I have found banana roti, and it is love. A thin pastry dough twisted and flipped until it is so thin you can almost see through it, placed on a flat grill with butter and filled with sliced bananas. The sides are folded over to wrap the banana, and it cooks until the bananas are soft and gooey. It is then sliced into bite-sized squares and drizzled with sweet milk and chocolate, or honey, or whatever strikes your fancy. If you order from a street vendor, you are handed this delicious concoction and a wooden skewer for a utensil. If you are far more patient than I am, you might be able to wait long enough to avoid scalding your tongue with the tasty goodness.
Red curry with squidWhile roti is one of my new favorite treats (you can also get different varieties and have it as a meal instead of dessert), but it is merely one of countless sumptuous culinary delights. (That's for you, Roger.) Fried rice with pork or pad Thai (which is drier here than in the States, and often has kale or Chinese broccoli added to it) have become my default breakfasts, as they're fairly simple and not spicy unless I want them to be. Red and green curries are favorites as well, served similarly to back home, though here they're eaten more like soup, with rice as an often optional accompaniment. Hard-boiled eggs are found everywhere - both chicken and quail eggs - and may be purchased on skewers or cooked in a dark brown broth. Kee mao is always delicious, though not as easy to find as I would have expected, given how common it is on American Thai menus. Also popular are little meatballs, which are made from grinding fish, chicken or pork into a paste, and then molding the paste into little balls and boiling or grilling them. These are often served in a noodle soup somewhat similar to Vietnamese pho, or just skewered and grilled and topped with a spicy sauce.
One challenging thing is that when menus have English translations on them, they generally don't include the Thai name (in Roman text, anyway). Each restaurant will describe the same dish a little bit differently, and five drastically different noodle dishes may be described very similarly. So, you have to either already know the Thai name of what you want, or just pick something from the menu and hope that if you like it, you'll someday be able to find it again. Also, you have to hope that you can properly pronounce the dish you're requesting. I had a craving for kee mao one day, and I apparently didn't use the proper intonation, because the dish I was served was chicken with green beans and hot peppers served over rice (kee mao is a noodle dish).
There are many dishes I've tried here that (to me) shall forever remain nameless, thanks to my language barrier. Street vendors are often able to help me with knowing what kind of meat I'm eating (or if it's a vegetarian dish) and if it's spicy, but often not much more than that. Important note: if a Thai person warns you that a dish is spicy, it is generally wise to ask for clarification. Also remember that "little spicy" in Thai terms is not "little spicy" in American terms. "Medium spicy" has had my nose running and my lips burning, and the one time I was warned something was spicy (I didn't ask for clarification) and I ordered it anyway, I ended up with tears streaming down my face for the entire meal, much to the amusement of the family running the place. Thank goodness for Thai iced tea with milk - it is wonderful for putting out the flames. Sticky rice with mango is always tasty and comforting, and is one of the only times you don't have to specify whether you want ripe mango. Seems Thai people often enjoy the not-so-sweet, unripened mango as a snack.
I was talking to an ex-pat who's been living in Chiang Mai for awhile, and he had a brilliant idea: yes, cooking courses are wonderful, but someone should teach an EATING course. It would be SO helpful to have someone explain a selection of common ingredients and dishes, and be able to try samples of them. There are things I haven't tried because I have no idea what they are, and many things I've ordered for that exact same reason. Some of them have panned out wonderfully (horseshoe crab eggs mixed with spices and vegetables and served in the crab shell), some have been awful (some pickled olive thing that I hope to never experience again) and many have fallen somewhere in the middle. Some of my favorite new foods that I may not otherwise have tried (and still don't know the name of) have been discovered when I've happened to sit down with a local. (I tried a delicous broth with a vegetable that looked like a nearly clear piece of corn-on-the-cob, and when I asked what it was, I was told "vitamin.") If someone started an eating course, I can assure you I'd be the first one signed up.
Black jelly with milk.Beverages are fun, too. Fruit juices, shakes and frappes are on every corner. A vendor will have a variety of fresh fruits on display, and you can point to which one(s) you want, and tell them if you want it served as juice, or mixed with ice for a slushie drink, or smoothie-style. They're delicious, healthy, and a wonderful way to beat the heat. Whole coconuts are also a nice treat. The top is hacked into and you drink from a straw; when you're done drinking, you can scrape out the coconut flesh, too. (I always thought I hated coconut; turns out I just hate fake coconut flavoring... and the shredded/dried stuff. Fresh coconut is delicious!) Cha dun yen (don't even try to pronounce it; there's an almost-"g" sound in there somewhere, for starters. I've been practicing, and asked people to demo it for me, and I still usually have to try several times before I'm understood) is sweet Thai iced tea with milk (the way it will be served if you order a Thai iced tea in a restaurant at home). You can also order it plain or with lemon. Also available is hot or cold coffee, which is generally instant but occasionally you'll find it brewed. You can also order some sort of dessert-ish drink that I still need to try which was described to me as jelly in milk. It looks like a giant chunk of black jello, which is cubed, tossed into a glass and topped with canned milk, or you can get it with little green spaghetti-shaped strands of something that also looks like jello. Honestly, I haven't tried them yet because they scare me, but they seem to be popular, so I'll check them out.
I'll keep you posted on Malay and Balinese food. Must say, I'm looking forward to doing the research! :)
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