versions of it at some places. It is bowl of flavors that you must surely try. It has a high heat level due to its spicy nature but you may request your vendor to tone it down. Lime or lemongrass add the zing to otherwise little spicy flavor of the soup. It is also filling if you are wondering about it.

Shawarma

This is not an indigenous food item of Thailand but its availability will make you feel like it is. Cooked meat is sliced into pieces and pushed into a rotating skewer facing heating coils or burnt coals to further slow cook and evenly char the meat making it crispy while retaining its moistness. This grilled crispy part of the chicken/beef/pork is then sliced from the skewer and chopped some more with some greens and onions before being wrapped in pita bread and served with cheese sauce or any other sauce of your choice. It makes for a perfect snack. If you get the larger size, it can be your dinner/lunch also.

Roast fish

This one thing is very visible along with corn and fruits in Thailand. A whole fish is all covered in salt and then roasted to perfection. It is served with some rice noodles or green herbs. It is very appealing to the eyes and tastes just like a roasted fish. Nothing much going around with flavors here but the simplicity with which it is cooked is itself a culinary delight.

Green Papaya salad

A very fresh, healthy, nutritious yet, flavorful salad. You can have it both with chicken or shrimp or just vegetables. The main flavor comes from the shredded green papaya which lends the tangy flavor along with some lime. You can even customize the ingredients as per your liking. You can expect almost every raw vegetable in it like eggplant, long beans, tomato etc. It is served with a lot of herbs alongside. Altogether it is a healthy vegetarian option. We highly recommend it.

Mango sticky rice

This food as simple as it appears by the name. It is very popular of late in Thailand. A bowl of sticky rice served with ripe mangoes is a perfect meal in itself. Have it as you like it- a dessert or a meal.

Fried rice

A simple fried rice but with more contents than rice. Thai people are very particular about their greens it seems from their food. This is the best option if you cannot digest the local Thai cuisine. A typical old fried rice with tofu or vegetables or meat/seafood. We tried crab fried rice. It was emphatically yummy.

Seafood

Food of Thailand is incomplete without mentioning seafood. Being a coastal country, seafood is one of the most easily available here. You have plenty to choose from shrimps, lobsters, squid, oysters, octopus, different kinds of fishes etc. You may also choose how you would like it cooked- grilled, cooked or tossed.

Coconut Ice cream

Ice cream made of coconut milk. It might appear very plain and arouse no interest in you by the looks. Firstly even we were apprehensive about tasting it. But once you taste it, you will ask for more. The flavor of sweet coconut as a dessert with some jelly on top will satisfy your deepest sugar cravings. Not to mention its soothing effect in the heat.

Ice cream rolls

More than an ice-cream this is a Instagramable event. The vendors or more precisely the creators of this ice cream give you a reel worthy moment of making your ice cream right in front of you. When you choose the flavour of your choice, the vendors splashes some condensed milk and the flavour (fruit if it is a fruity flavour or biscuits or essence) on a chill plate and then with two sharp spatula does his tricks before finally rolling the ice creams and presenting to you. This is more commonplace in many countries now but we first saw it in Thailand.