Travel Diary: Learning one’s culture through Achef’s Food Tour

I’ve always been fascinated in learning and experiencing other’s culture because I believe that there’s no limit to knowledge and experiences are the best teachers in life. All countries have different culture, and through this, we learn so many things that can be applied to ourselves or even improve ourselves for the better. One way and the best way for me to learn one’s culture is through food because food has the behind the scenes, like where it came from, why they came up with this food, what is the story behind the food. Food tells us so many things and because of it, we learn one’s culture. Good thing a tour company in Bangkok believes in the same thing and wanted for everyone to know that there’s so much more to see in Bangkok, and that company is Achef’s tour.

Achef’s tour is a food tour agency not only in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket but to some other countries like Kerala, Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata India; Singapore; Kuala Lumpur; Bogota Colombia; Hong Kong; Kyoto; Yangon Myanmar and Oaxaca Mexico. The Co-founder’s aim: “to create and curate food experiences good enough for chefs.” They have a lot of different types of food tours that you can choose from, base on which country you will be visiting. In Bangkok, they have two types of food tour which is Lunchtime and the Evening. We choose the Evening time at the China town. The Evening tour or the Bangkok Backstreet Food Tasting Tour starts from 16:00 – 20:30 hrs and this tour only cater 8 guests, and you will be having 17 local food experience. It cost 59 USD per person, includes bottled water and local drinks, English or Thai guide with assistants, I know it sounds like a lot but let me give you the best personal explanation why 59 USD per person is worth the money base in my experience. 

As I mentioned, me and my friend choose the Evening food tour, it started at 16:00 hr. and the meeting point is in the Shanghai Mansions boutique hotel, this is located inside China town. To go there, you can take the Metro from Asoke to Hua Lumphong station for 28 THB, then from Hua Lumphong station just use the Google map to walk to Shanghai Mansions boutique hotel, it took us 20 minutes to walk since we are not very good with directions, LOL!. Anyways, when we arrived at Shanghai Mansions boutique hotel we met our guide Mr. Nutth and his 2 lovely assistants which I forgot to ask their names. We started our tour in Mr. Nutth aunt’s little restaurant which she cooked and served delicious Thai delicacies, then we headed to our next food tasting which is my first favorite food in this tour the Kui Chai or Thai Fried Chinese Chives Cake, the wrapper around the Kui Chai is so crispy but the inside is so soft and tasty, I really love the texture it’s a perfect Thai snack.

Mr. Nutth beside me

Mr. Nutth aunt's small restaurant

Kui Chai, my 1st favorite of the food tour

Followed by Kui Chai, we walk to another street inside the China Town and had some Thai Panang Kai with toasted bread, satay with delicious sauce and the noodle soup. The table looks like a feast, I tell you the food tasting is not any ordinary small bites for a typical food tasting, it was a normal portion which vendors normally sells to their customer. Eating at the side of the street is such a good experience, you will feel how simple the Thai people are, and how satisfying to have a simple life. During our food tasting, I am very impressed by how accommodating, interactive, hospitable, and friendly Mr. Nutth and his two assistants are. They make sure that we love the food, they make sure that we are having fun, they make sure that we are safe in crossing the streets, they make sure that we have water, and many more, the service is top-notch. After having those 6 different types of foods, we had a short stop in a stall selling a green herbal drink and according to Mr. Nutth its very good for digestion, let me tell you honestly I’m not a vegan person, I am more a carnivore person, which make sense that I’m not a fan of it but I did tried and drink the herbal drink. Next stop, we walk to an old Chinese street where locals live, and learn so many things from Mr. Nutth history lesson, and had a bite of snack, it’s a peanut butter biscuit. And found this secret alley that only locals knew, and where I found my second favorite food of this tour, the noodle soup cooked by charcoal. I am so in love with the pork noodle soup, imagine a basic ramen noodle, it looks like it. But, it tastes so good, the noodles are perfectly tender as well as the pork and the soup is so addicting, one of the guests says that he could eat that pork noodle soup all day long, me too. The noodle soup is cooked in charcoal which makes it more interesting.

Pork noodle soup, my 2nd favorite of the food tour

 Then we headed to the famous street that was previewed in Netflix, and eat rice with chicken green curry, I love how the chicken is so tender and the green curry is so delicious, but the most amazing part of the experience is that we only ate at the side of the street in a red plastic chair, with no tables, great experience. We already ate 9 different tasty local foods, and boy! I’m almost full, but still, I want more, we have 7 more foods to go. We go inside the famous market in China town, where you can see huge and gigantic lobster, prawns and fish, but it’s not part of food tasting though LOL!. And this is the moment where Mr. Nutth, his two assistants and my friend pulled me out of my comfort zone, which I am so happy that they did. I ate a grasshopper and a typical insect worm. That moment is so scary, but I am so happy to finally did it, the grasshopper taste like small shrimps, but there’s still a feeling of something weird because you are aware what you are chewing an insect aside from the fact that it tastes like shrimps. However, I’m sorry I spit out the insect worm after a few seconds, I honestly don’t like the texture of it, and it reminds me of Simba chewing bugs with Timon and Pumbaa. Well after the challenging part of the tour we went inside the famous Healthy Boy soy sauce ice cream shop. If I am not mistaken the ice cream has soy sauce and they have a soy sauce syrup topping on it if you wanted to add more sweetness, but I like my ice cream the way it is, it tastes like caramel, not soy sauce. It’s already getting dark and the streets of China town are starting to light up which you will appreciate more the beauty of China town. We had our another table feast in this famous small open restaurant in the corner of the street, according to Mr. Nutth it is famous and sometimes you need to line up in a very long queue, however, we didn’t made the queue anymore, you know, the perks of having Achef’s tour, LOL!. On the table, we had our appetizer sour mango with sweet dipping sauce, vegetables, fish soup and prawns, everything is so delicious, but again I’m not a vegan person so I avoided the vegetables. To end the amazing food tour, we walk back nearby the meeting point and had our desserts. We tried the famous sticky mango rice, which I love because the sweetness of the mango is not too much and not too less, just perfect. 

The famous street that was previewed in Netflix

And my third favorite food in this tour and the number 17 food of this tour is the famous China town Chinese doughnuts with pandan dip that according to Mr. Nutth won the Michelin star since 2019. The doughnut tastes so good, crispy on the outside but so soft on the inside it tastes better when you dip it in the pandan cream. We ended our tour saying goodbyes and thanking Mr. Nutth and his two assistants for the amazing food tour.

Chinese doughnuts with Pandan dip

Mr. Nutth and his two lovely assistants 

Now let me tell you my top 5 reasons why 59 USD food tour at Achef’s tour is so worth your money, time and effort. 

1.    If you think that the 17 different kinds of food around China town is easy to find, yes you’re right. But to try the same food, the same vendor, the same location and the same spot is so hard to find. 

2.    The guides are very hospitable, friendly, informative and entertaining, again this tour never made me feel like I’m in a tour, it makes me feel like just a group of friends having fun searching for good food. I never felt outcast, I felt that I belong to this group. Aside from that, the guides speak English so good. Communication is so great.

3.    It’s a walking tour but you will not walk too much because every corner of the streets you will have food to taste and I did enjoy the tour so I didn’t feel tired at all. 

4.    It’s the best way to see China town transform from day to night, learning a glimpse of its history, walking inside the alleys where only locals pass through and the best part is to learn their culture through experience by food. 

5.    59 USD is worth your money, time and effort because the experience itself is so priceless. Maybe you will get cheaper food tour from other company but it always ends up with different services, no matter how cheap or expensive the product is, it will still separate from each other to the service. Yes, you have a very tasty and cheap food tour, but is your guide that very hospitable, friendly, informative and entertaining and making sure that you’re having fun? Think about it. 

And that’s it love my new experience here in Thailand, trying Achef’s food tour, by the way, loves I forgot to mentioned that when you booked in their website, they respond to you immediately. And after the tour, they check up on you with your experiences. I love companies that respond to inquiries quickly. See? From the moment you talk or email them and inquire, their amazing service is already there, until the next day they still check up on you if you are satisfied. I highly recommend to try Achef’s tour, you can visit their website at https://achefstour.com/. I hope you enjoyed reading my experience, until the next Travel Diary.