World Blog Surf Day

World Blog Surf Day

Today, Saturday 13th June 2009 is the World Blog Surf day, where 32 blog owners that participate from all over the world write about food. They form a chain by linking to one blog in the chain of 32. My link is to one of my favorite blogs in Thailand from The TEFL DON, a blog he named ‘My Thai Friend'. If you follow all links, you can visit all 32 blogs.

Let’s move on however to the theme for this World Blog Surf Day; FOOD, something that I reported plenty of times about. On my blog you can find plenty of restaurant reviews from all over Thailand but mainly from Koh Samui, the tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand where I live with my family.

Thai food is amongst my favorite cuisines of the world, first Italian food was top of the list, than I discovered Indian food and Mexican food also ranked up there for a long time. Until I discovered Thai food.
It comes in really handy that I actually live in Thailand and I eat Thai food pretty much on a daily base now.

Here’s a dish from one of my fave restaurants on Koh Samui; Yam Sabeinglae, a house salad (yam = salad) of the Saebeinglae restaurant in Lamai.

A typical Thai meal is a well balanced feast of food, a spicy dish should be balanced out by a non spicy dish, a salad is balanced out by a soup, fish is balanced out by a meat dish and if you’re lucky you find a vegetable dish ;-), etc. Rice and/or rice soup is used to complement the meal and if Thai males are participating in the meal, than usually a bottle of Johnny Walker black or similar is not far away.

Everybody joins in and all served meals are shared between all that are participating. Most plates have a relatively small amount of food on them so plenty of plates can be ordered or will be served and in typical Thai fashion almost nothing is wasted but either gets eaten right there and then or taken home in the doggy bag.

If you visit a Thai family at their home, the first question is; did you eat already? Rather than asking how you’re doing, as we do in the West. Immediately food is pulled out from all places of the house and you sit down and eat, after the meal is finished, you discuss or talk about whatever you dropped by for.

Here’s a picture of a small hole in the wall place in Chaweng, with some excellent and very cheap food. All ingredients are chopped up before hand but the actual cooking of the food is happening more or less in front of you and since Thai food in general is just tossed around in a frying pan, it’s fresh and crispy.

A lot of good food in Thailand is found in very small, similar hole in the wall like places or just on the sidewalk. In Thailand food is never far away from where you are and Thais tend to eat all day long. Little bits and pieces here and there and everywhere.

These pre-cooked Thai curries (heaven for spicy food lovers) are for sale on all markets and sidewalks all over the country. The South of Thailand where Samui is located, is well known for its spicy curries.

Thailand has very different fruits to the Western countries, one of the most notorious ones is pictured here in the front right, the Durian, the King of fruit. You either like it or love. The smell of this fruit is very special and takes some time getting used to. Most hotels in Thailand don’t allow them in the rooms!

On the left, the bean like strings are Sator, a typical Southern Thai kind of bean, that smell heavy on your breath, just like garlic does. I always manage to raise an eyebrow in local eateries if the locals see me eat this. It’s very strong in taste and probably not to everybody’s liking.

It’s just the tip of the iceberg that I’m touching here, regarding Thai food. If you’re interested in Thai food, try my blog, plenty of more information of my favorite places around the country and other food related stories for grabs.

I hope you enjoyed my small part in the chain of World Blog Surf Day and that you visit as many blog as possible that participate. Thanks for checking in, and check out Sher's blog, who organised this chain event.

Camille


This World Blog Surf Day event also has an official Twitter feed taken care of by Anastasia Ashman (Thandelike), she is an American cultural producer based in Instanbul, and is a creator of Expat Harem, the anthology by foreign women about modern Turkey. Her Tweetstream focuses on women, travel and history, and she shares resources for writers/travelers, expats, Turkophiles and culturati of all stripes