Delve into the delights of Thai street fare
The characteristic flavours of Thai food come from a blend of four basic tastes — salty, sweet, sour and pungent, and the liberal use of ingredients such as fresh coriander leaf, lemongrass, lime juice, garlic, chilies, tamarind, fish paste, ginger and coconut milk. Sidewalk gourmets are masters at combining these ingredients and employing fast cooking techniques that maintain the delicate flavours of the food. Before you can say moo ping or phat Thai, they will chargrill you some skewers of marinated pork or stir-fry some rice noodles with bean sprouts, peanuts, eggs and chili.
Although there are some worldclass gourmet restaurants in the city, there is so much variety of food on the streets that you can literally go weeks without even stepping inside one. Ask any Bangkokian to take you to their favourite restaurant, and you'll most likely be eating street side at some open-air cart.
Follow their example and graze from the informal buffet of street fare while having your senses challenged with the live street theatre — pungent aromas of chili, garlic and barbecued fish, the cacophony of music, lights and voices and the spectacle of accomplished chefs at work, wielding their utensils with awesome dexterity.
Vendors tend to specialize in one dish: noodles, salads, curries, barbecued meat or fish, rice dishes, fruit juices, sweets, etc. Some favourites include kai ho bai toei (seasoned fried chicken in leaf wrappers), thotman plakrai or thotman kung (fish or shrimp fritters Thai style) various kinds of yam (Thai salads) tomyam (hot and sour soup) and gaeng kiow wan gai (green chicken curry).
For something sweet to finish off your street dining, look out for khao niew mamuang (sticky rice with mango), kruay kaek (banana fritters), or simply choose from a selection of sliced fresh fruits from one of the roaming carts. The fruit is slipped into a small plastic bag along with a bamboo skewer to spear the fruit with, and an accompanying mixture of salt, sugar and powdered chili to dip the fruit in.
MEALS ON WHEELS
If you don't want to go to the food, let the food come to you. The methods of transporting the ingredients to make a meal are as varied as the dishes themselves. Hawkers on foot can be spotted just about anywhere from crossing a busy intersection to doing a brisk trade outside a monastery. Bearing filled baskets balanced on a wooden yoke upon one shoulder, they haul around noodles, vegetables, spices, plates, a small stove and a stool- all the paraphernalia needed to create a sit-down roadside meal for a hungry diner.
Another common spectacle along the streets of Bangkok is the pushcart or tricycle cart, a simple variant of the bicycle or motorcycle pushing a large wheeled box containing everything needed to make delicious food. Along the canals and waterways, sellers paddle their mini-shops from home- tohome, offering “boat noodles,” curries over rice and an assortment of kanom (sweetmeats and snack foods).
The city's food carts may be humble, and the dishes may be cheap, but the clientele come from all walks of life. From well-heeled businessmen to people who sweep the streets, most Bangkokians eat at these one-dish specialist stalls, perched on tiny stools as the traffic hurtles by, because they provide the freshest, most authentic and delicious Thai cooking.
Whether you are new to the charms of Thai food or a veteran when it comes to knowing the difference between phad Thai or gaeng kiow wan gai, next time you're in Bangkok explore the world of the city's sidewalk gourmets — the unsung heroes of Thai cuisine.