Those of you who have been reading our blogs about our travels through Southeast Asia may have felt a little bit disappointed or dissatisfied. Maybe you have felt that our stories have lacked some important details that you have been dying to hear about. We are truly sorry. If you know us personally, you will understand how much we love to cook and eat. In fact, experiencing authentic food from around the world is half the reason we embarked on this journey in the first place! For that reason, we have decided to dedicate an entire blog to what we ate in Thailand and Cambodia, as well as what we saw in the markets. We would like to pre-warn our readers that due to our skimpy little daily budget of NZ$30 for our daily activities and food, we were eating at the cheapest places that we could find. However, we did splash out occasionally to treat ourselves, but you will probably read about those times in our blog about that location.
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| Exploring a market in Phnom Phen, Cambodia |
In New Zealand, Thai food is extremely popular, to the point where the same Thai chain restaurant stands on every third corner of central Dunedin. Regardless of how "authentic" we like to believe our favourite local Thai restaurant is, we had a feeling that most of the Thai food that we know and love in New Zealand is unlikely to be what native Thai people eat every day. Cambodian restaurants are not very common in New Zealand, so our knowledge of Khmer food was unfortunately limited to mee goreng noodles from our student days. We knew the food in Cambodia would have to be better and more exciting than that!
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| Trying sweets at Central Market in Phnom Phen |
Despite our budget, we did not deny ourselves enjoying a wide variety of fresh fruit. Dennis has had a lifelong addiction to mangos, and that has not stopped since we arrived in Southeast Asia! The mangos here are sweet, flavourful, and juicy enough to make your eyes glaze over and send you to your happy place. For about NZ$2 you can get a large good quality mango. Whatever the sour, fibrous things are that they sell in New Zealand supermarkets, they are not mangos! For the same price as a whole fresh mango, you can buy a plate of mango sticky rice, a popular Thai dessert sold in every street market. The sticky rice is soaked overnight in coconut milk or water and has a mild savoury flavour that complements the juicy sweet mango. A coconut cream sauce is poured on top, and if you are lucky, a sprinkling of crunchy fried mung beans too.
Watermelon, pineapple, dragon fruit, papaya, coconut, and bananas are sold in markets and from speciality roadside fruit stalls. The bananas in Thailand and Cambodia are smaller and so much more flavoursome than the ones we have at home. This is probably because banana trees are found in every backyard and lining the roads. Unexpectedly we saw a lot of stalls selling mandarins and strawberries, both of which were intensely flavourful and tasted like homegrown fruit rather than the bulk and bland supermarket produce.
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| Erin and a giant durian statue in Kampot, Cambodia |
In the markets, we often saw bunches of small orange fruits that looked like mini mangos, but more expensive. One day when we had a bit more of our budget to spend, we bought a small bag of these fruits for about NZ$4 from a lady who managed to tell us that they were called maprangs. When first biting into a maprang, there is a hit of bitterness from the skin, but underneath, the flesh is sweet, juicy, and tastes like a mango crossed with a yellow plum. Well worth a try if you have some extra cash!
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| Nashi (ya) pear, mandarins, mangos, and maprangs |
In Cambodia, we tried another new fruit called snake fruit, also known as Salak, which is grown on a palm tree. We bought a small bag from a Khmer woman on the side of the road who gave us one to try. When the prickly red skin is peeled away, a white or yellow flesh remains. The flesh is sweet, acidic, and fragrant, and there is a large stone in the centre. These were very exciting to try!
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| Snake fruit |
In Cambodia, there are fruit smoothie stalls everywhere! These are ice based, blended with a bit of condensed milk, and whatever fruit you desire...for US$1. Wow! These were the best way to cool down and as the fruit is so flavourful, they were always delicious. Mango and passionfruit were a common choice, but dragon fruit or watermelon were both very refreshing. Freshly pressed sugarcane juice carts were on every street corner in Cambodia as well. The sugarcane was squished in a machine so that the juice squirted out; this was served straight over ice with a dash of lime or orange juice.
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| Yay for a fresh fruit shake! |
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| Fruit smoothie time! Mango and passion fruit for Dennis, and dragon fruit for Erin |
Another great way to cool down was with ice cream. Throughout Thailand, there were coconut ice cream carts where you could purchase a large cup of little balls of coconut parfait with peanuts and chocolate sauce on top for 20 baht (NZ$0.8). Sometimes there were more permanent shops where the coconut ice cream was served in half a coconut with the flesh scraped free. In Bangkok we found a shop that topped the ice cream with little jellies; there were the normal ones like coconut and pineapple, but also palm, corn, and pandan.
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| Coconut (white) and melon (green) ice cream in a coconut shell |
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| Amazing ice block shop that was just a little bit out of our price range |
In Siem Reap, Cambodia, there are heaps of stalls selling "fried ice cream", which is really just a milk mix flavoured with fruit, chocolate, or Oreos that is frozen, chopped, and rolled in front of you on a cooling plate. We tried a chocolate and oreo ice cream and it was light and delicious. This was the first chocolate-based thing that we had eaten in almost 50 days so we were delighted to be reacquainted! The only other sweet that we tried that contained chocolate was a banana and chocolate crepe/pancake made from a food stall in Siem Reap.
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| Waiting for a pancake |
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| Adding the egg and banana onto the pancake dough |
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| Freezing and chopping the Oreo and chocolate "fried ice cream" |
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| Delicious Oreo and chocolate "fried ice cream" |
In Cambodia, rice porridge is a common breakfast food that can be purchased from street food carts. Broken rice is cooked in a chicken stock and served over mung beans and with chopped spring onion, herbs, and meat or fish on top. Chopped deep fried bread usually accompanies this dish and can be dipped in to soak up the soup. We often added chilli paste, fermented peanut paste, and a squeeze of lime juice on top. This was so filling and so cheap that we had it three mornings in a row in Phnom Phen!
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| Khmer rice porridge with chicken and tasty toppings in Kampot, Cambodia |
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| Fish rice porridge with fried bread in Phnom Phen, Cambodia |
Exploring the local markets of a new foreign country is always a delightful experience, and one of our favourite pass-times. Local people come together to sell what they have grown or to buy the freshest seasonal produce for their restaurant or home kitchen. Observing market life gives you a glimpse into the heart and soul of a country. It provides a chance to see the raw produce that gets turned into a famous local dish or a regional delicacy. Comparing prices and the produce quality to what we have at home is also very interesting, and often made us very jealous!
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| Marketplace in Chiang Mai |
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| A typical fresh produce market stall somewhere in Thailand or Cambodia |
In the markets in both Thailand and Cambodia, we saw stalls selling fresh fruits, vegetables, and aromatic bulbs such as ginger, garlic, galangal, and lemongrass. There were mounds of chillis, tomatoes, baby eggplants, spring onions, snake beans, morning glory (water spinach), bok choy, cabbages, mushrooms, cucumber, and baby corn (surprisingly not as bad as the inedible tinned baby corn we get in New Zealand). Often we would see trucks headed towards the markets laden with produce; garlic trucks left a pungent savoury smell trailing behind.
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| A garlic and onion stall in a Thai market |
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Some ladies selling fresh honeycomb (with bees still attached) and milk cakes
at Central Market in Phnom Phen, Cambodia |
The meat and seafood end of the markets in Southeast Asia are not for the faint of hearted, or those who are precious about where their food comes from. However, the only time that we found ourselves questioning whether to ever eat meat again was after a visit to the supermarket in Phuket, Thailand, where a rotting meat smell permeated the air and the meat sat in open pools of blood. Every marketplace that we visited, regardless of how small and rural, did not smell or make us question the meat quality. Each stall seemed to sell one animal (i.e. one whole pig from head to tail) or a small amount of poultry sitting on large chilled blocks, suggesting that the meat was fresh.
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| Dried meat sausages in Siem Reap |
Fish was often sold dried (rather smelly), freshly caught and sitting on ice (not quite as smelly), or still alive, wriggling and splashing in buckets (not smelly). At the Central Market in Phnom Phen, Cambodia, there was an impressive seafood section; huge prawns, crabs, squid, and fish, all freshly caught and often still alive…and no fishy smell!
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| Fresh prawns |
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| Dried whole fish and fillets; some were marinated |
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| More dried fish |
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| Whole live crayfish |
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| More fresh fish in Cambodia (no smell at all!) |
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| Dried shrimp (often used in noodle and fried rice dishes) |
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| Some sort of cooked or cured shellfish dish |
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| Fresh scallops in Phnom Phen, Cambodia |
After leaving the produce section of any market, we found snacks, spices, clothes, toys, pets, cellphones, hammocks, baskets, and anything else that you could possibly imagine. But there was one market that trumped the rest; Chatuchak market in Bangkok. We set a day aside in Bangkok to visit this market, not only because it is absolutely massive and sells anything that you could possibly imagine, but because there is an aquarium fish market.
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| Catching the train to Chatuchak Market in Bangkok! |
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| Massive stalls of dog treats and toys |
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| Huge wooden sculptures |
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| Loads of food for sale too! |
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| Artificial flower stalls |
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| Erin bought a handmade buffalo leather handbag for NZ$60 (bartered down from NZ$100) |
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| We found a sign for the aquatic fish market! |
Dennis has kept aquatic fish for a long time and was keen to see how big this part of the market was. Once we finally found that the fish section was actually outside the market (it had recently moved locations), we took our time looking at what types of fish were sold there and how much they cost. We were both blown away! We had never seen so many different kinds of tropical fish, saltwater fish, carp, crayfish, frogs, turtles, and aquatic plants in one place before.
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| Walking around the aquatic fish market |
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| Huge high-quality carp; some even came with certificates |
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| Electric blue jack Dempsey |
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| Freshwater stingrays |
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| Orange discus |
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| A typical shop in the aquatic fish market |
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| Bright orange shrimp |
There were huge concrete tanks of prized carp, tanks of intensely coloured crayfish, majestic Arowana, hundreds of dwarf puffer fish, interesting spotted frogs, and rows of tanks full of brightly coloured fish. We must have spent a few hours exploring the aquatic section of the Chatuchak Market.
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| Saltwater fish |
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| Massive tank of parrot fish |
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| Pool of carp |
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| Crayfish |
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| A frog |
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| Choosing small carp |
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| Dwarf puffer fish |
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| Colourful shrimp |
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| Another frog |
After a busy day exploring the markets or tourist attractions, we would usually look for a cheap restaurant or street food stall. We often ate noodle soups in Thailand because they were cheap, satisfying, healthy, and found everywhere. They were mostly made with rice noodles and a clear meat broth, with sliced meat, or processed pork or beef balls. The broth was usually flavoured with celery leaves (not as bad as it sounds for those of us who despise celery) and spring onions. A tray of condiments was supplied on each table if you wanted to adjust the soup broth; these were usually vinegar, sugar, soy, chilli paste, and peanuts.
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| Pork ball noodle soup with a beef broth and goji berries in Thailand |
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| Sliced pork rice noodle soup in Thailand |
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| Cooking pork balls in a night market in Chiang Mai, Thailand |
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| Tender beef noodle soup in Thailand |
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Rice noodle soup in Phnom Phen, Cambodia.
The soup was light, floral, and had a taste of fish and ginger. It also came with pea flowers |
In Northern Thailand, we tried their famous noodle soup dish called Khao Soi Gai; yellow noodles in a yellow curry soup, topped with crispy noodles and meat (typically a chicken drum, but we also tried it with crispy pork belly). Oh, my goodness… a bowl of this stuff will send you to heaven. Perfectly balanced with elements of spice, salt, sourness, bitterness, sweetness, and savoury. Pickles were supplied on the side if you are that way inclined. Khao Soi Gai equals culinary magic. Oh…did we mention one bowl was about NZ$1.50?
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| A bowl of delicious Khao Soi Gai with crispy pork belly, and a side of pickles and lime wedges |
If we didn’t go to a roadside stall or a noodle soup shop, we often grabbed some food at a night market. Almost all takeaway food in Thailand comes in a clear plastic bag, with all condiments in separate little bags, and a styrofoam bowl. It seems strange at first, but with no spillage or leaking, we were soon sold on the idea. In Kanchanaburi, Thailand, we were brave enough to buy some of the curries and stir fry dishes for sale at the night market and take them home for a picnic. We bought an egg and pumpkin curry (one of Erin’s new favourites), a dry pork belly stir-fry with green beans (oh wow!), and some spiced deep fried chicken (Asian KFC, what could be bad about that?).
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| Night market in Kanchanaburi |
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| Curry and stir-fry in a bag |
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| Thai takeaways in Kanchanaburi |
From the night market at Ayutthaya, Thailand, we bought an egg stir fry, pork crackling, roasted succulent pork belly, some sweet rice dumpling things filled with nuts, a sweet coconut jelly soup, and some fruit. We also fell deeply in love with the BBQ chicken skewers. So succulent and juicy and dressed in the tastiest BBQ sauce! After travelling around Thailand for a while, we refused to pay more than 20 baht for one skewer (NZ$0.80), calling anything more than that a robbery. The street food dinners were some of our most exciting dinners in Thailand, and they gave us the opportunity to try some of the local food that wasn’t marketed to tourists (i.e. Pad Thai food stalls lining the busy streets in Phuket, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai).
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| Our Thai takeaways in Ayutthaya from the night market |
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| Deep fried Thai chicken |
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| Selection of curries for sale from a market stall in Bangkok |
Another memorable meal was from a small open front “restaurant” (shack) near a market in Chiang Mai. We walked in, past the massive stick pots, baskets of herbs, rice cooker, and wooden chopping blocks. The menu was fairly small, but we ordered a noodle soup and a plate of sliced pork on rice. This sounds simple, and it is, but the flavours and textures are anything but simple. Slow cooked pork hock is a thing of wonder. Give it a splash of sticky reduced sauce and an amazing punchy chilli sauce on the side and you have a masterpiece! That was the day that we wanted to learn how to cook “pork on rice”.
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| Pork on rice with the best chilli sauce with a peppery chicken broth on the side in Chiang Mai, Thailand |
Three of our favourite Thai dishes in New Zealand are pad thai, larb, and green curry. In Thailand, street carts freshly cook pad thai right in front of you for 30-50 baht (NZ$1.20-2) and were usually very tasty; loaded with spring onions, egg, mung beans, and seasoned noodles, then sprinkled with peanuts and a squeeze of lime juice. In Kanchanaburi, we ordered a pork larb at a small local restaurant that seemed to specialise in larb salads and only one other daily dish. The larb tasted similar to what we get in New Zealand, but was very spicy and had sliced liver through it too. However, it was the green curry was the most different to what we have at home, probably because of the aniseed flavour that the Thai basil brings to the dish and the use of green baby eggplants. The sauce flavour was more subtle and floral, and not as thick as what we are used to. If we could get our hands on some Thai basil in New Zealand, we would love to try to recreate a true Thai green curry.
In both Thailand and Cambodia, we often bought a plate of stir fried morning glory with oyster sauce, garlic, and chilli. Although this is a very simple dish, it satisfied our desire for fresh vegetables packed full of flavour. Sometimes after a beer, we forgot how hot the chilli was and thought we would be fine eating one whole. Don't do it. Bad idea.
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| BBQ chicken cart in Thailand |
Overall, we had a culinary adventure over our 50 days in Thailand and Cambodia. From seeing the fresh produce to the finished product at nicer restaurants or at street food carts, we feel like we saw it all!
Thank you to all the Thai and Khmer people who cooked for us!
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