It is customary virtually everywhere in South East Asia that if you order “dry” food (i.e. not a soup), then you also get a small cup of soup with the food you ordered. The soup is ready in a large pot and is usually made from either vegetables or a little meat and vegetables, and most of the time it tastes quite good, sometimes very delicious. Sometimes, I was even wondering whether it would be OK if I ordered another cup because I liked it so much.
The food in the photo is a plate of two types of fried chicken and rice with cucumbers, and the soup is also chicken soup. It is a very simple restaurant in Chiang Mai, and it all cost 50 baht.
Another thing I like is that at many places, you will also get free drinking water: they bring you a mug full of ice, and then you help yourself to the water from the jug, which is already on your table. Of course: some people will say at this point, they will never drink anything but bottled water in this part of the world, but I can tell you that there is nothing to worry about. I have no idea what kind of water they fill the jugs with or where they get the water from, but I regularly drank this water and never had a problem. (But don’t blame me if your stomach is more sensitive!)
On the table, you will also find a covered box, that is where you find the spoon and the fork – again, this is a usual scenario from Thailand to Malaysia, from Vietnam to Indonesia, all over the region.
Yes, a spoon and a fork – no knife over here. Most of the time, they make sure you only have small pieces of everything on your plate, so that you don’t need a knife. But sometimes, it may happen that you will feel anyway that you would need one – a fried chicken leg, for example. In that case, don’t bother to ask for one, they will not really understand what you want it for. In Vietnam, the waitress really had no idea why I would need a knife and what for, and I was starting to think she might have got even a little suspicious or frightened when I wanted a knife. Although she spoke English quite OK, she seemed not to understand the word “knife” – I have the felling that she did understand it, but her brain said to her no, you misunderstood, this man must be requesting something else, not a knife, because why the hell would he need a knife when he is having his dinner? (Maybe he wants a wife? – hahaha)
European restaurants in Asia, if you find one, are a different matter: they of course have knives too – and “very good” prices to go with them. I think it is similar to expecting chopsticks in a simple restaurant somewhere in Europe. Maybe they wouldn’t even understand what you’re talking about.
