A weekend in the “Big Mango”

Bangkok is such a cool city.  I was all prepared to not really like the city after all the warning’s I’d heard from friends that it was dirty, congested, and crowded.  It was all of these things, but the one crucial factor is that I just spent 1 month in India.   So it’s all relative. To me Bangkok looked like a gleaming, modern first-world capital with a huge bonus –> absofukinlutely amazing food. 

It was a short trip, but i think we covered the highlights of the city.  The itinerary for the three days was essentially temple, palace, eat, temple, palace, eat, Buddha statutes in some form, eat, drink, eat, sleep, temple, temple, temple, eat, drink, drink, drink, shop, eat, shop, drink, eat, drink, shop (@ 2am in a night market).

I’m posting the pictures on facebook where they belong, but I’ve commented on a few below. 

 

Does anybody know what this fruit is?

There is something very civilized about a nation where these types of juices can be bought for less than a $1 on any street corner.

The famed mangosteen!

 

I loved this – it was basically a chopped up guava with a powder mix made of chili, lime, and sugar sprinkled on.  Unbelievably good and available at street carts everywhere.  It’s similar to indian fruit “chat.”    I had about 6 of these and actually got to the point where I started to get kind of nauseous  I had zero luck trying to convince the street cart vendors to substitute splenda in for the sugar – but trust me I’ll be trying that recipe out myself back in India.

mango with sticky rice - One of four of my all-time favorite desserts in all the world (along with molten chocolate cake, lemon meringue pie, and pistachio gellato). 

I’m only including this pic of one of the “wats” so that not ALL my pics were food related.