We had a lazy day today while Paul Dreamer caught up on his beauty sleep. At lunchtime Laurie sent him down for street food so that it could get magically clean in the lift on the way upstairs. I am very glad th
at she figured out that this works, because it was really good duck, roasted in a barbecue glaze.
It's no secret that while restaurant food is terrific here, the food that is prepared on the streets by hawkers whose income depends upon how well they can make one particular dish is amongst the
best to be had anywhere, from fried bananas to fish grilled in salt.
People in Bangkok eat a lot of food this way, and will have several small meals a day from their favourite stalls. This starts at a young age - a few days ago Laurie and I passed a girl's primary school at the end of the day. After a wai to the headteacher at the gates, hands together held to forehead, they ran outside to one of half a dozen hawkers who make after-school snack food, like popsicles and tiny little crepes.
Paul Dreamer just loves street food. He eats ice kacang with his grandkids who don't realise how lucky they are to have been introduced to this dish, which is a sort of southeast Asian snowcone. Originally consisting of shaved ice and red beans, ice kacang has evolved so that you can choose all sorts of weird toppings for the ice, from corn to bright pink dyed water chesnuts, over the top of which is poured evaporated milk. I can't imagine anything more disgusting, but I must be wrong because ice kacang is one of the most popular of all dishes in this part of the world, and these people really know how to eat.
Paul's retirement plan is to become a street hawker selling green papaya salad, which he learned how to make at the Oriental Hotel cooking school over his Christmas holiday. He has stiff competition here though, because there are a lot of green papaya salad experts in Bangkok, like this fellow here. But it will keep him busy and Laurie says that the profits from his green papaya salad stall will be funnelled into an offshore fund for the grandkid's college education.
I hope that the people of Bangkok never grow tired street food, and that no matter how politely Ronald MacDonald wais you, you will never ever consider eating American fast food when you are in Bangkok.
