Thai Street Food Dishes: What to Eat and How to Order

Featured image: Iudexvivorum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Thai street food dishes at a glance

Pick by mood first. Want smoke and salt? Choose something grilled. Want comfort? Go for rice or porridge. Want heat and sourness? Order a pounded salad. Want to cool down? Look for ice, coconut or tea. The table below sorts the dishes covered here, and later sections explain what each one looks like and how to order it.

Grilled and skewered: moo ping, satay and sausages

Smoke is your signal. A small grill by the roadside usually means moo ping, short skewers of pork with charred edges and a sweet-salty marinade. Buy 3 or 4 skewers and eat them between bites of sticky rice. Satay brings yellow, turmeric-tinted chicken or pork with a peanut sauce and a sweet-sour cucumber dip. Both are easy wins on a first evening.

• Moo ping: fatty pork, smoky, sweet and salty. Sticky rice is sold separately.
• Satay: two dips, one chunky peanut and one clear with cucumber, chili and shallot.
• Sai oua: a Northern Thai pork sausage, coiled, smoky and heavy with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf and galangal.
• Sai grok Isaan: a pink, tangy Isaan sausage. One skewer is usually enough, often with ginger, cabbage and chilies on the side.

Noodles and rice plates

Plates like these suit a proper sit-down meal at a stall with plastic stools. Pad Thai is the safe opener, with bean sprouts, tofu, egg and ground peanuts, plus fish sauce, sugar, lime and chili powder on the side. Khao man gai pairs tender chicken rice with a dipping sauce. Pad kra pao is the spicy one, made with minced meat, garlic, chili and holy basil, and it usually arrives topped with a fried egg. Khai jiao is a crisp, fluffy omelet served over rice. Khao tom is a gentle rice soup with pork, chicken or shrimp, suited to breakfast or a late-night bite.

• Pad Thai: ask for dried shrimp or larger fresh shrimp if you have a preference.
• Pad kra pao: say your spice level before the wok goes on.
• Khao tom: the mildest option here, good after a heavy day.

Salads and fried bites

Som tam is shredded green papaya pounded with chili, lime and fish sauce. It lands sour, sweet, salty and spicy at once, and vendors often sell it beside grilled chicken. Isaan-style versions with fermented fish sauce smell stronger, so start with the standard Thai style. Tod mun pla is a different mood: golden fried fish cakes flavored with red curry paste and kaffir lime leaf. They taste savory but not spicy, with a sweet chili dip and sliced cucumber. If you want one more bite, try pla muek yang, grilled squid cut into pieces and served with a sour, garlicky green chili sauce.

Sweet snacks and desserts

Mango sticky rice is the dessert to try first. Sweet coconut rice comes with ripe yellow mango, and early summer is the season when mango tastes best. Khanom krok (also spelled kanom krok) are coconut-rice pancakes cooked in a cast iron mold. A set usually holds 3 to 5 pieces. Let them cool before you bite. Roti is a thin dough fried on a griddle with banana, egg or condensed milk. Coconut ice cream and shaved ice help when the afternoon heat hits. Our Thai street snacks guide covers more bite-sized sweets.

Drinks to pair

Thai iced tea is orange, creamy and sweet, so it balances pad kra pao or som tam. Fresh coconut water is lighter and works with almost anything. Fruit smoothies are good when the vendor blends whole fruit. Skip stalls that display rows of syrup bottles.

How to choose: first-timer or adventurous

Start with dishes that are cooked to order and served hot. Moo ping, pad Thai, khao man gai, khai jiao and mango sticky rice are the low-risk first picks. Move to som tam, sai oua and pad kra pao once you know your heat tolerance. Vegetarians should ask about fish sauce, shrimp paste and oyster sauce, since many dishes contain them. Grabbing something from a convenience store is a fair backup, and our 7-Eleven food guide shows what to buy. For baht figures, see current street food prices. Check the Tourism Authority of Thailand for official travel information, and browse the MICHELIN Guide Thailand if you want a sit-down restaurant.

Ordering and spice phrases

A few phrases go a long way. Say <em>mai phet</em> for no spice and <em>phet nid noi</em> for a little spice. Add <em>ka</em> if you are a woman or <em>khrap</em> if you are a man. To ask whether a wrapped snack is sweet, say <em>wan mai</em>. The vendor answers <em>wan</em> for sweet and <em>mai wan</em> for not sweet. Our street food ordering guide has the full script.

Common mistakes

Most problems come down to a few habits.

• Over-ordering spice: ask for a little first, then add chili sauce at the table.
• Expecting "no chili" som tam to arrive without chili: one often goes in anyway, so name the number you want.
• Assuming a dessert cart sells the same thing all day: vendors change stock by time.
• Buying smoothies from stalls with syrup bottles on display: pick vendors who blend fresh fruit.
• Eating khanom krok straight off the mold: wait a minute for it to cool.