Your office mates bid you adieu (albeit jealously) as you prepare for your long weekend trip to Bangkok. You’ve earned your nice reprieve from the daily slog of work.
And now, it’s Sunday and the peer pressure of buying souvenirs for your office sets in, after all they have been slogging in Singapore while you’ve been having massages and shopping. It’s only fair.
It just so happens that when you’re in Thailand, really one of the best things you can buy back are snacks, and boy have the Thais elevated snacks to an unprecedented level.
Here are 10 snacks that will have the entire office absolutely clamouring when you return.
1. Dried Mango
An all-time classic, dried mangoes, are a quintessential snack in Thailand. Definitely one of the more healthier snacks on the list, dried mango is purported to have many health benefits such as maintaining a strong immune system and promoting proper iron absorption.
An upcoming brand is Doi Kham Dehydrated Mangoes which supposedly offer a softer chew than their classic dried counterparts, so you can give it a try if you’re up for something new!
2. After You Dessert Café Cookies
After You Café has become one of the most popular dessert cafes in Bangkok since opening back in 2007. Making their name for 13 years straight on the back of their Japanese-style shibuya toast dessert, After You Dessert Café now sees extensive queues, especially at their Siam Paragon outlet.
As indulgent as their shibuya toasts may be, you can’t possibly carry back an entire toast on the flight home. On the other hand, you could bring back boxes of their highly rated cookies, which isn’t a bad second option. They have various unique flavours like raspberry butter and cornflake, but you definitely can’t go wrong with the classic chocolate chip cookies.
3. Fried Chicken Skin
It’s a packet of fried chicken skin, do I really need to sell this to you?
Packed full of what some may argue as the best part of the chicken, this may very well be one of the best snacks ever made. Is it indulgent? Sure. Is it unhealthy? In every sense of the word. But will you be happy? Most definitely.
Pair it with beer and you’ve got yourself a supremely satisfying snack, your very own Thai chimaek (classic Korean combination of chicken and beer).
4. Tao Kae Noi Seaweed
Tao Kae Noi has become somewhat of a staple snack even here in Singapore, but if you don’t know already, they actually originated from Thailand.
The crunchy seaweed snack usually comes in a multitude of flavours along with a multitude of forms which feature cut up strips to an entire large strip of seaweed. If you love Tao Kae Noi Land in Singapore, it’s only natural that Thailand is a heaven for Tao Kae Noi lovers.
From flavours like salted egg yolk and durian (unbelievable I know), you can get all your favourite flavours and more funky local ones in Thailand. For the salted egg yolk, each piece of seaweed is battered and later tossed with salted egg seasoning, perfect for those that love the crunchy texture of fish skin but balk at the fishiness.
5. Local Flavoured Pocky & Pretz
The Thais love to experiment with flavours, and certainly infuse a lot of local flavours into their snacks.
When it comes to snacks, I am a generally safe person and I rarely venture out of my spicy or bbq. For Pocky, the classic strawberry is my go-to, and I never get anything else. Thai Milk Tea Pocky, now, that’s what I can get behind and support although deep down inside, nothing is going to knock off strawberry in my heart.
The one that really blew my mind is when I first found that Pretz in Thailand had Larb flavour. For the uninitiated, Larb is a type of spicy minced meat salad, which is the last thing you’d ever think be converted into a Pretz. But hey, to each his own, and Thailand sure has some of the most unexpected but awesomely delicious flavours.
6. Thai-flavoured Chips
Just like Pocky and Pretz previously, you’ll also find Thailand-only flavours for Lays potato chips. With flavours inspired by everyday Thai cooking, a gift bag of Thai Lays Chips is bound to send the office into a tizzy.
You can expect some amazing flavours from Chilli Crab to Lobster Hotplate, although I have frankly no idea what the latter will taste like. For a more “authentic” flavour, you can get the Nam Prik Pao (Thai chilli paste). Can’t decide? Get their 2-in-1 packets which give you two flavours in one packet. Mind blown.
7. Cha Tra Mue 3-in-1 Instant Packet
Ah who can forget the beloved Thai Milk Tea, so well-loved that one of Thailand’s leading brands, Cha Tra Mue, has made a 3-in-1 instant mix that will have anyone’s cravings satisfied.
Whether you want to have it hot or chilled, a taste of authentic Thai milk tea is as simple as a few minutes steep of hot water. For me, as much as I try to make it myself, it’s never going to be the same as buying a fresh one from the stall, but when push comes to shove, it indeed is not too bad of a stopgap.
8. Thai Instant Noodles (aka Mama)
Your very first experience of this quintessential Thai snack should be right on the street, eaten out of a styrofoam bowl with the freshly cooked noodles tossed with fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chili and soup mix, and topped with various bits of boiled fishcake and seafood.
Then, having forever acquired a craving for this cheap yet unreasonably satisfying dish, you’ll make your way over to Big C to hunt for Thai instant noodles, hoping to replicate the experience at home.
You’ll fail, but don’t let that stop you from cracking open a pack to share with your colleagues on those rainy mornings where no one feels like going out for lunch.
The quintessential favourite brand is Mama Thai, with the cup noodles version equally popular, and definitely a more fuss free version if you’re feeling lazy.
9. Pork Floss Roll
Pork floss rolls may be the Chinese New Year dessert you never knew you needed. With the varied snacks you have in Singapore from love letters to pineapple tarts, and of course bak kwa, there’s really not much space left for anything new.
Pork floss roll, however, should have a place on your list. Essentially a crunchy roll made up entirely of pork floss, these little treats are very moreish and will have you grabbing one after another. It’s also how you’ll eat way more pork floss at one sitting that you ever imagined you would. Like waaaaay more.
Oh well, good luck to our ever-burgeoning waistlines.
10. Siam Pandan
This last one is a little outside the box, and not typically a snack people usually buy back from Bangkok, but I’m championing it to be.
A small snack shop located in Siam Square, Siam Pandan serves up something called Krok Bai Toey which is something like a pandan kueh in Singapore. Coming off the piping hot griddle pan, these sweet treats are really to die for.
Chewy and full of aromatic pandan flavour, it’s worth going to Bangkok just for this. It may not be the freshest after your plane trip, but 30 secs in the microwave should bring it back to full deliciousness.
Top photo by Minseok Kwak on Unsplash
