Explore Thai Street Food

​I developed this post to help Travelers coming to Thailand enjoy the fantastic food here. To help foreigners order a tasty and pleasurable Thai food on the streets of Thailand, I developed the list below of the most common and tasty foods found on the streets and in the small restaurants found all over Thailand.  In each description, I have given the English equivalent of the Thai word for each food and a brief description. 

As I advised in an earlier post, I would suggest any visiting Westerner not used to eating spicy foods to use one of the following two phrases (based upon your preference) when ordering food on the streets:

• "my pet", meaning "not spicy, and
• "pet nit noy", meaning "a little bit spicy".

Keep in mind that the street vendors all are all different, they differ in the spices they use in each of the dishes as well as differ in quality.  As a foreigner, the hardest part about identifying the right vendor is that their signs are mostly in Thai. Generally, you have to look at the foods in the cart and inspect the food being prepared and try to identify. The best way to pick a restaurant is to go to ones that are packed with Thai people, they always know the best tasting food. I recommend that you use the information below and be bold and try as much as you can in the time you are in Thailand! 

Common street food - The savory foods below can be found nearly everywhere on the street.    

• Somtum Thai (shredded and pounded papaya with fish sauce, chillies, garlic, palm sugar, lime juice, dried shrimps and peanuts - a halved tomato or two and a few chopped green beans. However, there are a number of varieties of som tum)
• Meat on a stick (ping) is as common as somtum, being found everywhere on the streets of Thailand. Many types meats can found depending on the vendor, including pork (moo ping), chicken (gai ping), beef (neua ping). There are many varieties. Pick the sticks that look interesting and try. Most of the ‘meat’ sticks are served with a tasty and spicy sauce.
• Satay is another type of meat stick, very tasty but not as many spices.
• Khao mun gai (chicken and rice) - you can ask for 'sai lued' or jellied chicken blood
• Padthai (fried noodles with sprouts and prawn) 
• Hoi tod (crispy eggy mussel or oyster pancakes)
• Khao kha moo (meltingly tender braised pork leg with gravy)
• Jok moo (rice porridge with pork and raw to medium cooked egg)
• Gai yaang (grilled chicken served with a sweet and spicy sauce)
• Trio of gai yaang, som tom and khao niew (grilled chicken with spicy papaya salad and sticky rice)
• Kaew Moo Yan (grilled pork neck served with nam jim jaew sauce which is a tamerine larb mixture of flavors)

​Rice - there are three main ways to order rice in Thailand:

• Khao soi (steamed rice) - served everywhere. The tastiest rice is jasmine type rice but it is hard to tell what type of rice a street restaurant is serving. 
• Khao niew (sticky rice) - mostly served in small plastic bags and really should be eaten with your fingers. 
• Khao pad (fried rice) - fried rice can be prepared with a variety of meats such as pork (moo), chicken (gai), and prawn (goon) and a variety of flavors such as tum yum and green curry (gang keaw yan). Example: Tum yum khao pad goon 

Yum dishes - spicy salads with a dressing made mainly of lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and of course, chillies and served with rice. 

• Yum khai Dow (Spicy fried egg salad and fresh vegetables)
• Yum pla duk fu (Crispy fish cloud with green mango)
• Yum pak leum (mix of fresh vegetables)
• Yum vensen (spicy salad made with glass noodle) 

Larb dishes - similar to yum dishes but a roasted ground rice and a bit of tamarind is added, here is a few:

• Larb Moo (savory mix of cooked ground pork and shallots in a tangy gravy, with ground rice. The gravy is made with lime and fish sauce)
• Nam tok moo (similar to larb moo but grilled pork is used) 
• Larb moo vensen (as above but mixed with glass noodles) 
• Larb pla duk (same as above but with catfish)
• Larb Khai (made with chicken)

Curries - Thai curries are rich in flavor and traditionally very spicy, having a lot of chilies.  Thai curry flavor varies from regions within Thailand.  Most Thai curries contain chilies, garlic, and coconut milk, as well as “blue ginger". All curries are served with steamed rice.

• Gaeng kaew yan (green curry) - Getting its color from green chilies, this can be one of the spiciest. The dish usually contains eggplant and either chicken or pork. 
• Gaeng Phet (red curry) - Getting its intense red color from red chilies, this dish is also very spicy.  This type of curry seems to be the most versatile and found with a variety of meats and vegetables.
• Gaeng Karee (yellow curry) - This curry gets is intense yellow curry mostly comes from the heavy use of tumeric.  it is mostly found on the streets with chicken and seafood (crab).
• Masaman and Penang curries come from outside Thailand but still can be found in many street vendors and the Thais have taken them on and gave their own distinctive flavors from Thai cooking. Both are brownish red in color and are rich in flavor from coconut milk and a host of other spices. 

Soups – Thai soups are incredibly flavorful and found in a huge variety as you travel to various areas throughout Thailand.  Here are just a few:

• Tum zap - clear broth that is both tangy and very spicy - usually served with pork ribs, mushrooms, tomoatoes, red onion 
• Jim jum (Isaan style hotpot - served with heated (usually charcoal) pot with a variety of raw meats, fresh vegetables and raw egg - you place the ingreadients into the pot, let cook and eat. Served with a tangy sauce) 
• Gang Som Cha-am Khai (orange curry soup with prawns and chopped cha-am (local vegetable) and egg fried then chopped into squares and added to the soup) 
• Tum yum (clear broth that is both tangy and very spicy)
• Tum yum goon (similar to the yum um above with added chilly paste in the broth. It can have milk or coconut milk added as well)
• Nam tok (noodle soup flavored with pig or cow blood)

Noodle Soups - The word for noodle soup in Thai is “kuai tiao” and is found with a variety of noodles such as:

• yen ta fo (neon-red glass noodles with tofu), 
• ban mee (thin egg noodles often served with wontons), 
• suki (bean thread noodles, egg, cabbage and seafood or meat) 
• kuai tiao ruea (“boat noodles” in a spiced, blood-enriched broth with offal), 
• Sen lek (thin rice noodle)
• Sen yai (wide rice noodle)
• Wun sen (glass noodle)
• Sen mee (fine round rice noodle)

Noodle soups can be ordered haeng (“dry”) or nam (“wet” with soup broth). Haeng soups are usually served with the broth on the side.

Putting the soup names together with the noodle types is critical in getting what type of soups you want on the street. For example, one of my favorite is "tum yum moo ban mee nam" which is tum yum broth with pork and egg noodle. 

Deserts 
•    Khao niew mamuang (mango sticky rice)
•    Khanom krok (custardy coconut confections) 
•    Kluay kaek (deep-fried bananas in a coconut batter)
•    Nam Kang Sai (coconut milk with a variety of toppings and served with chipped ice)