A Guide to Eating and Drinking in Bangkok
- Bangkok Information
- Eating & drinking in Bangkok
- Night life in Bangkok
- Getting around in Bangkok
- Things to do in Bangkok
- Where to stay in Bangkok
- Bangkok street map
There’s a common Thai saying that: ‘when there is happiness in the stomach there's happiness in the heart’. And never was a truer word spoken about Bangkok - it's a feast of a city, full of the sights, sounds and smells of food.
Basic Thai dishes usually consist of bamboo shoots, lemongrass, chili, garlic and coriander added to seafood and fish with spices, curry pastes, coconut milk and peanuts. Be warned, though: Thai food is a lot spicier in Thailand than in many other parts of the world!
Breakfast is generally made up of as many courses as you can fit in: ‘Yam som tam’ – a warm salad of shredded green mango, small sun-dried shrimps and roasted peanuts – makes a great start to the day.
Budget travelers should head to the city’s street stalls and night markets. A heaving mass of people, bright lights and delicious smells, it’s an essential experience and a full meal will cost next to nothing.
The most common dishes are soups of chicken, beef or fish with rice served up with a minimum of fuss. Noodles with chicken, duck, beef balls or pork can also be eaten for very little, whilst 'delicacies' like fried locusts are (luckily for the less adventurous backpacker) rather less common.
One of the heaviest concentrations of food stalls lies in Chinatown’s Thanon Yaowarat and Soi Phandungdao. Alternatively, the food stalls of the night markets in Khao San are a good place to go when eating on a budget.
And these noodle bars and soup kitchens of the back streets make Bangkok the perfect place to sample Thai food on the cheap; after all, there aren’t many places in the world where you can get a full meal for the price of a can of coke elsewhere!