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Sailomjoy

We’ve been away from home for more than six months, almost thirty weeks. Six months of never staying anywhere longer than two weeks, with most rooms only being home for a few days. We’ve done different things every single day, and rarely eaten in the same place twice.

It’s may not be the most exciting place. But after over six months of perpetual motion, it’s nice to have somewhere to return to again and again. Last week we were in Chiang Mai. Just down the end of our lane, and across the busy road is Sailomjoy, open for breakfast and lunch. They serve a range of travellers standards; banana pancakes, porridge, mango shakes, spaghetti bolognese. Useful for children who are fed up with rice. They also do Thai staples, like papaya salad, that tastes like it’s supposed to, and real coffee. It’s clean and tidy and the staff are friendly. That’s pretty much the pinnacle of my ambitions.

Oddly, Ned moaned every time we went back after our first visit. He liked the food but thought we should be trying something new. I, on the other hand, loved having somewhere familiar to go, if only for a week.

At the end of this week, we’re heading back to Chaing Mai for a couple of days. I know where we’ll be having breakfast.

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Categories food and drink, Thailand

Eating bugs

11 May

Ned’s always been a good eater, ever since he was tiny, he used to lunge at whatever we were eating and shove it in his mouth. So it wasn’t a huge surprise when he developed a taste for insects aged about four. Selfridges started selling candied scorpions and the like, and I bought one thinking the children would all run screaming, but Ned just looked fascinated and asked if he could try it. He pronounced it crunchy and polished the whole thing off, sting and all.

Ever since, he’s talked about eating insects and a browse through a book about creepy crawlies is inevitably accompanied by the question, is it edible. We knew that a trip to Northern Thailand would have to involve some insect eating, as this is one of the few places in the world where bugs are a prized foodstuff. We’ve tried fried crickets, bee larvae omelette and bamboo worm, all of which were actually really nice. I promise.

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This post was written for Wanderfood Wednesday. For other, slightly more conventional, travel food ideas, head on over…

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Categories food and drink, Thailand

Coffee kaya butter toast

13 Apr

You can eat all sorts for breakfast here, and we have. Fried octopus, steamed buns, noodle soup, yam cake. But my favourite thing is coffee and toast. The toast, is always cooked over charcoal (see above), as all toast should be, and it’s served with the crusts cut off and spread with butter and kaya. Kaya is like lemon curd, but with coconut instead of lemon, and is slightly green in colour. It’s doesn’t taste coconutty, just sweet, but goes nicely with the salty butter. The coffee is fiendishly strong, brewed in a cross between a sock and a butterfly net and served with a dollop of condensed milk. Just the thing to get you going after a long night spent swatting mossies and refereeing arguements between bed sharing children.