Eating In Translation

Khanom pang ai tiim vendor

Several New York sightings of ice cream sandwiches — and several days of hot humid weather — reminded me of a vendor I once came across in Lumphini Park, in Bangkok. He offered a choice of flavors for his khanom pang ai tiim, which in its more elaborate renditions is sometimes translated as "sundae in a bun." All I know of this flavor is that it was flecked with green and popular with the Thai-speaking customers ahead of me. The seven small scoops sat high on the bread because they rested on a seam of sticky rice. Grand total: 10 baht, or about 28 cents at the time.

Khanom pang ai tiim vendor
Lumphini Park, Bangkok
(From a December 2006 visit)

Streetside noodle restaurant

These egg noodles (50 baht) — served with roast pork, crispy pork, and pork wontons, soup on the side — weren't exceptional themselves, but you have to love a street-food culture that doles out crabmeat as as freely as a garnish.

Streetside noodle restaurant
Sukhumvit 38 night market, Bangkok

Mango stall

Regular readers of this website know my fondness for sweets, street eats, and, when time is of the essence, eats you can eat on the street. Indeed, on many other food sites that accept reader comments, a "mango flower" stands in as my avatar.

Some desserts, however — such this unusually creamy-fleshed mango with coconut milk sticky rice (60 baht) — insist on a more leisurely approach. A reminder for me, if not for you.

Mango stall
Sukhumvit 38 night market, Bangkok

Chote Chitr

The banana flower isn't bouquet material.

Streetside orange peels

If not for the newspaper, I would have walked right by.

Kaloang Home Kitchen

"It might look like you're cutting through someone's back yard."

Ba Mee Hua Toe

Simply finding the shop known as "Big Head Noodles" is quest in itself.

Iced-dessert vendor

My bowl of soft-textured fruits and roots under shaved ice and syrup (20 baht) included pumpkin, taro (being sliced in the second photo), cantaloupe, and something that resembled finger bananas in everything but banana flavor.

Iced-dessert vendor
Unmarked lane extending south from Th. Nakhon Chai Si, near Th. Samsen and Si Yan Market, Bangkok

Cooked-food street cart

Red is the more typical cautionary color

Fruit-snacks vendor

Sugar and spice and guava that's sliced (15 baht). I'm pretty sure, anyway, that the fruit in question was guava; there's no doubt the granular seasoning had some shrimp-paste action going on.

Fruit-snacks vendor
Th. Nakhon Chai Si near Soi Si Yan 3, Bangkok