Random treats

I could easily write a blog entry every day about the food in Thailand:  some delicious, some strange,  and some unidentifiable by site, smell and even taste.  To narrow it down a little bit, I'll only write about the interesting foods that I've eaten on days when I've also had a camera on me.  (Consider yourself lucky that the chicken feet were not on such a day, that was not a pretty sight).   

This Tom Yam Gai soup definitely falls into the category of delicious.  Savoury coconut broth with lemongrass and vegetables = so good.  :)

One of MANY shakes I've had in Thailand.  Restaurants obviously have much better presentation than street vendors, but they're also about 30 baht more.  The ones I buy near my school are only 15 baht each! (about 50 cents).  At that price, it's hard to say no to a shake made of 100% fruit (papaya, mango, pineapple, coconut, etc).  

7-11 adventures:  Almost all of the snacks are a mystery.  This one looked a little like cheese puffs.  I should have noticed the tentacled chef picture sooner.  These were definitely another example of the many "cuttlefish" snacks around here.

Corn is a dessert vegetable in Thailand.  I've had corn in waffles at the market as well as in a couple of other treats listed below.  This corn milk with chocolate was on sale so I thought I'd try it out.  It was really quite delicious.  Corn and chocolate together at last!

Speaking of chocolate - why not try putting chocolate sauce on French fries?!

At our market there's a sandwich stand with these pre-wrapped jelly sandwiches.  This one is purple and orange, but I've seen red, green, yellow, etc.  I got curious one day... They taste pretty much as you would expect them to based on the colours.  It essentially tasted like a Kool-Aid sandwich.

Another example of corn in unexpected dishes.  This is corn and red bean yogurt.  So good!

I had to try one of these colourful desserts at some point while I was here, so one day when I was in Chinatown I bit the bullet and tried to communicate my way through the ordering process.  I watched someone else order one then pointed at what he was walking away with and said enthusiastically "same same" which is a Thai expression meaning what it sounds like ("the same as").  I then "chai-ed" and "mai-ed" (yes and no) my way through the possibilities of ingredients until I had a colourful bowl of gelatins, fruit, noodles, corn, and crushed ice covered with sweetened condensed coconut milk.  

Buying food is usually a mystery, but not quite at the level it is when you buy it wrapped in a banana leaf.  Really, they could put anything in that package.  Something about the intrigue makes me want to buy them more often.

This one had nothing but sticky rice and taro root.  How boring!  (but pretty!)

Speaking of pretty, anyone up for any deep fried flowers?