Thailand street foods- Love them, hate them!!

No other place in the entire world has such a wide range of aroma and sights of food with such a casual display than the ‘Land of Hospitality’- Thailand. There are at least 43,000 street food vendors in Bangkok, the municipal government says, a legion of operators of food carts crammed into every available nook of urban real estate.

Bangkok alternately loves and hates its food vendors. The city government banned them from certain areas because they cause traffic jams, block sidewalks and result in growth of cockroaches and vermin in the sewers where they dispose off their trash. One recent article in The Nation, a Bangkok daily, even described street vendors as “parasitic elements” whose presence spawns “organized beggars, street-children gangs and hooligans who are responsible for many of the petty crimes in the city center.”

But it is difficult to imagine Bangkok without its vendors. Inexpensive but delicious street food fits into the mosaic of Bangkok’s luxuries. To foreign tourists and wealthy Thais, this city represents cheap modernity: skyscrapers and swank hotels.

Food stalls in Bangkok are a great social equalizer. A typical noodle stall can feature shirtless manual workers eating beside well-dressed middle-class Bangkok Thais. The choice of Thailand street food is immensely large and it would be difficult to shortlist some of the top Thai street foods. Just for a quick glance, some of them holding the top notch can be listed as:

1. som tam – a spicy salad with shredded papaya
2. khao mun gai tod – fried chicken served on rice cooked in chicken broth
3. rat naa – noodles and pork in a thick gravey
4. ba mee nam – egg noodle soup with wonton
5. pad thai – fried noodles with dried shrimp and tofu
6. johk – a thick rice soup excellent for breakfast
7. pad see iew – pan-fried noodles
8. khao pad – fried rice
9. moo pad krapow – pork fried in basil
10. khao moo daeng – red pork with rice

What is your list of favorite Thai street foods? Do not forget to post in the list of your favorites…