One of the fun things about traveling to new countries is trying the food, and everyone has a different tolerance for new things. I have friends that will eat anything, in any country, with no concerns. I have another friend who packed a duffel bag full of Pop-Tarts to eat for every meal while was on vacation in Cozumel for a week. To each their own. It’s one thing to try something new when you’re at your favorite Mexican restaurant at home. It’s completely different when you’re trying random street food in Southeast Asia. Sometimes you have to push yourself a little, and you may be pleasantly surprised. Other times you may realize that you should have trusted your gut and gone to McDonalds.
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Skewered meats were available from street carts everywhere in Bangkok. From this vendor, I tried one skewer that had mini hot dogs wrapped in crispy wonton wrappers that tasted exactly as you’d expect. Then I tried one with light gray meat that looked like it could have been pork but turned out to be some sort of fish. |
| More food on a stick. I think these were some sort of squid or cuttlefish. |
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I saw this pot of food bubbling away at a food court at the mall. It looked like meat, but I’ve been fooled before. I kept walking. |
| Little steamed dumplings. I am sure the color tells you what kind of meat is in each, but I have no idea what the color coding meant. I got a little baggie with two of each for about $0.67. They weren’t bad, but I still don’t know what kind of meat they were. |
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If you’re feeling up for it, you can get some amazing food from street vendors for remarkably cheap. Almost every morning in Saigon, I’d get a banh mi sandwich for about a dollar. I’d eat it around 10:00A and it would keep me comfortably sated until dinner. So if you stick with street vendors, you can eat quite a bit of food for under $5.00 per day, but it may require trying things that you’re not completely familiar with. But even going to McDonald’s may not go the way you expect.
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One day for lunch, I ended up at a McD’s in Saigon, resigned to having a crappy burger. But when I looked at the menu, I saw that they had some local options. I got the “Grilled Pork Rice” (#12 on the menu) which looked pretty good. |
| “Special Creation” I’m feeling optimistic. |
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Yeah…. That’s a sausage patty from a breakfast muffin. And the sauce on the rice was a slightly thick, slightly sweet soy sauce. I don’t think I’ve ever been this disappointed with a meal at McD’s, and that’s saying a lot. |
Southeast Asia is known for great tropical fruits, and rightfully so. You will pass street vendors selling whole melons and sliced fruit. It’s easy to just grab a little snack as you walk to wherever you’re going. Fresh, healthy, and tasty. And, unlike the meats, you generally know what you’re eating.
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I did a double take when I passed this |
| Yep, that’s a yellow watermelon. Half of a yellow watermelon for about $5.50. Even if you’re not into exotic foods, you have to admit you’d be tempted to try it. It’s only as I type up this blog post that I realize that part of the sign was in English and probably described the fruit. Oops. |
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It tastes like chicken. Just kidding. It tasted exactly like a watermelon, which was a little surprising but not at all disappointing when it’s in the mid 90’s outside. |
I will admit that I haven’t been nearly as adventurous with my eating as some people would be in my shoes, but I’ve tried more unknown foods in the past 3 months than I probably have in the previous 5 years combined. When you go to some of the local restaurants and the menu is entirely in a foreign language or, as I ran into in Chiang Mai, the menu is just photos on the wall, you have to point at something and hope for the best. That strategy got me a great plate of some kind of pork curry over rice one evening for dinner. But it also got me some sort of noodle soup with meat and a watery broth for breakfast the next day. You never know what you’re going to get, but when street meals cost less than $2, you can afford to gamble a little. Take some of the money you saved on meals and buy some Pepto, just in case.
