Friday, August 22, 2008

Food by the Sea, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

After the floating market, we were driven to a local beach which had an array of street stalls serving some pretty nice bites. I'm a big fan of street food and this was definitely up my alley.

Amongst the myriad selections of seafood, some uncommon ones stood out, such as these horse-shoe crabs, where apparently, only the roe is savored.

The ubiquitous drinks stall which serves the creamiest, tastiest iced milk tea.

Now this was the ultimate fake-out. Any Singaporean or Malaysian will know what comes to mind when we see these. It has to be otak right? The spicy coconut- milk-based fish paste which is so tasty when grilled over charcoal.

Turned out it was some sweet sticky rice thingy! I felt like such a fool when I took my first bite.

Grilled scallops by the street are always welcome.

With a dash of salt and some butter and spices, these tasted great.

A whole pot of piping hot steamed cakes. Somehow, I don't know if it was psychological but wrapping the cakes in these leaves gave them a noticeable fragrance over the ones we have in Singapore which are just baked in containers.

After snacking on all the street food, it was time for lunch. The advertising system here is rather unique. All these mascots are dressed (actually it's pretty much only their headgear) as sea creatures and they dance and prance around by the road to entice you to try out their fare.

We settled for this fish dude's restaurant. We were in the mood for some fish this lunch and I guess there is no other method to ascertain a restaurant's standard of fish except from their mascot. Come on, I mean look at him, he's a fish dude!

A pretty much vegetarian salad of onions, raw papaya and cashew nuts was the first dish. A nice, tangy appetizer to kick start our feast.

Next up was a seafood vermicelli salad. This was unassumingly spicy, but still tasty. The lime dressing on the seafood really reminded me of some good ceviche I had not too long ago.

Stir-fried shelled razor clams with green peppers and basil. Absolutely loved this. I'm beginning to be quite a big fan of all the varieties of basil and the sweet flesh of the clam sure complemented the fragrance of the Thai basil.

Next up were some boiled sea slugs which we ate with a chili dipping sauce. Fresh and naturally sweet but it was in the end quite spartan in flavor really.

Boiled squid in a tom yam broth. Crunchy, succulent squid in a delicious savory, spicy and slightly sour tom yam stock. What more can one ask for?

Perhaps some freshly fried fish. Funny how despite this fish being so fresh (like live), our host opted to fry it instead of steaming (the almost mandatory method to "appreciate" the freshness of fish haha). But hey, some people may argue that one can get away with bad fish by deep frying it, yeah maybe if we're talking about fish fingers but even though this was deep-fried, the oil was so intense that within the crisp exterior was fresh sweet flesh which pretty much "steamed" in its own juices.

Last but not least was a hotpot of fresh water river eel. The soup was good and the eel was suprisingly delightfully fatty. The only bummer was the life-threatening number of fine bones which made eating this quite a dangerous task. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the eel and felt so gangster living life on the edge.

D

6 comments:

Lord Dianabol said...

Fresh seafood is always healthy, even if deep fried.

How much did this meal come to matey?

Anonymous said...

wow lots of seafood, cheap and good : )

LiquidShaDow said...

Very nice variety there. How does the horseshoe crab roe taste like?

Anonymous said...

the fake otak really fake us all out. In the end still gotta struggle who will finish it...

D said...

lord dianabol: Not sure, didn't pay =)

ladyironchef: Yup, fresh seafood is a nice change, even for a red-meat mammal eater like myself =P

liquidshadow: Tasted similar to fish roe actually and a little salty

j: Haha yeah! Luckily we had King Kong's brother there to finish it haha.

Anonymous said...

Hey Dude..Wow...Intersting thailand Trip again..hmm..i really would like to try out all this Exotic street food but u need to have someone to bring u ard...i supposed u went with a Local Thai Friend ? Anyway i seems to be qutie a long time since my last visit to your blog..Keep up the good work..Next time go Thailand must call me..hahaha