Delicious

6th January 2011

The sea kayak is not like a normal kayak. It’s actually a big air-filled yellow banana with dimples in the top for two bums and four heels. And yet it is surprisingly stable and floats a treat. We went paddling out off the beach to a nearby speck of an island, a sheer lump of rock covered in lush vegetation with a tiny beach in its sheltered lea. It’s a special treat to have a deserted island all to yourself, and we splashed around in the surf for nearly an hour before heading home.

Kayaking builds a healthy apetite, so we took bicycles (never bikes – in south-east asia a bike is always a motorbike or scooter) and cycled off around the island to find lunch. We stopped randomly at a simple roadside restaurant and ordered glass noodle salad and massaman curry. The salad was pepped with loads of chilli and the right balance of lime and sweetness, the curry was thick and deliciously rich. So why then is the massaman curry at Lom’Lae so lacklustre, and the papaya salad we tried is off the mark?

We love staying at Lom’Lae, and the food isn’t bad. But why is it that cooks working in shacks can knock out plates of food that bring genuine smiles for under £1, while almost without exception the places we’ve stayed have served food that is at best half-decent. Surely they can pay better than the scant living to be made from a roadside eatery? I’ve thought back carefully, and my generalisation is fair: Bangkok, Siem Reap, Kuraburi, here. The disparity is even more frustrating at a place like this, where you’re a couple of kilometers from anywhere and must make a special effort to find somewhere other than the resort to eat at.

Perhaps it is something to do with the perceived need to “cater to western tastes”? So many waitresses look incredulous when we insist that we want our food spiced to normal Thai standards. The result is never more firey than Thai or Indian food I’ve enjoyed in London, so what’s all the fuss about? And maybe this extends to flavours other than chilli, leading to resort and hotel chefs producing food that is bland instead of exciting. Lowest common denominator dining.

It’s a theory. I’d need to research much more thoroughly to test it, a task I’d rather relish! But we’re leaving Thailand in three days, so I’ll just make sure we stop at least a couple more times at basic roadside eateries before we go.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 7th, 2011 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.