There used to be a guy at the top of our soi selling khao mun gai. I used to go there quite often to buy my chicken and rice. He was always quite friendly and was keen to practice his English with me. Then, one day, he was no longer there any more. As this was at the height of the "bird flu" scare I guessed he closed his stall because of dwindling customers. Or, maybe he just wheeled it elsewhere because of the fierce competition from the "chicken guy". This is the muslim man I told you about before who sells fried chicken which not only tastes better than KFC but is also half the price.

Nearly a year has passed now and most people are not so worried about bird flu. You do hear reports about it in the newspapers every now and then, but people tend to ingore it now. After all, it would seem that the majority of people that have died had direct contact with the birds. Either they reared chickens or they were a butcher. So, I was quite excited last week to see a new food shop open around the corner. This not only sold khao mun gai, but also another of my favourites, khao mok gai. It is owned by a muslim family. Their daughter used to be one of my students.

This dish is similiar to the chicken and rice I told you about before. However, the rice in this meal has been coloured yellow with the use of turmeric. To cook khao mok gai, you fry some garlic in a pan until golden brown. You then stir in the rice, curry powder, salt and chicken pieces. You then transfer this mixture to an electric rice cooker. You add the chicken stock and cook for about 20 minutes. Quite simple really.

You don't really need to be able to read Thai to buy food on the streets. You can usually work out what they are selling by looking at the ingredients in the glass display cabinet. However, it wouldn't hurt if you could read! In this picture, the top line says khao mun gai tod and khao mun gai. The first one is fried chicken (tod means fried) and the second one is boiled. The second line says khao mok gai tod and khao mok gai. The last line is obviously telling you that a normal plate is only 20 baht (50 cents) and a bit of extra meat (called piset in Thai) is 25 baht.

If you are wandering around the market, you might spot a hawker cooking little delicate rice pancakes on a steamer. These are called 'pak moh' or ปากหม้อ in Thai. The steam cooker usually has at least one cone-shaped cover which is used in the cooking process.

As you can see in the pictures, a piece of white cloth, either cotton or muslin, is stretched over the opening. A gap is left for the steam to escape. The batter is then spread thinly over the cloth. This batter is made from rice flour and tapioca. The cone-shaped cover is then placed over the top. She then turns her attention to the other steamer where the pancake is ready. She spoons in a small portion of a filling and then folds it together. This is then scooped up and put into the foam tray. She then spoons more of the batter on the now vacant cloth.

By this time, the other rice pancake is ready and she moves across the cone-shaped cover and starts again with the other filling. The fillings vary from store to store. It can be shrimp or pork, beansprouts, chopped parsley, long green beans and sweetcorn. The woman in this photo was working very fast going back and forth between the two steamers. It was fascinating to watch. It seemed popular as there was quite a crowd of people waiting.

This popular Thai dessert is called gluay chuam ( กล้วยเชื่อม ). To be honest, I never really liked bananas back in the UK, but I do like them here in Thailand. In particular, I like the dessert bananas. However, this dish is strictly for the sweet-toothed people among us. The bananas are cooked in a syrup (sugar and water). Then they are topped with coconut cream.

If you visit a roadside noodle stall in Thailand you will see on the tables a small basket with four jars. These are the condiments that you can add to your noodle soup. Which ones you add and how much is entirely up to you. In some ways it is a bit like being a scientist as you need a certain amount of skills to get the balance right. These condiments give you the four basic flavours: namely hot, sour, salty and sweet.

In the top left of this picture is 'nam som prik'. This is basically sliced chilies (prik) in vinegar (nam som). In the picture below, 'nam som' has a more of a brown look because the chilies have been pounded. This obviously gives you your sour taste.

Next, in the top right of the picture, is 'prik pon' which is basically dried red chili which is either flaked or ground to a powder. This is the heat. In the bottom right is 'namtaan' which is normal white sugar. Obviously this is the sweet part. It was a bit strange for me to put sugar in my noodles to start with but it no longer tastes the same without it. So, just do as the Thais do and put a good tablespoon full in!

Finally, in my picture you can also see two bottles of 'nam blaa', or fish sauce. Sometimes you will see this in a jar too but mixed with chilies. This version is then called 'prik nam blaa'. In some restaurants you might see a jar of ground peanuts.

I will talk about the different noodles another day.

The poll for the best Thai School Lunch has now closed. A total of 646 students between the ages of 10 and 15 voted for their favourite lunch from a list of 20 meals. Here is the list:

(1) Fried Chicken on rice - khao mun gai tod (16%)
(2) Egg noodle soup with wonton - ba mee (14%)
(3) Boiled Chicken on rice - khao mun gai (12%)
(4) Lemon Grass Soup with Chicken - tom yum gai (7%)
(5) Macaroni Soup (6%)
(6) Fried Basil and Pork on rice - gra prao moo (5%)
(7) Fried Rice with cocktail sausages - khap pat kai sai grok (4%)
(8) Noodles and Pork in thick gravy - rat naa (4%)
(9) Greeny Curry with pork and bamboo shoots - gang gai sai noh mai(3%)
(10) Red Pork on rice - khao moo daeng (3%)

School lunch tomorrow is one of my favourites, green curry with bamboo shoots. This came in at number 9 on the list. Surprisingly, one of my other favourites didn't get onto the Top 10. This is Fried chilli with pork and long-beans which only pulled in 2% of the vote. What about your favourties? Are they in the top 10?

Tom Yum Gai - Lemon Grass Soup with Chicken

Today I am giving you the full menu for our school lunches. This is what the students eat over a four week period. There are actually three different menus: kindergarten, junior school and senior school. As there are some repeats I will just give you the menu for the older students. Not everyone eats the same thing at the same time. There are 1,800 students (and one small kitchen) so not everyone can have a rice based meal at the same time. So, half of the school have rice while the other half have some kind of soup. I will show you the kitchen and rice-cookers later.

Khao Mun Gai Tod - Fried Chicken on Rice

The following is the menu for the senior school:

Fried chicken with rice
Green curry with pork + cucumber with egg
Fried pork and basil on rice + chicken with fried garlic
Egg noodle soup with wonton
Rice porridge with pork
Macaroni soup
Fried rice with egg and mini sausages
Lemon grass soup with chicken + bamboo shoots with egg
Fried chicken basil + Tang-lan soup
Stir fried bamboo + Chinese sausage
Fried pork basil + omelet
Chicken curry with bamboo shoots + stir-fried cabbage
Fried thick noodle in soy source
Fried chilli with pork and long-beans + fried sausage
Noodle soup with steamed pork
Rice porridge with chicken
Orange curry + omelet
Chicken on rice
Noodles in thick gravy
Red pork with rice

I think my favourites out of this are: lemon grass soup (tom yum gai), fried chicken with rice (khao mun gai tod), egg noodle soup with wonton (ba mee nam), green curry with pork (gang kee-o waen moo), chicken curry with bamboo shoots (gang gai sai noh mai) and probably quite a few others. Before I give you the Top 10 School Lunches as voted by the students, what do you think will be their favourite meals?

Later this week I am planning on showing you the "Top 10 Thai School Lunches". In any other blog, this probably wouldn't be of interest. But, this is Thailand and Thai food is really delicious. What is going to be fascinating to see is what food the students enjoy eating the most at school. Will it be one of the Thai dishes or one that is Western influenced like Macaroni? You will have to wait and find out.

Today I want to talk a little about the steps students go through to eat at school. As you can see in the top picture, the students are all lined up to receive a bowl of rice soup from one of the serving ladies. What makes this a little different to Western countries is that the students will "wai' and say thank you before they take the bowl of food. This is ingrained into the students. They must always "wai" first before receiving anything.

Other schools, particularly the secondary schools, are a little different to us. They might have lots of little stalls in the canteen and the students can choose what they want to eat every day. At my school, the menu is set and there is a four week rotation. In total we have 20 meals which I will tell you more about later. So, the students all eat the same. No-one brings food in from home. By far the majority are Buddhists and maybe only a handful are Muslims.

On most days, there will be a tray of condiments which the students will use to make their meal more tastier. In some ways you have to be a bit of a scientist to get the proportions right of sweet, sour and spicy. But the students know what they are doing and some like adding chili until the soup runs red. Actually, this is one of the good things about eating noodle soups in Thailand. What the vendor will give you is bland and not spicy at all. It is then up to you to add the different sauces to your own satisfaction. I will go into more detail another day.

Back in the classroom, the students wait for their friends to sit down. We now have too many students and it is easier for everyone to eat their lunch in the classroom. Once everyone is sitting down, the students will then say a kind of grace. This is not really religious but more ethical. It is reminding them that they should eat properly and that they should be grateful to the people who provided them with the food. The following translation of the grace was done by Gor when he was my Primary 6 student a number of years ago.

"During the time that we eat lunch, don't speak or say things that aren't good. Don't make a noise. Take enough food for only one mouthful. Chew the food into little pieces so that you can digest the food properly. Before you get up from your seat, clean up your desk. Put the plate or a bowl orderly into the enameled basin. You mustn't waste any food. You must eat it all. There are many starving children in the world. Pity all of the children that don't have anything to eat. All of the food has a worth. When you eat food you must have good manners. Don't chew the food loudly. Don't talk when you are eating and don't say something that is bad. Don't laugh when you are eating. Thank you to our teachers that take care of us and all of the cooks that make us the food we eat. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much."

After that they then start eating. Everything is done very orderly and the students eat quietly. When they have finished, they put any waste food in a plastic bucket and their plates in an enamel bowl. Students who are on duty for that day will clean the classroom and then take the dirty plates and waste food down to the kitchen. Waste food is later fed to the stray dogs. The plates are washed by the kitchen staff. However, the spoons and forks (they don't use knives or chopsticks) are washed by the students on duty. After they have finished eating, many of the students then go to brush their teeth.