EATING OUT: The quality, range and value of restaurant food in Thailand is generally excellent. Pattaya has some very good retaurants and even at the budget end of them the food is very good.
Some of the back-street eating-places (sorry I cannot call them restaurants) appear filthy, and most of them are to be honest, but the food they produce is generally delicious and of good quality. After all this where most Thais eat!
Further to this are the street sellers of food (you've seen the photos on previous pages). Once again the stuff they offer is generally good; you only have to see how well patronised these places and the "back-street" eateries are to realise they're OK. I've eaten from them many a time and have never had a problem. However, I do tend to opt for freshly barbecued type meats and stir-fried vegetables.
What is most odd, and it happens in almost every smaller eatery or restaurant is the Thai inability to supply the customer with a full set of cutlery. Because they eat mainly rice and soupy sort of dishes, they only need a fork, spoon and chopsticks. They seem incapable of supplying a knife.
Typical of Thai's lack of lateral thinking is this scenario I witnessed the other day in an in-store eatery.
A farang had ordered his meal and given the usual fork and spoon. So what? you might say, but the guy had ordered a steak. The poor chap just sat there for a moment or two trying to work out how to attack his steak & jacket potato with just a fork and a spoon. It took him several attempts of sign-language and gesticulation before the penny dropped with the staff. It ended in smiles and laughs all round... and that was just from me!
Almost every time I go out to eat I have to ask for a knife and am often greeted with a look of 'what do you want a knife for?' Bizarre!