Lek Lek Thai Food

Our Story

เล็ก lek meaning small in Thai. Thai street food without being pretentious. We keep it small and reaL.

Let me introduce myself. Yogi, mum, traveler, and a Thailand addict. I first backpacked to Asia and landed in Thailand in 2000. My culinary epiphany came over 'Khanom chin nam ya' together with my friends Margie and Nai, which are fresh rice noodles made from rice which has first been fermented for three days. A poor people’s breakfast purchased at a roadside spot on the street for BHT 20. The object of my inspiration- fermented noodles- might seem silly, but in the end, it prompted to change the course of my life, including how I eat and how I cook. The seasoning, tastes and textures of this dish with the 'pla lek lek' (small dried fish) transformed my understanding of Thai food. From then on I was hooked.

I moved to Phuket and Bangkok in the years following to learn about these cities remarkable cuisine, regal past, and sophisticated tastes and eating my way up to the North of Thailand and Isaan. I fell in love with typical roadside spots- dusty scattered tables and benches crudely nailed together, plastic stools sunk into the dirt, and a roof fashioned from teak tree leaves and off course LEO beers poured into ice-filled glasses. Every time I say to myself eating in such a place Holy s**t, this is good. All I knew was that if this is what Thais eat, then I wanted to eat it too.

My obsession with Thailand makes me hard to hire because every year I will make up an excuse to go there for more than a normal company allows you to have vacation leave (and believe me it is just for the food). My eating became more systematic, I’d taste something, get obsessed with it, and eat it everywhere I could. So much of the food there is cooked outdoors in plain sight, so I watched the food being made. Gradually I learned to cook the dishes I loved most. Someday I’ll open my own thing, I thought. People need to know this food. So here we are.

Disclaimer 1; I am not a trained scolar of Thai food and culture. My knowledge is largely anecdotal, gleaned from years of observing, eating, cooking, wandering and wondering.
Disclaimer 2: I am not a chef, I am a yogi who is obsessed with Thailand and Thai cuisine. I didn’t invent this stuff. I am a proud copycat. The dishes I make are my best approximations of some of my favorite Thai dishes which have been created, perfected and cooked by Thai people.

Ruby