Eats and Treats in Thailand

Our trip to Thailand in December was one of the best trips of my life. We got to stay for just under three weeks which was the longest trip we’ve ever taken. I loved that we had time to really explore the different parts of Thailand and to see the different foods, people and landscapes throughout the country. If you know me at all, you know I love food so that was one of the best parts.

The food in Thailand was consistently amazing so there are few good or bad standouts in mind. It was all great and very reasonable. Dewey and I enjoyed everything while Evan mostly stuck to western offerings. While I would have loved him to become more adventurous, it was easy to find things he would eat and enjoy at the restaurants where Dewey and I could enjoy Thai favorites.

While we had a few really great dinners in two of the really nice hotels we stayed in, what I really enjoyed was eating in the markets and open air restaurants. So without further ado, here are some of what we ate on our trip.

High End Restaurant Eats in Thailand

When we stayed at the Rayavadee Resort in Railay, we ate at their restaurant Krua Phranang twice. While I enjoyed the food immensely, I wish we had been a bit braver about exploring Railay and finding other restaurant options. Lesson learned in Thailand: A street that looks like a dead end most likely turns a corner and leads to restaurants and shops you have no idea existed. Unfortunately, we learned that on our last day there. Our favorite dish is pictured above. It was a whole fish, fried and covered in a curry made with ginger and tamarind.

Our other high end restaurant meal was also at our hotel. We prefer not to dine at the restaurants in the hotels where we stay but sometimes it makes sense after a long day exploring. Na Aroon, the restaurant at Ariyasom Villa in Bangkok is vegetarian plus seafood. We really enjoyed their seafood dishes but the standout for me was their Pomelo salad. It was crisp and refreshing with the tang of the pomelo, the spice of chilies and the crunch of fried onions. I plan to try to make this at home.

Casual Restaurant Eats in Thailand

I won’t be able to link to the casual restaurants where we ate because I rarely wrote them down. Most were open air and had restaurant cats or dogs that would come and visit while you ate.

Green curry noodles with chicken are one of my favorite dishes that Raweewan used to make at our house so of course I had to order it in Thailand.

Massaman curry is one of our favorite Thai dishes. In North America, it usually is served with beef but rarely in Thailand. This is Massaman Chicken. It was delicious!

Everyone’s favorite Thai dish is pad thai. We ate quite a bit while we were there but we tried to branch out a bit more.

We had this delicious spread at the giant weekend market in Bangkok. Fresh corn salad, fish cake, noodles and chicken wings. Everything was fresh and delicious.

Evan had french fries at almost every meal. I can’t say that I blame him because Thai restaurants serve fries the way they should be served….super crispy.

Food Stall Eats in Thailand

One of our favorite food stall treats was a roti. It is fried on a street cart and then covered in condensed milk. It is like the outside of a donut but better. So good.

In the strange but tasty category is Thai Sweet Sticky Rice with Dried Fish. It was weirdly good. Sweet and salty with a hint of fishy taste in a tiny palm cup that you squeeze into your mouth.

Evan loved that sweet treats were EVERYWHERE and were often quite inexpensive (which made me more apt to say yes to buying them). On this evening, he was enjoying root beer flavored cotton candy at the night market in Chiang Mai.

Another sweet and salty treat were these rice pancakes filled with coconut cream and sprinkled with course sugar called Kanom Krok. Evan ate these every single time they were offered.

In the past, I have been a bit shy of “street meat” but we tried these noodle filled sausages on a tour. I must admit that they were really tasty and I would have them again.

One thing that we noticed is that food vendors spring up in the unlikeliest of places. All they need is a flat surface and a customer. We saw food trucks made out of pipe and a bicycle or a folding table stuck by the train tracks. My favorite, though, was this fan tail boat restaurant. They sold a little bit of everything including cold beer on the beaches of Railay.

The Worst

Ok, I know i said that none of the food was bad. I lied. The food that we got while traveling was generally the pits. This was breakfast on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Soggy white bread, loads of mayo, one slice of ham and tomato. Throw in 4 pringles, two oranges and ketchup and call it a meal. Blech.

Now that I’ve run through all of that, I am missing Thailand like crazy and wishing I was returning sooner rather than later. I have loads more pictures but since this post is already really long, those will have to wait for another day.

So which dish do you wish you could try?