Afternoon stroll and food haul at Thailand Megashow, Impact Centre

After lunch at Nai Ngok, my family took me for a stroll at Thailand Megashow 2011 at Impact Exhibition and Convention Centre which started on January 15 until January 23rd. The show features exhibition of various products ranging from furniture to cosmetics, fashion, and my favourite part, food. When we got there it was absolute packed. The place was huge but we weren't too impressed with the grade of most of the products in other categories, but definitely did damage when we shopped for a variation of Thai food from vendors all over the country.

One of the most interesting things to watch is the southern style of making milk tea or "cha chuk", which in Thai means "pulling tea". The performance of "cha chuk" involves the tea maker pouring milk tea from one cup to the the next seamlessly without splashing a drop, and even includes a couple spins. Check out the video below!

Fresh roti on the grill

The entire hall was filled with rows and rows of vendors from all over the country, offering endless variations of both traditional Thai food to Chinese, Japanese, and European style bakery. It was fascinating seeing all kinds of food and absorbing the cultural aspects that tie to them. The following pictures illustrate what I'm talking about.

Dried roasted fish and mini crabs

These little guys make crispy munchy snacks

If there is a street food I cannot live without, it's got to be Moo Ping, or charcoal grilled pork skewers. This vendor doesn't use charcoal grill, they're not from the street and they look clean and not charred. The skewers also came in different flavours and marinades, but because they were taking forever, I opted out and tried the original. I took a bite, and in despair, I started looking for a street moo ping vendor. It just wasn't the same.

Toppings for Kao Yum (spicy rice salad)

Different types of chili pastes

a mountain of Siu Mai

Roast pork

More assortments of chili pastes

Papaya salad in the making

Assortments for making "Yum" (Thai spicy salad)

Toppings for Som Tum papaya salad

Assortments for Nam Kluk

Seafood and crab for papaya salad

Oven dry roasted pork sticks, they are super addictive and fun to eat

More variety of dried crispy pork jerky

Fresh fruit juices

Fresh fruit punch

Traditional Thai desserts

Dried coconut balls

More delicious Thai desserts

Traditional Thai appies, Sago balls

Egg tarts at KFC!!

Rice balls, taro, corn, coconut meat, ginko and red bean in rich, creamy coconut milk

Yes, those are 5 whole chicken being boiled in a giant rice cookers. They are apparently very famous and there were a line up of people waiting to order them. The chicken are being boiled in fish sauce broth.

When they come out of the pot they look like steamed chicken and don't reek of fish sauce at all. They are very tender and have a very well balanced flavour. The name literally means, "Million dollar (or bath) boiled chicken".

Nam Prik Num (northern chili paste) and Sai Uae (lemongrass sausages)

I came across packaged roasted larvae, or maggots, whichever you want to call them. What I found amusing is that on the label, they are called express bus, probably because they are long in body, but ironic because they move slow not fast. It may also be an attempt to give them a different name so make them less repulsive looking.

North eastern grilled sausages with fermented rice

Red curry rice balls for Nam Kluk

Mixing ingredients to make Nam Kluk

Nam Kluk is a type of rice salad consisted of red curried rice, fermented pork with onions, several fresh herbs, peanuts and chilies. Just looking at those golden fried rice balls, my mouth started to water. I ordered a bag and they were tossed on the spot to make the rice salad. When I got home, I dove into the bag of Nam Kluk and, as a result, my mouth was on fire. The rice ball wasn't crispy anymore and all I could feel was the burning heat on my tongue. Initially, I just thought it was me who couldn't handle real spicy food, but even my dad spat it out and told me not to eat it and said it was way too hot. It didn't compare to Vietnam My Heart, which makes the best Nam Kluk in the entire universe and I'm not even exaggerating.

We came across a booth that carries all sorts of in-season tropical fruits and my mom and I just went off on buying them. The sales lady knew that we were buying a lot and she kept recommending what we should buy. At first I didn't care much for them, but she would give us samples and asking us to try. I did, and everything was so sweet, fresh and just delicious. We ended up buying a kilo of almost everything. Imagine hauling all that back to the car.

Mangosteens!

Papayas, pineapples, jackfruits, pomelo, you name it

Mayong Chid, a type of expensive, but very sweet Marian plum

Putsa Nom or milk jujube, an apple-like fruit that are seasonal and only grown with cow's milk. Yup, cow's milk! They are only available this time of year and can be very expensive. The inside of the fruit is white and crunchy, much like an apple or pear. It is also very sweet and juicy. Quite mind boggling what milk can do.

Sweet and meaty logan fruit

I didn't care if this is not the season for mangosteens and they cost 5 times more. I was always deprived of this fruit and now it's time to stock up. Mangosteen is probably one of my favourite fruits to eat (and I don't eat much fruits) and I can probably eat a mountain of them.

After cracking open is thick rubbery purple exterior, the meat is white, delicately silky, yet sweet and tangy texture and the ripe ones are very juicy. Bigger cloves usually have seeds that you have to spit out while smaller ones don't. They are also very high in antioxidants and the extract do amazing work for skin care. I absolutely adore this fruit.

After a couple hours, our cart was filled with food and it was time to go home. It was tiring, yet tummy filling. We probably won't go back again until the next convention comes up as it requires a lot of energy and we pretty much got everything we need from there.