Bangkok has something of a reputation for being overwhelming. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to be one of my favorite cities. To my surprise, it won me over almost immediately. It has green space, amazing culture, great food – what’s not to like. Over the few days Geoff and I spent there, I developed a theory on why Bangkok has such a reputation for being exhausting and over the top. It’s simple – I think it gets less experienced travelers than other megacities in SEA. It’s hard to imagine the person who thinks Bangkok is more overwhelming than HCMC or Kuala Lumpur, but it’s much likelier to attract the new travelers who aren’t prepared for 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity, let alone the scooters.
The food, though – oh, the food! It won’t all fit into one post, so I’ve divided it into the food we tasted on a food tour, and some things we found on our own. And even then, I’m leaving out an awful lot of wonderful meals.
P.S. I’m normally pretty conservative about taking pictures of other people – it’s not nice to do without asking permission! Our tour guide did a great job of telling us when it was okay to take pictures (really famous vendors who are used to tourists) and when it wasn’t (in an area with a lot of private homes).
This little lady is a magician with chive pancakes! Over decades of experience, she’s honed her technique until each one is perfectly chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside, and absolutely stuffed with chives. Dipped in a dark soy sauce, I couldn’t get enough of these.
A Bangkok street food classic is stewed pork leg served over rice with a hard boiled egg, some fresh herbs, and preserved mustard greens. We actually ate this for breakfast the day before, although we got it from a different stall! Since the food tour would have us taste 15 (!??!!??!) things, this wasn’t served as a whole plate, but rather just the pork by itself. While the shop did a great job, it just wasn’t the same without the balance of the meal as a whole.
Everyone loves satay! This was right down the street from where we were staying. It was absolutely delicious.
Interestingly, the peanut sauce is an addition from Indonesia. Fusion is the best!
This is from Jek Pui, a very famous curry stall. Chinese sausage is an interesting addition from the location in Chinatown, and that vegetable you see isn’t potato – it’s winter melon! Geoff made the interesting point that when you get lychees in American green curries, it might be an attempt to mimic this. It was really pleasant, with the richness of potato and the sweetness of fruit. Their fame is justified.
Soup! This was a sukiyaki, cook to your preference situation. The broth was delicious.
Crickets, silk worms, and bamboo worms! This tour had really clever staging – the insects came out after we had eaten several ‘easy’ crowd-pleasing courses, and we were offered a shot of Thai whiskey with them! I’ve eaten all three of these animals before, so it was fun acting like I was a real cool dude while others on the tour were squeamish. For the record, I don’t really like silk worms. They have an underlying musky taste that I find unpleasant. However, bamboo worms and crickets are great! The best bamboo worms I ever ate were in Chiang Mai, where a little restaurant had a preparation that made them almost like Cheetos, and the best crickets I ever at were in Mexico City around the corner from Frieda Kahlo’s house, neatly perched next to some first-class guacamole and chips.
This soft serve might look boring, but it’s soy sauce flavored with a dark soy topping! It was surprisingly good, like a salted caramel.
Pa tong go, or Chinese donuts. These were served with a delicious pandan sauce. They were good, but Geoff and I found another pa tong go shop we liked even better – more about that in the next post!
I left out an entire stop at a seafood restaurant, and there was mango and sticky rice to end the tour. After that, it was time to roll home! What an absolute blast.