There’s several reasons why a traveller might be a wee bit apprehensive about trying out the array of street food Bangkok has to offer.
- You’re a what I call a salmonella freak: your stomach churns at the thought of cutting vegetables on the same chopping board as chicken. So you’re worried that everything with chicken in it will give you salmonella.
- Alternatively, you have a weak AF stomach, so you’re not very sure if it can deal with the hygiene standards on the streets.
- Everything is written in Thai, so you don’t know what you’re getting or what on earth the ingredients are.
So my stomach of steel happily volunteers to try out every type of street food in Bangkok imaginable. Yeahhhh honestly I don’t mind. Challenge accepted. (Me being ambitious again – but it makes me keep my word if I announce it publicly!)
I want make a comprehensive guide on street food in Bangkok, including hygiene standards, foreigner friendliness of the texture and ingredients, and an honest report on how edible it is – and whether or not you should try it if you have a weak stomach. (I’m pretty positive I’m going to like most things, unless it has maggots or bugs in it. ) I vowed to myself never to eat the same dish for lunch, or from the same stand at least for this month. I know how easy it is to find a place that you like and get too accustomed to your lunchtime ways – but I want to try everything.
So street food series no 1: Rat na
Tucked away next to Kamol Suksol Building on the so-called Wall Street of Thailand, Silom Road, is an outdoor market that’s a popular lunch spot amongst working locals. You go inside, and there’s everything – from coconuts, smoothies, pad thai, rice dishes, spicy noodle soup, and stuff that I can’t tell you what the name is just yet – but boy, am I determined to try everything there. I think it will take me more than a months worth of lunch breaks, a rather enlarged puku and a bothering amount of potential toilet trips. But YOLO – seriously, I’m only in Thailand for a wee while.
It’s pretty overwhelming going in between standard lunch break hours (12 – 1), but it’s totally worth it. Most dishes range from 35 – 50 BHT – That’s roughly 1 – 3 NZD, shit son.
A Thai workmate that’s befriended me is eager to say the least, for me to try everything from everywhere. “You like spicy? You like sweet? Have you tried this? Have you tried that?” Since it was my first lunch break at work, the whole experience was slightly overwhelming. My mates back home would know I’m one of the most indecisive mofos out when it comes to picking food. (Seriously though, you only have about a ton of meals in your lifetime, and I am not prepared to waste a single one on a shit qual meal.) I just told her I’ll eat her favorite dish. Rat na it was.
It’s essentially a combination of flat rice noodles fried with an egg which creates an omelette base, topped with a creamy and slightly sour gravy. Admittedly, it’s not the prettiest looking dish. Thinking too hard about what it resembled, it kinda started to look like a familiar liquid I often see in the toilet on a Saturday night – when you end up holding Grace Gol’s hair over the toilet seat. (Soz Grace – I just wanted an excuse to say your name, so I can shamelessly advertise your travel blog. Check it out here.)
Don’t be fooled by how it looks. It’s bloody delicious. Though if you’re not into slimy textures, it might make you gag a little bit. Just a tiny bit.
Ingredients (roughly): Stock, corn starch, condensed milk and a ton of oil for the gravy, rice noodles, pork, nuts, eggs, and some veges.
Stomach friendliness: Relatively good. Might need a toilet trip depending on sensitivity. The whole market is pretty hygenic.
Kinda like….: Chinese noodles you get a yum cha.
Lost in Gustation 
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