As everyone knows by now, I am very excited about Thai Street Food. I have several websites of my own on this subject. I usually buy any book that I can find about Thai food. However, even though there are many books about Thai Cooking, there are relatively few about Thai Street Food. That is why I was so happy to learn of the launch of a new book called “Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls” written by Chawadee Nualkhair.
It would be an impossible task to document all of the Thai street food stalls around Bangkok as there must be countless thousands of these. Many of them also come and go. Literally, as quite a few are also mobile. What the author has done in this book is produce a list of what she considers to be the Top 50 of the street food stalls in Bangkok. She does this by concentrating on five major areas: Chinatown, Banglamphu, Hua Lampong, Silom and Sukhumwit.
Personally, if I was going to write a book on Thai Street Food, I wouldn’t do reviews of the food stalls. Mainly because there are too many. For myself, I judge whether a food store has delicious food or not by the number of Thai people lining up outside. What I would concentrate on in my book would be a menu decoder which helps you buy the street food. For example, the names of dishes, the main ingredients and how to order them. I am glad to see that Chawadee has included twenty pages that introduces us to many of these dishes.
The book is beautifully illustrated throughout which includes pictures of the main dishes from each of the reviewed food stalls as well pictures of the shop-fronts to help you identify the places. What you get in each review is a description of the stall, their speciality, the different options and ideas of the cost. In addition, there is the address, phone numbers and opening hours. There are maps of each of the areas with the food stalls and shops marked.
“Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls” should be available at Asia Books in Thailand and at Amazon.com by next month. In the meantime, you can buy direct from the author on her website at www.BangkokGlutton.com. The listed price is 350 Baht. You need to add extra for shipping. Payment is by Paypal. If you have any interest in Thai Street Food, whether you are in Bangkok or not, I highly recommend that you buy “Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls” by Chawadee Nualkhair. I will certainly be referring to it a lot over the coming months.
