Thai Food Tips And Stories
(Day time or Night time food is always available in Thailand especially fun food)
Thai Fun Food
If you have ever been to Thailand you would not failed to have notice the constant smell of food coming from the
endless restaurants, stalls and food vendors as you go on your travels. As you pass by with the delicious smelling
aromas still nestling in your nostrils, you will not have to walk very far before more food is encountered.
The Thai will ask you ”Gin khao reu yang” basically meaning (”eaten rice yet”). It is probably more popular as a form
of hello than the Sawatdii greeting itself. The Thai will probably not really want to know if you have had any rice yet
as such, but if not you could then continue the conversation over a bite to eat. All good conversations in Thailand go
far better with a bite to eat.
Thai people absolutely love their snack foods and these are essentially good when you are too short on time to sit in
a restaurant, just a little bit hungry or just simply that your favourite vendor is displaying your favourite delicious treat
that you cannot resist. The Thais call this sort of food ” khoong gin len” loosely translated as play eating or fun food.
Fun food is available day and night from markets to side road (soi’s) vendors. The beauty of snack food is that the
majority of it can be lanced with a skewer or a stick, also termed as ”dinner on a stick and you are instantly vanishing
those hunger pains.
To be honest you can walk out of your humbled abode in Thailand and be in touch with food within minutes and more
often than not less than a minute and the array of snack foods on offer are amazing. I was thinking to myself that if I
was in England I would first have to take the car out to find a near snack stop and the only thing mounted on a stick
is likely to be a fire work. You may however spot those small sausages on sticks and the pineapple and cheese on a
stick at parties, which is more like ”sad food” than fun food as it looks so darn dreary. You can of course cover your
face in candy floss when at the fair as I recall as that comes mounted on a stick, but more often than not I give things
in England a wide berth that are mounted on sticks.
Lost In Translation (written by Trevor Bide)
A long time ago now in about 1987/88 I was staying in a Bangkok hotel and had been given the responsibility to look
after our 10 month old daughter Jennifer whilst my wife went back to Nakhon Sawan on family business. My wife
caught the bus about 5am and intended to be back in Bangkok by about 8pm that evening.
Fantastic it is now party time, I would take our daughter out and we will see the sights of Bangkok. It was like around
Bangkok in 6-7 hours with tuk-tuk after tuk-tuk stopping off in China town, Khaosan road commonly known as
backpackers paradise, The Wat Phra Kaew Grand Palace, Silom road where you will find a branch of Jim Thompson’
s legendary high quality Thai silk. In between times I managed to find time for a noodle stop and a couple of
beers….. very important.
Now doing all this carrying a baby and loaded with baby drinks, nappies whilst trying to take out money to pay tuk-tuk
drivers in the April Bangkok heat is not recommended. The nappy bit is especially not recommended. I returned to
the hotel absolutely shattered and even Jennifer went straight to sleep. However a couple of hours kip, we were
ready for a new adventure and feeling rather hungry.
In those days I merely dabbled with the odd words in Thai, but was at least really keen to learn, but unfortunately do
you ever get those times where you think you are better at something than you actually are. I was about to have one
of those times.
I picked up the hotel menu thinking me and young Jennifer after all our travels deserved a nice treat and began to
read through the dishes. I ignored the 4-5 dishes like club sandwich, pancakes and the like, which were written in
English and thought we would go Thai. The Thai dishes were in Thai script which back then I certainly did not
understand, but hey ho I had a fine dictionary which I could translate with.
The hotel was very Thai with limited English which I much prefer anyway as on one account it feels so much more
traditional and on the second account always far kinder on the wallet. I personally hate going some where to stay in a
hotel with masses of other westerners ”might as well be in bloody Blackpool”
I began to translate some dishes, but this was very painful and at least an hour before I had any idea of what 3 – 4 of
the dishes might be. I also had to take care on what I might be choosing for a 10 month old, who was still at this point
contented in spite of my long absence with the menu and dictionary.
Finally enough was enough and I picked up the phone and in my best Thai began ordering from the menu a couple
of chicken dishes with vegetables, a fish dish, a tom yum soup and some rice, yes very balanced. Feeling rather
pleased with myself I was surprised to receive complete silence at the other end. Again I said hello and he said hello,
so I knew he was there, that was a start.
I said in Thai order food ”sang ahaan” and he said yes, so I gave him the list again in my best Thai of course and this
time at the end he just said yes sir, ok sir. It left a very smug me thinking no problem this language speaking
business.
After a wait of about 30 minutes the smugness had died down about my language ability (as I was thinking he
probably thought a nutter was on the phone to him and did not understand a word, so just said yes sir and put the
phone down) and I was contemplating going out to get something before we both died of starvation, when a knock at
the door occurred.
I shall never forget the shock I received on opening the door. There were two trolleys full up with food as the service
team of which there were 3 of began bringing in the dishes one by one and placing them on the table. I remonstrated
that they had the wrong room, but they showed me the list they had with my room number on it.
There was various chicken dishes, rice, green curry and a massive soup that was still attached to a hot plate with fish
jumping about in, a mound of stir fried vegetables, beef and pork dishes and it just kept coming. I just looked on
open-mouthed as it was a banquet with just myself and a 10 month old baby attending.
On trying to tell them that this could not be mine I did happen to identify a couple of dishes that I tried to order and
the soup, but the rest remain a mystery. As it happens the bill was not actually that bad as I was worried I might be
washing up over the next week to pay it off. The worst thing was the look on the faces of the staff. They never said
anything, but you knew they were thinking ” you and a baby are going to eat all that”
Reflecting on my conversation with the gentleman on the phone I was left with the Basil Fawlty line in my head off of
Fawlty Towers. When Manuel did not understand the Spanish from Fawlty, Fawlty suggests that Manuel must have
picked up some strange dialect as Fawlty himself had learnt classical Spanish. I too put it down to the strange dialect
the gentleman had picked up.
The real reason of course was that I should have ordered two club sandwiches in English, it would have saved a
couple of hours as well.
On paying and bidding the nice service team goodbye we sat ready to eat and thinking ” how the hell are we going to
eat all this”. I informed Jennifer that a healthy appetite was in order, but she just played with a bit of rice and smiled
like normal.
Ten minutes into the banquet and my wife returns with the question of why all this food. I tell her the long story
which she finds highly amusing ” ha ha I say”. I am full I can eat no more and still there is lots of food left. My wife has
her turn and after a while can eat no more either, but there is still so much food left. Like a normal woman and on
seeing that the situation is hopeless my wife now gives me an ear bashing for ordering so much. Like it was intended
I think to myself, but cannot be bothered to blurt it out.
My wife walks in to the corridor and starts talking to two of the cleaning ladies relaying to them the story, within
minutes the ladies are in our room sat down to dinner with still an array of dishes at their disposure. After a good
feast the two ladies leave giving respectful wai’s, but it is not long before a further 3 cleaning or hotel ladies come in
and continue with the banquet.
Finally after 7 adults and one 10 month old baby had finished feasting the food was very nearly gone. Talk about
over ordering. I am pleased to say my Thai is better now, but at least it gave all the staff that came into contact with
me during that process great laughter and amusement unlike the normal mundane and hard shift of an evening, plus
a meal was included.
The thing I really would have liked is for the people who served the dishes to come back and collect everything with
nothing left, but one man and a 10 month old baby sat there with very full stomachs. That would have been superb to
see their faces.
For more information on having Thai Gourmet over to provide Thai catering for your South-West of England event
please click on the link below
http://www.engagingthailand.com/thaigourmetupdatepage.html
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