Thai Food

Aroy Mak! It translates to “very delicious” and it’s a phrase commonly used when eating Thai food. Native dishes often include things like: chili paste, fish sauce, oyster sauce, lime, sugar, pepper flakes, bean noodles, rice noodles, rice, vegetables, and meat. Some combination of these ingredients usually gives you breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Needless to say, a Thai diet is different than an American diet and it takes some getting used to. In Ngao, there is one shop that serves something other than Thai food. Although they market it as “pizza”, I wouldn’t necessarily call undercooked dough with ketchup, peculiar looking cheese, and crab stick toppings a pizza. So, I think we can agree they only serve Thai food in our town and most food carts and restaurants offer similar dishes. If you’re a foreigner you probably should learn the phrase, “mai ped”, which means “not spicy” because you might start sweating profusely and tearing up; LJ and I can speak from experience.

There are many things that are different about food culture in Thailand, compared to America. As we’ve mentioned before, there is usually food everywhere and people snack and eat all day long. Most mornings at school, teachers flood the office with food like: chicken legs, a freshly grilled fish, fermented fish, a fruit dish with chili peppers, a pineapple, curry with pork, ect. Thai’s don’t eat different types of food for breakfast, it’s usually the same thing they’d eat for lunch and dinner. They eat fruit and vegetables often and they use all of the food resources around them. For example, they eat leafy dark greens that grow in their backyard and these little, bitter-as-hell green things that grow on trees everywhere. They eat flowers from the ground and they’ll say, “CC, sweet, like candy, try, try”. They’re good but it’s not bag of Sour Patch Kids.

Eating a Thai diet has been a big adjustment for me but less of an adjustment for LJ. He is the golden child who devours ant eggs, black chicken eggs, and pork that is 50% meat, 50% fat. I am the pouty princess in the corner who secretly makes PB&J sandwiches when no one is looking. I enjoy a lot of Thai dishes but eating like the small town, country locals is difficult at times. The concept of not wanting to eat something because it’s psychologically upsetting, or “gross” is an unfamiliar idea to them. The only things that they could think of that makes them “uneasy” to eat sometimes was cheese. Oh, the irony.

Below are some local dishes that we (sometimes only LJ) eat. The descriptions are taken from Wikipedia.org.

Namphrik Pla – Fish Chili Sauce– Namphrik pla or fish chili sauce can be a little thick or thin depending on the amount of liquid from the boiling fish one puts in it. Grilled fish can be used instead of boiled fish. Any kinds of fresh chilies can be used from mild to the hottest kinds to suit one’s taste.
2. Kai mod daeng – Ant Eggs – clean and high in protein nutrients. Red ants eat mango leaves so their bodies taste like a squirt of lime, but their fresh eggs are fatty and sweet.
Nam tok – Pork with chilies – made with pork (mu) or beef (nuea) and somewhat identical to lap, except that the pork or beef is cut into thin strips rather than minced.
Som tam – Grated green papaya salad, pounded with a mortar and pestle, similar to the Lao tam mak hoong. There are three main variations: som tam pu with pickled rice-paddy crab, and som tam Thai with peanuts, dried shrimp and palm sugar and som tam pla ra from the northeastern part of Thailand (Isan), with salted gourami fish, white eggplants, fish sauce and long beans. Som tam is usually eaten with sticky rice but a popular variation is to serve it with khanom chin (rice noodles) instead.
Kaep mu- Deep fried crispy pork rinds which often eaten with chili pastes such asnam phrik num but also eaten as a snack on their own.
Khanom chinnam ngiao– Fermented rice noodles with pork blood – A specialty of Northern Thailand, it is Thai fermented rice noodles served with pork blood tofu and raw vegetables, in a sauce made with pork broth and tomato, crushed fried dry chilies, chicken blood, dry fermented soy bean, and dried redkapok flowers.
Khao soi– Curry with chicken legs – curried noodle soup enriched with coconut milk (traditionally a novel ingredient in the cooking traditions of northern Thailand), garnished with crispy fried wheat noodles, and served with pickled cabbage, lime, a chili paste, and raw shallots on the side.
Century Egg – Preserved egg – traditionally a Chinese dish but often eaten in Thailand. Preserving a duck, chicken, or quail egg in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months. Through the process, the yolk becomes a dark green/black with a creamy consistency. Usually eaten with vegetables and rice.
Fruits: tamarind, papaya, jackfruit, mango, rose apples, durian, lychees, coconut
Vegtables: eggplant, long beans, cauliflower, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, tomatoes, cucumbers, Chinese kale, corn, morning glory (leafy green), pennywort, water mimosa, Chinese cabbage, rice paddy herb, yellow burr head, mushroom