Jomtien Beach

Jomtien Beach

Jomtien Beach is divided from the main part of Pattaya by Pratumnak Hill, just south of Pattaya city.This 6-kilometres long, largely straight beach, some 4 kilometers ,is the most notable of several beaches south of the resort. The beach is popular with windsurfers and water sports enthusiasts, largely because the area enjoys brisk and fresh breezes sweeping inland from the Thai Gulf, and because the seas are less congested with boats than is Pattaya Bay. Jomtien is also a major residential area with beachside hotels, bungalow complexes, condominiums and restaurants.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
ThaiFood
Tom Yam Kung (spicy shrimp soup)
Phat Thai (fried noodles of Thai style)
Kaeng Khiao Wan Kai (green chicken curry)
Phat Kaphrao (meat fried with sweet basils) 
Kaeng Phet Pet Yang (roast duck curry)
Tom Kha Kai (chicken in coconut soup) 
Yam Nua (spicy beef salad)
Mu or Kai sa-te (roast pork or chicken coated with turmeric) 
Kai Phat Met Mamuang Himmaphan (chicken fried with cashew nuts) 
Phanaeng (meat in coconut cream) 
Som Tam (Papaya salad)
Wong Amat Beach
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wong Amat Beach

The northern most tip of Pattaya Second Road, where it meets North Pattaya Road, marks the end of Pattaya Bay and the start of the area known as Naklua. To reach it, just head north from the distinctive dolphin roundabout. The name means 'salt fields', in reference to the predominant occupation of the area before the rise of tourism 'salt farming.Today, it still has the air of a village, with some old houses, narrow streets, traditional noodle shops, temples, a fishing pier, and many locals. Slowly that is changing, however, with many condominium blocks now in the area, and lots of hotels and restaurants too. The area's most distinctive features are definitely its small intimate beaches, including Wong Amat and Naklua Beach, as well as the outdoor architectural museum, the Sanctuary of Truth. With Pattaya largely dedicated to single travellers and couples on package tours, Naklua makes a great alternative for families

Wong Phrachan Beach

Wong Phrachan Beach is on the northern side of Pattaya Bay. The 1 kilometer beach shares the same entrance as the Central Wong Amat Hotel. A quiet spot, the beach is ideal for swimming and relaxation.

10 Good Things About Pattaya

There is always another side to a coin. I am a permanent resident of Pattaya and I have heard crude stories about this place being location for sex and drugs. I can actually pin point some very good reasons to be in this tropical island.
1. Pattaya has the finest of international cuisine such as Lebanese, Thai, Spanish, German, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Russian, French and many more. Pattaya also has a lot of delicious steak houses.
2. In Pattaya, it is such a pleasant feeling seeing smiling faces all around you. Thai’s are very nice and caring people. It surely is ‘land of smiles’, especially in Pattaya.
3. Pattaya has relaxing clean sea air at the beaches and even the nearby beaches are beautiful and just an hour away. A more relaxing atmosphere when compared with big city like Bangkok.
4. Pattaya is one of the best places for golf. The golf driving ranges here are of good quality and reasonable price. Believe me you would not find it anywhere else in the world.
5. Thai massages are famous worldwide. In Pattaya, we have good massage parlors and spas. Whether it is Thai herbal massage, oil massage, aromatherapy massage, facial massage, foot massage. You can get them all here.
6. There are many water activities to do here such as windsurfing, parasailing, jet skis and canoeing. Visitors from all over the world have enjoyed learning to dive or just simply diving for fun in the sea around Pattaya.
7. Did you know the maximum charity collected for unprivileged children in this country comes from the charity clubs in Pattaya?
8. After your retirement if you plan to settle down for good in Pattaya. You need not worry about your children education. Endless international schools have been opened here with good foreign teachers.
9. Pattaya is also known as entertainment city with disco’s and pubs just like in western countries. The cinema halls here are good and you can catch up with all the latest movies.
10. With the opening of new airport “Suwannabhumi”. Pattaya will boom, well it has started already. So contact the real estate agents quickly before the land prices reach sky high and you might just regret for missing a chance to be in this tropical island.

Tom Yum Kung

Tom Yum Kung (Thai spicy prawn soup)

Tom Yum is the most popular Thai soup and is commonly referred to as Thai spicy soup in the Western world. It is renowned for having numerous health benefits as well as being very tasty! It is meant to help those with a cold or flu due to it's mixture of herbs and spices.

Ingredients for Tom Yum (for four people):

* 20 prawns (shrimp)
* 4 tablespoons lime juice
* 4-5 cups tom yum broth (soup stock)
* 2 stalks fresh lemongrass, lightly pounded, cut into 1 inch long segments

* 4 table spoons fish sauce

* 1/3 cup sliced galangal

* 1/2 cup straw mushroom, halved or whole
* 6-8 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
* 6 crushed fresh Thai chillies
* 2 tablespoons Thai chilli paste
* Fresh cilantro (Thai coriander) for garnish

Note: These are the recommended amounts required for a meal for four people. Please adjust the amounts accordingly for more or less people. Also you might already have some of these Thai food ingredients in your larder, so please set the quantity to zero for any ingredients that you already have.

Cooking Time: 15 to 20 minutes.

Method:

1.Wash the prawns and shell them without removing the tails. Bring the Tom Yum broth to a boil.

2.Add lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves.

3.Bring back to a boil then add mushrooms, fish sauce, chilli paste and lime juice.

4.Add prawns and fresh chillies.
5.As soon as prawns turn pink (cooked through) serve garnished with cilantro (coriander).

Snake Head Fish Hot and Sour Soup

Gaeng Som Pae Sa Pla Chon - Snake Head Fish hot and Sour Soup

Gaeng Som means sour soup/stew/curry - the word "Gaeng" (แกง) refers to the act of simmering ingredients in a soupy liquid - in English we would call curry, soup, and stew all what Thais call "Gaeng". Gaeng Som has three main types - one from the south which is a Yellow Curry soup and extremely spicy (one of the hottest dishes you can find in Thailand, along with "Kua Kling"), Southern Gaeng Som is usually made with sea bass, or shrims, with and green papaya, or bamboo. Sometimes it is also made with pineapple too. Then there is the reddish tomatoe-soup-like version of Gaeng Som used in Central Thailand, which is a lot milder, normally served with crispy fried catfish, shrimps, or or snakehead fish, and sometimes also with pork, or even tinned sardines or pilchards.

This type is also often served with fried Cha-Om omelette

Lastly there is the speciality of Gaeng Som Pae Sa Pla Chon (or Pla Krapong, Pla Tap Tim, and other fish - Pla means fish). This version is the recipe dealt with in this post. Pla Chon (ปลาช่อน) is the snake head fish, known as "striped snake-head fish" (Channidae - latin Name) in the West. The Pla Chon fish is a very hard skulled agressive fish, similar in appearance and family lineage to the Pla Duk (catfish) but has a much more agressive look to it as far as the head is concerned. Pla Chon can grow extremely large, which then gets a name change to "Pla Chon yaks" (ปลาช่อนยักษ์), meaning "Giant Pla Chon". The word Pla means fish, but the word "Chon" does not mean Snake Head - it is just a name for the fish.

The meat is more dry and tasty with less fat on it than Pla Duk, and is more expensive to buy. It tastes best fried to a crispy golden color and texture. Pla Chon Tord (fried Snakehead fish) is my favourite freshwater fish of all, and Ganeg Som Pae Sae is always my choice (and that ofmost Thais) when going out to a "Suan Aharn" (a suan aharn is an open air garden restaurant , of which there are thousands in Thailand - Suan Aharn is the preferred place for Thais to go when treating their family or loved ones to a meal, or socializing). A Thai suan aharn is not only wonderful atmosphere, but is also generally better food than any tourist orientated five star restaurant and serves Thai specialities which you will not find in Tourist orientated restaurants. These are served in an attractive and special manner.

Traditonally, Gaeng Som Pla Chon is served in a fish shaped hotpot placed on a clay coal fire, which is portable and served individually on the table. You can buy these in Thailand in any general store, and probably in Asian supermarkets close to where you live too. If not you will have to improvise and finde a decent alternative container and do it on the gas flame, which will also work, but it's not as fun to eat and also cannot refill the vegetables whilst it is simmeriing. This is due to the fact that the fish shaped container will be constantly cooking over the coals as you eat, and the act of adding more veg as replacement to that which you have already eaten will thicken the soup and give it an ever increasing tanginess as you go along!

I love to go for the fish whilst still crispy and keep adding veg which softens up as it cooks; The soup is ladled into small personal bowls and refilled time after time. The main vegetable used are "Pak Grached" ( ผักกระเฉด Water Mimosa) (click on link to read my article on this vegetable), White Chinese cabbage, carrots and cauliflower.

Ingredients and preparation method;

One Snakehead fish big enough to fill the fish shaped container (about a 500 gram fish)

a few handfuls of Water Mimosa (you can substitute this for other veg such as celery, but i really recommend to use water mimosa if you can find it, as it is an essential part of the authentic Pae Sa soup), Some white Chinese cabbage, sliced carrot,and cauliflower, and perhaps some green beans. For the curry mixture; Tamarind paste (2 tbspn), 5 cups of water, 3 tbspn of Nam Pla (Thai Fish sauce), 1 tbspn of granulated sugar (or 1 tbspn palm sugar paste), 2 or 3 tablespoons of Gaeng Som curry paste (3 better). The you need some dried chillis (3 to 4), which you should then soak in water. 8 peppercorns, 5 shallots, 3 garlic cloves, some krachai root otherwise known as " Boesenbergia" (Scientific Name:Boesenbergia Rotunda).

How to Cook;

I assume that you have the clay coal roaster and hot pot, if not then you will have to use a fondue pot or the like, which also works. A mongolian hotpot or sukiyaki plate is also adequate, as seen in the below pic. You will notice that in the below pic, the fish has been already sliced. It simply isnt as much fun as when eating in the Suan Aharn outdoor garden restaurant where everyone demolishes the whole fish. But in truth it tastes just as delicious either way.

Gut and scale the fish, slice along the back fin and remove, then slice it along where the dorsal fin was, slice the sides of the fish diagonally (not too deep) and fry it until it is golden and crisp (you can rub salt on it and leave it for an hour first and it will be tastier).

Then take the shallots,krachai, garlic, tamarind paste, palm or granulated sugar and Nam Pla (fish seasoning sauce) and soaked chilis and mix them together, and put on the heat a little. Add the Gaeng Som, and/or shrimp past,e and mix water in (use a little stock cube if you wish, if not use salt) and bring to simmer.Add some kaffir lime juice. (lemon juice can also be used but it is a bit acrid)

you can see that another vegtable has been used - Dork Kae (ดอกแค) , which is a flower.

Then pour the Gaeng Som soup into the hotpot or fish shaped tray on the clay coal roaster and place the fried fish in - the soup will then begin to simmer. place some of the ray water mimosa, chinese cabbage and other veg in the soup around the fish, and serve the rest of the vegetables on a plate for your guests to rip up and refill the soup as the veg gets cooked and eaten up. You will see how the vegetables take up a lot of space when still raw but as they steam in the soup, they reduce and submerge.

Phad Thai

Phad Thai Noodles are immensely popular with tourists in Thailand and is also a staple fastfood on the street with Thai people.Traditionally, Phad Thai is served either with dried shrimp or fresh tiger prawns, but can also be served as a vegetarian dish or with meat or mixed seafood. The classic option is with rice flour band noodles, but it is also served as a speciality with glassnoodles, which has a wonderfully chewy texture. Phad Thai has a sweet taste and is garnished with beansprouts, spring onions and aslice of kaffir lime. Roasted ground peanuts are spriinkled on the top too as well as some sugar and chilli powder, which you then mix in yourself.

Ingredients for Phad Thai

red schallots (one tbspn)

crushed garlic (one tbspn)
vegetable oil
dried flat rice noodles (soak for five minutes in tepid water) half cup of dried shrimps

1/4 cup of water

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

3 tbspn of Nam Pla Thai Fish Sauce

1/4 cup of Tamarind juice or palm sugar

50 grams of fresh shrimps,mixed seafood, pork or chicken (depending on which type of ingredient you prefer)

3 tbspn shredded preserved chinese vegetable (Sai  Po, or Tai Po) a block of tofu chopped into small cubes some chilli powder
a couple of handfuls of fresh beansprouts (about 250grams)
50 grams of Guy Chai (กุยช่าย) vegetable - this is a flowering stalk like vegetable - i know it also as "Dork Mai Gwaad" - meaning "Broom flower" - this is because a bushel of it looks like a traditional Thai sweeping broom. You can use chives instead if you like but use the dark green bases of the stems too, not just the tips.
Half a cup of roasted ground peanuts

also you will need some fresh crude vegetables for garnish, such as banana flower (Hua Plee), beansprouts, Land Lotus leaf, spring onion or chives, and some Kaffir Lime.

Phad Thai  (glass noodle phad Thai).

Put the schallots and garlic in the skillet (wok) along with 3 tbspn of vegetable oil and sautee them until golden - then add the noodles which have been soaked already for a while,along with the little bit of water left in the bowl they soaked in, and fry until the water evaporates , and the noodles have softened. Add the sugar/ and tamarind juice, Nam Pla (Thai fish sauce), dry shrimps, and stir fry until it has a nice aroma.

Add 3 tbspn of oil once more, and add the meat, shrimps or vegetables (whichever you have chosen as your ingredient). add the egg and beat it lightly so that it is a half beaten omelette. Do not mix them in with the noodles, rather sautee them on one side of the pan until they are nearly cooked. The start to mix them together with the skillet whilst stir frying. Add the beansprouts and preserved shredded vegetable and mix them in whilst frying.

Please note that Phad Thai uses quite a bit of ooil, but that you should use your feel with it and make sure you dont over do it either.. This means that if you see that the noodles are frying without sticking and have a nice gloss to them without adding all the oil stated in the ingredients, then you dont have to add it all. If you add the oil whilst the noodles are still a little dry then you may get away with adding less oil. The fresh crude vegetables used as a side garnish serve to break down the oil, which will help digestion if you are sensitive to fatty foods.

Phad Thai Recipe Nutritional Information per 100 grams

- Calories 216.16 Kcal.
- Protein 7.26 gm.
- Fat 10.84 gm.
- Carbohydrate 22.39 gm.
- Fiber 1.78 gm.
- Calcium 67.98 mg.
- Iron 0.94 mg.

Watch Video fromLobo Thai food products of How to Make Phad Thai.

Phuket International Airport

Phuket International Airport (IATA: HKT, ICAO: VTSP) is an airport serving the Phuket Province

of Thailand. It is located in the north of Phuket Island, 32 kilometres from the centre of Phuket City. The airport plays a major role in Thailand's tourism industry,as Phuket Island is a popular resort destination. It is the second busiest airport in Thailand in terms of passengers (but not cargo), after Suvarnabhumi Airport in the Bangkok metropolitan area.The airport has two terminals: Terminal 1 is used for international flights and Terminal 2 for domestic flights.

Phuket International Airport (HKT)

Phuket International Airport is the second busiest airport in Thailand. Millions of passengers each year visit Phuket to enjoy a wide range of tourist services, natural beauty of the world famous Phuket beaches and fascinating tourist attractions.

Phuket International Airport (HKT), gateway to Phuket Island, a paradise for tourists in the southern part of Thailand. Phuket Island and nearby provinces are popular resort areas and Phuket International Airport welcomes a large number of passengers from all over the world, and plays an important role in promoting travel and tourism in the southern region as well as throughout the kingdom. Today, 10 airlines are on service

and more than 2,900,000 passengers, 27,000 flights and 12,000 tons of cargo per year are handled at the airport.

Phuket International Airport (IATA: HKT, ICAO: VTSP) is an airport serving the Phuket Province

of Thailand. It is located in the north of Phuket Island, 32 kilometres from the centre of Phuket

City. The airport plays a major role in Thailand's tourism industry, as Phuket Island is a popular Phuket hotels destination. It is the second busiest airport in Thailand in terms of passengers (but not cargo), after Suvarnabhumi Airport in the Bangkok metropolitan area.

The airport has two terminals: Terminal 1 is used for international flights and Terminal 2 for domestic flights.