Meals on wheels in Thailand
Iwas born and raised in Bangkok and my family loved to travel around Thailand. When I was a young girl, my father would take us to different provinces at the weekends. We often went to Hua Hin, a seaside resort in the province of Prachuap Khiri Khan in the west of Thailand. There are some great places to visit, such as the night market and Wat Huay Mongkol, a Buddhist temple home to the world’s largest statue of Luang Phor Thuad, a legendary Thai Monk. Hua
Hin is just a two-anda-half-hour drive from Bangkok, but my family and I would make the four-hour train journey. They were the trips I enjoyed the most.
I especially loved all the delicious food we got to eat: the fresh seafood, bang tarn chicken (Thai-style roasted chicken) and Hua Hin’s famous Thai sweet sticky rice with mango. But my most distinct memory of the Hua Hin trips is the fried rice we would buy from the food vendors who came on to the train. I would wait excitedly for the sound of the seller’s voice as he made his way towards my seat. The rice came wrapped in banana leaves with chicken or pork and you could add chillies and fish sauce. As a chef, I’m inspired every day by those flavours I experienced in my childhood.
You can get “train fried rice” at lots of food stalls in Thailand now, but for me there is something special about eating it on the train. You can’t really find it here in New Zealand, so when I have a craving for it I make it at home and for the Saan team’s staff dinner.