If You Just Can't Eat Thai Food...

[chonabot 504]

and my bf didn't understand the difference (although I swear he eats bone too...!)

ChrisP

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That line brought a tear to my eye ( no offense meant chap! )

[Padkapow Guy 5]

you need to find a girl like my wife. She can cook anything, after seeing it done once. Steak and chips [french fries] to perfection, pancakes, Spaghetti Bolognaise <or carbonara>, irish style stew, club sandwiches, anything.

I agree with you Merlin. My wife can eat something in a resturant and go home and make it better. No recipes everything is done from scratch. I think it's amazing at what she can do in the kitchen. I was hooked after the terriyaki or the honey and garlic pork chops. Not to mention the awesome thai foodthat she makes.

sorry off topic

but some of these thai women can really cook.

PKG

[samran 11,863]

PB - I realise that you are more of a 'eat to live person' rather than a 'live to eat' one. But, if you are going to head down the DIY route and prepare a couple of meals for yourself per week, then I do suggest getting your hand on one of the Jamie Oliver aka "Naked Chef' (or similar) cookbooks.

Whatever one you do end up getting, make sure that it includes an introductory chapter of 'what to keep in your kitchen', which will be a list of basic ingredients to keep stocked in your kitchen at all times. You'll be amazed how easy cooking becomes when you have a well stocked pantry, and although the intial cost of the outlay might be a bit paeng, it does save you heaps over time.

[ChrisP 1]

Ok.. I was asked for things I don't like .. (although it IS off-topic..)

Seafood and Shellfish (ALL except mild-tasting fish - filleted of course!)

Nuts - any - including almonds and coconut.

Bell Peppers - the red and green kind.

Meat that's NOT lean.

Lemongrass

Watery tasteless soup with mystery ingredients.

Most Asian veggies

Anything heavily spicy (but I DO like mexican food..)

There might be more........!

ChrisP

[Nickerelastic 0]

PB and CP guys you must learn to cook.

Source stock cubes from a western supplier the asian ones will be more spicy.

Basic dried herbs or grow your own thyme, rosemary, basil. etc

Olive oil and plain old corn oil for frying

plain flour and corn flour

Gravy powders (Bisto)

All the above will add western flavours to your locally grown raw ingredients.

If you can, get an electric food steamer This is a brilliant gadget much better then a microwave oven.

[nephron 0]

(in terms of cookbooks by famous chefs)

I'd go Gordon Ramsay rather than Jamie Oliver- knows how to cook real food, quite easy and doesn't require a whole bunch of fancy ingredients.

Edited December 29, 2005 by nephron

[otherstuff1957 3,144]

I'm going to jump on the 'learn to cook' bandwagon. You really don't nead to wait until you have a real kitchen either. Back in the US I lived on a 36' sailboat (that's 11 meters to you non-English measurement people) and didn't have a conventional kitchen, although I did have a small three burner propane stove with an oven, a small refrigerated ice box and hot and cold running water. I was able to cook quite a variety of meals in a very limited space.

Here in Thailand, my wife has a couple of shelves for ingredients and pots and pans, a small, portable gas stove, a microwave an electric wok, a chopping block and an electric rice cooker. Like most Thai women, she just sets everything out on the floor and starts cooking there! While we eat Thai food most of the time, every couple of weeks she will cook me a nice western meal - spaghetti, salmon steak with mashed potatos, cheeseburgers, japanese noodles etc... using the same equipment that she uses for her Thai cooking.

[Khun Yak 0]

Why did noone suggest pancakes yet ?

And I'm not talking about the american sweet syrup dripping ones, but the thin crepes-like ones which still have the size of a pan and not a cookie.

I even got a rec. for the dough you guys:

125g flour

250ml (half pint) of milk

2-3 eggs depending on size

salt

mix up everything and fry it from both sides with olive oil in a pan.

Now you can stuff / roll up these pancakes with whatever you like (eg. cheese / ham / salad / peanutbutter )

Or you stuff them with guacamole (something for the CP (mexican)) or with my favorite:

Feta cheese (diced) with tomatoes (diced) and Thyme (I always add garlic but it should be fine without as well)

Try this and you won't belive you're in Thailand anymore, that far away is the taste from any thaifood

BTW, the above mentioned dough should give you about 5 pancakes (they are cold as delicious as warm on the next day if you can't eat 5 or don't share them with someone).

Try and ENJOY !

[PeaceBlondie 51]

I'm going to jump on the 'learn to cook' bandwagon. You really don't nead to wait until you have a real kitchen either. Back in the US I lived on a 36' sailboat (that's 11 meters to you non-English measurement people) and didn't have a conventional kitchen, although I did have a small three burner propane stove with an oven, a small refrigerated ice box and hot and cold running water. I was able to cook quite a variety of meals in a very limited space.

Here in Thailand, my wife has a couple of shelves for ingredients and pots and pans, a small, portable gas stove, a microwave an electric wok, a chopping block and an electric rice cooker. Like most Thai women, she just sets everything out on the floor and starts cooking there! While we eat Thai food most of the time, every couple of weeks she will cook me a nice western meal - spaghetti, salmon steak with mashed potatos, cheeseburgers, japanese noodles etc... using the same equipment that she uses for her Thai cooking.

Thanks, otherstuff. However, I'll bet your sailboat was bigger than my current bungalow, which has no stove, no oven, no rice cooker, and no hot water. In two more weeks, I may have the other stuff that you and your wife now have, and I'll give that other stuff a try.

[mraitchison 15]

Move to Laos

[mraitchison 15]

Back in at last.

PB go to Laos every so often - the food their is superb and cheap. Italians lots of French, swiss whatever you want.

Should be a nice break for you.

[PeaceBlondie 51]

Thanks for the Laotian advice, Mr. A - but they don't have CBR150R motorcycle parts in Luang Prabang!!!

Yeah, my next trip is back to Shanghai, with a native of Shanghai. I know we can get authentic, non-spicy, tasty Chinese food, among other things.

[kerryk 507]

I think I read all of the above posts and no one suggested German Sausage. I like smoked bratwurst. The German deli meats are very good and cheap. If you have an electric wok just a drop of oil and slice the sausage and sauté it up.

I put my kitchen on the balcony. I have an electric wok cost 800 Bht it has a temp control and ground in indentations (not Teflon) so you can pull the food up when it finished cooking and leave the uncooked food in the center (hot spot).

I live in Chiang Mai and the bread is good here. You can also do a grilled ham and cheese sandwich in the wok. Grill it till the bread is done and finish in the microwave. You can fry potatoes in the wok and sausage and friend potatoes are great.

I also have a slow cooker pot 1000 Bht which has three temp settings, high low and auto. Cut up the meat sauté in the wok and toss in in the slow cooker and add the veggies later for any kind of stew. The slow cooker will also do rice but it takes much longer than a rice cooker.

I seem to entertain a lot (not really my idea but Thai’s can’t seem to eat alone.) Normally I feed 6 people a night for a cost of about 100 Bht.

Pork chops are easy to do and pork tenderloins are easy to work with if you want medallions of pork. When I am having a party I buy a bunch of cheap chicken drumsticks and sauté them in the wok. Since I only have one cooking apparatus, the wok, I use the slow cooker to hold the cooked things while I cook the others things in the wok. Good cheap cheese is a problem but Lotus has it.

I used to have an Italian wife and we had cheese, bread and salami dipped in olive oil or an oil and vinegar dressing almost daily with a salad.

[suegha 4]

This post just seems to run and run... That said, kerryk above shows how simple it can be to have a reasonable diet with limited tools and a small amount of ingredients. For me, I have a kitchen stocked like a professionals kitchen, loads of knives, pans, interesting gadgets etc. Funny though, I rarely use more than one knife and one pan for everything...

Edited January 13, 2006 by suegha

[grtaylor 7]

Not sure where you are in Thailand PB, but in Pattaya there are many restuarants serving good european food (french, german, belgian) for around 200 baht for a three course meal.

If you're interested I can send details of a few.

Edited January 16, 2006 by grtaylor