FOODS & FLAVOURS OF THAILAND-TRAVEL POST

Food is such a vital element of culture, it brings people together and defines a society.Thais have an amazing street food culture and Thais love to snack at all hours of the day and eating is a usual out-doorsy affair.Its impossible to walk 50 meters in any direction without bumping in to a food cart selling some freshly made delicacy.

Thai food is known for its balance of the four fundamental taste senses in each dish sour, sweet, salty, and (optional) bitter.Thai food can be incredibly spicy (a lesson I learnt the hard way).

As any foodie will tell you the way to a traveler's heart is through his/her stomach! With vast range of fruits,vegetables and seafoods available any ardent food lover will be spoilt for choice in Thailand.

Though for a vegetarian the flavors and sights of mind boggling amount of non-veg items (including bugs sold as snacks) could be a shock to the senses & takes some time to get accustomed to.

 

Green Lipped mussels at Nok restaurant in Phuket

The culinary history of Thailand is seeped with the cultural influences of the Chinese and from the 17th century onwards by the Portuguese, Dutch, French and Japanese. Many of the plants,herbs and cooking techniques we strongly associate with Thai cuisine were in-fact introduced to the Thai by Portugese.

Thai food uses lot of sauces and pastes and spices like galngal, lemon grass,kaffir lime leaves to add flavor to the dishes. Roasted peanuts, coconut milk,rice noodles are an integral part of any Thai meal.

Being a tropical country, Thailand enjoys abundant varieties of fruits and flowers (orchids specifically).Fruits like Rambutan,Durian (quite stinky actually!),Mangosteen,Drangon fruit tempt & tease the senses and its a joy to sample them.

I feasted my way in the sois in Sukhumvit in Bangkok.Enjoyed lot of fresh fruits, smoothies at Chatuchak,sampled some unusual desserts (imagine kidney beans in your dessert!) Tucked in some seafood in Phuket (though I'm not a seafood fan ) and enjoyed some multi-cultural dining experience in Phi-phi islands.

Scroll down to check out the food & flavors of Thailand I enjoyed on my recent trip...I just wished I had clicked some more pics of the local cuisine & unique street food I had...

The best Pad Thai I had on my trip was at Nok Restaurant in Phuket. Simple & sublime

Yes I know you are wondering why I'm dining on pasta in Thailand.. well I had a bit too much of the Pad Thai diet and needed a Italian job to distract my tummy

 Now before you think I was hogging like a lil piggy on my holiday well its partially true, but in my defense I was eating 3-4 portions of fruit everyday and also I was walking 5- kms daily and despite all this heavy duty eating I actually shed 3 kgs during my trip. Now that's the way I like to diet ;)

This isn't my plate, its my hubby's. I couldn't muster the courage to chomp on a squid! 

The fish noodle soup that brought me to my knees, I ordered this not really knowing what I was up against. The fiery red hot color should tell you the copious amounts of tears I shed while eating this!

 No I couldn't eat this either

In Phuket like other island cities in Thailand, restaurants put up the freshest catch of the day from the sea on display. You can pick & choose what & how much you'd like to eat of a particular seafood.The restaurant then prepares your selection from your freshly chosen sea food.

I was trying to click pics of the sea food on display above & the restaurant owner sportingly picked up a giant lobster and gave me this priceless pic!

Dessert time-Crepes filled with whipped cream, fruits, chocolates and the works, now this is what my sweet tooth craves!

This is a local version of crepes,with whipped cream and sweetened egg yolk topping,you get these various flavors of cream filling. Sampled this at MBK Mall.

Another dessert-it tasted like lychees in syrup, couldn't make out what the dish is called.

My favorite little icecream chain in Bangkok-Svensons. They have outlets in MBK,Platinum mall & are a must visit.There awesome dessert selection will put even Hagen Daaz to shame!

My mini dessert :)

Hope you enjoyed my travel posts,let me know if you'd like to see pictures of my phi-phi island cruise.

Cheers