Is Bangkok Street Food Moving into the Mall?
A recent article on AFAR.com titled "Is This the Future of Bangkok’s Street Food Scene?" describes the government in Thailand’s intent to reduce, relocate and close down some of the street market with food vendors in certain areas of downtown Bangkok.
What surprised me was their prediction that closure of iconic street markets will likely spur a growth of food courts inside modern shopping malls as street vendors migrate indoors. The article is interesting, and points out the benefit of more sanitary cooking conditions.
But, culturally at least from a traveler/tourist perspective, the demise of Asia street food markets saddens me a little. Night markets where cooking, selling, and eating food from street vendors is a cultural staple in many Asian countries. This version of a quick fast food meal is helpful for the locals, and also gives tourists a fantastic cultural experience in places like Thailand, Vietnam and China.
Many tourists fear food poisoning from street food vendors
As tourists, many American’s fear Asian street food. At least a lot of people that I know do. The main reason seems to be food poisoning, rather than the fear factor element of tasting a mystery meat or the shock value of crunching on a bug or scorpion.
As a person who has traveled throughout Asia, I personally have grown quite fond of the night market scene. Particularly in China, where I traveled for 10 straight years on business, I've had multiple occasions eating street food with my co-workers. I tasted things that quite frankly I never asked what they were, because that knowledge just wasn’t helpful in that moment. When offered unfamiliar potentially freaky items I would pause, smile, then in my mind say, “Well that looks like chicken” or some other familiar food. That simple tactic worked very well.
Did I ever get food poisoning? Yes once.
But keep in mind that with over 10+ trips to China alone, plus travels in South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, food poisoning has only happened to me once (so far... knock on wood) And what did I get sick from? An under cooked omelet from breakfast at a very fancy 5 star hotel – not kidding!
So much for the comfort and confidence that comes with those sanitary indoor cooking conditions. Perhaps I'll share my story of that delightful experience on another day, an another blog post.
CONSIDERING A TRIP TO ASIA? RESOURCES FOR YOU:
Affordable Asia Tours: Tour packages to multiple destinations in Asia. I've been on one of their Thailand Tours and it was great.
C Trip: A major travel search engine for Asia. This site was recommended to me by coworkers in China as a terrific source for finding travel arrangements, particularly hotel accommodations. First time users can get extra 10% off hotels. TripAdvisor: This is a good single resource for you to find and compare many things from flights to hotels and tour options. Huge database of customer reviews.
Expedia: One of the largest and best trusted travel booking services in the US, always a good place to check for flights, hotels, vacation rentals or things to do.