The south has nearly Thailand’s entire 3,000-kilometer coastline, and consequently supplies most of the country’s seafood even today, when much of it is farmed. Seafood is the main protein of the Thai diet, and there are excellent seafood restaurants of every description all over Bangkok. The huge choice includes squid and giant prawns grilled on charcoal, curried crab and a host of fish dishes, both salt and fresh water. Common varieties include sea bass, grouper, mackerel and catfish, and these can be steamed, fried or grilled with ginger, basil, lemongrass, chili, garlic, celery and countless combinations from the Thai herbal spectrum.
Good seafood dining options are bucolic retreats on the Chao Phraya River, such as Baan Klang Nam and Kaloang Home Kitchen; street stalls like Rut and Lek, at the entrance of Soi Texas, which offers the nighttime hustle of Chinatown; and the circle of cafes around San Yarn seafood market. Transport terminals, entertainment areas and markets are prime locations for food stalls, and will often have examples of regional dishes from the north, south and northeast.
Sirirat Market, in Thonburi Thailand’s capital before Bangkok has one of the city’s best-known Som tam (Spicy Papaya salad) sellers.
Alighting at the river pier, walk the 20 meters through the covered area of the market and turn left. If you follow this lane to the end you’ll arrive at the famous open-air Patravadi Theatre, but we want to turn right after 30 meters into the narrow Trok Wang Dang. About 100 meters on the left, next to a shop called Wienna, is the raan aharn of Pa Sidaa, who set up here 40 years ago after locating to Bangkok from Kalasin, in the far northeast of the country.
She sits at a table in the entrance surrounded by small pots of ingredients including green papaya, palm sugar, garlic, dried shrimp, lime juice and chili pounding them in wooden mortars. Pa Sidaa makes 11 different kinds of som tam,including the fiercest, from san, which has crushed black crabs and powerful plaa raa, or fermented fish. Sit inside as the whirring fans try vainly to push a breeze through the open wooden shutters, and enjoy one of the world’s majestic salads as it explodes in your mouth.
Look out also in this market for Khun Fatima, recognizable n her long bright dress and Muslim headscarf. She has several types of naam phrik in large bowls on her wheeled cart. Making and selling Thailand’s oldest known foodstuff in the traditional way as an itinerant trader. She’s a living history lesson. The best kind, because she has samples to taste.