I love it here! What's not to love about living in a condo on the top floor with breathtaking views of the city, food all around and around the clock, fresh fruit and vegetables for a few baht (THB 1 to Php1.3 threabouts), wonderful shopping, a few minutes walk from the nearest BTS (similar to our LRT/MRT. In BKK, the MRT is the subway), and did I say the food is great?
My favorite Thai food is not pad thai, kai thot, or tom kha gai. It's that salad of grated unripe papaya, carrots, long beans (sitaw) dressed with nam pla (fish sauce aka patis), lime juice, sugar, a bit of water, grated lemongrass, sliced kaffir lime leaves and dried shrimps. The one food that haunts my dreams and one I ate everyday during my recent visit to the city.
Enter the som tam. Oh, and did I mention this usually costs just 30 baht? I told you food is GOOD here!
Clockwise from top: (1)plain som tam from Som Tam Convent (Day 1), (2)som tam from the kai yang place on Phi Phat 2, (3) on my last day, a plain one also from Som Tam Convent, (4) Another one from Som Tam Convent ,this one with salted duck eggs for Day 3,
I love the harmony of flavors as they crash into each other on my tongue. All at once it's salty, sweet, sour, spicy - even when I request "mai sai prik, kha!" (Please do not put chili). It's inevitable that some of the chili from the last batch will make its way into my serving.
I kid you not when I say I ate for four days straight, sometimes more than once a day.
Of course it's not the only thing I ate. I had the freshest and juiciest rambutan I have ever had in my life. Their "hairs" still green, their skin a vibrant red... all to the tune of 30 baht (about 40 Php) per kilo. I also stuffed my face with the sweetest, most luscious mangosteens this side of Asia, an absolute steal at 35 baht per kilo (around 50 Php). Try getting THAT here in Manila. Popsie has several suki in the talat (market) so he can pretty much count on a discount when he goes to the market Saturday or Sunday mornings.
There is also a sweet-salty-sour-spicy pork rib soup that we enjoy at Som Tam Convent (Convent road runs perpendicular to Silom). I like this with the sliced pork liver with mint. The liver barely cooked, the mint complimenting the creaminess of the "meat"... all paired with kao niew - sticky rice stuffed in a woven basket. This is best eaten with bare hands - roll into a ball a and dip into the sauce of either the pork liver or the som tam. Pop in mouth and enjoy!
som tam, pork belly with mint, pork liver with mint, sour spare rib soup
I got my sweet tooth from Momsie so it comes as no surprise that we sugar coma-ed with each other - with my scoop of berry yoghurt and midnight chocolate from Swensen's and my mom's favorite: McDonald's vanilla twist dipped in chocolate.
More sweets: there are vendors that sell very thin crepes to be filled with fairy floss. Et voila! Tuck in!
Buy two bags of crepes and a pack of fairy floss, place on plate, fill crepes with floss, roll up and eat!
I will need to go back again before the year is over. My July stay was only four days (so hard to go on leave), whereas I was there for three weeks over Christmas/New Year 2009. I want to take Jeni there... maybe in time for Song Kran.
Happy Eating!
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