Fun Fruits in Thailand!

Domo digging into some rose apples and baby bananas.

This is the seventh post in the Thailand! travel series of my eats in Bangkok. Other posts include Thip Samai, Best Pad Thai in Bangkok? and Raan Jay Fai, Best Drunken Noodle in Bangkok, Maeklong Railway Market, Floating Markets (Damnoen Saduak). Street Foods of Bangkok, Part I, and Street Foods of Bangkok, Part II.

One thing I love most about visiting any tropical destination near the equator (and I've really only ever been to Taiwan and Hawaii before this), are the fruits.

In New England, fruits aren't my favorite things to eat. I'm just not a huge fan of apples, oranges, and bananas. They're OK, but once you've had fruits from tropical locations, it's really hard to go back. The diversity of choices is dizzying, and the flavors will blow you away.

One really fun perk that our hotel room in Thailand provided was a rotating plate of fresh fruit. Everyday, they would put a couple pieces of local fruit on a plate in our room. They even had this fun guide called "Fruits of Thailand" where they described each fruit. They tried to introduce us to fruits that were not only local to Thailand, but also unique to the tropical climate.

Most of us have seen bananas before, but what about mangosteens and dragonfruit? Mangosteen is the little dark purple fruit in the photo above.

When cut open, the inside consists of 6 perfectly formed segments. It's gorgeously sweet with hints of tartness, reminding me of a cross between a lychee and an orange?

I still think dragon fruits are one of the most gorgeous fruits. Just look at that vivid pink color! The inside is soft, sweet, and light, sort of like watermelon. You can eat the seeds as well.

Here's a vendor selling grilled baby bananas on the street.

Fresh orange juice is available everywhere and only costs $1 USD. Isn't it interesting how their oranges have a green outer skin and is orange on the inside?

I've had rose or wax apples in Taiwan (we call them "lembu"), but I'd never seen them anywhere else in the world until I came to Thailand. This fruit is really crispy, juicy, and light. It's perfect for hot weather days. It's one of my favorite fruits to enjoy in the tropics, and I happily munched on some everyday while I was in Thailand.

Our hotel included breakfast, which was awesome because they always had a huge assortment of fresh fruit. Here I've cracked open passion fruit on top. On the plate there's also guava, green mango, papaya, pineapple, jack fruit, and tiny little oranges.

Crazy huh?

Speaking of jackfruit, have you ever seen an entire jackfruit? They are HUGE! Here's half of one at a street cart in Thailand. I swear that fruit is the size of my upper body! Usually, the little segments are removed, deseeded, and sold in smaller "packets".

Jackfruit physically resembles the durian on the outside, though inside they are very different. Durians are stinky and banned from public places. Jackfruit has a slight funk, but is predominantly fragrant, slightly crunchy, and sweet. Bryan liked eating it with blue cheese, which I'm sure is not a traditional Thai pairing! (Our hotel breakfast buffet was international and therefore had European things like cheese as well).
Speaking of durian, I did try my first durian this trip as part of a dessert (Durian over Sticky Rice). It was surprisingly OK. Yes, it does stink, but it sort of grows on you too. Oddly enough, by the end of the dessert, I was starting to think the fruit was richly complex.

Bryan strongly disagreed.

After one whiff of my dessert, Bryan scrunched up his nose, frowned, and refused to try any more. In fact, he kept pushing the dish closer and closer to me every time he got another whiff.

Desserts often revolve around fruits and coconut milk in Thailand. Mango Sticky Rice is quintessential and classic. It's a magical combination and still one of my favorite Thai desserts. Like all Thai dishes, the balance of sweet and salty makes the dish addictive. It doesn't hurt to have access to super sweet and ripe mangoes either!

It was hard to come back and face normal North American fruits after having access to such a bounty for a week. Hopefully the arrival of summer will lessen the blow.

Gosh, I miss Thailand already.

Street Foods of Bangkok (Part II)

This is the sixth post in the Thailand! travel series of my eats in Bangkok. Other posts include Thip Samai, Best Pad Thai in Bangkok? and Raan Jay Fai, Best Drunken Noodle in Bangkok, Maeklong Railway Market, Floating Markets (Damnoen Saduak). and Street Foods of Bangkok, Part I.

This is Part II of the Bangkok street food tour. If you're just joining us, definitely check out Part I of this post first before reading this.

It was raining, hard. This was supposed to be a walking tour, and the weather just was not cooperating at all.

Our tour guide Nushi told us to wait at the dock as she tried to hail a cab. As the wind whipped the water angrily around, we stood and marveled at the sheer force of the storm.

Ten minutes later, Nushi came with a cab. She looked wet, yet she was still smiling.

"Hop in."

As the rain pounded down onto the windshield, the cab inched along towards our final destination. Nushi chatted happily in Thai with the driver while we sat in the back.

Finally, about 10 minutes later, we arrived at our next destination.

We were in a cafe in Silom, the business district of Bangkok. It is actually owned by the great grandson of King Rama V.  He likes Indian food a lot, and you definitely see a strong representation of that cuisine here. Thankfully (for Bryan's sake), there is also much other food to try, such as ice cream, bakery goods, and a lot of great Thai food. Our first small plate: green curry with pork. Though this is usually served with rice, this restaurant serves it with deep fried roti, a bread influenced by Indian cuisine.
Because Bryan does not eat coconut milk (and thus skipped the green curry completely), we also ordered Isaan sour sausage, a fermented pork sausage from the northeastern part of Thailand. You commonly see this sold on the streets of Bangkok and it is usually served with sticky rice, which is the rice staple up north.

This place had tons of really interesting ice cream flavors. We tried passion fruit ice cream, coconut sorbet, and tamarind sorbet. All of them were fantastic, bursting with the authentic flavors of their individual ingredients. My favorite was the passion fruit ice cream, but I think that's partly because I just love ice cream more than sorbet in general, and I love the flavor of fresh passion fruit, which was so pronounced in this ice cream.

We stepped outside. There was just one more stop, and it was within walking distance.

Amazingly, the sky had completely cleared up. I guess it was one of those fast moving storms. The sun was back out already, and the air was even thicker with humidity than I thought could be possible.

As we walked towards our last stop, Nushi said, "hold on, look! Fried bananas."

There are often long lines at these popular street snack stands, where vendors sell freshly fried items such as sweet potatoes, mochi balls, and bananas. Luckily, perhaps because it was just after the storm, there was no line at this vendor's stand. We quickly stopped and picked up a bag of fried mini-bananas.

They were coated with some special sort of batter that reminded me of a funnel cake. Just imagine a sweet, crunchy funnel-cake-covered banana. It was seriously addictive (and I don't even like bananas!).

For even more sweets, we headed to our last stop, a local bakery. Here we tried a lovely soft bread with pandan custard inside. We tasted a bun filled with sweet BBQ meat, not unlike Chinese chashu except that the outside bread is baked according to western methods. Finally, we sampled a western style cake topped with a traditional Thai style filling (made of coconut, perhaps?) used commonly in wedding desserts.

Finally, I (and Domo?) got to try Thai iced tea in Thailand. It was delicious, similar to the Thai iced tea I've had in America.

And then, just as quickly as it began, our 3-hour tour was over. We were stuffed, both with food but also with a rich wealth of knowledge.

Nushi had taken supremely good care of us, especially considering that a huge rainstorm came down right in the middle of our tour. We were quite grateful at how hard she tried to make us comfortable - everything from getting us umbrellas (from the Tonburi restaurant!), to waiting outside in the rain for 10 minutes in order to hail us a cab. Her English is excellent, and we really had fun on this tour.

If you're a newcomer to Thailand who absolutely has no idea where to start, I would highly, highly recommend taking the Bangkok Food Tour. They do a fantastic job.

The Details
This tour lasts about 3 hours and costs 1050 Baht (around $35 USD per person), which includes all the food. Although usually run in the morning leading up to lunchtime, you can arrange to have a private tour at other times during the day. Because of Bryan's work schedule, we ended up booking a tour from 2-5PM. We got our own private tour guide and paid a little extra for the convenience of the time and the private guide (3000 Baht for the two of us, around $50 USD per person).

It's easy to get to the meeting point, which is right inside the BTS Skytrain station Saphan Taksin.

Next up: fun fruits of Thailand and an introduction to the two cooking schools I attended!

Street Foods of Bangkok (Part I)

This is the fifth post in the Thailand! travel series of my eats in Bangkok. Other posts include Thip Samai, Best Pad Thai in Bangkok? and Raan Jay Fai, Best Drunken Noodle in Bangkok, Maeklong Railway Market, Floating Markets (Damnoen Saduak).

Thanks everyone for your outpouring of support for my wrist. It is slowly healing every day. I plan on looking into a few long-term options, such as speech recognition software or alternatives to the traditional mouse. Now, back onto our regularly scheduled program! :)

Where's the best food in Thailand?

If you ask anyone who has been to Thailand a few times, you'll pretty much get the same answer: on the street. Thailand is one of those countries where it's not uncommon to find a street vendor who has been perfecting his recipe for one particular dish for decades. In fact, I've already written about some of these places.

The people in Bangkok are obsessed about food, and it's all over the place. No matter where you live, just walk down the street and you're bound to find a street vendor selling some sort of food. Fresh fruit, deep fried snacks, noodle soups, and on and on . . . the streets of Bangkok are seriously a paradise for the food lover.

The amount of available street food was so overwhelming, I had a hard time figuring out where to start. Because I had only a set number of meals in Bangkok, I wanted to make the most of each meal. So, instead of just randomly trying street stalls around the city (and potentially hitting some duds), I decided to sign up for a walking street food tour with a company called Bangkok Food Tours.

We actually visited quite a few places (over a span of three hours!), so I will be splitting up our tour into two separate posts.
This tour covered a neighborhood called Bangrak, one of the oldest parts of Bangkok. It sits just east of the Chao Praya river and was walking distance from our hotel. Meet our tour guide Nushi (young woman on the right side of the photo), who took us around for three hours sampling some fun foods.

Our first stop was a famous restaurant that served a simple roast duck over rice. Originally inspired by Chinese cuisine, this dish has incorporated certain Thai influences, such as the use of honey in the  sauce.

The duck is free-range and therefore does not have as much fat under its skin. According to Nushi, this dish is by far the most popular dish at this restaurant, and people will come specifically for this particular dish.

It was juicy, flavorful, and most definitely had hints of sweetness from the honey. We both thought it was quite tasty, though quite familiar because it was so similar to Chinese food.

It was during this first stop that Nushi pulled out the schedule showing us where we would be going for the day.

One thing stood out to Bryan.

2. Signature curry on egg

"I forgot to mention, I can't have coconut milk." Bryan told Nushi.

Even though not all curry in Thailand uses coconut milk, a large majority of curries do have some coconut milk inside, including the listed egg dish at the next stop. Nushi, thinking quickly, suddenly said, "I know. Let's skip the next stop. I'll take you to one of my favorite noodle joints instead."

Bryan loves noodles, so the trade-off was a no-brainer.

In retrospect, what a great idea. This next "detour" stop became one of our favorites of the entire tour.

Now, it's most certainly not much to look at. In fact, this tiny little eatery sits in an alleyway between two buildings. Yes, Bryan is standing at the front of the restaurant. It isn't too far from the Catholic college nearby, and attracts tons of people at lunchtime, both foreigners from the college and locals alike.

When I asked Nushi the name of the restaurant, she said, "I don't think it has a name. I guess people might sometimes call it Kuey Teow Kla, which means Hakkanese noodle, or Kuey Teow Silom."

It was like a Tom Yum Noodle soup, but made with chili jam.

"What's Chili Jam?" I asked Nushi.

"It's a sweet and spicy "jam" made out of shrimp paste, ground chili, palm sugar, and peanuts."

Yum. I started to wonder where I could get a hold of some.

Inside the soup, there were several different types of balls made out of fish, beef, and tofu. Fresh bean sprouts served to add texture as well a cooling contrast to the hot and spicy broth.

The complex flavors of the broth were astounding - I'm not even sure I can name all the ingredients. It was definitely a pork bone based broth enhanced with various chilies, lemongrass, fish sauce, and possibly lime? The fresh rice noodles were delicious as well. Even though we both got pretty big bowls (I would hardly call these tasting portions!), we both came close to finishing everything. This is in spite of knowing had several, several more stops to go.
 Next, we boarded a boat and crossed the river to the Tonburi neighborhood. The clouds were starting to look a bit ominous at this point.

I turned to Bryan, "maybe not such a good day for a walking tour!"

He shrugged. "We'll see" he said.

After getting off the boat, we walked straight down the narrow alleyway leading away from the dock. On the right we saw a simple, bright green counter.
We were eating at an odd hour (around 3PM) mostly because it was the only time we could fit in a tour due to Bryan's work schedule in Thailand. Typically the place is packed, but we were lucky to have the whole place to ourselves on an ominous, stormy Friday afternoon.

We were here to sample some specialties from Northeastern Thailand, also known as Isaan cuisine. The menu was written entirely in Thai here, so I was thankful for Nushi's guidance in helping us pick out some choice plates.
Som Tam is a classic papaya salad that consists of young, green papaya pounded together with carrots, dried shrimp, and peanuts. The dressing is sweet, savory, sour, and spicy with flavors coming from fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, tamarind juice, and lots of chilies! This particular one was very spicy and packed full of flavor. We were both sweating while eating it, but also enjoying it quite a bit.
Nam Tok Moo is a salad made by tossing together pork with roasted rice powder, mint leaves, chili, and shallots in a flavorful dressing made from lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar. Again, I love how Thai cuisine achieves that perfect balance of savory, sweet, sour, and spicy. This dish was fantastic and we ate as much as we could handle (yes, it was spicy!!).Finally, we tried Yam Pla Duk Foo, a fascinating dish that consists of catfish that is first grilled, deboned, and then deep fried to form this light, airy, almost weightless cake. You eat it with this vibrant sauce made with green mangoes, shallots, chili, palm sugar, and lemon juice.

This tiny hole in the wall was another one of our favorites, and definitely a place that would have been difficult for us to find without a guide. We loved the northern style dishes, which we found to be quite different from most of the Thai food we see in America.

Suddenly, KABOOM!

And it started to pour.

Nushi was kind enough to ask the restaurant whether we could borrow some umbrellas.

"I'll bring them back later."

We ran back down the narrow dock towards the boat. Even though lightening was flashing across the sky, the boats continued to run. We ran to safety onto the boat as it pulled away from the dock back towards the Bangrak side of the river.

Next Up: Part II of the "Street Foods of Bangkok" Tour, where we will explore fried street snacks, some more Isaan fare, unique local ice cream flavors, and some fantastic desserts.

Stay tuned! 

Ouch - My Hurting (but Healing) Wrists

I was so excited about the Thailand posts right when I arrived back in the US.

Like I said, I couldn't wait to share with you all that I had experienced on my trip.

And then the pain hit.

You see, up until a few weeks ago, I was working like a mad-woman. We had loads of patent applications to file at work (yes, I work as a patent attorney during the day), and I was typing, typing, and typing a lot. I did a lot of repetitive mouse motions as well.

After flying to Thailand, I continued to work long hours, but now in contorted non-ergonomic positions inside the hotel room.

Near the end of the week in Thailand, my fingers started to feel numb. And my wrists really hurt. I could hardly open door knobs. Forget typing or using the mouse.

When I returned to the States, my doctor confirmed my suspicion - I had developed carpal tunnel in my right hand.

I got an arm brace to wear at night, and the doctor told me to ice it daily. Ideally, I would refrain from "the activity causing the pain."

So I rested.

It was hard for me to silence the blog completely, so I just put up fewer posts - mostly photo-intensive posts, since I didn't really want to type or use the mouse too much.

So, I'm sorry if my posts have been a bit sparse lately. I've been trying to rest my wrists, and as a result, staying away from the computer.

Thankfully, after resting for a week or so, I'm starting to feel better. I can sometimes pick up heavier objects now. I'm starting to type again, though not for any long stretches. Slowly, I'm beginning to draft blog posts.

I'm hoping to begin ramping up my Thailand posts again. I still have so much to share, even though I've already been posting for 2 weeks! I promise I'll mix in a few other types of posts here and there, just in case you want some variety.

Thanks for reading, and here's to many, many more posts!

Cheers!

Jen & Bryan enjoying Easter brunch at The Blue Room

Floating Markets of Bangkok (Damnoen Saduak)

This is the fourth post in the Thailand! travel series of my eats in Bangkok. Other posts include Thip Samai, Best Pad Thai in Bangkok?, Raan Jay Fai, Best Drunken Noodle in Bangkok?, and Maeklong Railway Market.

Venice of the East
Bangkok used to be a city of canals. Anchored by the Chao Praya River, the city's intricate system of "khlongs" (or canals) served as the main channels of transportation. More than that, the canals also handled the sewage for the city, as well as house many floating markets.

As time went by, more and more canals in central Bangkok were filled in to make way for new roads. King Rama IV built the first road in Bangkok in 1861 in response to Europeans asking for a place where they could ride their horses and carriages.

As canals disappeared, so did the floating markets. Today, one must travel to the outskirts of Bangkok to see a floating market. Many of these exist more to serve the tourist than the local community. Nevertheless, it's still fun to visit and definitely a fascinating glimpse into a way of life that is becoming quite rare.
The most famous (and probably largest) floating market near Bangkok is called Damnoen Saduak. This market is about 100 km away from Bangkok. You can take bus 78 from the Southern Bus Terminal in Bangkok (takes about 2 hours and costs just a few dollars USD) or hire a driver for the day (our driver charged us about $80 USD and was willing to stop at multiple locations, including the Maeklong Railway Market).

Perhaps the best way to enjoy the market is to stay at one of the local inns the night before. This allows you to visit the market in the wee hours of the morning, well before the tour buses arrive around 9AM.

We didn't have the luxury of time (our plane was leaving that evening!), so we could only afford a half day morning trip to the market.

Money Making Boats
One common way in which the market makes money is that most buses, taxis, etc drop you off at a location that is still about 1-2 km away from the center of the floating market. There are motorized tour boats at this location which charge hefty prices clearly aimed at tourists (anywhere from $30-$100 USD quoted for a 1-2 hour tour of the market). Women holding clipboards will approach you as soon as you get out of your car, offering you a price for the boats.

At this point, you can choose to walk the 1.5 km to the entrance, thus avoiding the high prices for the boats. I've also heard there's a bus that goes to the entrance, but I did not seek it out.

Or, you could just pay for a boat, which is what we did. Bryan and I tried to bargain, and got the price of the boat "tour" down a bit (we bargained her down from 1200 Baht ($40 USD) for 1 hour ride to 1000 Baht ($33 USD) for a 1.5 hour ride). It's still a lot more expensive than trying to get to the center of the market by foot, but we were short on time, and I didn't think it was worth wasting the time walking to the entrance.

Plus, that initial boat ride through the canals into the market was actually quite fun. I love boat rides in general and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the water-side homes and other sites on both sides of the canal.

Plus, I appreciated the less crowded parts of the market that our boat driver took us to visit. Here is a covered area of the market. There are fewer boats, but also fewer tourists. To be honest, I think it was the most authentic part of the entire tour.

This is where we saw local people cooking up the most incredible dishes inside the boats.

Isn't this lady's boat pretty awesome? She has multiple large pots, dishes full of "toppings", and piles of porcelain plates behind her.

This woman had a hybrid operation going, sitting on the edge of the dock while cooking on a floating boat.

I loved the calm serenity here. And don't you just love the gorgeous colors of all those tropical fruits?

As we moved closer to the center of the market, we began to see more and more boats going up and down the canals.

At times, it would get so crowded with tourist boats there would be "traffic jams" in the middle of the canal. Some people found this annoying, but I just found it hilariously amusing.
Aside from the boat vendors, there were also lots of "land" vendors on each side of the canal. If you wanted to buy something, the boat driver would stop at the "shop" and you could purchase stuff.
Prices at these shops were generally significantly higher than the prices at the normal outdoor markets in Bangkok. After all, this is a place aimed at tourists.

Thankfully, the price of food wasn't too bad, though it's still worth bargaining. Here I am buying mango sticky rice from a boat vendor. It was quite tasty, though probably not the best mango sticky rice I had in Thailand.

The prettiest boats were the ones that were filled with brightly colored fruits. There were boats dedicated to bananas, rose apples (above), dragon fruits, and rambutans.

You could also buy beer all over the place. Bryan bought his first can of beer for $3USD, which he thought was pretty cheap.

"How much was the beer?" asked our boat driver after Bryan paid.

"100 Baht" I said (30 Thai Baht is about $1 USD).

He shook his head in disappointment. Bryan looked at me and said, "I guess he thinks I got ripped off."

After that, our driver kept bringing us to other beer vendors who sold ice cold beers for only 50 Baht.

I bought a fun Thai snack that sort of looks like a taco but is sweet.

After taking many photos and videos, our 1.5 hour tour was up and it was time to go back. I hadn't really bought anything except food, which was totally fine by me. My biggest aim in coming was to enjoy the unique experience, take tons of photos, and sample some fun snacks.

Is It Worth Coming?
If you're looking for an authentic, traditional market experience, this won't quite satisfying you. As I said before, things have become quite tourist-oriented at this point, and a trip here may feels more like a theme park visit than a true glimpse back into the traditional Thai life.

However, even if it's touristy, it's still fun. I loved having our own private boat (with driver) take us around the many canals in the area. Damnoen Saduak is definitely a huge market, and there are tons of opportunities to see all kinds of vendors. If you want, you can even venture off the beaten track and ask the boat driver to take you away from the market to explore some of the other canals.

As a person who is passionate about photography, this visit was a dream. There are so many photo-worthy shots, it's hard to stop taking pictures. For the photos, come early in the morning when the sun is better situated and there are less tourists.

Remember to pick your shutter speed carefully! Our boat was moving quite fast, and some of my pictures turned out a bit blurry if I wasn't careful!

If you have some extra time in Bangkok, I would recommend at least visiting one floating market. It's a fun, relaxing, and different sort of destination compared to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. However, if your time is short (e.g., just a weekend in Bangkok), I would skip traveling the 100km to get here and instead focus on all the other cool things Bangkok has to offer.

*                 *                     *

Have an itch to travel after reading this post? How about visiting Greece? Visit the famous Parthenon in Athens and the gorgeous island of Santorini. For something a bit more unusual, take time to visit Zante's famed Blue Caves.

Damnoen Saduak
Hours: morning only (around 6AM -12PM)
Distance: ~ 100km from Bangkok (2hr by car)

Maeklong Railway Market

This is the third post in the Thailand! travel series of my eats in Bangkok. Other posts include Thip Samai, Best Pad Thai in Bangkok? and Raan Jay Fai, Best Drunken Noodle in Bangkok?

One of the most interesting outdoor markets that Bryan and I visited was Maeklong Railway Market. This market, which has been in the same location for generations, ran into a bit of a problem when city officials decided to build a railway that would run right through the market.

Alas, the market decided it would stay put.

That was back in 1905. Since then (yes, for the past hundred years or so!), this market continues to thrive in its original location. The train comes through seven times a day, and it's quite a spectacle to watch the market during these times.

We planned our visit to coincide with the first train of the day, which comes around 8:40 AM (though times may vary). Here's the Maeklong Train Station right next to the bustling market. You can see they are selling stuff here too.

But the more interesting parts of the market are across the street from the station, where fresh produce is displayed dangerously close to the edge of the track.

You shop at the market by walking up and down the train tracks. As you can see, there's really not much space in this tight market! It's incredible to imagine a train coming through. In recent years, word has gotten around about this interesting market, and you'll most definitely see tourists hanging out around the times that the train is coming through.

When the warning bell triggers, vendors begin to quickly move their stuff away from the edge of the tracks.

Here comes the train! It moves at a rate of about 15 miles an hour and seriously comes within inches of the market. The vendors have become experts at knowing what they need to remove. In some cases (see above), the produce actually can fit underneath the train as it moves through.

And just like that, once the train goes by, the market returns to normal.

Crazy huh?

I just can't imagine ever seeing anything like this in the U.S., which makes this all the more unusual and unique.

Details
The easiest way to get here is to take a taxi (37 miles from Bangkok, about an hour away with some traffic). If you want, you can actually take the train into the market. I'm sure that would be super fun, but we didn't have time to do that. Instead, we hired a driver for a half day ($80 USD), and he drove us here to hang out for about an hour before heading off to the floating markets at Damnoen Saduak (post coming soon!). It's on the way, so you can easily do both in a morning if you're willing to leave Bangkok around 7:00 AM or so).