Thai food is known for its balance of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy notes (we learned that in our cooking class)! They use lots of fresh herbs and spices like lemongrass and basil.
Thai street food is available all day every day and is really good and also very cheap which make it a symbol of Thai culture and a cornerstone of the local economy. There is a wide variety of dishes, such as stir-fries, grilled skewers, curries, Pad Thai, Som Tum (papaya salad), Chiang Mai sausage, and Mango Sticky Rice. It’s unbelievable the number of options.
Pineapple fried rice - stir-fried rice dish that incorporates chunks of pineapple, along with other ingredients like eggs, vegetables, and shrimp. It is served in a hollowed-out pineapple shell. It was really good!
Sweet corn and cheese - This was our very first street food. It is a simple dish where sweet corn is mixed with cheese, butter, coconut cream and some Thai spices. What's not to love in that!!
Sai Oua - Also known as Chiang Mai sausage. It is grilled pork sausage from northern Thailand that, in addition to herbs and spices, also contains red curry paste. Grady loved this stuff... I think we stopped at some random stand just about every day for him to get some!
Roti - A super thin crispy, flaky flatbread that is made from a dough, which is stretched thin, buttered and cooked on a griddle similar to a crepe. It can be topped with various toppings. They do a lot of dessert options, but my favorite was egg and cheese with other veggies if available (spinach and spring onion). I LOVED these things!!
Hiroshima okonomiyaki - a layered dish made with a thin crepe, cabbage, noodles, and egg, topped with a sweet and savory sauce. I would have liked it better without the sauce which I thought was too sweet.
Takoyaki - Made with a batter, filled with shrimp, and cooked in a molded pan to form a ball shape and then topped with dried seaweed. I thought they were ok... a little too doughy, but not bad.
Green curry with chicken, and Spicy chicken soup with sweet basil - Grady's food from our cooking class. Both had chili peppers for spiciness and Grady said they were both so good.
Shrimp fried rice and vegetable spring roll - Very traditional Thai foods. I made these myself in our cooking class and I even picked the purple flowers/garnish from the garden! And I must say, it was really stinking delicious!
Curry paste - We made these from scratch in our cooking class, and it was kind of a lot of work. We made red, green, Panaang, Massaman, and Khao Soi. The basic ingredients all of them was chilies, lemongrass, galangal, garlic, and shallots. Then some additions were made for the different variations. And we smashed and smashed until it became a paste.
Stir fried chicken with cashews and spring roll - Very traditional Thai foods. Grady made these himself in our cooking class and even picked the purple flowers/garnish from the garden! He said it was really stinking delicious!
Coconut pancakes - She poured a batter made of mostly coconut milk into the little round pans then added chives or corn to each. Once it was cooked, she put two together to form a round ball and let it cook together. These were so simple and SO yummy!
Hashimaki - a savory pancake made by wrapping the batter, along with cabbage and other ingredients, around a pair of chopsticks and is then topped with sauces. I think Grady got his with bacon and cheese. He said it was good.
Orinji grilled mushrooms - These things were HUGE! About 6 inches long, and frankly a little phalic looking! Once they were chopped and grilled they were much less disturbing! They topped them with teriyaki sauce, sesame seeds, and dried seaweed. They were ok... I was wishing he would have grilled them a bit longer.
Shrimp spring rolls - These were SO good. We had dinner one night at a Michelin rated restaurant and had these for our appetizer
Iced orange americano - a popular drink in Thailand, made with local Thai coffee beans and orange juice and garnished with pretty little flowers and a large piece of ginger. Super yummy!
Thai rice soup with fish - probably not of explanation needed. We had it for breakfast on a food tour. It was really goof!
Khao Kriap Pak Mo - Steamed rice-skin dumplings that are delicate and translucent. They are typically filled with a savory mixture of minced chicken, shrimp, peanuts, and turnip. Ours were vegetarian. They were delicious! You wrap them in a lettuce leaf and dip them in a sauce to eat. They were delicious!
Tod Mun Pla - Thai fried fish cakes which are a popular appetizer or street food. They are made from a mixture of minced white fish, red curry paste, and herbs like kaffir lime leaves then deep-fried. They are served with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce and cucumber. Yum!
Khanom Jeen Nam Ya - Thai fermented rice noodles with fish curry. It features fresh, thin, slightly fermented rice noodles topped with a fish-based curry sauce and served with a variety of fresh vegetables and herbs.
Lod Chong bubble tea - a Thai dessert drink made with green rice flour jelly noodles, sweet coconut milk, coconut water, and palm sugar syrup. You drink it through a fat straw and the noodles come through the straw in little chunks almost like tapioca. Very weird, but not bad!
BBQ banana served with coconut caramel sauce. Dang these things were GOOD!!
A couple vegan dishes from our food tour - Tom Yum soup - a broth with aromatics like lemongrass, galangal, chili, and lime juice along with mushrooms and bok choy. The second plate is stir fried vegetables and tofu with chili jam and stir fried shitake mushrooms. I didn't love the stir fried veggies because I thought the chili jam was too sweet. Everything else was surprisingly good!
Pomelo spicy salad with crispy fish - This was an interesting (and really good) dish. Pomelo is the largest citrus fruit, native to Southeast Asia. It is larger and sweeter than grapefruit, with a mild, sweet-tart flavor. This salad had chunks of pomelo along with crispy fried fish, tomato, red onion, and a dressing made of fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, and chili.
Spicy watermelon salad - Along with the watermelon, they add fish sauce, lime juice and fresh chilies to get the Thai elements (salty, sour, and spicy). I think they add chilies to pretty much everything! You have to be careful! It also had mint and tomatoes and Thai basil. It was really good!
Pad Thai - Arguably the most famous Thai noodle dish. It is a stir-fried dish made of thin, flat rice noodles, scrambled egg, bean sprouts, and garlic chives. The distinctive flavor comes from a sauce made with tamarind paste, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic, shallots, and palm sugar. It is served with fresh lime wedges, crushed roasted peanuts, and chili flakes.
Desserts from the market - bottom right is steamed tapioca with grated coconut made by steaming grated cassava root (similar to sweet potato) until tender, then coating it with grated coconut. The final product is chewy (a bit like Turkish delight). It was weird. I don't remember what the second dessert was, and the pineapple made the photo because the way it was cut was so cool!
Some street food we did NOT try!!!
More street food we did NOT try!