Bangkok Part 3: Street Food

This third installment of my Bangkok, Thailand series will cover the best street foods I tasted while in the city. The street food scene in Thailand is vibrant, affordable and delicious. Like all Thai food, street food dishes combine a harmonious blend of sweet, spicy, sour, salty and bitter.

For purposes of this post, I divided the foods I tasted into either a generally savory or sweet category and then included a final section for those items that incorporated both elements in more or less equal parts. Let's get started.

Savory

Khao Tom Ba Teng

One of my favorite things about Thai cuisine is that savory breakfast items abound. Not having a preference for sweets in general and especially not for breakfast, I generally find American breakfast options lacking. If you aren't interested in some form of carbohydrates loaded with sugar (pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, french toast, muffins, donuts, cinnamon buns ... see what I mean?), you're more or less limited to eggs.

That is not the case in Thailand. For example, one of my favorite breakfasts, that can be found in street food shops, was khao tom ba teng, pictured above. "Khao tom" means boiled rice, which made me think of rice porridge, but this dish is less porridge and more soup.

Khao tom ba teng incorporates rice, but in addition, there are ample amounts of protein including shrimp, egg and stewed pork. The small cubes of pork are called "ba teng." They are stir fried in soy sauce and pepper and impart the deep sweet and salty flavor this soup is known for. This dish is comforting, filling and tasty.

And if you are still craving sugar after that breakfast, you won't be disappointed (well, unless it's refined, processed sugar you're after). My khao tom ba teng, came with a side of fresh, vine ripened fruit including papaya, watermelon, pineapple and dragonfruit.

Khao Pad

Another great breakfast experience I had at a street food stall was this dish of khao pad or fried rice. The rice featured plenty of chicken and some veggies. A squeeze of lime and a few birds eye chilis accentuated all the flavors.

Like my other breakfast, it too came with fresh, sliced fruit.

I mainly enjoyed street food breakfasts near my hotel in Khlong San. Most of my other street food adventures took place in Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown, which I learned is the largest Chinatown in the world, by most accounts.

This place is a maze of street food vendors, stores, cars and people.

Fried Insects

There were several street food vendors that sold many types of insects, as these are a popular, protein-rich snack in Thailand. I tried those that were most popular - grasshoppers, crickets, silk worms and bamboo worms. Though somewhat different in variety, they tasted very similar to the insects I sampled in Mexico City, where they are also popular snacks.

Mr. Joe Crispy Pork

Another type of street food that I found popular in Bangkok was soup in many different varieties. I mentioned khao tom ba teng above. There are also two additional soups that I particularly enjoyed and two places I recommend trying them. First, is the Michelin-rated street food stall, Mr. Joe Crispy Pork.

Guay Jab

Mr. Joe's is known for its guay jab, or rolled rice noodle soup. In addition to the rolled rice noodles for which it is named, it features incredibly crispy pork and often offal. The broth is peppery and flavorful and the pork is rich and tender. Be sure to eat the soup as soon as it is served, when the pork belly is at its crispiest and serves as a great textural contrast to the soft and springy noodles.

Jao Nai Fish Ball

The second place I recommend for soup is also Michelin recommended. It is called Jao Nai Fish Ball.

Fish Ball Noodle Soup

The most popular item on the menu are the fish balls and the most popular way to enjoy them is in the fish ball noodle soup, which features fish balls and noodles, as the name indicates.

Fish Ball Noodle Soup

There are also wontons and fish cakes included with the savory broth, which is garnished with fresh green onions and served piping hot.

Miang Pla Ka Pong

If you're not into the piping hot concept, I really don't blame you. As I mentioned in my previous post, Bangkok is one of the hottest cities in the world, so I would understand if you gravitate towards foods that are cold or at least room temperature.

If that sounds good to you, might I interest you in some miang pla ka pong? This was one of my favorite dishes in Thailand and I had not tasted it anywhere prior to my visit. Miang pla ka pong is deep fried sea bass, but the dish is not limited to that one ingredient.

Miang Pla Ka Pong

Miang pla ka pong is served with a sweet and savory sauce. The fish, covered in the sauce, is placed inside a betelnut leaf. To that is added, some lemongrass, onions, chilis, hearts of palm, shredded coconut, peanuts and a squeeze of lime. You wrap the betelnut leaf around all these ingredients and pop it in your mouth. In one bite, you experience a burst of balanced flavors - sweet, sour, salty, spicy.

Sate Gai

Another dish I found everywhere is satay, or sate as it is known in Thai. What makes this satay special is the marinade, which includes that home squeezed coconut milk that I referenced in my last post. That, the lemongrass and other spices, makes this meat on a skewer irresistible. So irresistible, that I even opted for the chicken (a meat that is usually last on my list because I generally find it lacking flavor). This sate gai was delectable.

Sweet

From savory, I moved to sweet, a flavor that for me is less desirable than spicy and savory. Nevertheless, Thai cuisine's balanced sweetness may have made me a convert. I gravitated first toward the most popular dessert, mango with sticky rice, not for its popularity, but for its aforementioned balance. The tart and sweet mango is balanced with the creaminess of the rice and the saltiness of the coconut milk topping.

Before I get to all that though, I had to appreciate the skill with which the street vendors prepared the dessert. First, look at (in the video above) how efficiently they cut the nearly 1,000 mangos they serve in a night.

Once they are done preparing the perfectly ripe mango, they add a scoop of sticky rice, drizzle it with coconut sauce and serve up this pleasing combination.

Kanom Krok

If you haven't noticed between this and the last post, coconut plays a large part in Thai cuisine, both savory and sweet. On the sweet side, I sampled another popular street food snack, kanom krok.

Kanom krok has a unique texture, as it has a crispy, caramelized exterior with a soft and creamy center. It is made from a batter of rice flour, sugar and coconut milk. The kanom krok is cooked in a special, heavy, cast-iron pan with small, round indentations, similar to a Dutch aebleskiver.

Here is another version sprinkled with toasted coconut.

Pomelo

If this level of sweetness is still too much or you are health conscious, might I suggest trying any of the fresh fruit offered at food stalls? In Thailand, as in most of Asia, this option is, in my opinion, superior or equal to prepared desserts. Take for example this pomelo, which was a perfect balance of sour and sweet.

Jackfruit

Or jackfruit, which I grew up eating. That said, I was accustomed to unripened jackfruit prepared in a savory curry. Ripened jackfruit? Now, this was new to me and exceptionally delicious.

Kanom Pang Sang Ka Ya Bai Toey

All that said, one prepared dessert that definitely captured my attention was the kanom pang sang ka ya bai toey or pandan custard bread which has just a hint of sweetness. The dessert features a soft, steamed, white bread that has been cut into cubes. Once prepared, you dip it into a pandan, coconut custard. The bread is light and the custard is creamy and smooth.

Pa Tong Go

Similar to the kanom pang sang ka ya bai toey, is the pa tong. Pa tong also includes bread and pandan. This time however, the bread is cut into small rectangles with expertise and then deep fried.

Once cooked, these crispy, airy, fried, dough sticks are ready for dipping in the pandan pudding and popping in your mouth.

A Little Sweet and A Little Savory

Khao Kriab Pak Mor

We have now arrived at the section in this post that makes me admire Thai cuisine most -- balance. These street food snacks balance sweet and savory with elegance. Khao kriab pak mor is a perfect example. These delicate, steamed, rice-skin dumplings balance savory and sweet with a filling of minced pork, peanuts, sweet radish, and herbs, wrapped in a sweet, translucent, rice flour wrapper. The version I tried was served with a fried garlic and chili topping for some added complexity.

I'll end this post with an ode to the pancake, a dish I criticized at the beginning of the post. Lest you think me contradictory, this ending is all about redemption via khanom buang. Khanom buang is a traditional, Thai dessert that is often referred to as a Thai pancake. It departs from a traditional pancake in that it is small, crispy and often folded in half like a mini taco.

It typically features a filling of coconut cream in the sweet version, and salted shrimp with pepper and parsley on the savory side.

Thai Pancake

Other iterations roll the slightly salty pancake after it is filled with pandan or other types of sweet custard. I liked all of the versions I tried.

Whether you opt to take a formal, street food tour or wander through the stalls and discover on your own, I very much recommend reserving a few of your meals in Thailand for the delicious options offered at street stalls. Next, I will share some of my formal and upscale dining experiences in Bangkok.