My Thai Life

OK, I’ve posted this before a couple years ago but I wanted to bring it up again. For all you expats out there as well as you tourist that are bit tired of Thai food. If you are living in the Suhkumvit area then let me tell you about Food By Phone. These guys run a delivery service to just about all the restaurants on Sukhumvit Road. There are a few other places surrounding Sukhumvit Road. If you live beyond that then I can’t help you. But for those who do live within that area, do check out FoodByPhone.com.

Some of my favorite restaurants are Charlie Browns (Mexican Food) and The Bull’s Head. There are tons of other places that offer just about every other cuisine. They even have some Thai food places if that’s what you’re looking for. They deliver right to your door and it’s hot.  Below is a deliver map.

You can click on the map to make it bigger to see the full delivery area.

MyThaiLife

Holy crap, are you serious? OK, yes I’m serious. I ate Thai food from the street all this weekend. I know that I’ve posted before about not eating for you can run into serious problems with your tummy but I have to let you know that all weekend long, not one meal was from a pub or restaurant. Yep, street food.

Now I’m usually at McDonalds a few times during the month because I just need some reliable quick food but I decided that I was going to venture out and really do some damage to my tummy and I was slightly shocked when it all stayed down and digested properly! HAHA

On Friday, I started out with some grilled chicken on a stick. Some call it Satay, I just call it grilled chicken. I see my mototaxi guy eating this all the time and I’ve asked him if it’s safe to eat and not surprising he said it was fine. So, I tried it. I was checking out the grill the whole time wondering if the vendor had ever cleaned it. That was clearly a huge NO! Anyway, it was pretty good. I can usually start to tell if something is going to go bad in my tummy for I start to gear a gurgling sound. This is a sure fire way to know that I’m about to be asking people for Hong Nom, which means toilet. But no gurgling and no need for the nom.

On, Saturday morning, I decided to hit a noodle stall. I had some weird looking red curry. Not only was my mouth on fire for like an hour after, the taste was absolutely disgusting. I will never hit that stall again. But, to my surprise, it stayed down. That afternoon I hit a Tom Yum stall. That was OK too. Although what appeared to be chicken was pork. I’m sure the way it was cooked would have most farangs wondering about it. Either way, it stayed down.

Saturday night, I went to a club down on Sukhumvit road and while at the club, I had, what appeared to be a very large hot dog. Now most Americans would think this was a hot dog but honestly, I have no idea what it was. Some type of sausage on a big piece of bread. Now, 20 minutes after that went down, the gurgling started. Now to my delight, that went away. Not sure if my tummy has acclimated to the food or if it was just a way for my tummy to let me know to slow down on the Thai food from the street.

Sunday was a good day as well. Not too much of a problem. Had some chicken and rice to give my tummy a break from the shocking street food this weekend.Either way, I was prepared. I had tums in my pocket ready to go.

So, in the end, things faired pretty well. I don’t recommend eating street food all the time. I do have some friends that have gotten some pretty bad stomach problems but I think every once in a while you need to venture out and act like a local…

MyThaiLife

Recently a friend of mine came for a visit to Thailand and one of the things she set out to do was travel Thailand. She asked me what would be the best places to visit. I’ve lived in Thailand for a few years now and I’m always up to showing my friends the sites around Bangkok and Thailand as a whole.

This was Debs first trip to Thailand as a single girl and she wanted to be safe in her travels. I know that a lot of people say that if you are a girl then you should not travel Thailand alone. I really disagree with that statement for it’s not only safer in Thailand but it’s also much cheaper than backpacking through Europe. I’d also say it’s safer than Europe too. Not to say that bad things don’t happen. But they rarely do in Thailand. At least from the news that I read (BangkokPost).

So, with great happiness for her I told her that she needed to explore Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Hua Hin. These are a few of my favorite places. I love all the little Islands off the coast of Trang so I’ll have to add that to her list too. She has lots of time and is spending 3 months in Thailand. 3 months is a huge amount of time for someone to travel Thailand. Bangkok alone could take you 3 months just to tour around. From all the old temples to all the cool bars! I love the bars. Nothing beats a cold Singha on a hot day in Patong Beach.

One tip that I gave her was not to eat Thai stall food. Now some of you might know what that is and some may not. Thai food is served 24/7 on the streets of Thailand. You can find anything from fried grasshoppers to Tom Yom. Problem is that if you don’t have a strong Thai life stomach, it can cause you problems of the watery kind if you know what I mean. Now, I’ve met some Farangs here in Thailand that swear by the stuff. But I tell you, there are not too many of them. Few and far between! So, I always say, when it doubt, don’t eat it. Can you get sick from McDonalds, yes, of course but I’d rather take my chances there than with a Thai food street vendor.

Well, she is off on her wild little ride of Thailand. She has even met herself a nice Thai guy. He’s a bit younger than she is and I won’t go into detail on that but she is having fun. She emails me every other day and lets me know where she is and what she is doing. She has told me that she is having the time of her life here in Thailand. I sure agree with her. When you travel Thailand, you’ll find that it’s an amazing place. Even if you’re a girl…

MyThaiLife

Do you like Thai food? I sure do. Not so much the hot stuff but I do love the taste. From the garlic shrimp to the yellow curries. Thai food is good stuff. Now, if you watch to see how Thai food is prepared you might be a little shocked to find out that they use fish sauce in Thai food. Have you ever smelled fish sauce? Man, that is some smelly stuff. Not so good! But used in small quantities it can be very good.

Thai food is not made in Western countries like it is made in Thailand. The ingredients are not the same. Most of the preparations are not the same as well. Sure you can get Pad Thai in the states but the rice noodles, eggs and fish sauce are not the same. So, the taste is a bit different. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still good but just different.

I really like Pad Thai though. There are basically two styles of Pad Thai: the version most often found in the streets of Thailand, which is relatively dry and light; and the version that seems dominant in many restaurants in the Western countries which may be covered in a red oil.

Yellow curry is one of my favorites as well as one of three kinds of Thai curry mostly found in Thai food restaurants in the West, which are named for their color. However, in Thailand there are many more types, and there are more than one that looks yellow. Its name, “yellow” curry, is typical of Thai curry dishes, which are frequently identified just by their color, other common types being green curry and red curry. Thai yellow curry can be made with chicken, duck, shrimp, fish or vegetables and is usually eaten as an accompaniment to steamed rice or round rice called “Khanom Jeen”.

So, if you get a chance and you never have had Thai food, check out one of many Thai restaurants you might have in your city or simple come to Thailand…

MyThaiLife

Yep, you heard it right. You can get Western food delivered to your place in Bangkok and even during a huge monsoon storm by a company called Food By Phone (FoodByPhone.com). You can find their link under Links on the right side of this page.

I’ve been using this really cool service for about 2 years now. It’s really a godsend when you have a hangover and your stomach just can’t take local Bangkok stall food. Your stomach will thank you for it.

They have lots of different kinds of foods from Mexican to Indian and everything in between. I really love Charlie Browns Mexican food and they always deliver it in just under an hour. It’s hot too. I’ve never had a problem with it. They can take your credit card on the website or you can call and place your order. If you use your credit card online it will be on file and you won’t have to use it again.

Simply browse all the menus and add what you want to the cart. Need beer or wine? No problem, you can get that too.

From their website:

“Food by Phone was established in 1998 by Marc Hagelauer and Rungrudee Suwannake as a high end restaurant delivery service.

Food by Phone offers a service to restaurants by providing an alternative sales channel as well as a service to customers by bringing to them the food that they could only get by braving the terrible Bangkok traffic.

In order to maintain the highest quality of service, all the telephone operators speak fluent English, all the messengers are fully trained to a keep a high standard at all times, and our packaging is all specifically designed and microwavable.

All of us at Food by Phone take pride in offering the highest quality service available at a reasonable price.”

Enjoy…

MyThaiLife

Do you like Thai food? I sure do. Not so much the hot stuff but I do love the taste. From the garlic shrimp to the yellow curries. Thai food is good stuff. Now, if you watch to see how Thai food is prepared you might be a little shocked to find out that they use fish sauce in Thai food. Have you ever smelled fish sauce? Man, that is some smelly stuff. Not so good! But used in small quantities it can be very good.

Thai food is not made in Western countries like it is made in Thailand. The ingredients are not the same. Most of the preparations are not the same as well. Sure you can get Pad Thai in the states but the rice noodles, eggs and fish sauce are not the same. So, the taste is a bit different. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still good but just different.

I really like Pad Thai though. There are basically two styles of Pad Thai: the version most often found in the streets of Thailand, which is relatively dry and light; and the version that seems dominant in many restaurants in the Western countries which may be covered in a red oil.

Yellow curry is one of my favorites as well as one of three kinds of Thai curry mostly found in Thai food restaurants in the West, which are named for their color. However, in Thailand there are many more types, and there are more than one that looks yellow. Its name, “yellow” curry, is typical of Thai curry dishes, which are frequently identified just by their color, other common types being green curry and red curry. Thai yellow curry can be made with chicken, duck, shrimp, fish or vegetables and is usually eaten as an accompaniment to steamed rice or round rice called “Khanom Jeen”.

So, if you get a chance and you never have had Thai food, check out one of many Thai restaurants you might have in your city or simple come to Thailand…

MyThaiLife