During every visit to Bangkok to do my work here, in addition to talking about Spirit Houses, I also spend lots of time talking about street hawkers. Bangkok is a foodie’s town with fabulous restaurants from just about every part of the world. But the real appeal of Bangkok’s food scene, at least for me, are the street vendors. You can get a fabulous meal for a few dollars that can sometimes rival what you get in a fancy restaurant just by hanging around a bunch of these vendors.
Just down the street from my apartment, one can find a huge variety of food hawkers, generally during lunch time. Most of the food they sell is prepared and can be eaten on the spot. Or there are fruits and vegetables you can buy for later. However, every so often there is a hawker selling food to be prepared at home, like the lady pictured in the slides above. I saw her late in the afternoon as I was returning from the hospital. She was selling fish to be cooked at home and was patiently waiting for locals to come by and purchase some nice fish for dinner.
When I went back an hour later to go a nearby grocery store she was gone. I bet she sold everything to people leaving the two large nearby office buildings after work or maybe even to some of our hospital staff going home after their shifts.
Like I said at the beginning, street-based food hawkers are the life blood of Bangkok’s food culture. That lady selling fish is part of a huge community keeping Bangkok’s streets lively and, in many ways, sustainable for the many who cannot afford those fancy restaurants.
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing this Skip.