A taste of Thailand...

WARNING: this post may make you hungry...

Before we arrived in Thailand, we had been told about the food, oh you will love it 'they' all said. Our attitudes to food are very different. Maddy, although less fussy than in previous years, is still wary of most meat and fish. Paddy? Well, he is certainly willing to give most things a go. Examples of his classic taste include: boiled pork entrails and noodles in a broth, squid stuffed with mince pork in a red curry sauce with coconut milk. With plenty of prick hang (dried chilli). He was also been searching for a drink well known in SE Asia, called bubble tea. His search continues. Tips most welcome.

Maddy has been enjoying trying pad Thai at every restaurant we have been to (hold the gung tang a.k.a. dry shrimp) and oh, the puddings!

Mango and sticky rice? It's lush.

Bananas in coconut milk? Yum!

Thai version of egg custard tart? Yummo.

And a very random one that we tried in a diner in the very trendy area of Chiang Mai, Nimmanheimin...

Deep fried toblerone! Om nom nom (think mini chocolate samosas)

Chiang Mai has been called one of the best cities in the world in which to be a vegetarian and due to Maddy's fussiness we decided that it was easier to explore this option. The diversity of the veggie food has been fantastic! Eating salad with confidence is great, and certainly not something that is common in beloved India!

Giant salads at Pun Pun (from an organic superfood farm
situated just north of Pai)

Lush spring rolls and chilli sauce

We have been using the app VegOut which finds nearby veggie restaurants according to your current location in the world together with maps and reviews taken from HappyCow.net. Very useful, particularly when you are new to a city, have no idea where you are, have a partner who refuses to ask for directions and it's monsoon. And you have no umbrella.

Once umbrellas and ponchos were bought we headed to Pai and dived into more luscious food including Gaeng Kiaw Wan (Thai Green curry) at Na's restaurant just up the road from our bungalow. They served blue flowers (that's a nice blue!) with the meals and the waitresses loved staring at Maddy...

Spicy Thai salad

We also became completely addicted to having eggs Benedict for brekkie at a place called Hotel d'artistes with an iced coffee...it's a great way to start any day of chilling...

Matchy matchy - quelle fromage!

Of course, Paddy loves to cook and being on the road we don't have too much opportunity to do that, so our dear friends Nick and Pam 'allowed' Paddy to cook one of his mean jalfrezis. A quick trip to the local market with our basic Thai skills in hand...

And a ta-dah a jalfrezi was created!

We expect you'll want to rush off and have a snack now, enjoy!

Much love

Maddy and Paddy xxx