One way that I really enjoy when experiencing food is to visit markets, and I’ll go right off the bat now and say that one of the best markets I’ve been to is the Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market. The market is about 40mins by car/cab, we called an Uber because you effective search for your destination without having to speak with the driver and explain where you want to go.
The driver dropped us off in the main strip of the market and we were on our own. First off, if you’re looking for food, about half the stalls are just food, with an area specifically for more food – and that’s the one thing that I love about Thailand – their food culture is impressive!
Ms. Buddha and I roamed the impressive market (whilst also very hot) and effectively we were cows in a grass field where we just grazed on anything that took our fancy. The first think that got me were sausage balls that came with some fresh chilli and ginger. You take a bite of the sausage, then the chilli and the ginger and the favour is just out of this world!! Even Ms. Buddha loved it, especially the chilli!
Next we came across a vendor that was selling diced up roast pork – and for about 300 baht, you get a decent serving (not so massive that you can’t try anything else while also being enough for you to really enjoy it). The meat was incredibly tender and the fat to flesh ratio is just absolutely perfect! If you come across this at the market – please please try!
Then we came across something that I’ve been looking for specifically for quite a while, fried quail eggs, frankly I don’t know why I was searching so hard for it, but I just found the idea of a miniature fried egg to be amazing. The eggs came with some Maggi sauce sprinkled on top and tasted quite nice although a bit overcooked in my opinion (I like runny yolks) – not perfect, but also not too bad.
During this whole time, Ms. Buddha looked like she was constantly searching for something, and that something turned out to be satay. We found a store where there were a few people lining up (sign of a good stall) – and ordered. The meat itself was very flavourful although a little dry – the sauce itself was excellent though with a good chilli punch to it.
When it comes to pork, there’s one cut apart from the belly that I truly like, and that’s the neck – the neck offers up a very good blend of fat and meat, and this applies for even less expensive types of pork. The great thing is that because the muscles offer up a texture in the flesh that is quite springy as well.
We walked across a lady vendor who was cuttng up mountains of pork neck meat and asked for a set – it came with some soy sauce and this dish definite takes the cake along with the roast pork earlier! The texture was just perfect and because the meat is freshly cook, you can taste the meat – cannot be missed.
After grazing for the first round, we took a walk around and just explored the area a little – which is quite amazing in itself.
Ms. Buddha tends to have a bit more of a sweet tooth compared to me, and because it was so hot, coconut ice-cream was the solution to all our problems. After crossing an overhead area, there was a coconut ice cream master that had a massive line, Ms. Buddha immediately joined the line and I just walked off because I knew it will take a while.
The ice-cream was delicious, although I didn’t really fancy the rest of the things that came with it – so because Ms. Buddha gains more utils from this than me, she effectively had the whole coconut worth.
We roamed the market a bit more and there were heaps of other goods that were sold there in other areas, but the busiest areas tends to be the food stalls – and the great thing was that although their were tourists, it wasn’t all just tourists – so you get to mingle with the locals.
The last thing that finished our tour was a stall at the beginning that sold these taco looking sweets that Ms. Buddha really wanted – I didn’t have a taste but she seems to know what they were before ordering and looked completely satisfied afterwards – must be good.
If you can make the time, the Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market is definitely worth the trip – there are other floating markets in Bangkok, but those tend to have a lot more tourists than this one, which allows you a bit more room to explore.
Buddha Explores 