Thailand 2011 - The Freshest Foods

This is a post of the best and freshest foods I had on our Thailand trip. Freshest seafood, drinks, and fruits. Enjoy these mouth watering eats!

Squid grilled on a boat at the Amphawa Floating Market. Now this is what I call fresh off the boat! Best squid rings I've ever had plus one of the spiciest but tastiest dipping sauces. I regret not trying the crab and shrimp also.

Steamed clams with dipping sauce similar to above from Siam Paragon Mall food court.  These clams were really sweet and juicy. Quite possibly the best clams I've ever had and the preparation is simply a quick steam.

Starfruit slices in a cup. It can also be blended into a smoothie but I like my fruits whole.

Gooseberry aka chum ruot in Vietnamese. In Google searching the American name of this fruit, I discovered that there is a Vietnamese Wikipedia. These are usually pickled or preserved in a sweet red brine typically eaten around the Lunar New Year. I love the preserved versions and thought that the fresh ones would be just as good. WRONG! They are tart and sour. Oh well, at 33cents for this bag, I didn't waste much money.

Oh how I miss these days of having a fresh coconut with every meal. Every meal. That means every day I had at least 3 coconuts and still wanted more.

Rose apple - Chom poo. This is the fruit of my childhood. I left Vietnam when I was 5 years old and there aren't many memories that I hold vividly, except for the taste of this fruit. Many Southeast Asian fruits can be exported to the US or grown domestically, but due to its perishability, rose apples are not available in the States. I haven't had this in 21 years and one bite reminded me of my childhood in Vietnam. It was reminiscent of the moment in Ratatouille when the food critic takes a bite of ratatouille and is instantly transported back to his youth. 

Needless to say, I bought a whole bunch of fruits and stuffed myself silly in the first day of our trip. Also pictured here in brown is sapoche, which is sometimes available in the US or comes in canned form. And I'm sure most people can recognize the guava in green.

Mangosteen and rambutan. Also available in the US but taste much better in Canada and Thailand.

Crunchy, sour, green mango with spicy salt.

But of course...must have a Thai iced tea. Or in Thailand is it just an iced tea?

Mango and strawberry smoothies. They were good but not outstanding because we were in a touristy spot. Great beach view on our own private lounge area.

So much papaya salad - som tum. A classic staple of Thai cuisine and I never get sick of it. The raw green beans were always so fresh and crunchy. They served it on the side of mostly every dish. I miss the quality and freshness of their produce. I attribute this to not having refrigerators, driving food vendors to constantly purchase fresh produce for their stock. The last one was papaya salad with raw crab and a side of water mimosa and green beans. Really good and unique but it gave Phil his first emergency toilet visit.

Saved the best for last: refreshing green mango salad. So good and of course, a side of green beans!

Thailand 2011 - Huen Phen

When we were in Chiang Mai which is in Northern Thailand, we looked up food recommendations online and both Tripadvisor and the NY Times came up with results for this restaurant, Huen Phen, serving Northern Thai cuisine. It sounded interesting so we took a tuk tuk ride down a dark alley. Nestled in between intimidating buildings where you could get either raped or robbed or both, was Huen Phen.

Once inside, the decor was lovely and welcoming, full of rich Northern Thai culture and history. Most patrons were tourists. Maybe they also did a quick Google search?

Northern Thai style pork curry - no coconut milk. This was an interesting take on curry. It tasted more like soup and definitely packed a strong kick. I really liked the greens in the dish; they were unlike greens I've had in Vietnamese cuisine.

Fried rice served in a folded omelet.Great presentation and as usual, the Thai's really know how to make great fried rice!

A side of steamed rice served in a banana leaf cone

Crispy fried chicken wings. Yahummm....You know I love my chicken wings and these were really good.

Bamboo shoot salad. This was not quite what I had in mind. I thought it would be like a papaya salad but with bamboo. It was more like extremely muy caliente hott stir fried bamboo shoots. I couldn't finish this.

Are you ready for the reveal of the best thing I ate in Thailand?!?!?!

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Nam Prik Num with crispy pork - Ground green chilli peppers with crispy pork, eaten with steamed or raw vegetables. Oh em gee! Someone tell me where I can get this in the California or link me to a recipe. This was the most delicious, unique, and spiciest thing I ate in Thailand. It is very much like Laotian cheo. Phil couldn't handle the spice so I was left alone against this beast. Sure, it may just be a paste in a sauce bowl the size of soy sauce bowls for sushi, but it was powerful and full of fatty porky goodness. Between eating all the vegetables to balance the spice or shoveling mouthfuls of white rice or drinking tons of water or gasping air to soothe my tongue, I gave up halfway through. If we had a reliable means of transportation home or if we weren't leaving the next day, I would have packed the last half to go. Instead, I said goodbye to about a tablespoon full of the best thing in Thailand. sad face...

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Huen Phen was an excellent recommendation. In all other parts of Thailand we visited, the cuisine contained the same types of dishes you would see in American Thai restaurants, albeit more delicious and authentic, but still not uncommon. Chiang Mai, and Huen Phen in particular, showcased a type of Thai cuisine that is not prevalent in mainstream American Thai restaurants. I definitely recommend Huen Phen. The price is very cheap, about $1+ a plate.

Huen Phen on Tripadvisor

Huen Phen on NYTimes

Thailand 2011 - Elephant Trekking

We opted not to book any tours in Thailand and mostly arranged our activities on our own. However, in Chiang Mai we signed up for an elephant trekking tour through our hotel. The tour included an elephant ride, a hike to a waterfall, a stop by a rural Thai village, lunch, and bamboo rafting. I forget the pricing but it was pretty cheap, maybe under $100 per person. I highly recommend tours like this if you go to Thailand. If it matters to you, be sure to research before hand and make sure you're getting a humane elephant camp. Ours was one of the cheaper tours and I don't think they treated the elephants well. Just imagine how they treat them when customers are not around! So try to do some research about the elephant camp you choose.

We sat in pairs atop these precariously placed seats on the elephants.

Baby elephants came along the trek to train for their future careers carrying passengers on their backs. And you think you have the worst job...

The seats were pretty stable but when the elephant climbs up sloped hills, it's pretty scary.

Remember the game Oregon Trail? We're fording the river. There were several stops along the trek where we could buy a bag of bananas for $1 to feed our elephants.

The baby elephants are rolling around in dirt after getting wet from the water. So cute!

Afterwards we took a hike to the Maewang Waterfall where Phil took a cold dip in the water.

I couldn't take any pictures of the bamboo rafting trip but it was super fun. The rafts are made of large bamboo shafts tied together resulting in a long plank. There are no paddles, no gear, and no seats. You just sit on the bamboo raft while a guide stands at the front and steers the raft along with a bamboo pole. Awesome ride!

Thailand 2011 - Thai Cooking Class

One of the activities we had not planned on doing and also didn't know was so popular in Thailand was taking a Thai cooking class. In Chiang Mai, we decided to give this a try and signed up for the Siam Rice Thai Cookery School. Our charming and personable teacher, Nancy, made the whole experience really enjoyable. This was one of my favorite activities of the trip. For about $23 per person, the school picked us up from our hotel and we spent half the day cooking and eating 3 dishes, drinking Chang beer, and also learned to carve a decorative flower carrot.

Here's a video of Phil's turn making cashew chicken stir fry.

His cashew chicken stir fry was pretty tasty. The other ingredients included onions, green onions, carrots, dried chili, and baby corn.

My stir fry dish was chicken with holy basil, green beans, onions, and red chili peppers. Both dishes were delicious.

Nancy also taught us how to carve flowers out of carrots. Phil's flower is in the foreground, and mine in the background. I would say his is more of a sun missing some rays.

Pounding out our own curry paste made of various peppers.

Would you trust these two in the kitchen?

I chose Khao Soy as my curry dish. It was something different that I've never had before. Khao soy is a noodle soup curry with pepper paste, onion, and crispy fried noodle toppings. It was just ok. Not my favorite curry but I was trying to choose something out of the ordinary.

Phil's penang curry was a much better choice and not too spicy either. Very good. I had food envy.

Our dessert course had various coconut milk-based options. Phil chose the sticky rice with young coconut. AMAZING! It's sticky rice with coconut milk and shreds of fresh young coconut which makes it much sweeter. It may just look like a bowl of rice but its so much more.

I made sticky rice with mango which basically uses the same directions as Phil's dish minus the young coconut. A great classic Thai dessert. 

The other couples in our class chose the full day course which included 6 courses. We were already full after 3 courses but everyone else was stuffed beyond capacity. It's definitely a great way to spend the whole day cooking, eating, and socializing. Nancy also gave us a cook book of recipes which we brought back to the States. I can't wait to try some of the recipes. Phil was really dreading this because he thought it sounded boring but now we both agree it was one of the cooler experiences we had in Thailand. I highly recommend doing a course like this if you travel to Thailand.