Can't Eat Thai Food

[The Gentleman Scamp]

Should have mentioned this ages ago but I didn't see the point, however I recently heard that one could train ones self, or ones tastebuds, to get used to the local inedible nasty stuff we see on the food stalls.

I can eat bummee moo daeng (Pork, noodley soup) and fried pork strips and sticky rice but it's not very filling and I am constantly craving for carbohydrate.

I couldn't afford to get n the Skytrain everyday and go into town to eat decent farang food all the time and I'm getting a bit sick of living on tins of tuna from 7-Eleven and bread, not to mention jackfruit, pineapple, chocolate milk and tinned lychees. I've basically just listed my general diet.

I've even been desperate enough to eat at McDonalds at times which is not a good thing. I feel awful afterwards and hungry about an hour after.

Maybe this post should be in health/body/medicine but it does say 'food' in the above headline.

Does anybody have a similar problem? I often wretch when eating the fod I CAN eat and need a bottle of water to wash it down with.

I'm not good with spicy food but don't mind it a little spicy, it's more the smell and look of all the sinew, guts and god knows what that are in all them cauldrons.

I can eat kao phad anything but only in the more expensive places, not the street stuff. Eating is a pain in the arse but I have to do it or I will die.

[george]

I had a similiar problem a couple of month ago, no apetite at all. Went to the pharmacy and got a multi mineral and vitamin thingie, it's called Pharmaton. A bit expensive, but it really help to bring back your appetite.

pharmaton.com

[stroll]

Are you serious? If so, I suspect it is about food in general, what did you eat back home?

I have a similar problem with fatty meats, some inside-animal things (don't even know how to call it) and certain insects.

But for me there is still lots to choose from, and I am gradually progressing, nudged on by Thai friends after a beer or two.

Suggestion:

Get to know some friendly food stalls/eateries in your area and explain what you like and how you want it prepared. Get a Thai friend to translate if your Thai isn't good enough.

If this won't do, work with the issue, i.e., what EXACTLY is it that makes this particular dish unacceptable (what it is/texture/taste/looks etc.).

Do I make sense?

[RamdomChances]

Do you have any cooking facilities?

If so get yourself to a supermarket, of local market and by some potatos, carrots that sort of thing. Meat esp chicken and pork are avalible every where, and even the local beef is ok if you casserole or stew it.

If you have'nt got an oven, just chuck some chicken and veg in a sausepan and make a stew.

Oh and one know where to buy beef stock cubes.

I find the rice ok but tend to get a craving for large slabs of meat,

esp Lamb mmmmm!!

[whattodo]

The Gentleman Scamp;;;;;;;;;

how so much i can relate to you!

at least you are in Bkk and can readily find and eat at will Farang food,

i am not so lucky to be in your position as i in the thick off it in Issan Land,

Beleive me as i write i am looking at the only remainder of Heinz Baked Beans (1 can left ) when do i open ?

[The Gentleman Scamp]

I don't have any cooking facilities, not even a kettle - though I have a microwave in my apartment.

I haven't lost my appetite for food in general, I'm starving as I type but I know I couldn't face most of what's out there - though most of it's packed away now anyway.

I've always been a bit on the slim side and back home I ate well, but I was eating mostly traditional English food. I'm not squeamish about exotic food - I'll try anything. I've tried local frog but that just had too many pepercorns and chilli's thrown in and the meat was mainly bone and gristle.

Tried durian for the first time today and I wasn't too keen on it, but even if I was - I'm still missing decent pasta, decent spuds and bread - so I do try new stuff but usually disguard it after a couple of mouthfulls and have a chocolate milk to kerb my hunger.

My favourite eating experience is at Oishi buffet restaurants, I can't eat enough raw salmon and fried Japanese beef with asparagus but again - where's the carbs? On a really bad day I'm on a 5bht bag of boiled rice dashed with Lea & Perrins.

Cheers anyway, I will try some of the suggestions and not drink beer in the week, that may help but I don't drink a huge amount of it.

[whattodo]

Scamp !!!!!!!

have you totally lost the plot ? or just pissed?

[whattodo]

I AM OPENING NOW. JOIN ME

[stroll]

G.F. Bread, even medium sliced white loaves, are available in all supermarkets! Get yourself a gas cooker for less than 1000Bt, fry your eggs and bread with a sliced tomato and Bob's your uncle.

I am getting hungry, think i'll boil some spaghetti uop and get the mature cheddar out to grate it over the succulent pieces of finely chopped beef in my homemade tomato/onion sauce.

How does this make you feel?

[penzman]

You can't keep on with that kind of a diet...

Head down to Tesco and get an electric pan, carbs and get cooking in large quantities, the microwave will come in handy afterwards for reheating the stuff.

You may want to save some baht spent on the nana nois for a maid

You can try dealing with Thai dishes later on.

[medicinebox]

The best thing I brought to Thailand was my mini George Foreman grill.

I can nock up big steaks, chicken breasts, sausages, bacon butties. Carbs wise, baked potatoes, and get a rice cooker, they're cheap enough. I only have a microwave and a sink/worktop, but it does me fine. Oh yeah, get a toaster and you can have scrambled eggs, beans, bacon, and buttered toast to set you up for the day.

One lean mean grilling machine....

20 quid in Tesco's UK.

[tutsiwarrior]

scamp...people in large urban places like bKK and pattaya have no excuse when it comes to alternatives to the local food. if i was living down there I'd have Hormel Chili and Hormel Tamales and use the availability of ground beef to take care of wanting to barf when it come to the gristle, pig lungs and ears and etc everything with handfuls of chiles and gallons of nam pla. Think of your up country brothers for whom it is to survive on the local pig swill or die in twisted starving agony in an effort to find Campbell's soup and baked beans and a loaf of bread that don't got sugar in it.

What about chicken pot pies, frozen pizza and lean cuisine? If you got a microwave go for it. Man...I'd love some microwaved frozen lasagna right now...

an' I ain't foolin'...I am well known on this forum for my rejection of local food as swill...gimme a cheeseburger!!

[stroll]

A lot of good advice here.

But I suspect G.S.'s lack of appetite will be cured just as quickly as his insomnia before, as soon as his ex from Samui will come to visit again.

[Boon Mee]

Get down to the corner and ask the Somtom Lady for a nice big plate of her speciality. It's great if not done too hot!

[mbkudu]

Get yourself a woman who can cook.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

Get myself a woman who can cook?

Finding a girlfriend at all is a very difficult task - one that I am happy to allow get attached to me anyway.

The above advice sounds good though and I will try to get the girlfriend first and then the cooker thing from Tescos.

I'm in Seacon Square right now and I've just had a Filet 'O Fish which made pigs ear and chilli sewage with shitty rice seem quite appealing.

[possom]

scamp ,you have real problems if you are resorting to eating macdonalds !!! get a rice cooker and buy decent rice from the supermarket (khao hom mali ) as for what to eat with it ,thats up to your tastebuds . buy the food from places that cook each dish as its ordered and get them to cook it with ingredients you can stomach . other options ,buy a toastie machine - anything you feel like eating can be put in a toastie , consider going home (but thats quite drastic !!). personally i dont like eating offal ( so never do ), but always manage to find thai food which i enjoy . p.s i would eat the offal before macdonalds !! also why can you only eat khao phat from expensive places ????

[KevinN]

TGS; tutsi speaks for me also, I ain't even going to try to live on the swill that they eat here and say is FOOD. I do not eat the insides out of anything cept coconut ,watermellons and bananas.Ain't eating little frogs,hamsters,rats, bugs , guine pigs,snakes and lizards.

And if I was you living where you do, I would eat 4 squares a day and nothing but good farang grub, I drive to CMX just to get to a store that sells some farang stuff and I have to come to BKK every year for visa and I fill the bus with stuff from the store downstairs at seacon, I Go to sizzler while there and wrap myself around a giant rare "T" bone from a chicago feedlot.

Gotta be something wrong with anyone that says they really like all this wonderful Thai food,,the last one that told me that came to Thailand stayed 4 days and had to fly home sick as a dog.She thought she was dying.

Tutsi and I both worked in the woods of the PNW, and we eat a lot of dead animals,but not the guts,lots of spuds and gravy and bicuits,where men are men and the sheep are scared and the women like it that way.

[stroll]

Where is Maerim?

[anono555]

what a bunch of moaning minnies... jeez, what are you all doing in Thailand if you don't like Thai food? you could live there for 10 years and eat something different every single day, it's not as if there's no choice... and as for being ill, the only time i have ever had food poisoning in Thailand is from eating at Pizza Hut

[KevinN]

Sure you can eat something different every day,but who wants to eat the same weeds,guts and bad tasting meat,cooked in a nasty place and mostly on the street where the air is full of road dirt, spit and dog shit,fuel fumes from leaded gasoline with enough lead in it to give an elephant brain damage,and mixed with the same dog hair and pig guts that you ate yesterday only stirred with the left hand today?

[anono555]

hehe... yeah you're right about the pollution out on the streets in Bangkok, but Thais are very clean about preparing food. they're not daft. if you think it's any cleaner eating in an expensive restaurant or hotel (anywhere in the world) then you're sadly mistaken. some of the top hotels have the filthiest kitchens you have even seen and people are paying fortunes to eat there!?! you would be shocked at what goes on in these places... and as for Mcdonalds and Burger King... well if you're eating in there then BLOODY ###### get a grip

[RamdomChances]

what a bunch of moaning minnies... jeez, what are you all doing in Thailand if you don't like Thai food? you could live there for 10 years and eat something different every single day, it's not as if there's no choice... and as for being ill, the only time i have ever had food poisoning in Thailand is from eating at Pizza Hut

I think you may be missing the point a bit, a lot of the posts here are from people that live in thailand, but away from the main tourist/falang areas. I personely eat thai food everyday, my wife and mother in are good cooks, we have good meat, fresh fish, veg, rice.

Its not for some people and it still does not stop you craving for a good steak sometimes. My nearest supermarket is 70 km away and that carries a minimul supply of falang food, so when I go to BKK I usually head for a good steak and try and stock up on supplies, so as for "it's not as if there's no choice", for many of us there are'nt!!

[Bluecat]

GS,

You can't eat Thai food

You can't sleep

You got warts here

Are you sure you are in the right country?

[350torana]

It always amazes me when people get on thier high horse and say falang should only eat Thai food . I eat Thai food at least 5 days a week but need a bit of western chow a few times a week to keep my gastro intestinals happy.

I am sure most Thais in the west would prefer to eat Thai food, it is just the way it is. .

7-11's do good hotdogs and that new icecream chain (similair to Wendys) can't remember the name always tempt me to get a fill up on a hotdog smothered in mustard and tomatoe sauce

I think Thai food is great ,even pet mak mak and ring sting the next morning, but western guts naturally crave foods our stomachs have grown up on.

[Bluecat]

I am sure most Thais in the west would prefer to eat Thai food, it is just the way it is. .

This is another topic but for sure Thai people, on average, do not like western food.

Each time Thai people from the same company than me go to Europe, they make sure they have an ample supply of Thai food,...

Of course, this is for short trips.

If they live there or if you live here, you better get used to the local food,...

[The Gentleman Scamp]

GS,

You can't eat Thai food

You can't sleep

You got warts here

Are you sure you are in the right country?

Don't let's bring up the wart again, fortunatly that's long gone.

I am sleeping but don't sleep enough and my diet is not what it should be but I do like to eat healthy. I think some sort of anxiety crisis is creeping up on me.

I'm about to turn thirty.

I should be having the time of my life and yet I get home exhausted everyday to an empty apartment from a job I do my best at, but hate all the same.

I have many friends both here and back home but there is something else missing (security, job satisfaction and the love of a good woman) and although 30 isn't old it's the first hurdle and I should by now be getting my life together but it just isn't happening.

I was never settled in England despite achieving many goals and having some great jobs, I grew to hate the celebrity obsessed culture, and the media and have always felt I had more to offer in a better place and coming here was my emancipation from the rat race, and a new start in a better life.

Sorry to sound so depressing but logging on here is the only daily interaction I have with my fellow farang, and sometimes it's even the highlight - that and going home to watch telly. I work with a couple of teachers in their twenties who I have nothing in common with. They have no depth and talk about nothing but football, their conquests and how to teach with a hangover.

They are friendly enough but snobbish as it may sound they're out of tune with what it's all about and not the type of people I want to be associated with, yet I am doing the same job as them because instead of going to university ten years ago as I was advised to by, well, pretty much everyone, I never had the foresight to consider a future outside of the U.K. and was at the time convinced I would become a songwriter but was let down and mislead and now I'm in a country I have the upmost admiration and fondness for, teaching kindergartens on 28k a month and sweating away in a shirt, tie, shoes and trousers fit for a job in the upper echelons of farang society, a job where I would actually be utilising the talents and skills I do have, a job perhaps in the writing or adult teaching fraternity; but at the moment I seem to be stuck with what I have got because of what I haven't got, and I have no intention whatsoever of buying a fake one.

I'm really, really not enjoying my life but it's not time to give up and go home yet, I have to find out what I can do. I'm an intelligent, creative, well spoken guy with a lot of other qualifications, lots of life experience and the ability to communicate with an endearing charm.

I'm still young and I look good in a suit - providing I've had a decent nights sleep.

It's been another rough day and I had to get all that off my chest, even though I've just got it off my chest to a bunch of strangers, albeit mostly like minded strangers who are familiar with my usual postings and will I hope sympathise with my cause and forgive me for breaking out of character for this one and telling you how life really is for The Gentleman Scamp.

I don't know what I have to gain from opening my heart like this, but I suppose I have nothing to lose by it.

[350torana]

Mr Scamp

I am sure nearly turning the big 30 has alot to do with your thoughts. I can relate, turned 30 a few months ago and did alot of contemplating about where my life was going.

Don't want to sound like Miss Advice, but if your apartment is empty coming home from work get yourself a nice Thai girl , plenty of them out there who would love to be with a young teacher who looks good in a suit

[medicinebox]

I  am sure  most  Thais  in the  west  would  prefer to eat Thai food, it  is  just the  way it  is. .

This is another topic but for sure Thai people, on average, do not like western food.

Each time Thai people from the same company than me go to Europe, they make sure they have an ample supply of Thai food,...

Of course, this is for short trips.

If they live there or if you live here, you better get used to the local food,...

Reminds me of my Danish friend, who took a TG back to Denmark. After a few days on the Danish food she went to take a dump. It was that compact and dry, she couldnt nip it off. She tried to cut it off with a knife and......whoops, nearly cut herself a new ass hole. Somewhat embaressing in A&E.

Scamp, I turned 33 last year, and came here when I was 29. I went into the diving trade and really enjoyed it. In Koh Samui. As an instructor you would get 30k plus. Sounds like your in a dead end job, and the job satisfaction is everything. Think you need a career change.

Have something living in your apartment. A parrot, finches, cat, fish, catfish or a girl. Its something to come home to. Just be careful about the girl, cos if she's a wrongun you will be even worse off.

[stumonster]

got some excellent little wholemeal rolls down at the carrefour on sunday. 6 fresh in a bag for 15 baht. with a bit of butter they went beautiful with soup. had to stop myself from eating all six in the one sitting.