If you are concerned about your dietary needs in Thailand take a look

October 20, 2017
Travelling, Uncategorized

Before traveling around the world and living in 12 countries, I was born and grew up in Papua New Guinea so right from the start I was eating tasty interesting food, and from the time we were children my brother and I were roaming off the coast in our dinghy catching squid and all kinds of fish and cleaning and cooking it. Not only that but my father was a small goods lover so he introduced our family to cured meats, caviar, and a myriad of food from around the world. We also travelled and were introduced to snails, frog’s legs and many other delicacies, including spicy food from a young age, I COULD EVEN USE CHOPSTICKS FROM THE TIME I WAS 3 YEARS OLD.
Consequently my palate is pretty much open to any kind of food, and I will try anything and everything. I am one of the lucky ones, I have eaten bugs, grass hoppers, eels, and many other things that I had no idea what they were ha-ha but I still try them. I know that food is a tricky subject all over the world and that large portions of the population of the world have some kind of food restriction, whether it be due to religious beliefs such as Muslims and halal food and Those of Jewish faith with kosher food. Then you have your vegetarians and vegans, people that cannot eat spicy food or salty food or sour food, or one thing that is prevalent in modern day society is Gluten intolerance.
Food is a major issue with travelers and I wanted to write a little about the kinds of food available here in Thailand. Obviously a lot of the food can be spicy here but you can order non spicy food or to be safe just steer clear of any spicy food if you are very sensitive to it, because even the least spicy food is probably spicier than you can enjoy. Most main stream restaurants are happy to assist you with your food requirements and will be able to communicate, but the smaller local Thai restaurants and markets may be a little more difficult only because of the communication barrier, having said that the large markets such as the Night markets in Phuket that open Friday to Sunday have such amazing food and something for everyone, you can walk all around and buy and taste nibbles of many kinds of food, grab a beer or a softdrink or a water and wander around eating, so much fun.
Thailand hosts a population of a few religions but mainly Buddhist and Muslim so naturally halal food is available and most if not all tours and operators that we deal with, can easily accommodate your dietary needs and actually plan for them in their food buffets that are set, you just need to ask before you book to make sure but we have not had any problems to date and everyone has been satisfied.
We recently got a booking for 100 Israelis who are coming in November, this was our first time to experience the kosher element but after a few emails to the organizer of the group and to the managers at the hotels, we were easily able to change up menu dishes to suit their requirements for the set menus. Vegetarian food is easy to find here and Phuket has their Nine Emperor Gods Festival, which is a vegetarian festival held every year from October 20th to October 28th. Celebrating the Chinese community’s belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind. While the event is now world-famous for its extreme celebrations, the 2017 Vegetarian Festival is planned to be a much smaller, quieter event as it falls at exactly the same time as the funeral of the Thai peoples beloved Dad, late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
I do know there are some amazing vegan restaurants around but not many that I have seen, but then again I am not Vegan so if I am incorrect please feel free to comment. There are restaurants that serve food from all over the world, there are supermarkets where you can buy what you need, and probably the most difficult thing to be here would be Gluten intolerant. From what I have seen living here for the past 5 years is that there is no gluten free food and generally I don’t even think that Thai people would know what that condition is. Don’t get me wrong, there are restaurants and hotels that you can certainly order gluten free food from, but on the whole street food and the sauces the Thai people use to prepare their food are certainly not gluten free. This post is a little longer than I planned it to be so I will close off by saying please don’t worry about food here, just about all requirements can be fulfilled on your lovely vacation in Thailand. Let us know if you need some help.

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