Thai Street Food Challenge

[kevkev1888]

An interesting Blog from Richard Barrow.

A few new dishes to try for me.

Can't believe he has got to day 23 and no mango with sticky rice.

Seems his average spend is about 90 baht a day, not bad going.

http://www.enjoythaifood.com/thai-street-food/thai-street-food-challenge.html

[Spee]

WOW! That link is the nuts for Thai hawker food.

Thanks much for the post.

[IMA_FARANG]

Wow...wonderful food.

Wish I as in Thailand instead of working here in Crete. The local club is big on the American standard hanburgers and fries.

Next month I will be in Thailand (Bangkok). Expect the kind of food shown to be my daily fare.

Main meal for the day (evening dinner) will probably be a stew of some kind cooked by my Thai girlfriend, with at least one meal (usually lunch) of street vender food as shown here. She has a gall-bladder problem so she cooks her supper daily (from ingerdients bought at the market) with no sugar or MSG, and mimimum soy sauce. But lunch is usually noodles or rice/meat from street-vendors. Morning is toast and tea...with a bit of jam on the toast. I like the fruit teas...blackberry, blueberry, or orange teas.

Good food...and I usually lose 5 to 10 pounds every time I stay there...usually 30 days at time. This time will be retiring and living in Bangkok.

Can't wait to get there.

[IMA_FARANG]

Wow...wonderful food.

Wish I as in Thailand instead of working here in Crete. The local club is big on the American standard hanburgers and fries.

Next month I will be in Thailand (Bangkok). Expect the kind of food shown to be my daily fare.

Main meal for the day (evening dinner) will probably be a stew of some kind cooked by my Thai girlfriend, with at least one meal (usually lunch) of street vender food as shown here. She has a gall-bladder problem so she cooks her supper daily (from ingerdients bought at the market) with no sugar or MSG, and mimimum soy sauce. But lunch is usually noodles or rice/meat from street-vendors. Morning is toast and tea...with a bit of jam on the toast. I like the fruit teas...blackberry, blueberry, or orange teas.

Good food...and I usually lose 5 to 10 pounds every time I stay there...usually 30 days at time. This time will be retiring and living in Bangkok.

Can't wait to get there.

[lomatopo]

Certainly a comprehensive overview of popular dishes, and informative. The pictures a great too. I have to say though I couldn't do this for 30 days. Too many fried dishes, too much oil, salt, sugar and ajinomoto; very little fruit (fried bananas count I guess) and vegetables. I average ~ 40 Thai dishes a month, spread across 18 meals (family style so 3 ~ 4 people share several dishes) at inexpensive open-air restaurants in Bangkok and the suburbs. I need to detox; salt and ajinomoto, for a few days.

[RaoulDuke]

This just really makes me wish I was going to be here longer, so I could try and learn the language. It pains me to walk by all the street vendors and not give them a try. But since I can neither read nor speak Thai, most street food is off limits for me. If they have pictures to point at, or are just selling something simple like skewers or mango/sticky rice, I have no problem. But most vendors I see just have a simple menu written in Thai, and large number of ingredients sitting out, so I have no idea what they even offer.

Of course, I don't blame the vendors for my ignorance, they are not here for tourists, and I am the one who cannot read. I just feel like I am missing out on so much. Thankfully, I have found the many food courts in BKK to be a very valuable asset, since the food is almost as cheap, much easier to order, and probably more hygienic, as well.

[thomo]

After 5 yrs of living here I wouldn't eat nothing but Thai street food for one day.

Unfortunate, as the actual dishes can be really delicious. It just pays to either prepare them at home, or use restaurants that you know and trust. Just costs a little more, but it's more than worth it.

Once you see the hundredth sewer rat playing 6 inches away from where they 'wash' down their plates it kind of makes it taste not so nice. Unfortunately the people in the pics have probably picked their nose and wiped their bum with their hand before preparing those dishes.

Edited October 15, 2010 by thomo

[somtampet]

After 5 yrs of living here I wouldn't eat nothing but Thai street food for one day.

Unfortunate, as the actual dishes can be really delicious. It just pays to either prepare them at home, or use restaurants that you know and trust. Just costs a little more, but it's more than worth it.

Once you see the hundredth sewer rat playing 6 inches away from where they 'wash' down their plates it kind of makes it taste not so nice. Unfortunately the people in the pics have probably picked their nose and wiped their bum with their hand before preparing those dishes.

You are talking about Bangkok though.

I have eaten virtualy everything on that menu list and Thailand is the only country in the world where i havent had food poisining

[britmaveric]

^trust me if you really knew what went on in restaurants you would never eat there. Anyways street food is simply the best.

[thomo]

You are talking about Bangkok though.

Actually no, I've lived in the North, North-East, and central Thailand, and traveled through everyother region. Streetfood is generally prepared with the same level of hygiene throughout, bar perhaps the southern Muslim states.

The culture of picking one's nose transcends into the the culture of Thai SF preparation flawlessly. Walk down any street with food vendors after closing and watch them 'wash' the dishes on the sidewalk.

Most of the time the only washing sponge will be placed on the footpath between washes.

And not forgetting that virtually all SF vendors will be usinf toilets that have nothing but a bucket of water and bowl to wipe their ass with.

Ever hear of cross contamination? Using different surfaces and utensils for cutting/preparing cooked and raw food? I've never once seen a streetstall show knowledge of this. Watch their one cutting knife and board that's used for raw meat and veg, then cooked meat, then raw meat again, repeat for 12 hours a day. Although it might be given the odd wipe with the cloth they use to dry their hands after they've wiped their bum.

Edited October 15, 2010 by thomo

[britmaveric]

^adds flavour to the food, no wonder it's so yummy! :jap:

[thomo]

I'll trust you on that. I grew out of eating snot when I was 8.

[britmaveric]

^Well same snot will be present in a normal restaurant, so I am not sure what your point is?

[thomo]

^Well same snot will be present in a normal restaurant, so I am not sure what your point is?

I'm pretty sure this is it:

It just pays to either prepare them at home, or use restaurants that you know and trust.

[jazzbo]

I get a kick when some Western guy says that in his opinion some small Thai restaurant or Food vendor isn't any good but the Thai folks are waiting in line for a table or take-away...

[ozzieovaseas]

All time spent in LOS i have never once been sick from street food, actually i believe if you expose yourself to a few of the "bugs" you guys have talked about it could possibly help your immune system cope in other ways.. Much in the same way that infants that eat dirt are sometimes healthier than those kids who have parents that wrap them in cotton wool.

Strangely enough, the only time i ever get sick in general is when i return home. Also, of all many people i have spoke to about food in Thailand, only one person said they had ever been sick, and the only thing she could put it down to was KFC.

I also noted the previous poster talking about proper food handling techniques that we learn in the west and its quite amazing there are no wide spread outbreaks of sickness here due to cross contamination. Especially all that food in the markets left out unrefridgerated and with flies swarming all over it....

I guess if there is any viable explanation it might be that the food is usually laden with MSG and lots of other sources high in salt, therefor providing a strong mix of preservatives.

In Australia those in the health/retail industry often talk about risks of airborne viruses contaminating food. If so, then one could assume Thailand would be at even greater risk.

Indeed you cant leave fish out of the fridge very long in Aus without it stinking up, whereas here it is left out all day and still, well...smells ok

[Panhandler007]

AWESOME! He`s a tad more adventuresome than me.

[chops]

Big deal. I eat Thai street food ever day here because I live here. I'm the only farang I see who ever eats the stuff. You guys are missing out.

I have no need or desire to eat crap like hamburgers and pizzas everyday like most farang here.

[garrya]

Big deal. I eat Thai street food ever day here because I live here. I'm the only farang I see who ever eats the stuff. You guys are missing out.

I have no need or desire to eat crap like hamburgers and pizzas everyday like most farang here.

You are likely wrong. There must be a few more out there eating the local stuff.

I love to eat thai street food, not all of them though. But I also have the natural desire for my never forgotten foods of my country.

[edwardandtubs]

Big deal. I eat Thai street food ever day here because I live here. I'm the only farang I see who ever eats the stuff. You guys are missing out.

I have no need or desire to eat crap like hamburgers and pizzas everyday like most farang here.

Missing out on what? A meal made up of 90% rice, 5% sugar, 2% salt, 1% weeds, 1% animal fat and 1% ants?

[p_brownstone]

Big deal. I eat Thai street food ever day here because I live here. I'm the only farang I see who ever eats the stuff. You guys are missing out.

I have no need or desire to eat crap like hamburgers and pizzas everyday like most farang here.

I think the main point of the challenge was to not eat the same dish twice in the 30 period - i.e. to find something different for each meal, which he indeed managed to do.

Plus I am never very impressed by the rabid "I'm more Thai than the Thais" sort of Poster - yes Thai food is excellent but there's nothing wrong with eating other cuisines from time to time as the mood takes one.

Patrick

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I think there's a couple of differences to be noted here...

In terms of Thai street food, there's the stuff that is fixed fresh to order while you wait... And then there's the stuff that's been sitting there in a tray or pot all day attracting dust, flies and who knows what else.

I'm more inclined to try the fresh cooked variety, where you can see how they're storing their food (refrigerated in an ice chest vs. sitting out plain). And I'm really not inclined to eat the sitting out all day variety, especially in BKK where I live.

But frankly, since I have a kitchen at home, I'm perfectly fine to eat Thai street food...

But the difference is, my wife and I do our grocery shopping, buy fresh what we want, and then cook the same street food type things at home with our style -- little salt, no MSG, no palm oil, good Thai jasmine or Japanese rice vs. the lousy cheap stuff a lot of vendors dish up, etc etc.

If I didn't have a working kitchen, I'd stick to the fresh cooked to order stuff and ask them to leave out certain stuff, depending on the dish.

Edited March 2, 2012 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This reminds me... thinking back to the flood times around BKK, and seeing Thai folks out in the flood muck catching fish from that... And then later, walking home and seeing the usual salt fish vendors out on the street selling their product... And thinking, knowing where that fish likely has been, I really don't want to eat that.

[GooEng]

i've been eating street food in thailand for 20 years now and never had a problem once!

i love it!

[Pseudolus]

Really useful indeed - I often when buying for myself stick to the one or two things I know how to ask for - most useful part of this blog is that I can learn a bit more of the words for these other foods.

[barefoot1988]

90 baht a day seems very little imo . . thai street food are tasty but arent very filling for me. 90 baht per meal seems more reasonable than a day for me =) . a bottle of fresh juice is at 20 baht already.