Fresh Fish BBQ in Koh Phangan

I had the pleasure of staying on the island of Koh Phangan while in Thailand. Koh Phangan is located in the gulf of Thailand and is most famous for the monthly Full Moon Party (i'll save that for another post). Me and my girlfriend were lucky enough to stay in a beach front (air conditioned!) bungalow on Haad Salad beach. The beach and scenery were beautiful as was the food. There were about 15 different resorts on our beach, most of which served fresh BBQ fish every night. The fish menu at our bungalow included red snapper, white snapper, sea bass, king mackerel, barracuda, squid, king prawn and lobster. You could also get side orders of salad, potato and sweet corn. The fish was always caught that day and always tasted delicious. I can't pick a favorite because they all tasted so damn good. 

Here is a shot of the fish, the grill is firing behind it, the menu is next to the grill, the bar is behind that and one of the waiters is looking out onto the water.  This was at My Way Bungalows, the bungalow we stayed at. 

On the left was a German man who seemed to be the head chef. He was very friendly and told us all about each fish and what they tasted like. To the right was the cook. You can see her handling the potatoes, salad, and sweet corn. 

This beautiful girl modeled the fish for me.

Another shot of the grill station and the cook getting ready for the evening.

This particular night they had a rare fish. The German guy called it a parrot nosed fish, but I don't think that's the official name for it. Fun fact: I saw this fish a few days later while snorkeling in the ocean. Next to this fish is the red snapper.

Here is one of our meals. I don't remember which type of fish this was. I think it's king mackerel. The fish was always swerved with a side of garlic and chili sauce and salad. Also pictured is the sweet corn, potato and Singha, a popular Thai beer.

Money shot! The garlic chili sauce went so well with the fish.

Here is our meal from another night. I believe this fish is barracuda. 

Larger shot of the barracuda dinner with the ocean in the background. Perfect.

Bangkok, Thailand

Welcome back foodies.

Many of you may have noticed that I took a short hiatus from my blog. Part of the reason was that I ran out of original material to post (interesting Chinese food I mean) and then I sort of got lazy, I guess. Anyway the important thing is I am back and I have compiled lots of good material from my recent visit to Thailand! I am currently in Finland as well and will post some authentic Finnish meals in the near future.

This blog is titled "Authentic Chinese Food," but since my stay in China has come to an end I am going to make it simply a food blog because it's my blog and I can do that. I like food and so do you, why else would you be reading this?

So I'm walking around the night market my first night in Bangkok and I notice this nice colorful array of Thai spices and snacks. Thai markets are very chaotic, noisy and dirty so an organized stand like this stands out (no pun intended).

Okay THIS is my favorite food in Thailand. Huh? Not pad Thai? No. Then what is it? Sweet BBQ Chicken. Seriously? Yeah. Not exactly what you think of when someone says Thai food, but man do the Thai love their BBQ chicken. Street food is VERY popular in Thailand and can be found anywhere from crowded streets to dirt roads in the jungle. This kind of chicken is a popular item. It's an entire leg (sorry I only have this picture and not the food cart or the whole chicken but oh well, use your imagination) marinated in a sweet sauce then BBQ'ed. Tender, juicy, sweet and a little spicy of course because what would Thai food be without some chili pepper. I eat this with sticky rice (not pictures, sorry!) This was my first meal in Thailand and I won't forget it. 

Thai breakfast. Rice, cabbage salad with shrimp and spicy chicken with lima beans (I think). Rice is an essential food for the Thai. No rice, no meal. The boiled cabbage salad with shrimp was good, similar to Chinese cabbage. The chicken was A LOT spicier than I expected. To be honest, Thailand was a lot spicier than I expected (the food that is, what did think I meant?). It was good don't get me wrong, but I don't usually do spicy in the morning. It definitely woke up my sinuses up. Notice the small portion size. I mean the whole meal is just barely bigger than my palm, and though I do have big hands this was not enough. Overall a decent meal. 

This was really good. Zucchini and onions with scrambled eggs and two deep fried breaded ground pork balls. The pork balls were delicious. They were breaded with sesame seeds which gave them a nice flavor. Very good lunch. Cost about $1, not bad.