Street Food in Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived at the ferry terminal in Koh Tao and obtained red stickers for Bangkok. Travel consisted of a 3 hour ferry to Chumphon (which was a wonderful pit stop with clean bathrooms and free wifi!) then an 8 hour bus ride to the city. We ended up arriving to our pre booked guesthouse at 2:00 in the morning.

Our main purpose in the city was to obtain a visa for Vietnam which required us to visit their embassy twice. In the downtime, we wandered through markets and a few malls, hit some tourist spots, and relaxed at our hotel, Bangkok 68 (with a rooftop pool). Best of all though was tying the various types of Thai food!

Street Food

Every street we saw in Bangkok had at least one food vendor. Some vendors had their little kitchen on wheels so they could be moved between prime locations but most seemed to be permanent fixtures. It’s actually easier to order from these small vendors because most have only 1 or 2 different options at their cart, but there were no signs in English which required us to rely on knowledge gained from reading Internet blogs (or just crossing our fingers) to know what was cooking. We took 2 opportunities to eat on the street; once near the Vietnam Embassy (while waiting to retrieve our passports) and one night near our hotel.

Unfortunately, grabbing food near the hotel did not exactly work out. We purchased something that looked like sausage and a cut of meat that looked like bbq chicken. Although both had great flavor, the texture was less appealing and neither of us finished the servings. An Internet search confirmed that we were eating Isaan sausage (pork and sticky rice in sausage which would have been better if we had understood that’s why it was so soft) but still not sure of the other rubbery round meat we tried. With limited options, we finished up dinner at McDonalds with a samurai burger and chicken sandwich.

We had better luck grabbing lunch near the embassy (and after doing some internet research). We selected some actual bbq chicken with sticky rice. Afterwards, we enjoyed a banana roti which is a thin crape like pancake. Inside the roti are slices of banana and egg with condensed milk and sugar on top. It is so good. We later learned that these banana pancakes (or variations of) are extremely popular with backpackers and provided the unofficial name for the backpacking trail through Southeast Asia.

Market

Bangkok 68

Bangkok 68 was just a short walk from the Sutthisan metro station. During our first day, we noticed that there was a market right outside of the station. The market had hundreds of small vendors selling clothing, jewelry, accessories, snacks and convenience goods. We wandered around just before lunch and located a food court section. There were several small vendors selling different types of food with about 6 items to choose from at each. Looking around, we noticed we were the only westerners at the market. We also noticed that everyone was dressed in business attire complete with lanyard badges.

We ended up visiting this market several times during our visit (a few unsuccessful trips while learning it was mostly open during lunch on business days). Overall, we did a great job choosing dishes. We found that either they had some English posted on a menu or the food was on display so we could point. Some of the successful dishes we had were minced chicken with rice, noodle soup with pork and shrimp dumplings, crispy pork with holy basil, and chicken over rice. The only dish we did not prefer was a spicy Thai salad with crab (it was uncooked which we’ve been avoiding to limit any stomach concerns plus it was the spiciest dish we’ve tried). We also walked past the market on the weekend and although much quieter, we found a few vendors and enjoyed a fresh omelette over rice and a rice salad with breakfast sausage.

We also ended up eating at a mall food court after unsuccessfully wandering around looking for a brewery. The food was excellent (compared to my expectations of food courts from home). We had chicken over rice and tom yum soup. It was a perfect combination. Tom yum soup is exactly what my tastebuds crave and is (according to many websites) an excellent example of Thai cuisine. It’s the perfect combination of creamy, sour and spicy and is full of fresh vegetables. It does leave quite a spice twinge on the mouth (especially for someone that does not eat spicy) which is why the other dish was a perfect match. The chicken is roasted so it’s moist and flavorful. It’s service over white rice with a lime and a side of sauce similar to “duck sauce”. It did a great job cooling down the palate.

Date Night
Our last night in the city was right before Valentine’s today so Will decided to splurge and we actually visited a restaurant (that wasn’t fast food). After some research, we found that Somboon Seafood was located just a few blocks south of our local market. The restaurant is a local chain and is best known for their curry crab. We of course shared that along with an order of tom yum with prawns and two sides of rice. The restaurant did not disappoint. The tom yum was excellent, especially with the large pieces of seafood. The curry was very creamy, complimented the crab perfectly, and was surprisingly not spicy (even though everything here has been spicy). It was a great date!