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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 8, 2010 14:36:42 GMT
The good stuff! Street food and snacks are so much better in Thailand than in Cambodia. Can we expect a full report? Hopefully this is just a tidbit to start the juices going. I'd love to know what some of the items are in the pictures. Are those skewered stuffed won-ton up there next to the hot dogs? Also, how do tourists know what to order? (Guidebooks, I guess.) I see lots of signs are in English, even for the raw seafood. Why is that? Does the OP have more pictures? Everyone talks about the great street food in Bangkok. Surely others here can expand on this topic.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2010 14:41:48 GMT
I will have to go digging for more pictures some day, and no, tourists do not always know what to order.
English is the lingua franca of even a lot of the Asians. When the Japanese, Koreans or Singaporeans go to Thailand, they generally have to speak English.
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Post by curt on Apr 9, 2010 0:31:50 GMT
Looks like the Democracy Monument area. Those wontons are often stuffed with quail eggs. A few pictures down, again with the weenies, you'll see fried chicken, along with fried fish flakes, and some crispy pork behind that. I thought the Irish were the ones that deep fried everything! The beauty of such arrangements is that you don't need language to order. These are definitely a point and grab situation. Unfortunately, at this time of year, with temps around 40º, the bacteria grows like it's on steroids! We still hit such places, but ones who's schedule we know. We pick up our food when it's fresh. Food courts might be a "safer" option for many. A typical "food court" lunch, for the two of us, consisting of a couple entrees, and a couple sodas or waters, will almost always ring in under 100 baht.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 9, 2010 2:40:04 GMT
Pretty! Is that pork atop the noodles? There's something won-tonish looking at @5 o'clock in the bowl. That SO looks like my kinda grub!
Curt, what is a food court? I immediately think of the "food courts" in malls in the US, for instance, but .......
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2010 4:57:44 GMT
Often also called 'food centres' these food courts are often just a small square a food vendors grouped together with communal tables for the customers. They can also be inside an open-sided building or even an air conditioned building. They don't look at all like the food courts in American malls, yet that it sort of what they would aspire to look like if they had too much money -- and in fact in the modern malls of Asia, that is indeed what they look like, but with better food!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 9, 2010 5:53:20 GMT
Hmmm. You mean food can taste good even without road grit and diesel exhaust in it? I'll have to think on that.
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Post by curt on Apr 9, 2010 5:53:29 GMT
The stainless table top would set this apart from the average "food center". This is Aw Taw Kaw's (often spelled "Or Tor Kor"; gotta love Thinglish!) food court, an fairly get-down, local venue when it comes to dining spots. This is bamee from stall 12/5. Everything is fresh made, right down to the noodles! Yes, that's a wonton. You can have any number of ingredients added.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2010 7:00:10 GMT
Yes, the big difference is that food centres have running water and real stoves. "Street food" is often cooked/prepared directly on the street.
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Post by curt on Apr 9, 2010 8:12:46 GMT
Actually, there is running water at Aw Taw Kaw. It's just as accessable as any food centre. Surprisingly, even Auntie Lee, seen below, has running water, and the best gai yang I have ever tasted.... On the other hand, while waiting for my wife once, I was sitting across from a black granite, smoked glass windowed, Western styled eatery, watching the prep cooks doing their thing, literally on the street (alley). I wonder if concrete enhances the dish!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 9, 2010 18:45:36 GMT
Ahh - thanks to the miracle of simultaneous posting, I'm just now seeing your answers & great pictures, Curt ~ thanks! Every fiber of my food-appreciating body yearns to be where those photos were taken.
I always get a laugh out of people who won't eat street food. At least you can see how it's being treated. What goes on behind the scenes in "nice" restaurants can be really shocking.
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Post by gertie on Apr 22, 2010 23:46:19 GMT
Isn't that the truth, Bixa? I used to work at a company that sold to restaurants and quick stops in our area. We had salesmen that would stop by the kitchens during early prep and they sure had some stories to tell. If a restaurant wholesale salesman will eat in a restaurant, you know the kitchen is clean.
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Post by hwinpp on Apr 23, 2010 8:28:37 GMT
Not strictly speaking 'street food', just a breakfast I had in a small restaurant on the way to the airport. Yellow noodles with wonton, the rest of the stuff, the slices of fried fish balls, liver and the extra bean sprouts came because I ordered it 'special'. I'm in a bit of a quandary. Could only upload 7 pics from my recent pics and will have to wait until 1st May to upload the rest from my Oz trip. Start now or start when I've uploaded all?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2010 11:11:32 GMT
Who knows what the future holds?
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Post by curt on Apr 23, 2010 12:09:07 GMT
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Post by spindrift on Apr 23, 2010 20:54:59 GMT
Curt! I don't think much of that magic ball. I asked it whether it would rain tomorrow and it told me 'Absolutely'....does it tell everyone 'Absolutely'? ;D
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Post by gertie on Apr 23, 2010 22:23:15 GMT
No, because it just told me "Ask Again Later"
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Post by james on Oct 23, 2010 8:44:45 GMT
I loved the street food....i normally went to one that had some people. I went to one small restaurant that served amazing food and cheap as well.
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