Part 1 : Street Food Vendors and Hawkers

Aahaan wang is loosely defined as food consumed ‘outside the meal' or snacks; it can also refer to junk food. Food vendors are known in Thai as ‘ mae kha ' or ‘ phaw kha ,' which roughly translate as ‘mother trader' or ‘father trader.' Aahaan pak soi is food sold at the entrance of an alley ( trok ) or small street ( soi ), and includes street hawkers who set up to provide for the residents of the area or for customers who work near the area.

Thai street food is an essential element of Thai culture and society. Thai street food vendors are a vital component of the Thai culinary scene and provide a valuable service to diners in Thailand , suffering razor-thin profit margins and long hours of labor in order to scratch out what can be a meager living. Minimal overhead and shabby surroundings don't shake the faith of Thailand 's well-heeled; ambience is of little concern when the food is rumored to be superior. The typical customer base is an amazing cross-section of Thai society, from the down-and-out day laborer to the hi-so (high society) bahtionaires, from the subsistence diner to the culinary devotee.

Thai street food is characterized by rapid preparation methods (although some of the traditional desserts can be quite time consuming to initially prepare), and includes a wide variety of categories. Drinks, snacks, such as sliced fruits or sweets, are common, as are noodle dishes, soups, and main dishes. Usually each vendor concentrates on one of these categories of food and limits their repertoire to one or two dishes or items. Street food hawkers often devote their entire culinary career to the preparation of a single dish, prepared by them thousands of times a year, for decades.

If multiple dishes are offered, it is generally because they share very similar ingredients and production methods, and with just the addition of a few key components, the extra dish can also be produced with little additional effort. For example, vendors who cook laad nah will often also make pad see ew ; both are stir-fried noodle dishes with similar ingredients. A vendor who grills gai yang Northern-style chicken will often also grill sai ua Northern-style pork sausages, and chances are, there will be a som tam spicy papaya salad maker nearby, since the dishes compliment each other.

History and Culture:

Street vendors and hawkers developed out of the Thai market system. Historically Thais grew, caught, and processed their own food as individuals or as collective villages, and cooked all of their meals at home; restaurants as a dining concept are a relatively new phenomena in Thailand 's history. Meals eaten away from the house were traditionally packed-up for transporting to be consumed later, often using a stackable metal lunchbox (called a pinto ; similar to the Indian tiffin box or dabba ). Certain towns and cities were situated along major interregional trade routes, visited regularly by foreign traders seeking markets for their export goods, and in turn, sought the opportunity to purchase or barter for goods that the Thais produced. These traders required sustenance along the route, so food vendors within these interregional trading markets seized the opportunity to provide cooked food.

Over time, Thai society developed more urban living patterns, due to concentration of commerce and jobs, and that urban growth squeezed-out the existing farm plots within the borders of the cities. The market system slowly developed, from cooperative trading of labor for product and bartering for product, to full scale commercial markets. These talaat , or markets, were situated first in areas considered transportation hubs, both at waterway hubs and roadway links, where producers could convene on market days to sell and exchange goods. As cities grew, the markets developed in areas of concentrated housing, where there was no longer room to farm or graze animals, and then radiated out from the city center into the outlying areas.

Traditionally every neighborhood had a local market which served the needs of the immediate populace. Goods were transported on boats and barges from central markets to the smaller outlying satellite markets, using the vast network of rivers and khlongs (canals). As roads developed, beginning during the reign of King Rama IV (1851-1868), goods were transported by water buffalo cart, rickshaw ( samlor ), hand cart ( roht laak ), or suspended in rattan baskets from poles slung over the shoulder ( hab rhae ).

Urbanization and the importation of foreign workers, primarily from China , and the long hours that were logged by those workers created a labor force that required a source for quickly-served, inexpensive meals. These food vendors providing that fare were at first centered in the markets, since these were the places with concentrations of customers and a readily-accessible supply of food products to be prepared. Over time the vendors migrated to outlying transportation hubs, and eventually to any site that had high amounts of foot traffic.

Originally the vendors were segregated, with male Chinese vendors selling Chinese dishes in certain areas, and Thai female vendors selling only Thai dishes in other areas. Thai males were involved in the military, government transcription, or rice production, which paid much better than urban commerce. It was easier for a Chinese vendor to advance economically and embrace capitalism than it was for Thai vendors since they were driven by the fact that they were outsiders trying to make it in a new country. In fact, this upward mobility of Chinese vendors served to help induce more Thais into the street vending business. After WW I, the collapse of world rice prices caused a big influx of rural workers into urban areas looking for better-paying jobs, especially rural women who could produce food on a shoestring budget with very little initial cash outlay. Street vending also offered these women a flexible schedule which allowed them to take care of family responsibilities and child-rearing.

Contributing to the dynamic growth of the street food vending scene in Thailand is the fact that Thais traditionally eat 4 to 5 meals a day, and snack constantly. For the culinary desires of the masses to be fulfilled, there had to be ready access to quickly-prepared foods; especially items that were inexpensive, and items which could be marketed and consumed on-the-go.

Today, Thailand has one of the most vibrant street food scenes in the world, and the general perception is that Thai street food can be some of the more delicious food available in the country. Depending on the source, it's estimated that Bangkok alone has between 25,000 and 43,000 street food vendors, crammed into every available nook and cranny, open spot of urban land, or unoccupied place along any sidewalk (the numbers vary so wildly because street vendors who sell in neighborhoods and alleys are not included in official statistics). It's hard to travel for any distance in Bangkok , or any other city in Thailand , and not be tempted by the sight or aroma of exciting street cuisine.

Local governments have continually tried to mandate and control the vendors, in order to clear blocked transportation arteries, to reopen clogged sidewalks, to limit any attraction for insects and vermin, to keep trash disposal from clogging sewers, to eliminate the opportunity for graft and corruption by crooked officials, to try to enforce sanitary and food handling guidelines, and try to collect taxes from what is a strictly a cash economy. The clutter of street food vendors violates the Thai sense of orderliness and impedes transportation, which can be a challenge in any Thai city.

But enforcement is a double–edged sword. Street food vending provides a large segment of the poor, especially new arrivals to the cities, with the most readily-accessible means of earning an honest living while staying off of the public dole, and helps to provide a solution to the high cost of living during recession. Vending also serves to equalize the roles of men and women in the workforce; customers don't care if their food is made by a man or a woman if the prices and quality are comparable. Cash can be quickly earned, to be reinvested in product for the following day, and any food not sold can be consumed by the vendor's family.

The lack of zoning laws enables the Thai vendor to set up shop wherever he or she wants (within reason, of course), while mobility allows the vendors to cover relatively large areas of a neighborhood during the course of their selling period. Few careers can be started with as little initial cash outlay as street vending, and everyone knows of at least one street food vender who became so popular that they were able to open a legitimate restaurant (or restaurant chain), or strike it rich by becoming well-known for what they cook.

Devout Thai foodophiles passionately argue the relative merits of their favorite street food vendors and brag about new discoveries. Newspaper columns and online blogs and forums are devoted to revealing the best food hawkers around town, and sing praises of older traditional dishes that are getting harder and harder to find in legitimate restaurants. There are countless examples of certain street food families exquisitely preparing a single dish for three, four, and even five generations. Thailand 's street food vendors have made the country a veritable food lover's paradise, and even with the growing popularity of the modern Western processed fast food chains, especially among the young, the Thai populace will never give up their cherished street food.

The growth of the Thai economy and expendable personal wealth, the time demands of the modern work experience, the preparation speed and low cost of a delicious dish, the inherent national need to snack almost constantly, the public's insistence on fresh food, the demand for the older traditional dishes which restaurants refuse to prepare, and the government's need to allow the poor to provide for themselves all guarantee the Thai street food hawker a long and prosperous life as a cultural icon of Thai culinary society.

Part 2: Mobile Food Vending

With mobile food vending, the hawker peddles food by moving from location to location, usually along an established route, and often in places relatively close to where they live, especially if the vendor is on foot. Mobile vendors have a greater tendency to be from the provinces, and usually work as an independent unit, with little help once they are out in the public. Generally they sell foods that can be eaten out of hand. Mobile vendors are less reliant on location and are more accessible to the customer, but their very mobility limits the amount of food they can carry, due to the weight of the goods to be sold. Included in this mobile group is the semi-static vendor, who will remain stationary for long periods of time, but will ultimately move their mobile stall on down the road at the end of the serving period.

Mobile vendors employ a wide array of locomotion. Starting with the most basic, that is, product suspended from a bamboo or wooden pole balanced across the top of the shoulders ( hab rhae ). Beach food vendors often employ this technique, but they can also be spotted all over Thailand , particularly once you leave the cities. You'll see them with perhaps a charcoal brazier on one side, and an ice chest filled with skewers of raw marinated pork on the other side. They stop and in a couple of minutes, freshly grilled pork satay is grilled and ready to be served. They can be carrying cooking apparatus, food or drink-filled ice chests, or product-filled woven baskets.

The next step up in the hierarchy is the hand cart ( rot khen ). This is a metal box with an axle underneath and large bicycle-type wheels on each side, with two handles which are pushed or pulled by the vendor. The box can hold a myriad of food preparation equipment, from manual rotary ice cream freezers to boiling pots of stock for soup noodles. It's limited only by the amount of weight that can physically be moved by the vendor. When this cart is attached to the side or front of a bicycle, so that it is moved by peddling instead of walking or pushing, it is called a samlor . With either method, picture a rickshaw carrying a portable kitchen or prepared food instead of passengers.

Affix a motorcycle ( mototcy ) with a third wheel supporting a portable kitchen of some sort off to the side and you have the next step up in the mobile hierarchy. Many times there will also be an umbrella attached for shade. Motorcycle-powered vendors can cover a large range of distance, and the space on the side can be adapted to cook or serve just about any type of food, whether it's grilled, steamed, boiled, or stir-fried. A three-wheeled motorcycle, or tuk tuk , is employed for food vending more in the provinces than in large urban areas, but they too can be converted to a culinary vending use. Any of these above styles can be shuttled home when the selling day is complete, or they can be shuttered up with canvas covers and left nearby until the next day's commerce.

Small pickup trucks are commonly used for food vending, but are often utilized to re-stock vendors along an established route, to ferry in supplies, or they are employed for picking up hand carts at the end of shifts to be taken to a central spot for overnight storage. Some creative vendors set up whole kitchens in the back of pickup trucks, and older restored VW vans have been converted into trendy street-side cocktail bars.

On waterways, mobile vendors utilize anything that will float in a stable fashion to market their food products. Most common is a Cajun piroux-like flat-bottomed boat called a reuua , seen at floating markets all over Thailand , especially in the Central region. This is the boat that gave the dish ‘boat noodles' ( kwaytiao reuua ) it's name. The dish is made onboard, from a rich, dark, intense stock drawn from a simmering cauldron heated by coals or propane; the preparation takes less than a minute per bowl.

Boat noodle soups are not the exclusive fare of these craft, and pretty much any dish can be cooked or prepared on the waterways. A canoe, dinghy, or rowboat ( reuua boht ) can also be used by food hawkers on the water. A raft or houseboat ( phaae ) is normally anchored to the bank in a more fixed, or permanent location; raft restaurants and bars found along the banks of any body of water are a good example. The banks of the River Kwai around the town of Kanchanaburi are lined with raft-borne vendors, bars, and small restaurants. And now that many of the Bangkok canals have been filled-in and replaced with pavement, it's not uncommon to see fixed vendors selling from the inside of a landlocked reuua mounted on legs. There is no limit to the creativity that a mobile food vendor will employ to get his product out to the masses for consumption.

The roving vendor normally employs a distinctive audible announcement of his or her approach, whether it's a ringing bell or a horn, the ‘tok-tok' of two pieces of bamboo struck together, a distinguishing yell or song, or a pre-recorded message or vendor's song blasting from a boom box. Those in the soi (small street) neighborhood instantly recognize which vendor is approaching by the sound that he or she makes, just like the recorded song of the roving ice cream truck in America , or the tinkling bells of the paleta fruit popsickle vendors in Mexico . The bell of the daily khanom khrok (coconut custard cake) vendor outside our favorite small soi (lane) soup noodle shophouse is enough to prompt immediate salivation and a rush for the door to buy several dozen of the exquisite gems from the roving cart vendor.

Part 3: Fixed Vendors:

Fixed vendors are permanently located, tend to be more stable, and do a higher volume of sales than mobile vendors, since they can store more inventory to be sold, and more space provides the opportunity to have a larger kitchen and a larger menu. They are generally in more advantageous spots, with higher foot traffic. Fixed vendors are more likely to be urbanites, rather than rural, and quite often have a family-run operation, occasionally handing the business down from generation-to-generation. Many began their history as mobile vendors who developed such popularity that they were able to establish permanent roots in one spot, or even develop their single restaurant into a chain.

As for locations, there is a broad range in which a fixed food vendor can set up shop, including wet food markets, sidewalk or roadway stalls, the ground floor of shophouses, around the perimeter of an existing restaurant, in food courts within shopping centers or malls, food vendor bazaars established in busy areas, or located on the water, either on a raft, a pier, or on a restored rice barge.

In food markets food vendors will rent or lease a stall or a bay (or multiple stalls or bays). Usually the hawkers will either be around the perimeter of a market, or in the very center. If in the center, there will often be multiple vendors along the outside of a common central seating area, sharing tables and chairs, with cleanup and janitorial services communally hired by all of the prepared food vendors.

Sidewalk stalls tend to be compact and self-contained and will commonly infringe on the sidewalk proper, partially blocking pedestrian traffic. Just trying to walk along some sidewalks can be maddening, especially in the older parts of cities. It isn't unusual to see isolated food vendors along remote stretches of highway in the countryside, illuminated at night by a string of fluorescent light bulbs, but more often vendors will group together to take advantage of the crowds generated by more food choices.

A shophouse ( hawng thaew ) is a multi-story structure with a ground floor area open to the street on one side. Food vendors, especially soup noodle vendors, set up shop in this semi-enclosed area and might live upstairs, or the owner of the shophouse can rent out the ground floor to a vendor for food commerce. What distinguishes these spots from legitimate ‘restaurants' is that they normally specialize in one or two dishes, and have a very limited menu.

It is not uncommon to see a food vendor that works in partnership with a full scale restaurant. For example, in Ban Phae, a fishing town on the Southeast coast, there is an amazing and very popular fish noodle restaurant called ‘Old Granny Jim's Noodle Restaurant'. Along the exterior are several semi-permanent food vendors that operate in symbiosis with Old Granny Jim's. One man grills ears of fresh corn, topped with coconut cream, shredded coconut, and powdered chile. Another makes pork satay , while yet another makes sweet sesame crepes. Our favorite seafood restaurant in Chonburi has a vendor that makes wonderful Issan som tam papaya salads. Generally these vendors pay a lease or a percentage of sales to the restaurant for the privilege of ‘borrowing' the restaurant's clientele, and will produce foods that are not available on the restaurant's menu.

Food courts within shopping centers are very popular spots for a meal. Food courts are made up of many food vendors, all offering different options, and generally the quality is high. One buys coupons at a central kiosk to be redeemed at each vendor's stall, and unused tickets can be sold back for a cash refund. There is a central seating area maintained by the collective food court.

Food vendor bazaars function much the same way as food courts. They are situated wherever there are throngs of office workers, students, crowds of people, or along main transportation routes, and are composed of a very informal collection of food vendors with a central dining area. These are much looser in organization than foodcourts, and can be located on public or private land, legally or illegally. It's very common to find a vendor bazaar thriving between the support columns of a freeway overpass, overtaking the area surrounding a neighborhood bus depot, swallowing up an alley adjacent to a large office building or school, or flourishing in the shadow of a tenement apartment block. The only requirement is that it be accessible to lots of hungry patrons.

A relatively new concept under use by local governments to get the street vendors off of the sidewalks is to take a piece of unused land close to an existing vending area, make improvements, such as paving, restrooms, water service, and lighting, and force the street vendors to move to this new collective area, providing food much like a food court. Some have food coupon kiosks, and some allow the vendors to sell independently. Enterprising investors have done the same thing with private plots of property, and a similar system is also being employed as a restaurant concept: a nice area is prepared, much like a reconstructed street scene or garden scene, with a central seating area, restrooms, and a band stage, surrounded by permanent food vending stalls. On the whole, it has proven to be successful, as long as the quality of the food remains high.

Raft or houseboat ( phae ), or pier food vendors on waterways or lakes can be quite common; almost as common as those along any stretch of sandy beach. The water provides a cooling breeze in the tropical heat and the sound of the water can be very calming. After all, waterways, lakes, and seaside beaches are all areas that are frequented by huge crowds, a requirement for the fixed food vendor, and Thai crowds will always eventually get hungry.

There is always a price to be paid by fixed vendors, unless they are set up in a shophouse which they independently own. Some vendors have to pay ‘unofficial fees' or bribes collected by corrupt local police to ensure their right to a hassle-free selling space. On the other hand, fixed vendors in the bazaar and the food court have higher fixed costs, since they have to pay the annual fee, daily fee, and monopoly fee (paid to prevent other vendors from selling the same food items in the market). Fixed vendors in Bangkok and other larger cities often have to pay a cleaning fee to provide for street sweeping, trash removal, sidewalk washing, etc. Private deals are struck with adjacent businesses along the sidewalk to allow the vendor to ‘borrow' electricity through jerry-rigged extension cords for night lighting. The Bangkok governor has also introduced a mobile dishwasher service for vendors in Chinatown .

Wherever street vendors are allowed to sell, they have to do so under inhospitable conditions: no basic services or facilities, harassment by local officials and competitors, or damage to their goods or stalls if fees ( suay ) are not paid. Vendors are periodically forcibly relocated or arrested, and their equipment and supplies confiscated. It's not an easy life, but it is a business that allows the food producer some degree of independence, low overhead, the choice to work when they want, and a chance to succeed.

Part 4: Classification:

There are various ways to classify Thai street food. One method deals with the type of meal and when it is normally consumed: breakfast, lunch, snack, supper, or late night. Johk , or congee rice soup, is popular for breakfast, but also craved to finish off a night of hard partying. Khao mun gai , or Hainanese chicken with rice is a lunch treat, but also popular late at night. Many types of dishes are only offered between certain times of the day; many fish ball noodle shophouse vendors close by 2pm , but find the right food vendor bazaar and you'll find pretty much anything at all hours.

Food can be categorized based on religious beliefs. Some vendors cater to Muslim diners, featuring Halal-prepared meats and no pork, generally utilizing dishes from the deep South. Some Indian vendors will have vegetarian dishes for the religious faithful, and during certain periods of the Buddhist calendar, the number of vegetarian offerings by street hawkers skyrockets (for example, the ninth lunar month for the Kin Jae vegetarian festival). Street foods can be based on the Chinese principals of yin/yang, or ‘hot foods' and ‘cold foods', used to balance the chi of the body. And then there are always dishes used as a form of self-medicated holistic medicine: Chinese herbal soup made with black-skinned chicken, for example, or some of the herbal forest food dishes found up North.

Perhaps the most popular categorization is based on the following distinctions: main or full meal dish, noodles (stir-fried, soup or ‘dry' noodles), soups, snacks, desserts (traditional, ice cream, fruit, baked products, sweet coconut milk and ice mixtures containing sweet beans or jellies), or beverages. There are variations within each category, determined by the regional area from which the cook originated or dishes particular to certain areas. Different cooking and seasoning methods, and the vast abundance and variety of the raw materials available can also provide variation from vendor to vendor. Even barely perceptible variations in a single dish can produce radical worshippers and detractors; the beauty of Thai street food is the endless differences from vendor to vendor, and the culinary bounty from which the customer has to choose.

Visual clues to What is Being Prepared:

For the uninitiated, there are definite visual clues to what is being prepared, which can be ascertained just by observing the vendor's cooking and serving area. Condiments can tell you a lot. With noodle dishes you will find khreuang puang : literally ‘circle of spices'. It's a reference to the standard condiments on the Thai table, especially where noodles are served: naam plaa (fish sauce), phrik pom (chile powder), phrik dong (chile slices in vinegar), and white sugar. Vendors of Chinese dishes will have soy sauce ( naam see-eu ), ground white pepper ( phrik tai khao pon ), salt ( gleua ), and a sambal-like stir-fried chile paste with garlic and a little vinegar, or stir-fried and ground chiles in peanut and/or sesame oil on their tables, as well as a healthy pile of chopsticks and Chinese-style soup spoons.

Utensils can also give you clues. Chopsticks are used for noodles, single bite items, and Chinese dishes. Fork and large spoon are used for main dish type offerings and rice based dishes. Soup spoons are for soups. Wooden skewers are offered for grilled items, one-bite items, or sliced fruit.

Equipment that you see at the vendor's stand can give you a number of clues. A glass cabinet is used by many different types of vendors. If you see chickens inside, it's for khao mun gai , or you might see red roast pork or roast duck for pork or duck noodles. Most fishballs and other noodle ingredients are kept in glass cases, so have noodles on the brain when you see one.

Charcoal braziers indicate live-fire grilling, and that can mean any number of poultry or meat dishes, especially skewers of satay , or sausages, or gai yang Issan-style chicken if there is a rotisserie involved. Another favorite is salt-crusted grilled fish, which is amazingly moist. You'll also see paper-thin grilled dried squid, or grilled dried pork, (both excellent), grilled bananas, and pretty much anything wrapped in a banana leaf or stuffed inside a section of bamboo.

Steamers indicate things such as Chinese dumplings or stuffed buns, sakoo (pork-stuffed tapioca balls), banana cakes or glutinous rice stuffed into assorted leaves, or pumpkin custard. Another couple of favorites are hor mok (seafood and coconut custard in banana leaf cup) and mussels in coconut custard, steamed in the halfshell.

When you see a round and flat skillet, look for noodle dishes such as pad thai , pad see ew , mussel and oyster omelets, auswan (scramble of oysters, tapioca, and egg), or mussels in batter. A wok is used for any number of stir-fried dishes, usually a la carte-type main courses, crab fried rice, or sautéed vegetables.

A vat of frying oil is indicative of tod man (curried fish cakes), curry puffs, spring rolls or wontons, pork or shrimp toasts, Chinese crullers, fried bananas in sesame batter, etc.

Large vats of brilliantly-colored cooked food usually indicate an assortment of different curries, usually in a mind-numbing selection. These are normally served in plastic bags, accompanied by rice. Other ready-cooked dishes can include fried rice with shrimp paste, fried crabs in curry sauce, mee krob crispy noodles, bananas in coconut syrup, and many more.

Soup warmers almost always mean soup noodles. You'll normally see a large divided vat, the main part containing stock, and a section or two for quickly heating noodles. This another category with almost endless variation.

A large wooden mortar and pestle usually indicates som tam Issan-style green papaya salads, or other types of salads.

Iced food is usually on the sweet side: coconut ice cream, fresh fruit slices or juices, lod chong ‘green strings', chestnuts in syrup, chao kuay black jelly, etc.

When you see a roller press, like on an old manual washing machine, expect grilled dried squid with chile sauce, or sugar cane juice.

Lastly, the ingredients on display can always give you a good idea of the dish being prepared. These are just a few of the incredible range of dishes offered by Thai food hawkers.

How to Pick the Best, and Rules to Eat Street:

Street food is everywhere in Thailand . Sometimes it can seem a bit scarce around the tourist hotels, however, a short stroll to the areas where the locals lurk in the residential streets or any business areas will reveal a myriad of street vendors and their cuisine. The best method is to ask locals where you might find the best versions of dishes that you seek. A lot of research can be done in advance on the web, accessing foodophile-related websites where discussions regarding street food hawkers in Thailand run rampant.

Barring asking or researching, the main thing to do is to look for vendors that are very busy. This tells you that the hawker's food is popular with the locals, and also insures a quick turnover of product. If there is a vendor doing little business in a busy area, it's usually for a reason. Any vendor that makes the locals sick will immediately be out of business. Look for cleanliness and neatness and ascertain if the food appears to be produced hygienically (remembering, of course, that you're in Southeast Asia and not in a stainless and tile fast-food joint in Middle America ). Rest easy knowing that food in Thailand is generally prepared hygienically and reverently, and freshness is paramount. Make sure you see the food cooked in front of you, or right after you ordered it, and eat it while it's still hot (or cold, if it's meant to be cold). Look for methods employed to keep flying insects off of the product, such as glass cases, inverted closely woven bowls ( fachee ), or screening. Look for ice made from tubes or cubes, rather than crushed. Tubes and cubes are generally considered safer. All ice in Thailand is safe, but occasionally block ice can be transported from supply truck to vendor by less then sanitary means.

US government sites will advise you to eat only hot food cooked in front of you or fruits that have been washed in sterilized water and peeled by you. That would certainly eliminate a huge percentage of the wonderful street foods of Thailand . Thais will tell you that they know a lot more about the street foods of Thailand than the US government does. Experienced travelers will tell you that Thailand has some of the best street food in the world, and that a healthy dose of common sense is usually a good measure when choosing what to eat on the street.

Eating in a Hawker Bazaar or Foodcourt:

Point to what you want and say nee , which means ‘this'. Soup is soop or nam . Soup noodles without broth is haeng , or ‘dry'. A serving made without noodles is kao lao . If you want a ‘special' (extra meat or a larger portion), ask for phi-set (an ordinary serving is called thummada ). If you want your food to-go, ask for sai tung (‘put in bag'). Plastic bags are used by many vendors for take-away dishes. They are cheap and take up little space. There is a trend in the cities of starting to use styrofoam boxes, but this is not the norm.

The common ritual is to wipe your utensils using tissue from the dispenser in the center of the table; in no way will it make your eating utensils any more sanitary than they were to begin with, but all Thais seem to do it to make themselves feel more comfortable. Chairs or small plastic stools can be communal, which should be readily apparent, or they can belong to a particular vendor, who won't appreciate your occupation if you do not order from him, so ask if you may sit down if it's in question. Rest easy, knowing that sharing of tables is very common, and it's a great way to meet people.

If you seem to get ignored by a vendor when ordering, be patient, smile, and repeat your order. Place your order and have a seat, unless they are not busy, in which case it will be made immediately. It is not unusual to place orders with several vendors, either all at once when you arrive, or piecemeal, as the mood hits you. Don't get bent if someone else gets their order before you; yours will be delivered in due time by the waiting boy or serving girl. Always pay in cash, using only change or small bills; getting change back for a big bill can take some time, and inconveniences the vendor. If you don't already know this, take every opportunity to hoard small bills, and break big bills every chance you get.

If you're in a vending area with tables, expect a glass of ice water to accompany the meal; if it's a cart vendor, never. In areas with seating there may be a khrua dek (‘kitchen child') come by to take or deliver your drink order; feel free to help yourself from the bottled drinks on the drink cart if there is one, and a bucket of ice and tongs will appear rapidly. The charge will be added when they tally up your bill.

The first time dining in a bazaar might seem a little daunting, but once you get the hang of it, you'll realize that it's an exciting dining experience which is an inexpensive path to some of the best food in Thailand , served quickly and eaten casually.