A food tour of Thailand

Spring rolls

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m a little bit obsessed with taking photos of food. On holidays I think I’m even worse because there are just so many new things. After two and a half weeks in Thailand, I learned that we do pretty good Thai food in Australia. They definitely have the presentation down but Thailand still wins for best spring rolls.

Chicken dumplings

These chicken dumplings were just too interesting-looking. They didn’t taste fantastic, the pastry was quite thick, but I just couldn’t figure out how they’d make them that shape. Any ideas?

Larb Moo (pork)

After making larb in our cooking class I had to see what a restaurant version tasted like. I have to say, our super quick version was pretty much on par.

More spring rolls

We ate a lot of spring rolls. In fact for the last two days we had spring rolls and french fried for lunch. I know, how very Western of us. I get a little  bit homesick for home food towards the end of holidays.

Fancy scallops

This dish was at Dining on the Rocks at the Six Sense Koh Samui. I stupidly didn’t take a photo of the menu but it was very very different. One dish I remember said ‘canned tuna sandwich.’ That was it. We didn’t know that everything was very fancy and clever and thought we’d chosen the wrong restaurant, until the food came. Each dish was a work of art.

Chicken 'burrito'

I ordered the modern take on a chicken burrito. The flavours were amazing. It had an avocado puree, bean puree, tortilla crumb and I can’t remember where the salsa flavour was but it was there.

Chicken and cashew nuts

It was interesting to see different restaurants’ takes on the same dish. The chicken cashew in one place could look completely different to the version two doors down. I guess it’s the same in Thai restaurants here. What I really liked was regardless of where you were, they all used really nice chicken breast. There was no fat and no yucky bits.

Addictive bread sticks

After realising that the restaurant was pretty cool we went back again on our last night. The setting couldn’t be beaten. It was set on a deck over the cliffs looking out over the ocean and on our last night we had a private deck just to ourselves – very honeymoon romantic. I’m embarrassed to say I ate this entire garlic clove myself. It was so delicious.

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I can’t remember what this dish was but I had to include it because it’s just so pretty.

Chocolate experience

This was by far my favourite – 5 textures of chocolate. I think I might have alluded to the fact that we were going to share and I got a two people serve but I managed to clear the tile. There was mouse, ice cream, biscuit, chocolate, brownie and then this other thing that I would describe as a cross between honeycomb and biscuit but chocolate.

More chicken and cashew

Here’s another take on cashew chicken. This one won best cashew chicken on our trip.

Pad Thai

While Will was ordering cashew chicken I had more than my share of Pad Thai. They just do it so well over there. This one was my favourite because the presentation was so pretty.

The pastry basket

Buffet breakfast is usually my favourite way to eat breakfast on holidays but our second resort did a different take on it. When you are seated they bring around a big basket of pastries to select from (as many as you like and you can call them back!) and then you choose what you’d like from a menu. The difference is the menu has everything a buffet would but you’re getting it all fresh and you don’t have to leave the table. The other perk is you can have it delivered to your room. This was our little personal pastry basket. They had the best banana bread.

Stuffed cuttlefish

We didn’t know until we got there but our package at one resort included a complementary 5 course degustation with matching wine. This dish really intrigued me. It was cuttlefish on the outside, carrot, minced fish, zucchini, minced prawn. It looked so pretty on the plate and very tasty.

Chocolate pudding

The dessert that night won me over – it was a little runny heart pudding. Yum!

The seafood buffet

Every six nights our hotel put on a cocktail party for guest followed by a seafood buffet (you had to pay extra for the buffet). It wasn’t your regular buffet though. You grabbed a platter and loaded it up with fresh lobster, crab, prawns, what looked like bugs, fish, chicken or beef and they cooked it fresh and delivered it to your table. It was my kind of buffet!

As you can see we did a lot of eating while we were away but it is one of my favourite activities.

What about you? Do you sample the local food when you’re away or stick to what you know?

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