Eat with Me: Thai Food TREAT Day!!

I am in one of the best culinary destinations in the world, and I am taking advantage!  This post documents a day that I decided to treat myself to all of my favorite foods in this wonderful place.  Grab a plate and join me for my glorious and delicious Thai food treat day!!

Preface

(Feel free to scroll past this if you're here for the food and the food alone - I get it.  I love food too.)

When I first moved to Thailand, I threw pretty much every habit I had regarding health and wellness out the window.  I lived like I was on vacation.  No exercise, no cares about what I ate.  This is all well and good when you are actually on vacation, but this, what I am doing in Thailand, is not vacation -- it is my "real life."  By this I mean, this is my job, my livelihood, my long-term place that I am living.  And I want to keep it that way.

A couple days into January, after 2.5 months of living here, I had to go to the doctor for a medical check, a necessity in obtaining a Thai work permit.  This was the first time I had stepped on a scale since being in America.  At the moment, I did not know what the number meant... but as soon as I converted the kilograms into pounds, I was floored, and not in a good way.  This was a major reality check.  I had gained quite a bit of weight in a relatively short time.  What was worse, though, is I knew that I had lost a lot of strength.

I had worked out regularly for the entirety of my older childhood/young adulthood, starting at 10 years old.  I was very strong when I moved to Thailand, after swimming and going to the gym mostly every day for years.  Completely ceasing exercise in Thailand had changed the composition of my body.  I did not like how I looked, but more than that, I did not like how I felt.  I felt weak.  I felt unwell from the junk food I was eating.  I felt like I had stopped taking care of myself.  And I felt worried.

My motivation was and is for my kids.  My 700 kids, my students.  I knew that if I could not find a way to take care of myself, achieve balance and health in this place, I would not be able to lead a sustainable life here.  My worst fear was that I would have to leave my dream job and go back to America because I could not figure out how to be healthy in Thailand.

So I made changes.

I made many changes.  I completely cut out junk food that was absent of nutritional value.  I started cooking my own meals.  I began to incorporate vegetables and protein into every meal.  I ate fruit to satisfy my sweet tooth.  I drank lots of water.  And most importantly, I began to exercise.  Every.  Day.  This consists of going to the nearby exercise park every other day, where I do strength training with the free equipment they have, and go for runs around the beautiful catfish-filled lakes.  On the rest of my days, I take long bike rides along the river, to my favorite temples and viewpoints.  I have now been doing these things for two full months.  And what is the result?

I am strong now.

I feel healthy.

My body is working better than it has in a long time.

Yes, I lost some weight, but more importantly, I have gained muscle.

And my favorite: I get to stay here and continue my dream life, because I figured out how to find balance, and how to be healthy.

So what does this all have to do with the post you are reading now?

Well, I have now reached the two month point of when I made these big changes.  My school term has finished, and I have renewed my contract, so I do officially get to continue living here and doing my dream job.  And I figure this is worth celebrating.  I've begun to crave some of those junk foods that I cut out cold turkey so long ago, and I think that part of a balanced, healthy life is treating yourself every once in awhile.  So, treat myself I did!  For one day, I ate all of my favorite foods in Thailand.  

Note: I actually eat a lot of these foods on a regular basis, anyway.  There are just some special treats sprinkled in here.  My favorite foods here are really pretty healthy, and are part of my balanced diet.

Okay, now, what we have all been waiting for.  Let's get to the FOOD!!

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Breakfast

Breakfast was a delicious riverside meal I purchased at my favorite morning market.

The food: pad pak (stir-fried vegetables), kai look keuy (son-in-law eggs), and khao jee (grilled sticky rice).

Son-in-law eggs (not sure why they are named that) are beyond delicious.  They are hard-boiled eggs, deep fried, covered in a sweet and sour tamarind sauce, and topped with fried shallots and fresh parsley leaves.

The deep frying of the eggs creates a divine chewy, browned skin.  These eggs are unlike any other that I have eaten.

The stir-fried vegetables are fabulous, too.  Cauliflower, broccoli, tomato, carrot, and greens cooked in a slightly sweet sauce.

My favorite part of the meal, and one of my absolute favorite foods in Thailand: grilled sticky rice, a staple of the region of Thailand in which I live.

The sticky rice patty is dipped in an egg mixture, grilled, dipped again, grilled, dipped again, and grilled again.  It develops a crispy outside while being soft and chewy inside.  This one was fresh off the grill, the best way to enjoy khao jee.

Pulls right apart.  I highly recommend dipping into the pad pak sauce!  Savory and sweet perfection.

I figure it may be interesting for some readers to know how much these foods cost, so here is the breakdown, in Thai Baht and in US Dollars:

Stir-fried vegetables (came with meat, which I removed): ฿20 // $0.63

Son-in-law eggs: ฿10 // $0.31

Grilled sticky rice: ฿10 // $0.31

TOTAL BREAKFAST COST: ฿40 // $1.25

Lunch

Lunch was at my favorite restaurant, an entirely vegetarian establishment right down the street from my apartment.

I got a delightful mix of dishes: left, cooked mixed greens with carrots and vegetarian sausage; right, winter squash and eggplant with seitan in a spicy green curry.

To the far left: a skewer of seitan (I think?) balls, savory and delicious.

There's that vegetarian sausage!  Hidden in previous photos.  (Note: everything they have at this restaurant is vegetarian, verified by my Thai bosses when I took them to lunch here and I had them ask the cooks because I almost didn't believe it.  I often don't know what the meat substitutes are, but I don't worry about it because I know they aren't meat, so no issues here!  I eat at this restaurant pretty much every day.)

Always served with a side of soup.

I loved this dish.  Those eggplants are a Thai variety that we don't have where I am from, and they are my favorite vegetable here.  The curry was just the right amount of spicy, and the seitan had a sweet flavor that contrasted perfectly with the more salty/savory curry.  The winter and butternut squash were so soft, too.  10 out of 10 in my book!

Cost breakdown:

Curry dish and vegetable dish (served over rice, with a side of soup): ฿30 // $0.94

Seitan skewer: ฿10 // $0.31

TOTAL LUNCH COST: ฿40 // $1.25

Snacks

In the afternoon, I had some wonderful snacks, starting with a sliced mango.

Served with two dipping options: a mix of salt and sugar, and sweet and spicy fish chili sauce.  (The latter is an acquired taste, for sure!  Honestly, I still don't love how it smells, but it somehow tastes really good with the mango.)

Thai mangos are pretty sour, so the sweet dipping options are very helpful!

Mango (with two dips): ฿30 // $0.94

Alright, at this point, the true treats begin.  I went a little nuts, but I am glad I did!  It's a treat day, after all.  I treated myself well!

I took a trip to 7-11 and picked up five of my most beloved Thai snacks.

#1 consumed: Jack'n'Jill malted milk balls.  Like Whoppers, but smaller, lighter, and airier.

#2: Jack'n'Jill chocolate coated wafer filled with cream.  I ate an absurd amount of these back in the early months.

#3: Gery crunch roll.  Chocolate center, wrapped in wafer, then caramel, then biscuit bits, all dipped in chocolate.  This one tastes the most like dark chocolate, which I of course love.

#4: Calbee potato sticks with ketchup.  Basically French fries in potato chip form!  These are so light and crispy, super salty, and great for satisfying a French fry craving.

Last, #5: Taro spicy flavored fish snack.  These are dried fish strips, and they are super popular snacks here in Thailand!  I really like these.  They are thin, a bit chewy, and really tasty.  They also have protein and are generally on the healthier side.  I don't eat many packaged foods nowadays, but I do have these sometimes!

7-11 snacks cost breakdown:

Malted milk balls: ฿5 // $0.16

Chocolate coated wafer: ฿5 // $0.16

Chocolate crunch roll: ฿6 // $0.19

French fry sticks: ฿5 // $0.16

Dried fish strips: ฿10 // $0.32

7-11 SNACK TOTAL: ฿31 // $0.99

On my way home, I passed a special street fair, and one stall had traditional Chinese desserts that I could not pass up.

These are called Crystal Cakes, I believe.  They are a Chinese dessert that actually originate in the province where I lived in 2017!

I bought one and ate it at a nearby temple.  Made of wheat starch and sweet bean paste, this dessert was flaky on the outside and moist/chewy on the inside.  Yum!

Chinese crystal cake: ฿10 // $0.32

I went home and rested for a bit, then headed back to the river for the Saturday evening market.

There, I got my favorite regional Thai food: gluai ping (grilled bananas)!  I would say that these and khao jee (grilled sticky rice) are my top two favorite foods right now.  I eat them pretty much every day.

Two glorious, fresh-off-the-grill grilled bananas.  So hot, so delicious.

Grilled bananas: ฿10 // $0.32

After I shopped for awhile and ran into some students (and my dear friend Teacher Phil!), I was ready to try something I had never had before: kanom dok bur, pandan rice flour pancakes.

Deep fried in shallow oil, these pandan-flavored treats become crispy on the outside...

...with a pocket of soft, chewy rice flour on the inside.  Yum!!

Crispy pandan pancakes: ฿20 // $0.64

TOTAL SNACK COST: ฿101 // $3.21

Dinner

Last but not least, I was craving some fresh steamed vegetables and some protein.  So, I constructed my standard dinner:

First, I picked up some fish and crab skewers from my friend Jan Guan.  I am her nightly customer!

Next, I steamed some Thai eggplants, cabbage, tomato, and zucchini. 

Drizzle with chili sauce and it's a done deal!  I never get sick of this.

Fish and crab skewers (with cabbage): ฿15 (฿5 per skewer!) // $0.47

Thai eggplants: ฿4 (฿1 each) // $0.13

Small zucchini: ฿2 // $0.06

Tomato: ฿3 // $0.09

Finally, the last component of my daily food: three delicious dates.  These are sweet, chewy, and filled with digestive system-friendly fiber.  A perfect way to end every day!

Dates: ฿50 for huge sack, approx. ฿5 for 3 dates // $0.16

TOTAL DINNER COST: ฿29 // $0.91

Grand Summary

So, there you have it.  The entirety of what I consumed on my grand Thai food treat day.  Let's recap:

Breakfast: stir-fried vegetables, son-in-law eggs, and grilled sticky rice: ฿40 // $1.25

Lunch: green curry winter squash with seitan, cooked greens with vegetarian sausage, seitan skewer and soup : ฿40 // $1.25

Snacks: mango, five 7-11 goodies, Chinese crystal cake, grilled bananas, and crispy pandan pancakes: ฿101 // $3.21

Dinner: fish and crab skewers, steamed vegetables, and dates: ฿29 // $0.91
TOTAL COST FOR ENTIRE DAY: ฿210 // $6.62

Yes, you read that right: under $7 USD for an entire day of eating, featuring quite a few treats that I do not usually have.  Just one of the many reasons that I love living in Thailand.

Thank you so much for reading!  I hope that you have enjoyed chowing down with me on my treat day.  I really enjoyed bringing you along!  Until next time, so much love from my corner of Thailand...

🍴