Food
Thai food is the reason a lot of people come back, and it is cheapest exactly where it is best. The gap in quality between a market stall and a restaurant is small; the gap in price is enormous. Learning to eat at street level is the single biggest upgrade available to a visitor here, and it takes about a day.
Street food is the main event
It is not a risk to be managed. Stalls specialise — one dish, cooked hundreds of times a day, in front of you. Pick the ones with a queue: high turnover means fresh ingredients, and locals do this calculation for you. Markets, food courts and hawker areas gather dozens of them in one place, which is the easiest way in.
What to order first
- Pad Thai — the one everybody knows, and worth having made properly
- Tom Yum Goong — hot and sour shrimp soup, the benchmark of a kitchen
- Som Tum — green papaya salad, pounded to order
- Massaman curry — mild, rich and sweet, for anyone avoiding heat
- Mango sticky rice — in season, one of the best desserts anywhere
How spice works here
Thai spicy is a real category and it is not the same as spicy at home. Ask for it mild — mai phet — if you are unsure; nobody minds and nobody thinks less of you. Chilli is usually on the table anyway, so ordering mild and adding is easier than the reverse. Southern cooking, on Phuket, is hotter than the rest.
It changes by region
Bangkok has the widest range in the country, from a stall to a dining room with a waiting list. The south leans hot and sour, with Chinese influence and its own dishes — Phuket's Mee Hokkien among them. The Gulf islands are seafood first. Nowhere is short of vegetarian food, though it is not always marked as such.
Eating well without spending
The pattern that works is market most nights and restaurant occasionally, rather than trying to eat cheaply in expensive places. Lunch is the other saving: many good kitchens are half the price at midday and the cooking is identical.
Where to eat it
Night markets are the default and the best of them are worth planning an evening around rather than treating as a stop. Food courts and hawker areas do the same job under a roof, usually cheaper and always cooler. Family-run shophouse kitchens are where the home cooking is. And the beachfront restaurants are paying for the view, which is a fair trade once or twice a trip.
Practical notes
- Carry cash. Card acceptance at stall level is rare.
- Tipping is not expected; rounding up is normal.
- Tap water is not for drinking, but ice in commercial premises is made from treated water and is fine.
- A cooking class is the most useful souvenir available — a market visit and a kitchen, half a day.