My Cheapest Meal Yet...!

The challenge: living under 500 baht/day (~$12) for transportation and food...and i'm getting better at it every day!


* Minor cheat: i bought a Monthly Pass on the BTS (skytrain) which gives me 40 trips at 20 baht each, no matter where i go... prices can run 30-60 baht if you go 3 stations out or more - so in the end, the 800-baht Pass will save me at least that much...

The Record
The cheapest meal i got was by On Nut (at the east end of the train line) - a whopping 15 baht for a bowl of beef noodle soup. I ordered without really knowing what i would get - it was quite tasty (though perhaps a tad salty)... and i certainly did not experience any side effects later...

Safe vs. Cheap
Many people ask me if i trust eating on the street. And i've developed a bit of a theoretical hierarchy.

With regard to street vendors, I will buy cut fruit from carts on the street, but i'm still weary of meat on a stick (due to an unpleasant incident several years ago). Roti's are also fair game - folded crepes drizzled with condensed milk - YUM!

Fruit vendors are cheaper than a supermarket. Notably, mangosteen are in season - 40-50 baht will get you a 2-kilo bag... and they are totally addicting!

I believe the "mobile kitchens" on the sidewalks and food stalls can be cleaned quite thoroughly, and have sat down to have a bite at little tables set up, either on the sidewalk or in a open-air/shared (often tented) space, provided they look clean.

In general, i've noticed that when it comes to food stalls, the food is generally served piping hot here - logically because they hand it to you straight out of the pan/soup tureen (ie, it's not left sitting in a window...) While it's rendered almost inedible for several minutes (at least by my tender standards) - i truly believe the heat would kill anything "unclean" that lingers...

Markets that let you take away are good (particularly if you want to get grilled fish fresh and cheap). Also, the sell great snacks, sweet treats (coconut yummies), little noshes (chinese "bun", or these banana-leaf wrapped things that are the thai version of a tamale)...

The next step up is food courts: a group of stalls that have tables set up in the middle. Least formally, stalls may be under a tent; increasingly permantent structures: bare warehouses, little malls, or in the big malls (the Platinum has anything you can think of, from bites to meals). Clean, plentiful, and you can still eat a meal for 30-60 baht...most of these have a staff to clean up all the messes... clean!

I have found it a little difficult to control what i get exactly - ie, getting a heavily sauced dish rather than a soup...dishes too sweet, too salty, etc. it's been kind of hit or miss! but this may improve greatly, thanks to a crash course in Thai that i'm taking through school...i'll be able to be more specific now :)

Cheap finds: "Noodle Bar" on Silom Rd, right off Saladaeng station (ranging 50-80 baht for a bowl of noodle soup, pretty much any way you want it); and a Vietnamese restaurant in Siam square (Pho came in 2 sizes - 85 baht for the small, yet quite satisfying portion - nice quiet place, pretty colors + jazz!).

okay, more pictures on the next post...! will save culinary faves for another post too...

...and i've got some coconut gummy treat waiting to be polished off before bed...