Wat’s BangKok’n, Thailand? #32

Yes. Yes. Thai food is considered as an international cuisine. But in order to have an in-depth taste of what it offers, there is only one place to go, the streets. The enticing aroma will lead you stall after stall, but always remember the general rule, where the people is, is of course, where the good food is. Here goes our list for the top Thai food.

I-dtim Mat Phrao: A street food favorite, i-dtim is a Thai ice cream which is made from mat phrao, their coconut. It is usually topped with peanuts and there is sticky rice below.

Deep Fried Pork Belly: This can be seen everywhere and is usually accompanied by sticky rice, eggs, and thin slices of meat. Now that is street food.

Kanom Buang Thai: A sweet Thai crepe with meringue and foy tong, which are strands of flavored egg yolk.

Medley of Fried Goodies: Yes. Hot dogs and balls sit on top of vegetables. Talk about unhealthy slash healthy street food.

Pad Kra Pao Gai: A Thai holy basil chicken is usually a to-go order and is served with rice and egg.The Sweet and Chili Shrimp is a usual staple too.

Khao Kha Moo: Pork leg stew on rice is everyone’s favorite. Buttery fat drippings enable the rice to be drenched with the pork-infusion. This is served with a boiled egg or vegetables.

Kai Med Ma Muang: A sautéed chicken medley of roasted cashew nuts, sweet soy sauce, chili, onions, carrots, and mushrooms.

Yam Nua: A spicy beef salad concoction of lime, spearmint, coriander, dried chili, and beef strips.

Pad Thai: Thai style fried noodles in a hot wok where you can actually choose your own noodles, let it steam with long and crunch bean sprouts, onions, carrots, tofu, chicken, prawns, and eggs. This comfort food is enhanced further with chili, fish sauce, finely ground peanuts, and spring onions.

After traversing temples, open your hearts to the offers of Thai food and with that you will know their culture and beliefs through their medicinal herbs that go with their dishes. What more could you ask for if you are in Bangkok, Thailand?

Comment on how you love our Wat’s BangKok’n, Thailand? xoxo, FI .

PeppyPaThailand #3

Thailand's worst flood in 75 years has killed 500 people and displaced countless animals. As waters recede in the ancient Thai city of Ayutthaya, volunteers and elephants join forces to clean up the streets (BBC). This event still causes confusion about our dream of setting foot at Amazing Thailand this summer. The usual scrutiny about if the elephants are still alive are one of the to-die-for inside jokes that we have.

It is our last day of having our normal today-I-am-not-doing-anything lifestyle. We decided to have dinner at our soon-to-be destination, Peppy Thai Deli. It is owned by the Gequillanas and since it was an early linner (post-game lunch and dinner), we had Pandan Chicken, Fried Tofu, and Thai Fried Rice.

Thai pandan-wrapped chicken (gai ob bai toey in Thai) or (pandan chicken in Phil) is marinated in sauces and spices and wrapped in aromatic pandan leaves and fried until crisp and browned. You could smell aroma literally and the marinade zest leaves the chicken very juicy.

The balance of the fried tofu is made by the sweet cilantro and peanut sauce. The complexity of the spicy and tangy tastes are superb. It is topped with crunchy pork cracklings (chicharon in Phil). We really do hope to find fried tofu and fried taro sold together as street foods at Thailand.

Peanuts. Let us talk about nuts. Thai Peanut Beef Satay can be compared to the Philippines’ Ox Tail Stew or the Kare-kare because of its very nutty taste. Thai Peanut Beef Satay are skewers of grilled marinated beef in a spicy-sweet peanut dipping sauce. Look at Ms. Aquino enjoying her stick.

In general Thai food consists of meat and/or vegetables and sauce served over rice.  Thai cuisine blends five fundamental tastes: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter and salty. Some common ingredients used in Thai cuisine include garlic, chillies, lime juice, lemon grass, and fish sauce. The staple food in Thailand is rice, particularly jasmine variety rice (also known as Hom Mali rice) which is included in almost every meal. Thailand is the world's largest exporter of rice, and Thais domestically consume over 100 kg of milled rice per person per year. Over 5000 varieties of rice from Thailand are preserved in the rice gene bank of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), based in the Philippines. The king of Thailand is the official patron of IRRI (Wikipedia).

Thai fried rice or khao phat is a variety of Fried rice typical of central Thai cuisine. In Thai, khao means "rice" and pad means "of or relating to being stir-fried". This dish differs from Chinese fried rice is that it is prepared with Thai Jasmine rice instead of regular long-grain rice. It normally contains a meat (chicken, shrimp, andcrab are all common), egg, onions, and tomatoes. Green onions, coriander, and fried garlic are then mixed in (Wikipedia).

The One and Only Thai cuisine is within your reach. Visit and enjoy their paper squid. See you on summer, PaThailand. Let us hope that it is not PaThai.

Plazuela De Iloilo, 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines

(033) 857-5854

Comment on how you love our PeppyPaThailand. xoxo, FI