of Thai Street Food
There is, and always has been, a great deal of debate on what street food is. For some, it must be something sold directly from a cart or table set out on the sidewalk; for others, it is nothing more than food sold from any open-air place (or, as the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration puts it, an establishment with “no more than three walls”).
My view on this matter falls somewhere in the middle. Many open-air Thai eateries are nothing less than full-fledged restaurants serving a wide range of dishes from an extensive menu, while other shophouses specialize in a specific dish or niche of Thai food.
1 Mobile
The standard idea of a typical street food vendor is mobility. These vendors usually operate from a single mobile cart that specializes in takeaway or a cart with tables set up around it. Occasionally, the vendor sells his or her wares from a pole with baskets fixed to either end or from a table placed on the sidewalk. The vendor may sell from either a fixed location or move around from time to time. They normally specialize in one dish or in one type of food, such as Isaan, or Northeastern Thai food.
2 Made-to-order These aharn tham sung vendors operate from fixed locations, usually out of a shophouse. They make a variety of dishes but generally rely on a fixed repertoire of specialties. Some of the very best (these are usually characterized by the baskets of fresh ingredients on display in front of their woks) make whatever you request or are able to make up dishes depending on what ingredients you select.
3 Shophouse Vendors selling food from a shop-house are usually the most successful and oldest in their trade. Many vendors start from carts and eventually work their way up to a shophouse that is able to accommodate more guests and provide the vendor with better cooking space. They generally stick to their original specialties but from time to time branch out into other dishes that are related in some way to the specialty that made them famous. The most successful vendors move on from shophouses to adjacent air-conditioned rooms and, eventually, open up full-fledged restaurants.
4 Curry rice The khao gub gaeng (also khao raad gaeng) vendor’s cart or table has a selection of ready-made curries and stir-fries displayed in front of the vendor. Curries and stir-fries may change from day to day but the vendor usually has a specialty that never changes. Customers simply point to what they want and it is either served on a plate of rice or placed in a clear plastic bag for taking home.
How to Use This Book
Street food is a serious matter to a lot of people. Many normally laid-back and happy-go-lucky people can get pretty hot under the collar when the conversation takes a culinary turn. Debates over the best places to grab a bowl of noodles or even what does or does not constitute a street food stall can easily devolve into impassioned free-for-alls. To make things easy (for myself) and to reduce the number of irate emails about this or that street food vendor, I would like to set out my criteria for what constitutes a street food stall, how I make the selections for this book, and the purpose I hope the book serves.
The Purpose of This Book
This book started from the feeling of intimidation I had when I moved to Thailand nearly 20 years ago and contemplated buying a street food meal on my own. Not knowing the language as well as I should, I was unsure about what to order, what I’d actually be getting and how to ensure I got what I wanted with as little fuss as possible.
This guide seeks to address those issues while focusing on long-standing and relatively hygienic vendors who enjoy a high turnover. In other words, the stalls I have selected are almost all famous in one way or another. There may well be a great fried noodle stall tucked away somewhere in a corner of Chinatown that has better food, but if it is obscure or relatively new, it could easily move to another location or simply cease operating altogether, hence my focus on the older, more established street food purveyors. I also find the better known stalls are the most patronized ones, and I like the idea of a quick turnover of ingredients. This cuts down on the chance of items being left to “stew” in the open for hours, if not days.
Ultimately, this book is meant to help street food newbies who are unsure about street food but who still want to share in something that is undoubtedly a huge part of Thai dining culture. There is no need to stick to big restaurants or to cower in one’s hotel coffee shop. On the other end of the spectrum, long-time street food aficionados may also come across something in these pages for them: a reminder of a long-forgotten favorite or a vendor or two who serves a beloved dish in an unfamiliar town. I hope they, too, will find this book useful.
What is a Street Food Stall?
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration recognizes two types of vendors: mobile vendors who sell from carts or carry their wares slung on a pole across their backs, and fixed vendors who sell from a stall, usually extending from a house or in a shophouse. These fixed locations are defined as places with no more than three permanent walls. I am being unusually detailed about this because most of the stalls in this book are of the shophouse variety. I have also added other criteria which I hope will separate these vendors from open-air restaurants that also operate out of shophouses:
1 There must be one or, at most, two specialties “of the house”
2 The kitchen must be located in front of the dining area, in full view of the diners
I like the more flexible approach to characterizing street food stalls because many vendors, after having spent years building up a reputation from their mobile carts, have moved to fixed locations and may have opened either full-fledged restaurants (see Polo Fried Chicken, p. 71) or other branches (see Bamee Sawang, p. 57). That is the story of street food. The good ones flourish and sometimes expand. Others have to move to a location that may serve them better. The good thing about Thailand is that there is always a place somewhere for an enterprising food vendor. You may find that places that are clearly street food stalls are not included. This is because they are either aharn tham sung (made-to-order) stalls or khao gub gaeng (curry rice) stalls which feature pre-made curries. There are simply too many of these to include.
Choosing the Stalls
I spent many months eating at the stalls featured in the book so the basic answer to the question of choice has to be “I like the food at these places.” But there are other criteria. In Bangkok, for instance, I focused on neighborhoods that I knew well, hence the exclusion of important areas like Victory Monument and Ari. I didn’t want to include stalls just for the sake of including them even if they were located in well-known neighborhoods.
In the provinces, I focused on regional specialties and dishes that are harder to find. I wanted to showcase the diversity inherent in Thai food as well as show off the different characteristics of each region. You may find that, as in Bangkok, your favorite neighborhood or city is not included. The reason is because I have but one humble stomach and have a limited amount of time on this good green earth. It is a work in progress. Maybe some day I will be able to provide a wider coverage.
