Thai Street Food: Dishes from Morning to Night

Breakfast: rice soup and skewers

In Thailand the day starts savory and warm. At the stalls, vendors are cooking before sunrise.

• Jok and khao tom: Jok is a thick, creamy rice porridge with pork meatballs, ginger and an egg. Khao Tom has rice grains in clear broth with meat or fish. You season both at the table with pepper, fish sauce and fried garlic.
• Moo Ping: marinated pork skewers from the charcoal grill, sweet and lightly caramelized. A bag of sticky rice comes with them. For 500 g of pork neck in thin strips, mix 3 cloves of garlic, 2 coriander roots and 1 tsp white pepper pounded in a mortar with 2 tbsp palm sugar, 2 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp fish sauce and 4 tbsp coconut milk. After at least two hours of marinating, thread the meat on skewers and grill them for 8 to 10 minutes, brushed with the remaining coconut milk. Soaking and steaming are explained in the guide How to Cook Sticky Rice.
• Pathongko: fried, X-shaped pieces of dough that Thais dip in warm soy milk or eat with pandan custard.

Noon: rice and noodle dishes

At noon, Thais eat quickly and usually alone: one dish on a plate, ready in a few minutes at the food stall.

Rice with something on top

• Khao Man Gai: poached chicken on rice cooked in chicken fat and broth, with a ginger and soy sauce and a cup of broth.
• Pad Krapow: ground meat with chili, garlic and holy basil from the wok, on rice with a fried egg. Probably the country's most common lunch.
• Khao Kha Moo: pork hock braised for hours in soy sauce, star anise and cinnamon, with rice, pickled mustard greens and a boiled egg.

Noodle soups

At a noodle soup stall, you choose three things: the noodle (thin or wide rice noodles, glass noodles or egg noodles), the add-in (meatballs, pork, chicken) and the style: with broth (nam) or dry (haeng). The basic form is called Kuay Tiew Nam. The dark Boat Noodles get their depth from spices and soy sauce and come in small bowls. Rice Noodles explains the differences between the noodle types.

Afternoon: salads, grilled chicken and drinks

In the afternoon, stalls with mortars and grills set up.

• Som Tam: green papaya salad, pounded in a clay mortar with chili, lime, fish sauce, palm sugar, tomato and beans. Instead of green papaya, cucumber or kohlrabi in fine strips work.
• Gai Yang: grilled chicken from Isaan, marinated with garlic, coriander root and pepper. Together with som tam and sticky rice, it makes a complete meal.
• Cha Yen: orange iced tea with condensed milk, in plastic cups with lots of ice. The color comes from the ready-made Thai tea mixes, to which makers usually add coloring. With black tea, star anise and vanilla, you get a similar flavor without the color.

In between, Thais nibble on small things like fish cakes, coconut pancakes and skewers. The page Thai Snacks collects these snacks.

Evening and night: from the wok

In the evening, night markets set up in many cities, and the woks run late into the night.

• Pad Thai: stir-fried rice noodles with tamarind, egg, tofu, shrimp and sprouts. You add peanuts and lime at the table. At home, first fry the tofu and shrimp and push them to the side, add the soaked noodles with the sauce, crack an egg next to them and mix everything as soon as it sets. Sprouts and garlic chives go in at the end.
• Hoi Tod: crispy pancake of starch batter with mussels or oysters and egg, served on bean sprouts.
• Kuay Tiew Kua Gai: wide rice noodles with chicken and egg, fried in a wok until they catch slightly. A classic from Bangkok's Chinatown.
• Khao tom late at night: Many places serve rice soup at night as well, with small sides like omelet, stir-fried vegetables and salted egg.

Seasoning like at the stall

At every noodle stall there is a condiment caddy with four small dishes, called khrueang prung. You use it to season your soup or plate to taste. At home, put it together like this:

1. Sugar: white sugar, plain.
2. Chili flakes: dried chilies, dry-toasted and coarsely pounded.
3. Prik nam pla: 4 tbsp fish sauce with 3 to 5 finely sliced bird's eye chilies and a squeeze of lime.
4. Vinegar with chili: 4 tbsp white vinegar with 2 to 3 slices of fresh chili.

The caddy keeps for about a week in the fridge. Taste each soup plain first and then season in small steps: sweet, hot, salty, sour, until it feels right to you.

Cooking it at home: planning and allergens

Two or three dishes are enough for a street food night. A suggestion for four people: som tam and gai yang with sticky rice as the first round, then pad thai from the wok. Marinate the chicken the day before, soak the sticky rice overnight and cut all the ingredients for the wok before the first course. Cook pad thai in portions for two, or the wok cools down and the noodles stick.

Almost all dishes contain fish sauce, so they contain fish. Shrimp, dried shrimp and shrimp paste are in som tam, pad thai and many sauces. Pad thai contains peanuts, egg and soy from the tofu. For a vegetarian version, replace fish sauce with light soy sauce and a pinch of salt.