lemongrass. tamarind. mango. chillies. coconut.

A Thai noodle vendor - Courtesy of BA Payton

Thailand. I can barely think of the country without imagining the smell of charcoal smoke rising from grilling fish or the sweet odor of freshly sliced guava. My memory is full of the sizzle of noodles being tossed into hot, fragrant wok oil. Indeed, Thai food draws in every one of the senses, so it's no surprise that food predominates most of my thoughts about Thailand. It was a paradise of street food, a wonderland of scents and flavors and vivid hues.

The best food we had was mostly on a whim from the street vendors. After living for six months in a country where four apples cost around $5, it was hard not to go crazy on an all fruit diet. We expected a variety, but we never expected what Thailand had to offer. We encountered watermelon, mango, papaya, coconut, starfruit, lychee, rambutan, passionfruit, mangosteen, pineapple, peaches, kiwis, durian, jackfruit and a plethora of fruits we couldn't name.

A snack of melon, mango, dragonfruit and pineapple

My first taste was of a guava. I'd only had it as juice and had no idea it could be eaten whole. During a morning stroll our first day in Bangkok, a little vendor caught my eye. A sign read "Guava - 20 baht".  That' about 75 cents, so I was happy to take him up on it. The man took a peeled guava and with a mini cleaver deftly hacked the guava into segments, tossed it all in a plastic bag and gestured to a vat on the side of the cart. There was a spice mixture the consistency of soft brown sugar. It smelled like tamarind, fish paste, chili powder, salt, and sugar. I dolloped some onto my guava, intrigued.

The guava was like eating mild honey. The spicy and savory powder I added accented its ambrosia sweetness. Delicious in an unimaginable way.

Courtesy of BA Payton

Brett and I sampled many a curry, soup, noodle dish and fish, too. My personal favorite became Tom Yum soup with seafood. It's a spicy and sour soup of mushrooms, shrimp, onions, scallops, octopus, and white fish. It's actually mostly chunks of the galagal, lemongrass, keffir lime leaves and chilis which give it it's intense flavor. No matter how spicy I asked it for it to be or not be, it always broke me out in a sweat, but I finished to the last drop every time. Every potent mouthful is bursting with every flavor and scent I associate with the country's cuisine. I think I had seven.... and mostly for breakfast.

Tom Kha Soup, a coconut based soup

A tamarind based delicacy. Soo spicy....

 And of course there was the strange snack along the way.... In Thailand, bugs, worms, and scorpions are eaten for their protein. When in Thailand....

Tasted like BBQ chips....

Brett did pretty well at trying out the local snacks and sweets. He had some coconut pancakes, chocolate coconut crepes, coconut-mango sticky rice... (see a trend here?) As for me, I ate an abnormal amount of soup, fish and fruit. It was a vacation well spent in the culinary sense. Nine days was hardly enough time to sample all Thailand had to offer. We'll be back, if not only to eat more guava and Tom Yum Soup.

A banana-leaf-wrapped sticky rice dessert. Tasted like - you guessed it - coconut.