$1 Pad Thai & $0.50 Thai Iced Tea

We have some really great Thai food in Eugene, Oregon. It's very true in taste to what we ate in Thailand, but it's nowhere near as close in cost. Devlin's favorite thing in Chiang Mai was pad thai, and it generally cost only $1-2 for a heaping plateful. Add a Thai iced tea for $.50, and you have a fabulous gourmet breakfast, lunch, or dinner (and we often ate it for breakfast!)

If you've never had a Thai iced tea, get thee to the nearest Thai restaurant, and try one. It's a strongly brewed black tea, originally a Ceylon tea, with many different spices and a truly unique smell. The tea is mixed with condensed milk/sugar, poured over ice, and then some extra milk/evaporated milk is added on top. The result is a vivid orange, sweetly strong sweet tea, and it's out of this world delicious.

When you're an addict of Thai iced tea, like us, you start to figure out ways to brew your fix at home. We loaded up on Thai tea to take home - we bought a couple pounds and paid about $2-2.25 per pound. The best deal online is to buy it at Import Food.com; three 16oz bags are $13 plus $9 in shipping. Don't forget to order the muslin filter to brew the tea. To see how it's brewed in Thailand, watch this video>

Enjoy!

Beef Papaya Salad

Devlin fell in love with beef papaya salad during our stay in Hoi An, Vietnam. Lynnea found a small restaurant, that had just opened, which was tucked down a side street at the edge of the tourist district. The first evening we ate there, I ordered the beef papaya salad... Devlin tried it, and promptly ordered one more.

It was love at first bite. He went back, every day, to have at least two orders of the salad.

And truly, that little restaurant's salad was top notch. We tried the salad other places, and we even learned to make a version of it in our Thai cooking class, but that place in Hoi An was still the best.

The salad is mainly finely shredded papaya, mixed with rice vinegar, sugar, lime, garlic, and other spices. The beef adds a lovely meaty flavor (our favorite over the chicken and shrimp versions of the same salad) - and I swear, the salad came out slightly warm - perhaps they tossed the hot beef with the salad at the last moment to produce that effect.

In any case, it was fantastic, and we'll be attempting to replicate that one for years to come.