The Seafood of Thailand

Coming to Thailand, I imagined I would be eating Pad Thai and Green Curry almost everyday. To some extent that is true, yet Thailand cuisine offers so much more, from classic Thai dishes I have never heard of, to re-imagined classic dishes. I had a hunch, fish was on the menu, but I was not ready for how affordable, well-prepared, and diverse the seafood cuisine was in Thailand.

Baby yellow octopus ready to eat at a Thailand Night Market. Photo by N. Popowich.

I travelled in different regions of Thailand, including the Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Koh Lanta. The food in the Northern area of Thailand in and around Chiang Mai seems to be the most diverse and unique. I have seen interesting food such as frog legs, honey comb with the larvae inside, and offal (animal organs).

Of course, when on the island of Phuket and Koh Lanta, seafood was on almost all menus and ubiquitous. To my surprise, even in the Chiang Mai area in the north, quite far from the sea, seafood is easily found.

Tasty fish dinner at a nice restaurant in Phuket! Photo by N. Popowich

When buying seafood for a meal, the price ranged anywhere between 100-400 baht. This was the average price at a restaurant or food stall. Shrimp in Pad Thai is sometimes less than 100 baht.