Thailand Family Holidays
Thailand Food
Rural Thai still eat pretty much everything such as strange vegetables unusual animals, snakes blood and that old favourite bug’s.. in some area’s of Bangkok and other tourist towns you can see examples of street vendors selling a large selection of mostly deep fried insects such as meal worms, cockroaches and crickets if you are so inclined give it a go some westerners say they taste surprisingly good!
For the more mainstream in Thai cuisine there is an endless choice of dishes and places to eat, roadside stalls offering ‘street food’ are everywhere offering every kind of cooked and uncooked foods, many are mobile attached to motorbikes to spread the possibility of convenience eating as wide as possible. The safety of street food seems to be surprisingly very good, this is probably because Thai’s are natural very clean and tidy people and that hot food is usually heated to a high temperature in cooking.
Small cafes line the streets usually with indoor and outdoor seating on tiny plastic stools or chairs that somehow withstand the weight over your average Texan. These eating places offer a wider selection than the stalls that tend to specialize in one thing, but they too are basic and cheap with a large assortment of different items, many have a menu in English
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Considering how slim your average Thai person is eating is an absolute obsession they eat multiple times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner would be a starvation diet to a 90lb tiny Thai lady. The obvious difference is what they eat, although all the ‘bad’ western foods are gaining popularity especially with young urban Thai’s, traditional eating habits will be around for a long time to come.
Some also have a small western menu, again try whatever youfancy many items will be indicated with chili added and can be hot, many come without chili as all condiments are brought to your table separately for you to add to taste. Prices vary but 30-50-70 Bht is a good guide.
Restaurants
Like any other cuisine in the world Thai foodvaries from the basic to five star as do the restaurants, all varieties of regions and styles can be easily found, a reasonable establishment will probably offer western food such as steaks as well as a large selection of Thai dishes, western food tends to be significantly more expensive than local offerings. 200-800
Quality and price do not strictly follow the kinds of unofficial rules we have in the west, the fancier the décor does not necessarily mean fancier prices the more basic amenities does not always mean cheaper or inferior quality, some of the best food can be found at a mediocre looking establishment.
Good healthy eating comes naturally with fresh vegetables, loads of fresh fruit, small amounts of meat, most of it not red, some chicken small amounts of rice, fish, grains, lots of soups, fresh fruit drinks, a little sweet food such as little cakes and lots of water.
Teenage Thai girls are more likely to be seen walking down the street snacking on a piece of melon than a bag of potato chips, so eating healthily is certainly an option finding dishes you like may be a matter of trial and error but the variety is huge and the cost is low so you can certainly try lots of new things.
Many people eat out every night at these stalls and only have stomach upset at the same rate they would in the west, so this should not be any concern, the variety of food is huge everything from tiny snacks to soups to barbeque chicken, Thai pancakes, fruit, noodles the selection is just endless no matter what anyone advises the only way find out what its like is to try it, most dishes cost 20 -30,Bht so if you don’t like it pick something else.
Seafood is probably the best food to be found in Thailand, always fresh (often still swimming) reasonably priced, usually by weight, and beautifully prepared. Lots of exotic looking fish, gigantic shrimp/prawns, lobster and shellfish can all be picked by you and cooked to order.
Western Food
Most types of western food can be reasonableeasily located in