I have just been surfing the web to find recipes for my two new favorite dishes, thanks to Bee. In Chiang Mai, she introduced me to Khao Soi, which is the noodle dish for which Chiang Mai is known. It is a curry noodle dish, with cripy noodles served on top. We tried this in several places while there and my favorite sampling was in the restaurant knowns as Chai's. It was either here, or the other restaurant just two doors from there called Prego's. Prego's is a combination of Thai food and Italian food. Both of these restaurants were frequented by her comrades, since they were directly across for Tri Gong Residence where they stayed for 8 weeks.
Khao Soi has a really unique taste which is a combination of the curry, coconut milk and the crispy noodles. As I read on the Internet, some of it's origins are from Burma.
The second dish which was to die for was the Pumpkin and Coconut soup that we discovered at Khmer Kitchen in Siem Reap. As soon as I ordered this and had it for my first meal at Khmer Kitchen, I could not order anything else and we had to go back for more. It was not creamy pumpkin, but chunks of pumpkin. Both Bee and I fell in love with this soup and my goal is to perfect the recipe for her arrival home in May.
We really tried to eat the native food when we were there. Both lunches in Siem Reap, that were part of our tour, were native food. The guide in this case, accompanied us to the table. He then left to eat with the driver outside. Even in the hotel that we stayed in, the tourists ate in the restaurant and the guide ate outside. My inclination was to invite the guide to eat with us, but when I asked him about this, he indicated that this would never happen. There is a certain protocol and they get a discount on the meal by eating outside.
The only really BAD meal I had was breakfast on January 1st at the Bangkok airport. Lord knows what I ordered, but is was really greasy and nearly inedible. Other than this meal, all of the rest were pretty good. Oops, I forgot about the box meals that we got on Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways. The sandwiches in both cases, were a nondescript meat, which I avoided and a lime colored green jelly that did not look at all appetizing. As I said in my prior post, they tried to serve us a meal in a 45 minute flight. It was wasted on me.
The buffet at our hotel in Bangkok was interesting. It provided nearly every nationality something. It was a Swiss hotel, so there was European food. Then there was a variety of Asian food, and I think traditional American breakfast of eggs, sausages and french toast.
We did not follow all of the travel clinic's warnings and I don't think any of us got ill from the food.
So, I am in love with two new dishes and thanks to Bee and her organizing a Thai cooking class for the three of us, I now know how to make Pad Thai, Green Curry and Hot and Sour Shrimp soup.
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