FOOD. Science. Technology. Quality

Food. SCIENCE. Technology. Quality

Food. Science. TECHNOLOGY. Quality

Food. Science. Technology. QUALITY

Authors

MARLENA PIELAK, JOANNA TRAFIAŁEK, EWA CZARNIECKA-SKUBINA

Title

Evaluation of the diversity of gastronomic offer in one selected tourist place in Thailand

Abstract

In recent years, the Asian countries have become increasingly popular amidst European tourists. In addition to different cultures, religions, and customs, the tourists experience a variety of flavours and aromas of foods they have not known yet. The objective of the research study was to evaluate the gastronomic offer in one of the Asian countries based on the example of a city of Chiang Mai in the northern province of Thailand. The subject of the research study covered 30 restaurants located in Old Town close to the tourist attractions. The survey method was based on a specially formulated questionnaire containing 27 questions. The results of the survey were documented in the form of observation records and photographs of every restaurant surveyed and of their menu cards. Based on the survey conducted, it was found that all the restaurants in the selected tourist place served local Thai dishes. Only in very few restaurants, there were dishes from other countries, for example from Italy or the USA. The restaurants under evaluation offered very diverse menus, among other things snacks, main courses with meat and fish or for the vegetarians, salads and fresh vegetable salads, desserts, and beverages. Meat dishes included chicken and pork meat, rarely beef. The dishes prepared from increasingly popular meat sorts in Europe such as rabbit, duck and goose were not there. Several restaurants had also the halal meat. For the European tourists, the dishware and cutlery were sort of surprise. In half of the restaurants surveyed, meals were served on reusable plastic plates, and as for the cutlery, the most frequently appearing set consisted of a spoon and chopsticks. The fork was served only in very few restaurants while the knife in several restaurants. The cutlery was most often placed in a container lying on the table and containing tablespoons and chopsticks for many customers. Only in few restaurants, the cutlery was served in a napkin and was meant for an individual customer. The menus in all the restaurants surveyed were differently designed compared to those in the European restaurants. In all the restaurants studied, the names of dishes in the menus were shown together with the illustrations thereof. The names of the dishes were usually given in several languages, for example in Thai, English, or Chinese. In no  restaurant, any important consumer information was found, e.g. the specification of all the ingredients. In half of the restaurants surveyed, only the main ingredients were indicated in the menus. Such data as weight of a dish, energy value of the food, or list of allergens were found in no restaurant. Summing up, the gastronomic offer in the restaurants located in the tourist place of Chiang Mai in Thailand is highly diverse. Those restaurant offer local dishes; however, the methods of serving them differs a lot from that in Europe.

Keywords

tourism, Thailand, gastronomic offer, local dishes

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