Bangkok, Thailand: A Food Paradise
There is little debate that Bangkok, Thailand is one of the great culinary destinations of the world. And for street food it is simply unmatched. If you disagree, you would of course be wrong. The complexity and freshness of ingredients, the proximity to the sea, the ridiculously high quality vs price ratio, the thrilling explosions of flavor and spice, all combine to make Bangkok the ultimate Asian eating city. Gastronomically, there really is no city quite like it.
Walking out of one’s hotel first thing in the morning to Yaowarat Road, the main artery of Bangkok’s Chinatown, one of the oldest and grandest in the world, is a sensory eruption. The fragrance alone–of grilling meat, fish sauce-doused stir-fries, perpetually simmering soups, and fresh squeezed makrut lime–is just incredible. So when Thailand decided to reopen to tourism recently, there was minimal hesitation on my part; I immediately booked a flight to Bangkok, a city I had desperately longed to spend time in while dreaming of street food during the pandemic.
The eight-day itinerary was straightforward: to eat and eat well. No meal would be a disappointment, each eatery meticulously and strategically researched and selected; the margin for error miniscule. Here are some of the best places I ate on that memorable, gustatory journey.
Som Tam Jay So
You may already have a preconceived idea of what the typical Thai hole-in-the-wall eatery is like. Well, this place ticks all the boxes: run down open air interiors, red plastic monobloc seating, ubiquitous images of the Thai monarchy, and a makeshift grill that is constantly overcrowded with all manner of delicious things. Som Tom Jay So is all that, and happens to specialize in Isaan food, or food from Northeastern Thailand, along the Laotian border.
No, you won’t find any pad thai here (a dish atypical of the everyday Thai diet, but far more common among the visiting farang, aka foreigner.) The three best dishes I had here were: the grilled chicken wings, which were sizeable, tender and perfectly charred; the som tam (green papaya salad, maybe the most popular Isaan dish) which was jam packed with tangy flavor, pungent fermented soft shell crab, and scorching chiles so fiery that the staff would cackle hysterically as they enjoyed my frantic pleas for relief (water), my forehead dampened with sweat. And last but certainly not the least, larb moo, which is a minced pork salad mixed with raw shallots, fish sauce, lime, toasted rice powder, and culantro. Larb is everything you want in a Thai dish: sweet, sour, spicy, exhilarating. Sticky rice is mandatory. The combination of these dizzying flavors induces a Zen-like, almost hallucinogenic, state. At least in me.
Polo Chicken
I was mildly hung over and therefore ravenous when I visited this spot for lunch–one of the finest decisions I had made in at least a year, maybe two. Polo Chicken is a popular joint, and since my last visit, they upgraded to indoor, air-conditioned dining. Given that the Thai heat is as intense as its chilies, I had no qualms with the new setup. Polo Chicken is known for its fried chicken, which is lightly battered, deep fried and spectacularly crispy and moist. It is smothered in a mountain of fried garlic shallots–transforming the already golden brown bird into a veritable work of art.
Don’t limit yourself to the chicken; their menu is extensive. Some of the other gems I ate included sai oua (herbal Chiang Mai pork sausage), and deep-fried sea bass served with an astonishing seafood sauce. It is ridiculously flavorful and is the textbook definition of umami. It might be the world’s greatest dipping sauce for seafood. Here too, sticky rice is mandatory.
Yaowarat Road
Yaowarat Road in the evenings is quite a scene, picturesque in a highly chaotic and urban kind of way. After 6 pm, the street hawkers come out in force. To the indecisive, this may not be your ideal venue, as the sheer abundance of choice tends to overwhelm. Along the road, vendors sling everything from boat noodles to Chinese charcuterie, to durian, to grilled langoustines and more. I settled at one of the few sidewalk stalls with a manageable queue and enjoyed a fairly basic albeit deeply satisfying plate of moo krob krapao (crispy pork holy basil stir fry), which comes with a crispy-edged, robustly orange yolk fried duck egg over rice. I did not regret this decision.
Iconsiam Food Court
Coming from mall-infested Manila, I would normally consider it counterproductive and unadventurous to end up in another mall in Bangkok. But Iconsiam is not just any mall. It is an ultramodern otherworldly spectacle; a genuine achievement in engineering and design; a shiny, towering oasis amidst the rustic but frenetic Southeast Asian maelstrom just a few meters outside. Basically, Iconsiam is the future, the type of Jetsons future you may have envisioned as a child, minus the airborne cars.
For me, the crown jewel of this glorious venue is undoubtedly the food court. And it is in fact the Rolls Royce of food courts. To put things into perspective, there is a floating market in it, with an actual river running through. Every regional Thai dish of every regional Thai cuisine is represented, and at a high level. It is a vast and electrifying place; a culinary wonderland. If you have limited time in Bangkok and want a decent overview of Thai cooking, put this place on your shortlist. I thoroughly enjoyed a formidable plate of panang curry over rice for the princely sum of 50 baht ($1.35); followed by an intensely aromatic bowl of boat noodles with offal, and a sluggish afternoon walk.
Nhom Rim Klong
Perhaps you’ve heard of Jay Fai, the now famous, Michelin-star awarded, scuba-goggled chef and her legendary crab omelette. She’s been featured on Netflix originals and innumerable YouTube travel vlogs, so these days to get a booking, you need to email them months in advance. Try walking in and you will be met by a snake-like tourist-laden queue with a runtime comparable to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Like any self-respecting capitalist, Jay Fai has also jacked up prices exponentially, or so locals tell me. Is it worth the hype? Probably. But in Nhom Rim Klong, a short cab ride away, there is no waiting time. There is, however, a crab omelette just as delectable and satisfying as Jay Fai’s version. It’s not cheap either, at least by Bangkok standards where spare change can feed a hungry family of four. But with the amount of fresh crab you’re getting (a lot), the cost is wholly justified. Also, get the salted egg squid, and the amazing crab fried rice. Because in the (practically) seaside metropolis that is Bangkok, crab is king.
