Food in Thailand

Throughout our entire trip, from Ireland to Thailand, one of the things that I have enjoyed the most was food. My favorite places on this trip have been places with lots of good foods, and the places I disliked had foods I disliked. The best food I have eaten on this trip has been here in Thailand.

Starting with breakfast, it’s been my job to find it myself for a while now. Before we left home I made breakfast. I wasn’t good at it. Joe had his stuff figured out. He took English muffins, toasted them, and fried an egg and bacon in the same pan. Every day he ate this crazy breakfast sandwich while I deliberated on whether I would get my act together and make a fried egg. In Oregon, I woke up to scrambled eggs and bacon, or cereal every day, made by my grandparents. In Ireland, I avoided breakfast as best I could. Beware the Full Irish, it’s scary. You get mealy sausage, chalky eggs, and wilted tomatoes. The only manageable part is the toast. From there, I went through a long phase of eating unique pastries from Croatian borek, to the Sri Lankan roti. It was easy, filling, and quick.

South Gate in Chiang Mai (can you find me?)

In Thailand though, it’s a different story. You see coffee shops opening, restaurants setting up, and street food appearing on the streets. There are a number of things you can eat for breakfast. You can have dinner for breakfast, which I highly advise, of any type, from noodle soup to Thai curry. My personal favorite breakfast is something I hope to eat forever. Though hard to find, there are places that will sell this dish, which is pork, with basil, on rice. And to top the masterpiece, quite literally, is a fried egg. It is by far the best breakfast I have ever eaten, and I feel that I am underselling it.

Lunch is where Thailand falls short. You can, of course, eat noodle soup, but at some point, it’s just too much. We spent our time in Pai, some four hour drive northwest of Chiang Mai eating at the same restaurant almost every day. Pork pad Thai was always among the things we ordered. On one unfortunate afternoon, we ended up eating a banana each, and splitting a mango lime smoothie. Leftovers are also a common lunch, but pork basil and fried egg is just somehow not as good cold.

The true pinnacle of Thai food is dinner. You can have anything from delicious curry and rice, to wondrous bowls of pork noodle soup, to a meal of straight dumplings (I’ve done it). The particular specialty of Chiang Mai is something called Khao Soi, which is a bowl of curryish broth, with a chicken leg floating in it, full of egg noodles, with fried egg noodles and pickled vegetables on top. It is the only food that I can say is delicious, even when I don't personally like it. I know that sounds weird, but it’s just not my thing. Another great option for dinner is gyoza, little fried dumplings, filled with meat or vegetables which are surprisingly filling. In terms of curries, I haven’t been able to find any outside of restaurants, and even then they are hard to find. The ones that I have tried have been delicious, spicy, and very creamy.

Lastly, I have to talk about noodle soup. You can order many different types of soups, broths, meats, and even different noodles. From pork wonton egg noodle soup to tom yum with shrimp and rice noodles. You can have pork, chicken, shrimp or seafood. Egg noodles, glass noodles, or rice noodles. Tom yum broth, clear soup, Khao Soi, or bone broth. I like to get the pork noodle soup with the rice noodles. The pork noodle soup comes with these weird balls of pork tendons, which sounds gross, but is actually satisfying. When you chew them, your teeth feel like knives, and cut cleanly through their slightly jelly-like texture.

As you can tell, I’ve been enjoying the food here in Thailand a lot, so I hope it comes as no surprise that I am about to go eat.

Food in Thailand

What we spent: Thailand

Radical hospitality