People and Places: Bangkok Street Food

While Bangkok boasts of some really top-class restaurants, it also offers, at the other end of the spectrum, a wide range of local delights sold by Bangkok's ubiquitous hawkers who set up stalls by the kerbside of its main streets, or even by the roadside in some dark alleys off the main thoroughfares, where you least expect there to be food.

Their displays are always colourful and interesting. But street food is not for the faint-hearted.

To begin with, there is the concern for hygiene. This, to me, can easily be resolved. I recommend the newbie to Thailand to stick with eating food that is cooked on the spot like Phad Thai, fried rice, roti prata etc or food that is kept hot like piping hot Thai-style chng tng.

Then there is food that is for the adventurous only and definitely not for the faint-hearted. Stuff like deep-fried scorpions, giant red ants, cicada, grasshoppers and braised innards may sound horrifying to many of us but these are delicacies to the locals.

If you find street food to be frighteningly out of this world, worry not.

There are actually quite many decent roadside stalls that have their own daily supply of clean water. One of such would be the BBQ seafood simply called 'First Stall in Yaowaraj', Chinatown. Its Teochew-speaking owner is always ready to welcome foreigners with his beaming smile and is quick to recommend his finest catch of the day, usually his crabs, river prawns or seabass. He is able to prepare the catch in different styles to your preference. I highly recommend barbequed or steamed for his live crabs although he can also prepare them in black pepper, curry, fried in scallions and ginger or in a dozen other ways. I love his fresh river prawns grilled to a light char and eaten with a hot chilli dip. Chomp down your seafood, not with Singha, but his thick guava juice which is really fantastic. And for dessert, try his home-made bird's nest soup with gingko nuts.