Sticky Rice (Khaw Neow) Rice (Khaw) or Noodles ( Who-I-de-ow )
When you visit Thailand, you will find you will be surrounded by lots of street venders, stalls, selling lots of wonderful food, as well as having lots of restaurants to choose from. So when you are looking for a place to try some wonderful food, you will have to understand what food to eat, depending on what you intend to do.
The thing about Thailand, like a lot of countries, food is extremely important to the Thai’s. So, if you are visiting a home, go to a party, or visit friends, you wi;;have to bring food, or of course beer.
Now it’s up to you in what form of food you can bring. So, if you have had a good harvest of Papaya ( Ma-Lack-Arr ) or your banana tree has flowered fruit, you could bring these . You don’t always have to bring cooked food, you could also bring ingredient, or you can pop into or drop by a local Thai street vender and bring something from them .
When you are out and about, you will find different restaurants, food stalls, each serving maybe normally one type of food or maybe a types, but most of the time you will find that they will serve BBQ, rice or noodles. It’s a good idea, as this reduces the overhead, most of the sellers do not make a lot of money, so to reduce the costs, they concentrate of one type of food. You can , however go to bigger restaurants who will have a greater choice of dishes that you can try, they of course will be more expensive , although nothing to the cost compared to the UK.
Sticky Rice
So, you have a choice, if you intend to go on a shopping spree or top travel some distance, the
best choice would be to have sticky rice. The Thai’s normally sticky rice for breakfast , as sticky rice contains a lot of starch, so will keep the hunger off longer than normal rice. The sticky rice , obviously will be eaten with something else.
The way to eat sticky rice is with your hands ,it is hard eating it with forks or shop sticks. It is, as the name goes, sticky and you have to grab the rice and with a small amount of the rice , dip it into a bowl of what else you are eating and then put it into your mouth. When you buy the sticky rice , it is normally in a clear plastic bag, precooked. about Bht 10 or 20 , depending on the size of the bag.
I won’t go into how sticky rice is cooked, buy it would have been soaked in water for a few hours (Most times overnight) then steamed )
Rice
I won’t go into rice too much as I am sure you have all eaten rice, but rice also contains starch and will keep the hunger off , but is not as stodgy as its sticky brother, but will not keep the hunger off for too long.
I would advice you top try the different types of rice they have here, a lot are heather red rice , steamed wholemeal rice
Noodles
I am not even going to attempt to explain the various types of noodles available here in Thailand but lets just say. lots. The Thais are also fussy about what type of noodle goes into what particular dish.
I remember when I started to live with my Thai wife, I opened a cupboard to find at least 10 different types of dry noodles , and was informed that each had it purpose.
This is not even mentioning the pot type noodles , which, are everywhere and of lot of different flavours.
There are too many dishes in Thailand that are noodle dishes, but they are normally noodles in a broth , with vegetables with or without meat. The noodle dish , although tasty , will not fill you up, so you can have a noodle dish and then in an hour or so fancy another noodle dish. This is a great way to try lost of Thai dishes,
You may also get crispy noodles as condiments , a great addition to a good dish.
What you have top remember when having a doodle dish, the broth may not be as tasty as you expect, but don’t be put off. It is made this way , as everyone has a different palate , spa you will find normally four, condiments, thai basil, chilli, fish sauce ( Thai’s don’t use salt ), sugar and vinegar. You may also find garlic cloves, fried garlic, onions, pickle coriander, as well as whole chillis .
So you add whatever condiment, that is to your taste, and in combination with the broth, you will have a great broth to eat with your noodles.
My Personal Journey to Thailand 