Better be street if you lookin' at me

Presenting, the fruits of my labour.

Taste & See: Bangkok is nothing if not swarming with places to eat outside. Every corner is dotted with vendors selling hand-held snacks to go for mere pennies. Entire lanes are lined with sit down made-to-order street stalls. Around every side street is an impromptu buffet line, tables stacked with pan after pan of heady, homemade dishes whipped up every morning in time for the working crowd's breakfast rush. Street food is the life-blood of the city, the real reason to be a tourist in Thailand.


Last winter I spent one blissful day traipsing through the grimy sludge of Bangkok's back allies in search of hidden food markets unknown to those who stay on the beaten path. After a good five hours of grazing from a few dozen tiny eateries, snapping hundreds of photos, and chatting it up with Thailand's true celebrity chefs, I had plum wore myself out. (Naturally, the only thing to do was commemorate all my hard work by sitting down for a nice meal--but that will have to be another entry.)

Eating as much as I ate that day is not a feat to be attempted by any but the seasoned, intrepid snacking journalists. The rest of you, stick to your three square meals and leave the hard work to us. Not to say you shouldn't try the food! If you're lucky enough to be in Bangkok, eat all you can. Do push-ups at night in your hostel to whip up a second bout of hunger. Sit where crowds gather, point to what looks tasty and gobble it up without knowing if the water is pure.

If Western Thai restaurants, with their predictable (but still-tasty!) standards of phad thai and penang curry are all you have to go on- well, you might still miss out on the pleasure of dousing hours of walking in the sweaty sun with a 25 cent ice-cold half pineapple. But at least you can gaze longingly upon Thailand's glorious culinary array from a safe distance through, I'm sorry, I have to say it- the fruits of my labour.

From top left: cantaloupe, papaya, pineapple; rose apple, mango, watermelon, (red) rose apple, guava.

The pun had to be made sooner or later. Now that we've got that out of the way, we can all relax and daydream about strawberry smoothies.

My raving about all things small and red as harbingers of summer notwithstanding, mounds of strawberries and cherry tomatoes are a delight to be savoured in Thailand's cool winter season.



This devastatingly handsome bag of strawberries can be yours for 15 baht, or about 35 cents.


Guava, 25 baht per kilo- about 60 cents.


The guavas to the right are what we might find underripe, crunchy but a touch sweet and fleshy in the middle.

Guava are hacked into slices with a machete, the seedy center deftly cut out, and lid into a plastic bag with a scoop, which is then put in a second plastic bag with handles for easy carrying, along with a bit of chili sugar or sweet-spicy dipping sauce and a handy wooden skewer for nabbing bites on the go.

Strawberries and tomatoes come with a skewer too, but with fruit this luscious, there's no need for sauce.


The strawberries do make an incredible smoothie, however.


Strawberries float lazily in a bowl of icy water, ready to work their magic on parched passer-bys.


Nothing but strawberries, ice and a tiny bit of sugar water . . . bliss at 20 baht (50 cents) a cup.