What to Eat in Bangkok: The Dishes and Districts Worth the Trip

Bangkok is one of the great eating cities of the world, and part of the reason is that it never really stops. Breakfast porridge gives way to noodle soups at mid-morning, rice and curry shops fill at lunch, and by dusk whole streets turn into open-air kitchens. Food from every region of Thailand is sold here, cooked by people who moved to the capital from those regions.

Yet the city also has a cooking style of its own. Much of it grew out of the Chinese communities who settled along the Chao Phraya river, and out of the shophouse kitchens that line the older streets. The dishes below are the ones Bangkok does especially well, and the districts are the places where they are easiest to find.

Boat noodles: small bowls, deep broth

Boat noodles (kuay tiew ruea) take their name from the canals. Before roads replaced waterways as the city's main routes, vendors cooked and sold noodle soup from small boats, passing bowls up to customers on the banks. The bowls stayed small so they could be handled safely, and they still are.

The broth is dark and intensely savoury, made with pork or beef, spices such as star anise and cinnamon, and traditionally a little fresh blood stirred in to thicken and enrich it. It comes with thin rice noodles, slices of meat, meatballs, morning glory and bean sprouts, and a scattering of crisp pork crackling. Because each bowl is only a few mouthfuls, people order several and stack the empties on the table.

The streets around Victory Monument are well known for their cluster of boat noodle shops, and it is a good place to try several bowls side by side.

Khao man gai and jok: the Chinese breakfast table

Khao man gai is Bangkok's take on Hainanese chicken rice. The chicken is gently poached, the rice is cooked in the chicken stock with garlic and chicken fat until each grain is glossy, and the plate is finished with a few slices of cucumber. What sets the Thai version apart is the sauce: fermented soybeans (tao jiao) mixed with ginger, garlic, chilli and vinegar. A small bowl of clear broth, often with winter melon, comes alongside. The Pratunam area is particularly known for it.

Jok is a smooth rice porridge cooked until the grains break down completely, so it is closer to a thick soup than to rice. It is a breakfast dish, usually served with pork meatballs, shredded ginger, spring onion and often a soft egg cracked into the hot porridge. Diners add white pepper, soy sauce and pieces of patongko, the deep-fried Chinese dough sticks sold nearby. It should not be confused with khao tom, a thinner rice soup in which the grains stay whole.

Pad Thai and the shophouse wok

Pad Thai is the dish most visitors already know, and Bangkok is where it is taken most seriously. Thin rice noodles are stir-fried with tamarind, fish sauce and palm sugar, then tossed with egg, tofu, dried shrimp, garlic chives and bean sprouts. It was promoted as a national dish in the mid-twentieth century, during a government campaign to encourage noodle eating and a sense of Thai identity, and it has been a fixture of the city's streets ever since.

The real skill on show in Bangkok's shophouse kitchens, though, is the wok. Cooks work over very high heat, often with charcoal or roaring gas burners, and the slightly smoky edge this gives a dish is prized. The crab omelette has become a symbol of this kind of cooking: egg and generous amounts of crab meat fried in hot oil until the outside is crisp and golden and the inside is soft. It is a richer cousin of kai jeow, the puffy Thai omelette fried in plenty of oil and eaten over rice with a splash of chilli sauce.

Yaowarat: Chinatown after dark

Yaowarat Road is the heart of Bangkok's Chinatown, one of the best known in Asia. During the day it is a district of gold shops, wholesale traders and herbal medicine stores. In the evening the pavements fill with food stalls and the neon signs come on.

The food is mostly Chinese-Thai, much of it from the Teochew tradition of the community's founders. Things worth looking for include:

• Kuay jap, rolled rice noodles in a peppery broth with crispy pork belly and offal.
• Roast duck and crispy pork over rice, often from shops with the meat hanging in the window.
• Grilled and steamed seafood, sold by weight from iced displays on the street.
• Chinese desserts such as black sesame dumplings in ginger syrup, and bird's nest drinks.

Arrive early in the evening, walk the length of the main road and its side lanes first, and choose by watching where the queues form.

Banglamphu and Bang Rak: the old city kitchens

Banglamphu is the old district around Democracy Monument, close to the river in the historic heart of the city. It is best known to travellers for Khao San Road, but its quieter streets hold some of the city's longest-running family restaurants and shophouse kitchens. This is a good area for central Thai cooking: rice with curries ladled from trays, stir-fries, soups and traditional sweets. Many of the rice and curry shops (raan khao gaeng) open early and sell out by early afternoon.

Bang Rak, further downriver, grew up around Charoen Krung Road, one of the oldest roads in the city. Its food reflects a long mix of communities. There are Chinese roast meat shops and noodle stalls, and the area also has an established Muslim community, so you will find Thai Muslim dishes such as khao mok gai, the spiced chicken and rice, and beef noodle soups. Roast duck over rice is a particular local favourite.

Markets, from Or Tor Kor to the night stalls

Or Tor Kor Market, opposite Chatuchak Weekend Market, takes its name from the Thai initials of the Marketing Organization for Farmers. It is known for the quality of its produce and is one of the best places in the city to see Thai fruit, vegetables, curry pastes and dried goods at their best. Its prepared food section sells curries, salads and sweets from across the country.

Night markets are another Bangkok institution. They come and go, and their names change, but the format is familiar: rows of stalls selling grilled skewers, fried snacks, noodles, seafood and cold drinks, with shared tables in the middle.

Getting the most from a food trip

A few habits make eating in Bangkok easier and more rewarding:

1. Eat at the right time of day. Jok and khao man gai are morning foods, rice and curry is lunch, and Yaowarat and the night markets come alive after dark.
2. Share. Order several dishes for the table and eat them with rice, as Thai diners do.
3. Use the condiment jars. Noodle soups are meant to be seasoned to taste with sugar, fish sauce, chilli and vinegar.
4. Follow the specialists. A shop that cooks one dish, and has done so for years, is usually a better bet than one with a long menu.
5. Travel by boat and train. The river ferries and the BTS and MRT lines reach most of the food districts and avoid the traffic.

Bangkok rewards curiosity more than planning. The best meal of a trip is often the one found by wandering down a side street at lunchtime and following the smell of a hot wok.