Food 1
This page is about tradition eating of Thai Regional Food. Please enjoy reading..........
Thai food of the north, in some way, is cooked with the sole thought for the taste for the northern people. The recipe consists of vegetable and ingredients available in their immediate vicinity. The common meal includes steamed glutinous rice, chili sauces which come in a host of varieties, such as "namprik noom", "namprik dang", "namprik ong" and chili soups (gang) such as gang hangle, gang hoh, gang kae. In addition there are also, local sausages such as sai ua, and nham; steamed meat, roasted pork, pork resin, fried pork, fried chicken and vegetable to go with them.
The northern people have penchant for medium cooked food with a touch of salty tastes almost to the exclusion of sweet and sour tastes. Meat preferred by the northern people is pork followed by beef, chicken, duck, bird etc. Sea food is the least known on account of the remoteness of the northern region from the sea
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People who hawk food in Thailand, otherwise known as street
vendors, can be found in the quietest and sleepiest of neighbourhoods as well
blocking the busiest of sidewalks. Their stalls can let off aromas that will
make your stomach smile in anticipation or cause you to gag. Most any visitor to
Thailand has survived the unforgettable experience of having the fumes from
freshly cooked chili rising from a hawker stall causing profuse eye watering.
Hawker stalls are basically transportable restaurants that range in size. Hawker
food and all of the apparatus and the vendors that go with it represent one of
the most colourful and inventive sides of Thailand.
Rows of aluminum pots, frying pans and
woks on top of charcoal or gas stoves, mortars and pestles, glass showcases
displaying pre-cooked food or raw ingredients, clay pots, and bamboo containers
are but a few ways food may be presented and stored for potential customers.
From a five-baht snack to a forty-baht main meal, hawkers ensure that everyone
manages to find something for most any craving and most any budget. With
relatively unsophisticated equipment, Thai hawker stalls do a spectacular job
turning out food, and lots of it.
Some street stalls offer small tables and plastic chairs for customers to
dine at while others just hand off the food in plastic bags and leave it to the
diners to find a place to eat it at. The major areas of hawker food include main
meals served with rice, noodles of every shape and size, snacks and more snacks,
deserts and refreshments.
Sit for five minutes on a busy street
corner and see what kind of food is for sale or passing you by. Roasted eggs,
flour pancakes, papaya salad, barbequed chicken, fish balls, dried squid, fried
crab in curry, dumplings, roasted potatoes, boiled bananas in coconut syrup,
fried rice, grilled meatballs, palm cakes, and fresh fruit might be just a few
things that you'll spot. And that is not including the refreshment options also
readily available. Coke, fruit juice, herbal ice tea, sugar cane juice, not to
mention beer and whisky, are but some. An often-overlooked aspect of the hawker
food service is the very small and frequently mobile bar set up near a group of
hawker stalls. Small pick-up trucks, tuk tuks and pushcarts are cleverly
converted into watering holes and offer the cheapest drinks in town.
Although some may be skeptical to try hawker food due to the sometimes
unsanitary conditions associated with it, the best idea is to give the hawker
stall a look over. Truth said, some of the food preparation areas in well-known
restaurants could be even more disastrous even though (and perhaps due to the
fact that) they are usually out of view.
Street eating generally includes having to ask for your meal from the person
who is going to cook it and paying for it on the spot if it is busy. If there is
a table available, take it. It is typical to wipe off your dining utensils and
plate with a tissue before you start eating. Condiments including soy sauce,
dried chili, chilies in vinegar, sugar, and fish sauce are usually provided.
When you are finished, someone will come around and clear the table, so no need
to worry. You can bring your own drinks along with you if you wish.
There
is no cheaper or easier way to sample the amazingly wide variety of food that
Thailand has to offer. Another benefit is that if you don't speak Thai, you can
simply point at what you wish to try, an option obviously not available at
formal sit down restaurants with no English menu. It is also a good idea to ask
around and find out where the best hawker stall(s) in the area are located. It
is not at all uncommon to find people going five, ten or twenty blocks out of
their way in order to enjoy a meal at one.
Eating is perhaps Thailand's number one pastime. This is obviously a
well-known fact to those in the hawker business. It is not uncommon while you
are already eating at a hawker stall to have another hawker come up on foot and
offer you even more food. Hawkers also make their ways through public parks,
traffic jams, office buildings, factories and sporting events. There is just so
much food passing by all the time and it all manages to get eaten!
Hawker food helps guarantee that no matter what time of day or night, the
chance of you having to walk around hungry in Thailand is small and makes a hot
dog stand look quite boring indeed.
Learn more | http://www.bangkokpost.net/kat/archives/281002a.html |