Bangkok Food Tour

Thailand was incredible. INCREDIBLE. Yes, I was super jet-lagged and craving Western food by the time I returned home. Yes I sweated through my clothes and took two showers a day on a regular basis there. Yes, I walked a ton and my feet hurt constantly from all the “see everything” daily plans. It was SO worth it! I highly recommend travelling there if you can stand the long flight (about 20-ish hours combined). When people ask why I picked Thailand, I have three reasons that I give them: the food, the beaches, and the exchange rate. None of them disappointed.

I planned this trip out after an enormous amount of research. We started in Bangkok. This was a great idea, because if there is one word to describe the city, it would be “clusterfuck.” In a good way of course. Pardon my language, but there is really no other way to explain Bangkok. It smells more than occasionally of shrimp paste and hot garbage, and there are people crawling all over constantly. There are street vendors galore, shrines to Buddha at every business and home, and hookers. Once, I’m pretty sure I saw hookers bowing to a Buddha shrine. I also played board games at a bar with hookers, but that’s a whole different story. Anyway, the reason it was great to start in Bangkok is because that city will run you ragged. With its average temperature of 81 degrees [Fahrenheit] every day and the lack of a cool breeze, combined with the need to plan, walk, and use an array of public transit to get around (buses, taxis, tuk tuks, Skytrain, boats), we were exhausted. At the end of every day, we either partied… or struggled to stay awake past 9 pm.

The first Thai Buddhist temple we saw in the flesh - had to take a pic. So ornate.

After (almost) seamlessly finding our apartment that we rented through Airbnb , we bought snacks from a convenient store in our building and went to bed early to prepare for our first day on the town. I did bitch a little about wanting to go to the neon bars and vans serving liquor that we saw outside, but sleep was a good choice. After reading tons of Trip Advisor reviews, I planned a food tour to get acquainted with Bangkok. It’s a good way to get to know a city, especially when there’s a language barrier involved. Whether you think it or not, approaching a street vendor in Thailand can be pretty intimidating. The tour was a good way to explore the city and have a Thai local order your food for you. You get a little bit of culture and a lot of food.

While we waited for the tour group, we felt like we were in a mecca of street food, but it was really just a little market area outside of the Skytrain station. They were selling knock off purses and there was a guy singing karaoke from a portable little speaker system. We wanted to try the pad thai, dumplings, and some unidentifiable stuff we saw while we waited, but I knew from reviews that we shouldn’t eat yet, not even breakfast before the tour. Because we were about to get plenty. I was right. It was so great and crazy delicious.  We chose Bangkok Food Tours. Our tour guide Nushi (that's how you pronounce it anyway) was very knowledgeable and introduced us to local store owners, taking us to places we would never have even noticed on our own. We walked around the historic area of Bangkok known as Bangrak and we had everything from duck to curries to pastries. I even met a guy from North Carolina who had gone to Emory law school and just taken the bar exam too... small world. Anyway, the food:

First stop: A little family-owned shop known for its roast duck.

Roast duck, gravy, rice, with ginger and cucumber. You could even try some duck innards and feet (crunchy) if you liked!

Our tour group at the table on our first stop.

A local selling his wares. Don't ask me what they are. This is the site I expected to see all over Thailand, and I did.

Just a little snack on our route: Fried bananas.

Next Stop: A Muslim-owned restaurant where we could try an excellent chicken or beef yellow curry noodle dish. This woman plated the dishes one at a time in front of us.

Ubiquitous in Thailand: A group of 4 condiments on all restaurant tables so you can doctor your dish as you choose. Red pepper for spice, sugar for sweet, fish sauce for salty, and vinegar for sour. I love this idea.

Muslim yellow chicken curry noodles. Delicious! I'm pretty sure I dreamed of these before coming to Thailand.

This man was selling fresh eggs out of these traditional over-the-shoulder basket. He posed for me.

We crossed the river by ferry and led to try some traditional Isan food. It hails from the northeastern region of Thailand and was by far the spiciest of all the things we would eat all day. I love it! This food incorporates a lot of sour flavors too. We'd had our first taste of these types of flavors and foods from our two dinners at the DC spot Little Serow (it's outrageously good!). There were definitely no tourists eating around here though. We saw this local man selling eggs just steps from the river and chickens and other birds in cages all around. This restaurant backed up to a tiny walkway and people's backyards. Everything was definitely fresh- the fruits, vegetables, and fish were all from super close by. This was also where I used my first eastern toilet... a hole in the ground.

A woman making fresh som tam, or spicy green papaya salad, a classic Thai dish.

Grilled snakehead fish stuffed with lemongrass for sale. Note the sharp teeth in their mouths. Apparently these are pests around Thailand

More fresh roasted poultry.

The fresh som tam and spicy pork salad. Both delicious. I was getting a little full at this point... and a little lazy on the photography apparently.

Fried catfish. It was light and crispy and so delicious. Salty and warm. Also, there's my new favorite condiment, one of the things I miss the most- vinegar with red and green Thai chilies.

Underneath all that fried lemongrass (superb) are some tasty fried pieces of chicken on the bone.

By the end of this feast, there was nothing left. This may have been the favorite spot on the tour.

The next stop was a bakery and pastry shop. There were tons of things to buy here that would have been great for afternoon tea or coffee or to take home to America as gifts. We tried two buns each and then either iced tea or coffee. The final stop was an actual indoor restaurant with lots of business professional types eating in suits, complete with air conditioning and Western toilets. By this time we'd gotten used to the casual, curbside dining, but everything here was great too. I did learn that I am not the biggest fan of baby Thai eggplants. They served them in the green curry and I bit into them thinking they were peas... not so much. They are bitter and not a traditionally Western taste. It was good to learn early though, since they made a frequent appearance throughout our trip.

Nushi at the bakery!

One green custard bun, one pork bun. Both light, fluffy and so good.

A soft sweet bun filled with well-seasoned pork. Unexpected but I think this could really take off in North Carolina.

A Thai iced tea and the center of the green custard bun. The Thai teas are made with condensed milk and are really sweet but oddly refreshing and tasty.

Fresh vegetables. Those in the front are called stink beans.

A sample size of traditional Thai green curry and roti (an Indian inspired crispy pancake-like bread).

The final dish of the food tour I was actually scared of... but incredibly pumped to try! Durian ice cream. I have seen so many TV shows about this fruit. People complain about the texture and the smell. Some hotels, including one we stayed in, fine you for bringing it into hotel rooms because it the smell is so hard to get out of the space. It's known as the "king of fruits." This was possibly the most innocuous way to try it for the time. You could still grasp the slimy texture and the smell and taste crept up on you in an unidentifiable way. One guy at the table said, "If I didn't know this was durian-flavored, I might say this ice cream had gone bad." Also thrown into the mix to describe the taste was "rotten meat," "macadamian nuts," "garbage," and "dirty socks." Hearing all this while you ate it didn't help... but it was certainly an experience. I really enjoyed it, I think.

DURIAN ICE CREAM!

I totally recommend Bangkok Food Tours and Nushi. I would go back right now and do all the tours they offered if I could. There's also a nighttime one in Bangkok's Chinatown. I also totally recommend eating any Thai food you can get your hands on, especially from a hole in the wall place like some of these! It was some of the best we had our whole trip.