salivationstation1-blog

[salivationstation1-blog]

Dinner: March 19th, 2015

Inside Erawan National Park, there is a strip of restaurants alongside the parking lot beside the Information Center. It consists of around 6 or 7 “stalls” that you can walk into and order food. They are open air and usually consist of dogs running around, little kids playing in the dirt in front of the store front, and haggling women attempting to draw us into their restaurant. The first night of camping, we decided to pay a visit to stall 2. I ordered tom yum jae (vegetarian). What I love the most about tom yum is that it comes with like 1923809 different variations. Sometimes when I order veggie tom yum it comes with a red, creamy brother and other times it comes with a clear, lemongrass broth. This time I got the latter.

I’M LOVIN THOSE VEGGIES. The only thing I didn’t like about this was the addition of one of the weirdest inventions of all time: egg tofu. It’s squishy and feels like a booger and doesn’t taste much different and generally comes in weird tubes where you have to push pop it out. It’s a mostly disturbing process. The soup was 80 baht (~$2.75). A little more expensive than normal street food prices but that’s what to expect in places of tourism as well as restaurant settings in Thailand. WOO BABY LOOK AT THAT TOMATO.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Lunch: March 19th, 2015

This weekend a group of us decided to go to Erawan National Park, a beautiful mountain range about 3 hours northwest of Bangkok and a 5 hour trip in total to get to our camping site. On the way, we stopped by in Kanchanaburi (the city) before hopping on a bus into the park. While in the city, we took a walk and somehow happened upon this wild buffet style Thai restaurant right on the river bank. I can’t say the same for the food but it was really, really beautiful.

For a whopping 200 baht (~$7), we all got unlimited access to a wide array of ridiculous foods. At least we enjoyed the novelty of it all.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Dinner: March 17th, 2015

Every once in a while our little group of 15 Americans decides to throw a pizza party. Maybe it’s the fact that we yearn for the days of $2 New York sized slices or maybe it’s because it’s hilarious to order pizza in Thailand and receive over 100 packets of ketchup per pie. Nevertheless, we enjoy it all the same. Thailand’s resident pizza chain is called The Pizza Company (~*so creative*~). For the entire month of March, they held a buy-one-get-one-free promotion campaign for those who ordered their food. OOO BUDDY DID WE EVER.

For pizza that costs over $15 for two toppings and eight slices, a BOGO deal was every college-kid-studying-abroad-in-Bangkok’s dream. Thus ensued the frequent pilgrimage to Kathleen and Elva’s room to invite our Thai friends over and partake in the complicated tango of gathering people’s orders and organizing money. I got the Chicken Caldo pizza, Thailand’s ridiculous attempt at emulating the Italian’s (of which I am intimately familiar with). This was the final decision that solidified my departure from the vegetarian lifestyle. I cannot speak for my future self in three months when I return to the States, but I honestly think that I would not have had the experiences that I have experienced had it not been for my willingness to eat meat. I still hate eating it all the time for moral, health, and sustainability reasons, but, when in Rome... My pizza was topped with chicken, hot peppers (which ended up tasting more like bell peppers), and pineapple. I’m not sure when pineapples were inducted into the ingredient list of common Italian cooking, but I’ll give the Thais an A for effort, especially since the pizza tasted DOPE.

The overall cost was much more digestible than the normal 500 baht (~$17) at 250 baht (~$8) for an entire pie and since eating cold pizza before class is a favorite past time of mine, I thought it was entirely worth it. Kudos, Thailand, kudos.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Dinner: March 14th, 2015

For dinner at English Camp, we went to a fresh food market and bought ingredients to cook on camping stoves for the night. We were supposed to cook within our groups and ours decided that the Americans would cook American food and the Thais would cook Thai food and we would teach other how to cook either dish. Caroline and i decided to cook spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce from tomatoes, ground chicken, onions, garlic, and fresh basil. It turned out DOPE. Our Thai buddies cooked a traditional Thai dish of a thai omelet with some kind of stringy green vegetable in it and a whole deep fried fish on the side. Then after finishing our dishes, we all served up 8 portions, kept one of each for ourselves, and put the rest on the center table so all the other groups could try it. Then we took one of each dish from the other groups. A big ole switcheroo. Here’s the product: 

[salivationstation1-blog]

Lunch: March 14th, 2015

Over the weekend, we were commissioned by the International Office to accompany a bunch of KMUTT freshmen to English Camp to help them learn English as well as learn about Thai culture. We stopped at a Floating Market in Ayutthaya to shop and eat lunch. Our Thai buddies helped me order some chicken noodles (that’s about the extent of what I knew about the dish when ordering it). It turned out to be a very different variation of Tom Yum with chicken, fish balls, and noodles. It was delicious and weird as the broth was some of the best I’ve ever had but biting into a fish ball or taking a bite of weird meat was not very enjoyable.

The wontons and basil were a nice touch. And it was only 20 baht ($0.60).

Our Thai buddies kept buying us more and more food so we could experience more of Thai culture. They bought us Moo (Pork) Satay, which is amazing by the way, and I ate a lot of it.

it’s pork skewers with peanut sauce and cucumbers, peppers, and onions in vinegar to dip in. DELICIOUS. I have no idea the cost because they bought it for us.

THEN. THEN. I decided that it was time to try the weird hair looking stuff that is littered all around Thailand. Turns out its SUGAR HAIR and they serve it with roti pancakes to make sugar tacos. WHAT.

Literally takes like melted sugar and pancake in taco form. Think about that. Cost? 35 baht for a big ass bag of sugar hair with like 15 pancakes.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Brunch: March 13th, 2015

For my birthday, Lucy promised me a brunch at one of the best restaurants we have discovered in Bangkok thus far: Roast. I don’t even want to talk about the food we ate here because the pictures speak for themselves. Let’s just say I am now obsessed and that it was one of the best meals in Thailand I’ve had.

^Lucy’s meal, pork barbecue sandwich

^The dish Lucy and I shared, pesto spaghetti with cherry tomatoes (the hankering for tomatoes I’ve had lately is UNREAL)

^my meal: roasted mushrooms with rosemary, thyme, chillies, and truffle oil on top of grilled sourdough bread with asparagus and a grilled tomato

^one of the desserts we shared: a strawberry waffle with whipped cream, maple syrup, and vanilla ice cream with mint

^the second dessert we shared: vanilla panna cotta, crystallized orange peel, mint, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries NOMz

Cost? I’m too uncomfortable to admit it

[salivationstation1-blog]

Dinner: March 12th, 2015

MY BIRTHDAY BITCHEZ. There’s this thing in Bangkok at a restaurant called Sunrise Tacos where on your birthday you get a free entree and a free piece of pie. The entree includes burritos, tacos, quesadillas, etc. etc. If you know me well enough, you know that I chose the burrito option. They even give you an option to make it a “Giant Size” for 99 baht more, but for your birthday, it’s free to super size. OPTIMIZATION BABY. Think about the size of a small wooden log you would use to start a fire and that’s the size of the burrito that I got from Sunrise Taco. Now multiply that by 2 and you know how much food I ate on my birthday (hell yeah I went twice, what.).

I got shredded chicken, rice, potatoes, corn, lettuce, cheese, black beans, pineapple salsa, fajita vegetables all enchilada style (with tomato sauce smothered on top). GOOD LORD WOW IT’S BEAUTIFUL. Being in Thailand has made me severely salient of how much I miss Mexican food. The cost? FREE BABY (but usually from 280-400 baht depending on if you add guacamole, get it supersized, etc. etc.).

[salivationstation1-blog]

Lunch: March 10th, 2015

In all honesty, I can’t believe I haven’t written about this before now: Girls’ Dorm Pad Thai. I honestly can’t believe I haven’t written about pad thai in general until now, as this dish is definitely a staple throughout this program and throughout Thailand. It’s very balanced here, more so than the United States’ representation. The sugar, lime juice, hot chiles, peanuts, bean sprouts, and green onions all work together perfectly. The girls’ dorm pad thai, however, is in a league of its own. Not because it’s particularly better than the rest of the variations out there, but because there are so many add-ins that you can use to doctor it up. Fresh basil, green onions, red chilli flakes, chili sauce, and the list goes on and on. It satisfies a tiny peak on the strong desire I have to cook.

^BOOM BABY. And there’s tofu in it!!! Cost? 30 baht ($1.00).

[salivationstation1-blog]

Breakfast: March 8th, 2015

On our way back from the Full Moon Party, we took a sunrise ferry starting at 5:00 to get back to shore. After watching a crazy magnificent sunrise from the rear of the boat, Elva and I decided that we were too hungry to wait for the airport and ventured off into the ferry food market for a snack. We found the mother load: ramen noodles. In Thailand, the flavors of ramen noodles are much different. At this shop they had lemon pork and tom yum kung. Elva got lemon pork, I got the tom yum. Here is the result of mine:

For 35 baht, especially after the expensive weekend we had, it definitely hit the spot. It wasn’t too salty as many ramen cups are and the noodles were surprisingly enjoyable. There were these really strange dehydrated shrimps but, if avoided, didn’t take away from the experience. Plus, they’re ramen noodles. C’mon. THEY’RE RAMEN NOODLES.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Lunch: March 7th, 2015

Today was the day of laziness. A couple of us straight up lounged in hammocks almost the entire day (aka Taylor and I) and read books and ate at the resort restaurant. At around 2 PM, Taylor and I discovered what was the most magical underrated Westernized food that we had during this entire trip: Pineapple Pizza on a Baguette.

Above is the view that we had from the restaurant. It was really fucking good. So good that after Taylor and I split one, we had to order a second one to split. They toasted the baguette so it was pretty accurate to how good Western food is served. Cost? 150 baht each ($5.00). Worth it.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Lunch: March 6th, 2015

Thai food in places of high tourism is always weird. The spice is gone. The fish sauce is limited. There’s always some strange taste that accompanies it. I don’t know what or why it is but the authenticity of Thai food really only lies within small neighborhoods served from street vendors. At the resort restaurant on Koh Phangan (our home for the Full Moon Party), the Western food was 1000 times better than the Thai food. For lunch the day after the Full Moon Party, I decided to check out their Pad Gra Paow Gai (chicken sauteed with chillies and basil). Unfortunately the restaurant decided to cater to tourists and replace the chillies with red bell peppers...I was sad.

I still enjoyed it. Cost? 100 baht ($3.30).

[salivationstation1-blog]

Breakfast: March 6th, 2015

HERE COMES PANCAKES. These were literally some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had ever. It was so strange to take a bite of a pancake on a random island in Thailand and realize that they rival the ones your parents make in the morning on Sundays or the ones you eat at a fancy brunch place in downtown. Especially to roll out of your bed on a beautiful island, lay in a hammock for an hour while reading a book, and lazily walk over to the resort restaurant to eat pancakes and hashbrowns while staring at the view. Here are the beauties aforementioned.

JESUS LOOK AT THOSE. Not many Western foods in Thailand rival ones in the states but DAMN. Cost? 120 baht (~$4.00).

[salivationstation1-blog]

Lunch: March 5th, 2015

On the date of March 4th, 2015, we as a collective Thailand Field Site program embarked on a journey of epic proportions: the Full Moon Party. Upon arrival post seven hour long night ferry (with which accompanied massive mattresses that hundreds of backpackers all shared), we immediately grabbed an open-air taxi to our resort, climbed some rocks, and chilled in hammocks. I had done my research before coming to Koh Phangan and knew that there was a pretty good Mexican restaurant in the capital city. Safe to say I forced the rest of the group to accompany me... On our way to rent kayaks, we stopped by Ando Loco (the restaurant) and got a feast of massive proportions. Looking back, it probably wasn’t the best idea to stuff myself with Mexican food (and drinks, as you will see) before a physical activity over water but c’est la vie.

Above is the drink I ordered: a strawberry mojito. We were a little bit early for happy hour (where all drinks were half off) so the drink ended up being 160 baht alone (around $5.30). A lot of money in Thailand terms, but every time I took a sip a strawberry sucked up into my mouth and it was the most beautiful refreshing thing in existence. 

NOW HERE COMES THE MOTHER LOAD. They had guacamole. OMG. You can’t find guacamole under 200 baht in Bangkok (trust me, I’ve tried) so to find such a thing at 200 baht (split with another for 100 baht each) was hard to ignore. I’ve sorely missed avocados. Even the price of them at the fresh market around town (where a kilo of tomatoes go for as low as 50 baht) are around 60 baht each.

Now here’s the actual meal after the feast of guacamole: the Vegetarian Combo. Around 260 baht ($7.30), you get a quesadilla of your choice (I got mushroom & onion), a bean tostada, and an Ando cup (a cup of rice, beans, sour cream, cheese, and tomatoes). It was a ton of food and I had to forgo a lot of the leftovers to another member of our group. I had stuffed myself enough and realized that kayaking later would be miserable had I shoved the rest down my throat. It was a sad day of not finishing Mexican food in the Scavo household.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Snack: March 2nd, 2015

To many’s disbelief, one of the most popular foods in Thailand is waffles. At almost any coffee shop, one can order banana waffles, chocolate chip waffles, iced tea waffles, green tea waffles, etc. etc. the list goes on and on. They are surprisingly awesome and not too bad in price either. There’s a cafe called Belle Cafe by our apartment complex that a lot of us tend to visit to study, hang out, or, in regards to when we first arrived in Thailand, get WiFi. This place became our home in the first few weeks we were here. Their waffles are DOPE. They are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They are drizzled in chocolate sauce when asked to be and always come with bananas on the side when the order comes out of my mouth.

Bet you weren’t expecting that. To a person who doesn’t love sweets, I can barely finish one of these babies before I start to feel sick. But the magic is is that I want to - a hard-to-find fact when it comes to sugar-laden foods and my eating habits. The cost around our neighborhood? 65 baht ($2.15). Who knows how much elsewhere but to me, waffles will always signify home in Thailand.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Dinner: Feb. 28th, 2015

For second dinner on our last night in Railay (yes, I said second dinner, a common occurrence in Thailand), we decided to try out the only Indian restaurant in the area. As one of the guests in our company was an Indian food connoisseur post working at an acclaimed Indian restaurant in Asheville for over a year, we were wrecked in anticipation over how the food would turn up. It gained the sign of approval to cut it short. I ordered garlic naan and butter chicken.

It was actually really fucking good. Like I licked the bowl (although that’s not a huge claim when it comes to me). Cost? around 250 baht (~$8.00). Not too bad for Indian food.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Dinner: Feb. 27th, 2015

After deciding to forgo another expensive beach side dinner and instead sitting on mats at a bar and watching the sunset over beers, we wandered up the Walking Path in Railay to some of the cheaper and more authentic restaurants in the area. We stumbled across a restaurant that was almost full and looked really good (major indicators: the grilling and roasting whole, salt-crusted fish on a wood fired oven in front of the restaurant). I ordered my all-time favorite dish in Thailand: Tom Yum. I decided to get the classic Tom Yum Kung (shrimp) as we were at a beach and I was feeling feisty. 

The Tom Yum included a soft boiled egg (NOMZ), whole garlic cloves, basil leaes, bean sprouts, green onions, wide noodles, peppers, a whole lot of other yummy things, and the classic sweet and sour broth that comes along with tom yum soup. It was a great decision but included the strange sensation of hot spicy broth smacking my upper lip over and over again while attempting to slurp the noodles. Cost? 120 baht ($4.00). A little more expensive than the normal 45 baht tom yum I can get at home but worth it all the same. Man, I’m gonna have to cook this up all the time when I return to the states.

[salivationstation1-blog]

Lunch: Feb. 27th, 2015

Ahhh Thai beaches. An oasis filled with chicken burgers, watermelon fruit shakes, and sand squished in between. This particular meal was enjoyed on the ever beautiful Phra Nang Bay. A beach littered with tourists, some of the craziest and most beautiful rock formations in the world, small caverns (in particular, one filled with carved wooden penises in worship of a fertility goddess), and small long tail boats floating in the tide selling Western and Thai food to the many beach goers. It’s quite an interesting sight to see someone order a Pad Thai off of a boat and witness three local Thais scrambling over camping stoves and hot woks stir-frying noodles. This day, I chose to cheat the system and order a chicken burger and a side of mango (to then put on top of the chicken burger, what a thought).

Chicken burgers is Thailand are very different than that of the United States. The patties are thin, a mixture of what tastes like a mayo/curry combination is added, and an array of tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and what seems like radishes (? unsure) are placed with the burger. It’s actually quite delicious. And when coupled with mango (or later when I added pineapple), is actually one of my favorite meals in Thailand. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the fact that I was laying on an incredible beach at the same time. Or maybe it’s because I had had an upset stomach the previous week and the taste of bread and meat somehow normalized it. The cost throughout the bay? 60 baht (w/o fruit), 100 baht (w/ fruit). ($2.00, $3.30)

But oh no, that’s not all on this whirlwind adventure kids. In addition to those crazy boats stir frying and grilling up some savory meals, they also blend up a variety of fruit shakes to boot. Trust me, on a hot day of lounging around under palm trees and swimming in crystal clear waters, a fruit shake is the icing on the cake. My favorite is watermelon. It’s less sweet than the other shakes but is not watery (something I had originally expected). It tastes exactly like a blended watermelon. And for some reason to drink a watermelon makes it all the much better.

LOOK AT THAT CONDENSATION.

Cost? 40 baht ($1.30)

SO MAJESTIC.