Thai Food at the markets

[james24]

Hey guys

I have a question about the Thai food you find at the markets/street food. Although it has the appearance of looking home-made I've started to notice that certain dishes are pretty identical no matter which market you buy it from.

I was wondering , if I'm correct, who is the company that makes all this home-cooked looking food..?

What spurred me to ask this is a comment a friend made to her father who was looking for a job and it was suggested he sell food at the market yet he had no idea how to cook..?

[Pib]

Nope, they are usually made by the market vendor and/or family/friends. So, so many people in Thailand make a living from making and selling prepared food.

[Denim]

Depends what food you mean. Most made by the vendors but there are a few well known franchises that also give free training. 5 star chicken ..... Is one. Another is ' Chaisee bamee and noodles '

[james24]

Thanks guys

Yes I see there are a few franchises, however I do suspect the curries and other food you can buy in the bag is not just cooked by the vendors family. I'm sure there are some but if you go to any market and look at the different food stalls alot of them are identical.

There must be a company mass producing this food for vendors to sell as there can be at least 7-8 vendors selling copious amounts of the same food...?

[Pib]

You really need to better describe what type of food you are talking about. Hard to tell the difference between fried rice, a bowl of noodles, meat/fish balls on a stick, etc. They look the same but they are being cooked by the vendor.

[Suradit69]

Thanks guys

Yes I see there are a few franchises, however I do suspect the curries and other food you can buy in the bag is not just cooked by the vendors family. I'm sure there are some but if you go to any market and look at the different food stalls alot of them are identical.

There must be a company mass producing this food for vendors to sell as there can be at least 7-8 vendors selling copious amounts of the same food...?

What would be the point? The vendors aren't going to add more middle-men to the process. It's cooked at home or on site and sold directly by them. A few people at the same market might collaborate, but paying some big company to produce it with added distribution & labor costs would make the vendors' already thin margin of profit even thinner.

And I disagree that the same food items taste identical. If you've ever bought prepared food at Tops or Big C, it's nothing near to what you can get in the market and the stuff at 7/Eleven or Family Mart is generally even worse that then at Tops or Big C.

There have been a number of shows on TV about street food in Thailand, on Nat Geo or Discovery or whatever, and they all include details about the vendors shopping for ingredients and their preparation of the food in the early hours.

As someone else said, some of the simpler, basic dishes may seem identical since there isn't much to distinguish them, but there are so many different things available in most markets or on the streets, the big producers would have to prepare 100 different things every day in relatively small amounts that there would be no savings from mass production.

[geovalin]

The house of my neighbour is indeed a small factory (maybe 3 - 5 workers). They do Kwe Teow. This is home-made (because it's made in a home) but it's also something they deliver in markets around (they have 2 vans).

By the way, I prefer the semi - home made than the real home made at the market. I suspect that the appetizing (looking well, tasty, looking clean, healthy, standard size) stuff is semi-home made and that the real home made is not that good. My guess is that the semi home made is healthier (they respect s few rules to avoid problems) and better (they tune their receipt until it's perfect).

[WorkingTourist]

Yes I see there are a few franchises, however I do suspect the curries and other food you can buy in the bag is not just cooked by the vendors family. I'm sure there are some but if you go to any market and look at the different food stalls alot of them are identical.

Look closer or maybe try to taste it.

I buy a lot of prepared food at the markets, and there is definitely variation in how the same dish is done and how it tastes.

Even the curry paste varies in taste and here I did ask one vendor who made their curry pastes, it was their mother.

[fakename]

Why dont you just go to market, and LOOK, they are cooking right at their food stall, or at least warming it up. yes, it often taste like someone elses product, but maybe that is probably because you are not tuned in to the different flavors.

[mike324]

Thanks guys

Yes I see there are a few franchises, however I do suspect the curries and other food you can buy in the bag is not just cooked by the vendors family. I'm sure there are some but if you go to any market and look at the different food stalls alot of them are identical.

There must be a company mass producing this food for vendors to sell as there can be at least 7-8 vendors selling copious amounts of the same food...?

Food in the bag are definitely home cooked even if you think it looks identical but its not. I have never heard about middle men deliverying home cooked meals to vendors at the market, Vendors will have such small margin if they were to buy from the middle men to sell. Just buy from each stall and try it out yourself. You will notice slight difference in taste and ingredients. Especially the way ingredients are chopped. If its in pots, stir the pot and have a look at the ingredients inside. If you say there are 7-8 stalls, some of the bigger stalls should have a stove there where they will freshly cook new batchs to refill pots that is on display.

Your friends father should seek franchinese such as 5 Star Chicken, at a good market the vendors make pretty good money, more than the average Thai. The vendor at my local market makes over 20,000 baht per month. Other franchises available are noodle franchise, chicken rice / roast duck rice - but you will need to know how to cut the duck and make the rice which he probably knows how to do already.

There are a lot of stuff your friends dad can do, it only takes a couple days to learn to prepare the ingredients and cook. You can ask your friend to go check out the market at Salaya Market beside the train station. A lot of the vendors there make good money because there are lot of schools and middle-high income folks living nearby, yet its still a pretty local market. The market there opens full day too, most sellers are there 7am till 6pm. Prices there are slihglty higher than the very local local market, so choosing where to sell is also the key to maximizing his profits if he wants to sell at markets.

Edited March 26, 2016 by mike324

[dluek]

Thanks guys

Yes I see there are a few franchises, however I do suspect the curries and other food you can buy in the bag is not just cooked by the vendors family. I'm sure there are some but if you go to any market and look at the different food stalls alot of them are identical.

There must be a company mass producing this food for vendors to sell as there can be at least 7-8 vendors selling copious amounts of the same food...?

There are some larger kitchens that might employ a few different vendors in a given market but, for the most part, the food that you see is cooked by the vendor and/or their family/friends -- or in the case of a food court by paid workers. Either way it's cooked in relatively small batches. I'm not sure what you mean by the food looks "identical." Sure, a lot of the vendors cook the same dishes and they often look similar, but after trying tons of pre-prepared foods in markets all over Thailand, I can assure you that there's a lot of variation in flavor.

Walk around New York City and you'll see tons of pizza places all selling New York-style pizza that often looks identical... Does that mean there's some mega pizza factory somewhere out near the docks that wholesales all of those pizzas to the small shops? If this were the case in Thailand, don't you think you'd see and smell these giant mass-production food factories from time to time?

[james24]

Thanks for your feedback guys, I'll bear everything in mind but I still think a lot of food that is sold at the market does come from the same cook. In any case it's still delicious

[asdecas]

Thanks for your feedback guys, I'll bear everything in mind but I still think a lot of food that is sold at the market does come from the same cook. In any case it's still delicious

You're right, I drove past the Terdsak Sattahip Universal Fishball and Mau Pla factory just yesterday. It was huge, and did it stink out the vicinity!

[Roomuck]

Don't ask on Thai visa. It varies dramatically depending on what it is.

Ask the people at the market who you are buying it from. They will know.

[mike324]

Thanks for your feedback guys, I'll bear everything in mind but I still think a lot of food that is sold at the market does come from the same cook. In any case it's still delicious

In that case all the pizza sold around Times Square must come from the same cook too! but not all are delicous

[johninbkk71]

No, they just follow a similar recipe to produce the same unappealing food that you get here

[dirtycash]

Thanks guys

Yes I see there are a few franchises, however I do suspect the curries and other food you can buy in the bag is not just cooked by the vendors family. I'm sure there are some but if you go to any market and look at the different food stalls alot of them are identical.

There must be a company mass producing this food for vendors to sell as there can be at least 7-8 vendors selling copious amounts of the same food...?

i have often thought exactly the same as you . i would like to learn how to cook all these meals too, make a tidy job for me and the girlfriend someday.

[WorkingTourist]

[…] I still think a lot of food that is sold at the market does come from the same cook

What markets in Thailand have you been to?

As said above, I frequent the markets and buy the prepared dishes, and your belief seems very uninformed to me. I often go for the curries and there is no doubt in my mind that each vendor’s take on it is different, the cut of meat they use, the type of vegetables and herbs, ratio of these, etc. The curry paste that is the basis of the dish is more standard, but variation here can still be found, e.g. one place I prefer makes them significantly more spicy.

Of course there are vendors who take shortcuts, for example the vendors selling fishballs or steamed buns might buy wholesale but those are generally the exception and often they sell from their mobile cart, since they can get away with a lower quality if they “come to you”.

I was surprised to read about the guy who’s girlfriend imported frozen grilled pork (moo bing) from Bangkok. I generally buy my moo bing from Warorot Market, the quality here is excellent and I would be very surprised if this is wholesale (especially because I have seen them prepare the fresh meat in the afternoon, which got sold the same evening).

[ericthai]

Op you ask a question and members tell you the there is no mass production that all is made by the vendors, but you dont want to accept that and keep pushing your idea. Then why ask a question?

As others have stated the vendors on the street and in the markets are making the food. Only the franchise are not home made. Our one neighbor has a stall at the market selling rice with chicken and she starts early in the morning to get the chicken cooked in time.

[james24]

Op you ask a question and members tell you the there is no mass production that all is made by the vendors, but you dont want to accept that and keep pushing your idea. Then why ask a question?

As others have stated the vendors on the street and in the markets are making the food. Only the franchise are not home made. Our one neighbor has a stall at the market selling rice with chicken and she starts early in the morning to get the chicken cooked in time.

I asked a question as I wanted some input before I made my own conclusion. Based on what I have been given ( thankyou to everyone who has contributed) the jury is still out for me as I hv since day found out that in Chiang Mai at least , one of the markets dies indeed hv more than one vendor selling the same product from the same supplier.

[elgenon]

If they buy prepared food it would be more expensive for them.

[WorkingTourist]

[] the jury is still out for me as I hv since day found out that in Chiang Mai at least , one of the markets dies indeed hv more than one vendor selling the same product from the same supplier.

What market and what product?

[james24]

The market is in a place called Badaan

[topt]

[] the jury is still out for me as I hv since day found out that in Chiang Mai at least , one of the markets dies indeed hv more than one vendor selling the same product from the same supplier.

What market and what product?

The market is in a place called Badaan

OP is this third hand info - because according to one of your other topics (TAFTA) you live in Oz now. So are you here or there............

[james24]

[] the jury is still out for me as I hv since day found out that in Chiang Mai at least , one of the markets dies indeed hv more than one vendor selling the same product from the same supplier.

What market and what product?

The market is in a place called Badaan

OP is this third hand info - because according to one of your other topics (TAFTA) you live in Oz now. So are you here or there............

I live in Oz however this comes from a person whose auntie works at the market