The street flavors
of Bangkok

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

But for the sound and smell, this could pass off as any street in Manila – hot, crowded, cars and people squeezing themselves in every conceivable space, going here and there and one doesn't really know where.

This is along Petchaburi Road, Bangkok, around the Pratunam Center, and the flavors of the old kingdom come to life in the little carts that park in the sidestreets, inside huge baskets balanced on the shoulders of old folks, in the makeshift tented sidewalk where makeshift kitchens cook at sundown. Or maybe, makeshift isn't the right word for this – these food carts and stalls have been there forever, and they have become one of Bangkok's biggest tourism draws –- much like Bacolod's Manokan, although I wouldn't want to start comparisons here.

All day indeed, these streets of old Siam teem with different foods – flavors that are distinctly Thai, including such decidedly French influences like the crepes and the spring rolls, and even Singaporean, like the Hainanese steamed chicken that is one of the must-eat street treats in the city.

Here, fruits cut in very creative ways – pineapples that look like lanterns, mango strips that look like fans, mangosteen half-peeled to look like crowns – are hawked in motorized conveyances and contraptions equally creative. I understand years of agricultural work went into making these fruits the best tasting there could be – pineapples so sweet you get scared of their glycemic index, mangos so succulent and sweet your mouth drips with sweet water at every bite, mangosteen with the sweet and tart mingling so perfectly and so on. And here on the streets they are sold, with your choice of dips, although they are good as they come plainly.

There are Thai fish sauce, soy sauce, orange beads that are sweet-salty and many, many versions of guinamos or salted and fermented krill. My Negrense eyes popped wide though at the sight of small green globs of crunchy sourness that is our bangkiling – I don't know the English word for it – here glorified along the famous fruits of Thailand. They are sold for 10 baht in a pack of about 30 pieces, and accompanied by dried guinamos. And we hardly pay attention to this fruit of our childhood backyards!

Here, the hundred and one ways with native cakes, made mostly from rootcrops and rice, are showcased, and one is stumped at the glorious flavors they can get. One special stand out was the taro – gabi to us – fried and sugar coated. I do not know exactly what they do to this native delight, the process looked like the way we do our banana cue, with the sugar dissolved in boiling hot oil, and the taro slices dipped in it. But the seemingly simple process did not quite prepare me for the taste and texture that was simply divine.

And then there are the heavy snack pickings, which us Pinoys may well consider as viands. There's grilled octopus cuts, crunchy, gooey and flavorful. The pork barbecue comes like pinky fingers, but they are very tender and the one I tried tasted like chorizo recado. There are also quails eggs fried in special cooking pans. One stand out there was combination seafood slices fried in a large skillet, and topped with fresh purple cabbage strips. There's a fresh, green hot sauce that goes with this, but spice-shy folks like us can skip this. This was another unbelievable number: the juices of the seafoods and the oil – I couldn't make out what it was – were contrasting but came together beautifully.

I couldn't decide though whether it was the freshness of the seafoods – actually just different kinds of fish and octopus slices – or the homemade condiments that came from unlabelled bottles, or the combination of both that made this dish such a perfect snack.*(To be continued)

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