Bangkok Food
A common Thai saying is "when there is happiness in the stomach there is happiness in the heart" and this is certainly true of Bangkok.
As with many large cities, Bangkok plays host to a variety of high-quality restaurants and bars. There of course a number of Thai restaurants representing all the regional variations of Thai cuisine, as well as popular world foods such as Italian, Indian, Japanese and Chinese.
Be prepared to take your time over a meal as the Thais tend to take eating very seriously and many leave between two and three hours for lunch. Most restaurants throughout Bangkok offer lunch from midday until around 2pm, with many closing at around 6pm or 7pm before reopening for dinner.
Basic Thai ingredients usually consist of fresh fruit and vegetables, which include lime, asparagus, spinach, bamboo shoots, basil, lemongrass, mint, chilli, garlic and coriander. Shellfish is also a popular ingredient in Thai dishes. Thai cooking is highly spiced and uses curry pastes, coconut milk and peanuts.
Be warned, Thai food is a lot spicier than is usually tolerated in Western society and visitors are advised to warn waiters and waitresses in restaurants that they are foreigners and not to add too much spice.
Thailand in general and the capital city in particular offers some of the greatest bargains in the world when it comes to food and drink. The only exception is their beer, where restaurants tend to charge a high mark-up and in some restaurants, a small bottle of beer can cost more than the meal itself!
Breakfast usually consists of as many courses as you can fit in and yam som tam soup – a hot and sour salad of shredded green mango, small sun-dried shrimps and toasted peanuts – is not to be passed up. The Thai are also partial to the odd cooked breakfast, which traditionally consists of barbecued pork, either as a smoky soup or with a choice of noodles.
Street kitchens in Bangkok are renowned among travellers and for between 15 to 40 Baht (22p to 60p) you can get a full meal at a street kitchen. The kitchens are surprisingly not just frequented by backpackers and students. Visitors can often watch as a limousine drops off extremely wealthy guests.
The most common dishes to be served at street kitchens seem to be soups, which traditionally consist of chicken, beef or fish with rice. Noodles with chicken, duck, beef balls or pork are also a delicacy. Less commonly served but still available at a number of street kitchens are fried locusts.
Dinner is the main meal of the day in Thailand and usually consists of a soup, grilled or curried dish and steamed vegetables. Most main dishes are served with a side helping of rice, noodles or a salad. The Thais traditionally order four of five dishes in order to balance the sweet, salty, bitter and piquant flavours of the food.
Thai menus traditionally do not offer much in the way of elaborate desserts but what is on offer tends to be coconut milk-based or a selection of fruit-flavoured custards. Fresh fruit is usually served to refresh the palate and pineapple, mangoes, bananas, guava, papaya and coconut are just a selection of the exotic treats to choose from. Some more unusual fruits that may take some getting used to with a western palate include durian, magosteen, jackfruit, longan, tarnarind, rambutan and pornelo.
Bangkok has an active drinking culture and beer and spirits are widely available in bars and restaurants, as well as supermarkets and smaller shops. Beer is sold relatively cheaply and wine is slightly more expensive due to the high import duties imposed on it. Mekong and Sang Tip are two of the most popular local whiskeys, which can be bought extremely cheaply and mixed with cola or soda water. Soft drinks are also readily available.
From the soup kitchens in the back streets of Bangkok to the trendier jaunts in the heart of the city, Bangkok caters for every palate. It is also the perfect place to eat if you are on a budget. There are not many places left where you can get a full meal for under 50p!
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Eating and Drinking
