som tam and son-in-law eggs

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On our second day in Ayutthaya, Amelia and I got up early to go look at the things we hadn't seen on day one. famished after hours of trudging across the town on foot, we abandoned our original plan to eat lunch by the river and ended up sitting down at a pink picnic table outside a streetside cafe. The small eatery was adorned with dozens of tropical potted plants that all, strangely, had hawaiian leis draped over them, making for an odd sort of jungle/PartyCity theme..

While the decor could have done with a makeover, the food was awesome. (though our judgment may have been skewed by our voracious appetites)

We ordered rice (of course - no meal is complete without it), som tam and khai leuk kheuy to share.

khai leuk kheuy, or son-in-law eggs

again, amelia's claw waits impatiently
before pouncing on the plate of eggs i'm photographing

These eggs are hard boiled, then fried so they're soft on the inside and sort of chewy and crisp on the outside. Then they're sliced in half and drenched in a sweet and salty sauce which seems to consist of caramelized onions, sugar, salt and some kind of fat. The dish is topped with chopped fresh cilantro.

sticky, salty, caramely sauce
this might be my favorite Thai egg preparation yet

som tam thai

Unfortunately, as often happens here, they saw our pale faces and made our papaya salad entirely not spicy. aside from that it was just fine - refreshing on a hot day.

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ducks

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Millie's visit continued..

The morning after phad thai and mangoes/sticky rice, we went for breakfast with nz and ivy to a strange little place down the street from our hostel. It was just a small three-walled room open to the street, with concrete floors, white walls and a few plastic tables and chairs. With no menus, no food in sight, no pictures or other diners we could point to, we struggled placing our orders. i had no idea what i'd ordered until it arrived...

duck

The duck was great both in the soup and on the rice. The soup was essentially a bowl of mild broth with ramen noodles and slices of sweet, tender duck meat. The other plate held a mound of rice, topped with the same duck meat and fatty skin with a salty/sweet soy-saucy kind of sauce. excuse the pathetic description, i really don't know what this dish was. i just know it was rich and fatty and scrumptious.

speaking of slaughtered ducks, I just watched that recent embarrassing moment for Oregon Ducks fans. not an inspiring start to the season..

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two thai classics on thonglor

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This post recounts the events of an evening in July, during Amelia's visit...

For her first dinner in Bangkok I took millie to a Thonglor, a sidestreet off of Sukhumvit (the main artery connecting my province to bkk) well known for its street food vendors. One of the more famous vendors is the phat thai guy stationed right on the corner as you turn off the main road into the alley. It's almost always the same guy furiously tossing a wok full of noodles over a pit of leaping flames - a dramatic sight at nighttime - and he makes what, I guess, is a pretty good phat thai. but I'm not partial to the dish, really, so maybe I'm not the best judge. In any case, that's where millie and I and my friends nz and dai went for dinner. We bought a couple of Singha beers to share, and squished together on plastic stools at a little aluminum table in the crowded alley.

nz and dai weave through the alley looking for an open seat

my order (chicken phat thai, spicy)
- that's a chunk of banana flower on the upper left of the plate

millie's order (chicken phat thai, slightly less spicy)

After cleaning our plates I showed millie the real reason we came here...

mangoes and sticky rice with sweet/salty coconut cream!

Even when mangoes aren't in season (like now), this place serves this sweet, creamy, chewy dessert. They charge way more than you normally pay during mango season, but it's worth it every once in a while.

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