Latest food adventures

As most of you know, I love food. Food of all kinds, and usually in large amounts, makes me very, very happy. Sean and I share this addiction (although his can usually be satisfied by Subway and chocolate whereas mine needs spicy Indian curry and naan). Having said this, Bangkok is the perfect place for us.

First of all, the lives of the Thai people seems to revolve around food. At any given moment you can find food vendors lining the streets selling heaps of fresh fruits, BBQ'd meat and seafood, and plates of rice and noodles. This street food is still a mystery to us...my hyper-hygienic requirements have kept us from enjoying these delicacies. Unfortunately I've come to notice that even at most of the "restaurants" the food is cooked outdoors at the back of the building...I try to ignore this fact. Restaurants and food courts are also everywhere (and constantly busy)!

Second, the way the Thais (and most Asians, I think) eat at restaurants is amazing. I love the concept of ordering a big variety of dishes to be placed in the center of the table and shared by everyone. Even when it's just Sean and I we're able to get a good sample of food to taste-test.

On Friday we went to an incredible restuarant, The Mango Tree. This place is considered a higher-end establishment and seems to be popular among visiting tourists but we still managed an amazing meal plus beer for just over $30. Love. It. Of the dishes we ordered our two favorite were the spicy duck salad and red vegetable curry. Mmmmmm. And just yesterday we found out that the salad is actually a traditional Northern Thai dish called Larb. We ordered "Larb" at a different restaurant last night (trying to be adventurous) and a pork version of the salad appeared at our table! Very exciting ;)

This weekend we also had lunch at an International Food Court, which is one of my new favorite things. Basically the concept is similar to the Marche in Toronto (anyone who visited me while I was living there definitely ate at the Marche) except here the different stations of food represent different ethnicities. There's Indian and Korean and Japanese and Thai and Italian and Muslim and ... well basically everything possible! It is soooooo good.

Well that's the update from my stomach :) I'm sure you'll be hearing more about food in the coming months!

Cheers,
M

p.s. as a side note, the service here is amazingly fast...when the server hands you a menu he or she generally hovers near the table until you're ready to order (which, when you're not used to it, can be annoying...especially when you need some time to interpret the broken-English menu!). Then once you've ordered, your food is generally on the table within 5-10 minutes. Throughout the meal the servers will practically run to your table to pour you a drink if they notice your glass is empty; don't even think of pouring it yourself, because that will cause an onslaught of apologies from the embarrassed waiter or waitress. The only problem arises when you're ready to actually pay. For some reason they seem to disappear when you've finished eating, as if they just don't want you to leave. Although, we're starting to think that it may just be considered rude for them to appear with the bill without being asked - most of the locals we've seen will indicate that they are ready to pay with a wave of the hand or snap of the fingers. We'll have to get over our fear of being rude, I guess.