Thai food

One of the best things about visiting Bangkok had to be eating good (and real!) Thai food. We love Thai food (who doesn't) and we miss not having a good selection of Thai restaurants in Basel. Like everything else in Bangkok, we were constantly amazed at how cheap it was for us to go out for a good meal. Relative to Switzerland everything is cheaper in other countries, but this was even compared to the US. And we weren't eating in "budget" restaurants by any means. But it became clear to us that there were plenty of places (eg. street carts) to eat that were much cheaper, and that seemed to be where most Thai ate. The street carts were unlike anything I've seen any other place we've traveled. They're more like mini-restaurants, with full cooking facilities, portable tables and stools, and big buckets of water for washing the dishes. Most of the time, I couldn't even figure out what people were cooking or eating at these street carts, and unfortunately Kirk and I were not brave enough to provoke our delicate systems with food cooked on the streets when we weren't confident about sanitary conditions. Call us crazy, but sometimes we're just wimpy Americans. Then again, when it's 90 degrees and incredibly humid, the last thing I'd want to do is sit on the sidewalk and eat a bowl of hot noodles or soup!

Here are a couple carts that were set-up just outside our hotel.





The weekend market at Chatuchak was also filled with literally hundreds of food stalls. Here's just one example.



I discovered a new favorite Thai dish, and I'm amazed that I've never seen it in any Thai restaurant in the US. In two different restaurants in Bangkok it was served to us as a complimentary appetizer, so I'm guessing it's popular. It's called miang kham. You fix your own little wraps (not sure what kind of leaves they used) with some kind of sauce, and little pieces of toasted coconut, dried shrimp, lime, onion, ginger, and peanuts. I didn't choose to use the chiles because, again, I'm a wimp. It's yummy! Here's what it looks like.



Now we're back in Basel, and we can only dream about the next time we'll get to have Thai food again!