Previously I described the food I experienced during the Historic Bangrak Tour during a visit to Bangkok. That same day, I took another tour in the evening – the Midnight Food Tour by Tuk Tuk. I figured that as long as I am in Bangkok, and as long as I greatly enjoy food, instead of trying to find a place to eat for dinner I would do another tour in the evening and experience more flavors.
This time I was on-time to the tour but barely. I had only recently returned to my hotel after getting lost near Wat Pho in the rain, looking for a taxi that would take me back to the hotel (and failing), and ultimately taking the crowded, dark river ferry back down to a metro station I was familiar with. On my way to the meeting point, I walked right past the group and only found them again a few minutes later. I’m just not very good at following certain directions.
The tour included not only food but some tourist activities as well. Our first stop was near the meeting place where there was what seemed like an outdoor Buddhist temple that was teeming with devotees and tourists. There was dancing and music, a shrine in the middle of the square, and some holy water in the corner, which we all got a quick splash of. It was a walled enclosure that led out into a street full of people, noise, and general lively cacophony.
An extra bonus in the tour was the travel medium: tuk tuks, which are basically auto rickshaws. It was was a glorious night, where a breezy coolness had settled after the freshness of the evening storm, perfect for the open-air seating of the tuk tuk. I would have been reticent to hail a tuk tuk on my own as the concept seems less secure than a regular vehicle but in any case it was an enjoyable and efficient way of getting around.
Our first food stop was for chicken and rice (Kao Mun Kai). This was the only meal where I didn’t get all the fixins: in this case, I declined the skin as it wasn’t crispy and there was no reason to subject myself to limpid chicken skin. To be honest, the meal wasn’t that great (considering the relative expectations) but tasty enough. At the same establishment, we followed up with some mango and sticky rice, and some fried dough with green custard for dipping. Now that was good!
After the chicken and rice, the next stop was for Guay Tiew Kua Gai. When we got there, and we received our noodles, everyone was a little disappointed with the first impression. They didn’t even seem like noodles. However, after some chili sauce, and mixing in a runny egg, the result was the absolute best thing I ate in Thailand. The noodles had an amazing crunchy exterior that surrounded the fluffiness of the noodle itself. After the meal, we stepped out in the alley to see how it was prepared and it seems that it’s the addition of an egg that provides the crispiness to the noodles. It’s an unparalleled flavor and texture experience.
After the noodles, we set the food aside for a bit and became tourists. Our first stop was Wat Pho, which I had already visited during the day to see the huge reclining Buddha and to get a Thai massage. However, at night, without anyone around, there was a serenity to the place that added to a sense of reverence. Here, a Belgian girl in the group started having stomach issues – one stop too early, the truly adventurous food was still upcoming.
After Wat Pho, we stopped by the Flower Market. What a fascinating place – at 11 PM at night, it was full of flower merchants, an endless chain of floral vendors lining both sides of the street. Apparently, flowers are rather important in Thailand and, apparently, the Flower Market really gets busy in the wee hours of the morning. As we were walking through the market, our tour guide flagged down a food cart and we were able to experience something out of left field: insects! There was quite a variety on offering, including small frogs, as well as some items even our guide didn’t recognize. I sampled the cricket (crunchy and well-seasoned, I wouldn’t say it’s tasty but just a regular snack) and the silk worm (I’ll pass on these guys in the future). If you think about it, eating an insect is not so different than eating say shrimp – though shrimp is much tastier.
After the market, our guide took us to a swanky bed and breakfast with a view of Wat Arun across the river. We had a quick midnight drink on the rooftop bar as the light breeze accompanied some Thai Singha beer. Following the brief sojourn, we had our final meal of the tour: Pad Thai. Interestingly, the protein of choice for pad thai in Thailand is almost always shrimp. We were offered two choices: classic Pad Thai with dried shrimp, or a different take on it with regular shrimp as the protein and the entire thing encased in a membrane of egg. I took the classic. It was quite good but it didn’t blow me away. The Guay Tiew Kua Gai from earlier had set a new bar for noodles.
After the meal, the tour was over and the Tuk Tuk took me back to my hotel. This too was an experience as the driver didn’t really know where the hotel was and it seemed to take much longer than I expected. I was getting a little worried but was unable to rouse myself to panic because of the delicious food coma that was coming on. In any case, we finally found the hotel and a tasty day in Bangkok was over.