18 February 2009

Bangkok Floating Market Food



The influx of Chinese migrants brought a range of new dishes to the Thai market stalls; and most snacks and street food are still of Chinese origin - only a few, like green papaya salad are truely Thai. Hawkers soon left the market place and sought their customers elsewhere: on the canals, in the streets, in boats; with bamboo poles slung over their shoulders, and later wheeling their wares on carts.
David Thompson, Thai Food










The resourcefulness of food hawkers never ceases to amaze me, and this time it's the ingenuity of these mobile kitchens. Here Thai vendors manage to braise, brew, grill and deep fry in shallow longtail boats - the likes of which the average tourist has struggles to clamber into for their organised tours of the floating market. And the food? Delicious.


As always, some of the best food we have eaten on our travels has cost us a couple of bucks from a hawker. This time it was morning and we hunkered by the edge of a klong (canal) just outside Bangkok, slurping slurries of simple, yet heavenly Thai food, as people bartered and shopped around us, the heat of elements rising steadily into a hazy, polluted Bangkok day.



2 comments:

Matt at Abstract Gourmet said...

Awesome photos Sticky... that all looks amazing. Definitely on my list of places to visit, when I hopefully do a trip through Thailand and Cambodia later this year.

How do they manage not to just get everything wet ?

Anonymous said...

Oh that congee brings back the fondness of memories. Great photos!