Back Alleyways to Thai Eating Delights in Bangkok

A couple of my favorite street food carts are gone from the days when I did the book on them 6 years ago. But Namo in his neighborhood near the old govt building is always surprising me, this time taking me down little alleys that lead to other even smaller alleyways....

to a courtyard of a hundred year teak house that serves basically three things:

a spicy pork and egg noodle soup,

fried rice with crispy crunchy popcorn shrimp and bits of crispy pork,

and shrimp and onion in a long large open-tube macaroni in a tomato sauce.

Served with a green Chinese tea and a cooked green banana in coconut milk for desert for about the same price of a street food vendor. The portions are smaller than usual for Westerners, but that means you can eat again that much sooner.

In my neighborhood there are only street food vendors or British and Aussie pubs.

Lately I've been starting to figure out food courts, where you put money into a card and take it to the stall that you want to order from and return to the cashier who takes the card and gives you the change, usually located on the 4th floor of shopping centers.

(photos by Randy Magnus)