Grilled Dried Squid

Eating dried squid is an acquired taste. You certainly would not want to order dried squid when you are eating in an air-conditioned room.

Dried squid vendors usually come out at night and wait for customers from beer gardens and restaurants that are open late at night. The strong smell and salty taste probably kicks people awake.

But eating grilled dried squid is only slightly better than having your teeth pulled. So it has to be prepared properly – as the Thais have learned.

Grilling softens the dried squid and takes only around one minute. Immediately after grilling, the squid are passed through a roller-press to stretch the dried squid – almost like it was chewing on the dried squid.

The squid and a peanut and chili dip are placed in a paper bag and taken away.

Next…

Patongko and Salapao (Fried Dumplings)

Patongko and Salapao (Fried Dumplings)

Patongko is usually available in the mornings and a breakfast food and is usually taken with fresh soybean milk. This would be very much like what Pan de Sal (bread with salt) is like to Filipinos.

Patongko dough is rolled and sliced into short strips. A pair of strips pressed together in the middle make one patongko. When fried they look very much like chromosomes. A variant is the giant patongko.

Another fried dumpling is salapao (which to us is siopao) but does not come with any filling. The dough mix for making salapao is slightly sweeter than the patongko dough. I prefer the salapao but try not to have it often to cut down on my oil intake.

Some vendors sell patongko along with a very thick and sweet dip called sangkayah. This condensed milk with pandanus extract dip unfortunately has the look and consistency of that thing coming out of small children’s noses.

Phat Thai Kiow Thod

Phat Thai Kiow Thod

This really is a departure from the traditional Phat Thai Noodle which uses either white noodles or egg noodles. Here – they used Kiow noodles which are similar to siomai noodles – only thicker. The noodles are folded into half to form a triangle and deep fried.

A bed of bean sprouts is laid on the plate, the deep fried Kiow noodles come on top of the bean sprouts, garnish of sautéed ground pork, dried shrimp, spring onions, peanuts, more bean sprouts.

Finally top this with a sweet and spicy sauce. Viola! Bon Appétit.

Amphawa floating market is not far from Bangkok.

Yummy! Can't get enough of this!

They serve food so deliciously in Thailand.

Phat Thai Kiow Thod coming up (Literally).

Took these photos at Amphawa Floating Market. Love that place to bits.