Thai food and street stalls go hand in hand and some of the best street food around can be found in Bangkok. Khao San Road and its surrounding alleys are littered with small street vendors, dotted between over-priced restaurants that are no match for the street guys on taste or value!
For a filling meal at a great price then look no further than the classic Pad Thai. It's dirt cheap (especially if you choose the veggie option) and is a vast improvement on the similarly priced toasties from 7-Eleven. If the humidity is getting the better of you, by all means take your box of Pad Thai into a 7-Eleven for a blast of air con.... just don't be tempted by the carbonara toasty that promises so much and delivers so little. (see full image)
If egg and peanut doesn't quite satisfy your protein needs, then you can grab a bag of diced pork or chicken wegs (a term we coined for the leg size chicken wings) for 30 Baht a piece. The teriyaki like dressing is sticky and sweet, ensuring a perfect accompaniment to a box of soft noodles.
Not all of the street food in Bangkok is as safe as Pad Thai. You can earn man points by gobbling down a char grilled tarantula or a bag of crickets. We settled for a scorpion and a sorry looking frog that tasted like charcoal and made me gag, but it was a good photo op and story to tell my 4 year old nieces.They still believe that my burps have turned into "ribbits"! (see full image)
On a serious note, the floating markets in Bangkok are a foodie haven and another great opportunity to sample street food and restaurant quality meals alike. We did the obligatory trip to Damnoen Saduak, which is the biggest and most popular of the floating markets. If you can cope with being pestered/ harassed by all of the vendors, there are some great little treats in between the stalls selling tourist tat. Kanoom Krock are a traditional Thai dessert. They look like mini pancakes but have a mousse like texture in the centre. I tried the 3 flavours on offer: sweet corn, spring onion and sweet red bean. Once again, the mixture of sweet and savoury was confusing to my palette, but all in all it provided a very satisfying breakfast. They can be found all over Thailand, in a variety of different flavours and are well worth a try.If you're a fan of floating markets and you find yourself in Bangkok on a Sunday, I'd highly recommend a trip on the local bus to Taling Chan. The market here is more of a riverside than floating market, as most things are prepared and sold from longboats whilst you walk along floating platforms.
However, it's full of locals and the food here, all be it slightly more expensive, is fresh and delicious. We started our visit here with morning coffee on the riverside. We watched on, whilst feeding the giant catfish in the river, as ladies effortlessly prepared candied coconut in a molten orange syrup, before parcelling it up into bags and carting it over to their nearby stall.It filled the air with a sickly sweet smell.(see full image)
Over the bridge, longboats stuffed with fresh fruit and veggies cruise downstream looking for custom and small kitchen boats donning BBQ's and sizzling pans are anchored to the banks. The frantic river catfish splashed competitively for the fish pellets, splashing murky river water onto the chef's work space. It wasn't enough to put us off and we ordered scallops stuffed with both crispy and spring onions and a tilapia cooked in banana leaf, flavoured with lemon grass. It was stunning. (see full image)
Finally, it's hard to avoid a Chang, Leo, Tiger, Singha or any other Thai beer that tickles your fancy in the backpacker hub of Kho San Road. Ladies wearing flamboyant hats are everywhere, with a display of bracelets (donning some rather graphic messages) in one hand and a beer cooler in the other. A word of warning; Chang is unregulated, meaning it’s a lottery as to the percentage alcohol content that you’ll get. It’s the cheapest beer available but is likely to leave you with a nasty changover.
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