The Experience, part 2.

FOOD. If it weren't for the fantastic people, this would be my favorite part of the trip. Wait, it probably was the most incredible part of the trip. I ate Thai food twice a day for a month and wanted more after I left. The unfortunate part is, that as good as the American version of Thai food is, it can't compete with the real thing. I am left wanting.

Thai food is everywhere. That may sound strange but have you ever tried to take a foreign visitor out for typical American food? Where do you go after you have a hamburger? When my friends and I decide on food, we generally narrow down by ethnicity; Italian, Chinese, Mexican, Greek, Thai. Maybe this is mostly a California problem but it sure made me think while we were in Thailand. The alternative to Thai food throughout Thailand is "Western Food" which includes burgers and Italian mostly and from what I hear, if I had looked closer at the menu there would be specialties to Australia, New Zealand and Germany. However, they all looked like impostors and were always found where the tourists were, not as a part of the everyday cuisine of the Thai people. No, if you wanted good food, you went for the local food.

The local food was everywhere. In restaurants that out numbered all other businesses 2 to 1, on the streets in carts, attached to motorcycles, by sellers that board the train and then get off at the next stop and in kitchens that most of us would consider primitive. On a raft with no electricity, two wonderful women cooked us an amazing lunch and dinner while sitting on the floor in the corner of the boat. We ate from a food cart in Ayuthaya, ordering from a young man that I hoped understood my request for no eggs. (He did.) We ate in a restaurant with a tattoo parlor in back and a proprietor that ran next door to get our beers. A family we stayed with made delicious pad thai and wrapped it in banana leaves for us to take for lunch on our trek. Kim and I sat at a small table in a park, where a husband and wife paired up to served us a delicious lunch.

Though the food is delicious, just like any other ethnic food, there are certain dishes that you will always find. Pad Thai and fried rice were everywhere, in street carts and in restaurants. Another popular street food was papaya salad, made from green papayas, chilies, green beans, garlic, tomatoes and dried shrimp. Chicken and fried basil, garlic and chicken, green, yellow and red curries. Tom yam goon was my personal favorite, spicy and sour soup with shrimp, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, mushrooms, tomatoes and, of course, chilies. These are but a few of the many dishes that were always available and delicious no matter where you enjoyed them.

We were lucky enough to have many meals cooked outside of restaurants. During the homestays we experienced typical family meals. There was always rice, and usually 3 other dishes that we ate family style. In the north they used a lot of cabbage and eggs and very little meat. In the south there was more vegetables, more fish and somewhat less spicy. Though that may have been them catering to the delicate western palette. They always cooked us so much more food then we could ever eat, we were always torn between stuffing ourselves to be polite or saving ourselves for dessert, which was always the most wonderful pineapple and watermelon.

So now I am home, to the vast array of foods, and I keep wishing for REAL Thai food again. One of these days I will use the the info I learned in our Chiang Mai cooking class and make something the might actually taste like Thailand.

Thanks for reading.