Bai Gin KHAO!

Hey! So, here is the LONG awaited food-themed post, finally!

After weeks of taking pictures of my food at almost every single meal that I've had in Thailand... I present to you some of the dishes that I'm more fond of - yes, this means that I have definitely filtered/reduced the number of food pictures for your convenience!

So, let's begin!

Maybe you'll recognize some things that are sold in Thai restaurants in the U.S.... or even see the differences between the Thai and U.S. versions... or see things you've never seen before!

• Bai Gin Khao = Let's eat!
• The meat in Thailand is majority PORK, chicken, shrimp, fish - beef is definitely rare!
• Eat with a spoon in the right hand, and fork in the left hand!
• Most of the pictures I took are from my lunches at my school's cafeteria (pssh, I wish U.S. cafeteria's were THIS good!!), and cost only.. usually between 20-40 Baht! SO cheap, considering that 32 Baht = $1 !!!

1. Thin rice noodles with basil, glass tendon, pork meat, pork meat balls, pork liver - this one is with a small amount of pork-broth soup, but, you can always ask for more soup!

2. Some noodle dish (yes, the noodles are hidden underneath all that!) that had some orange-y yellow curry as the topping, with bean sprouts, lime, pickled veggies, and crunchy-fried things on the side. There's probably some meat hidden somewhere in there... ?
3. Stewed pork with veggies, fried garlic, rice, and whatever sour/spicey sauce you want with it!

4. Pad Thai - this, I took from when I went to dinner with my lab-mates at supposedly the BEST Pad Thai restaurant in Bangkok! Meaning... if it's the best in Bangkok, and Bangkok's in THAIland... I'm sure it was the best Pad Thai in the WORLD?? haha! It was definitely good - just letting you know, though, that I put on those extra chili-flakes on my dish! Although most things in Thailand are spicey, they usually have extra spice-containers on the table for you to adjust to your spicey-level pleasure!
5. SOM TAM! - probably my favorite dish, so far, since it's very refreshing but spicey at the same time - Papaya Salad!

To eat Som Tam, people can eat it as it is, with sticky rice on the side (and dip it in the dressing from time to time), or else by mixing rice noodles in it.

Some other variations on Som Tam include... placing a salty (partially cooked) crab in the whole mess of things, just for some salty flavour from the crab!! BE WARNED... do NOT eat the crab, since it's known to be not sanitary (as my friend Mike found out the wrong way, with his stomach acting up all weekend!). Weird why they even put it in in the first place!

6. Fish/Pork balls on sticks - things on sticks are EVERYWHERE (in ball, meat, or sausage form), and you can pretty much get these on any street corner.

7. Some kind of spicy egg noodles...
8. An array of foods... That white wavey thing at the bottom of the picture, as well as the darkish/maroon wavey thing next to it are a type of fungus/mushroom! very yummy and nice texture!
9. Steam cooked snake-head fish!
10. Garlic/shallot/some green herb- fried Snake-head fish!! By far... the best fish I've had!
11. Ground pork with spices and veggies, served with sunny-side up egg and rice.

This kind of thing is definitely very common - rice served with a sunny-side up egg, and some sort of meat on the side.

12. Um.. spicy noodles again?
13. Green curry with fish/pork balls, eggplant (which, are TINY like cherry-tomatoes, and are green, by the way!) with noodles.
14. Pork vermicelli noodles?

I think you can see by this point that if it looks good, I EAT... and don't really question too much what it really is... haha!
15. Pink slightly-sweet-vinegary broth (apparently from fermented tofu??) with flat noodles. Definitely one of my favorite new-finds in Thailand.

16. Pad See Eew
17. Some sort of stir-fried squid with bamboo shoots thing and rice...

So, the story with this is... I was with friends who had eaten a big brunch, but I was definitely hungry. And, being the cheap-o that I am (plus, I like to try new things, even if it seems a little on the risky side??), I definitely prefer street food to sit-down places. So, that's just what I did!

I spotted this lady cooking in a huge wok on the side of the street... went up to her... and was basically like, 'Make me something!' To which... she gave me a pretty blank stare, like, 'who is this FARANG, here!?' ('Farang' = foreigner, also... guava!), and called her friend over, asking me if I can handle SPICY.

To which, I was replied with the general gist of 'I'm READY. BRING IT.'

And so, she started cooking in her wok... showed me a little baggie with squid inside of it (I of course gave the thumbs up!), and... got my 30 Baht lunch, which was superb! yaya!

18. Rice with... some tempura-like-fried veggies, stewed veggies, pork (?), and this nice slightly spicy sauce.
19. North Eastern type food - has a Laos/Vietnamese influence?

• 'Salad' of tomatoes, onion, carrot, and pork w/pepper-corn sausage slices.

• Noodles with the special pork w/peppercorns, fried garlic, a quail egg, tofu

20. Chicken Satay!
21. This interesting hand-rolled leaf thing! I think it was a lotus leaf? Not sure..

But, in any case, you fill the leaf with chilis, dried shrimp, peanuts, shallots, fried pork rinds, ginger, or this mystery-black-sauce that was slightly sweet/fishy?
22. Cashew Chicken
23. Three mixed Salads.. I forgot what they were, one of them was with bittermelon, another with lots of seafood.. ??
24. Vermicelli Salad - 0ne of my other favorite lunches (this one is sold next to my favorite Som Tam lunch place!) Complete with... fake crab meat, sausage, onions, veggies...

Hungry, yet??? :)