[Travel Advice] Bangkok for Foodies

Eating my way through Bangkok

Random Observation/Comment #858: These mangos will haunt my dreams.

Things to know about Bangkok

• Thailand is mostly a cash economy. I exchanged $300 USD for a week and it was just about right.

• Street food is crazy inexpensive. I was having trouble spending 300 baht.

• Tipping is an interesting one. I hear it’s a good idea to give 10% for drivers.

• The BTS Skytrain, metro, and airline set of public transportation is convenient.

• Bangkok is a deceivingly large city. Walking between stations takes a pretty long time.

• Eat mangos. Eat all the mangos. These longer ones are a special sweetness.

• There are 4 layers to Bangkok: Underground for metro, street for cars and bikes, concourse for cross streets and getting on platforms, platforms for trains

• Download the Grab app. Grab rides are between 150-200 depending on location. I’ve found this to be more effective than hailing one from the street.

• Don't do two days of massages in a row (especially the Thai version). The Thai messages really hit the pressure points and may cause bruising.

• Visit some Asian malls. By comparison, US malls suck.

• Google maps wasn’t particularly helpful for street food stalls or generally reading the names of the restaurants. I definitely wrote fewer reviews.

• Google Maps is very good for recommendation on transportation routes. I love that it provides the platform and exit number with fairly accurate walking times.

• Most places are closed Sundays and restaurants don’t open until 9AM. The all you can eat breakfasts at hotels have a vast selection.

• Not all massage places are the same. I was recommended HealthLand and luckily had one a few blocks from my hotel: https://www.healthlandspa.com/en/home

Interesting side fact: There’s minimal cooking in Thailand because the street food is so cheap that it just barely breaks even on the ingredients, so you might as well go downstairs and get a $1 bowl or noodles instead of trying to make one. Mall restaurants are considered fancy and high end for dates. Only tourist go to restaurants in high rises.

As with the Japan Travel advice for foodies, I’ll just focus on the yummy noms I had. ICYMI:

[Travel Advice] Japan for Foodies

An extremely useful video that gave me an overview of the Bangkok map and neighborhoods is:

Commuting from the Airport to main areas is super cheap (35 baht) and convenient. Walk to the lowest floor of the airport and buy a token from the vending machine.

Mangos - I did have a mango every day I was in Bangkok and it was glorious. The sweetness is just perfect. I honestly don’t even need the sticky rice side. Just give me more mango. I bought mangos that I ate in my hotel bed. Sticky mango sheets.

Sugar cane juice - This is a Hong Kong favorite. I honestly forgot how unbelievably sweet it is, so I only had one. I rather get a whole piece of sugar cane and just gnaw on it.

Ramen at 1230am (499) - After coming from my Japan trip, this wasn’t half bad. They had a perfect egg and extra goodies with fresh garlic to add. Probably the best 12:30AM ramen I’ve eaten.

Breakfast Tom Yum noodles (107) - Solid first introduction to street noodles. I love the tom yum broth.

Pomegranate juice (50) - Also very sweet, but it cut the heat and humidity of walking around. I would also rather just eat the seeds without the concentration of the fresh juice (although I probably don’t need more fiber after all those mangos).

Wandering the breakfast streets - I needed to walk in order to eat some more.

Walking around flower market - Saturday street photography is one of my favorite pass times.

Coconut water (40) - Refreshing. Don’t forget to ask for them to scrape the coconut meat.

Palace exploration (300 entrance fee) - Remember to find long pants and wear shoes that are easy to slip off/on.

Thai blood soup (60) - The coagulated pigs blood is some of my favorite. I would recommend trying, but it’s probably not for everyone. I totally get why people wouldn’t eat street food. I definitely have a stomach of steel.

Ferries (40) - I wound up just buying individual tickets as I went to Wang Lang and then from Wang Lang back to the south area to catch the metro.

Wang Lang Market foods - Who doesn’t like walking around and looking at food? This was my favorite type of spot to explore.

Grilled Octopus 3 sticks (100) - 3 sticks of octopus is way too much for one person. This was really chewy and the sauce on top is amazing.

Beef soup (20) - I love this little mini portion. I was able to walk in and order the one thing on the menu to eat and leave. I can’t believe this was like $0.60.

Green tea frappe (55) - I feel like I needed some special drinks to get me through the market.

Thai Massage at Healthland (650 baht for 120 minutes) - The 7-story place has a huge operation with a legit setup. Attended often by Japanese businessmen.

Street shumai (36) - I wound up eating this and then walking back to get more. Who can beat $1 street shumai?

Random walk to get chicken satay on the street (90) - I loved how this one had a piece of pineapple on the front.

Watch Muay Thai at Rajadamnern stadium - It's a bit far to get to, which is annoying. True 30 min walk from the metro line stop. The doors open at 630pm but fights don't start until 7:45pm. Seats are all decent, so the higher end VIP is not really necessary. I would say that the ringside seats are the best deal.

Street food (60) - The late night dinner spots are my favorite.

Drinks at abandoned mansion (2000) - Okay, but these drinks are so fancy and I loved the singers. They had so much spunk.

Sunday morning random food at mall for devcon. I don’t know why I decided to pre-game for a food tour, but I’m glad I did.

Pork knuckle with rice (80) - This was delicious. That broth is magical.

Noodle soup with chicken and Pigs blood (70) - I will eat this everyday. Too bad I knew I’d be going to a secret food tour, or I’d get a third bowl of something.

Bangkok Secret food tour

Kao-phad- Kra-prow-kai - Stir fried chicken with basil and chili on top of rice. I love this kind of comfort food. I am definitely to the level of thai spicy.

Praying at temples - Loved these two stops learning about the giant golden buddah and making beautiful lotus flower designs. We also got a chance to shake the wish sticks and get our wishes. I got 5, which I guess is really good luck.

Somtam Thai - Papaya salad was delicious and made fresh in front of us. It really was very flavorful and great when made fresh.

Kha-nom-jeeb-kung and sala pao sai moo deang - I love Shrimp shumai and Pork buns. Really crunchy shrimp and fluffy dough for the pork buns.

Kao-kha-moo - Stewed pork knuckle with rice is a classic Chinese and Korean dish. It was told that we need to add the garlic, chili, and vinegary sauce all into one bite. It is definitely quite addictive to eat this way.

Moo/Kai Satae - Chicken and pork satay - This was a treat. The satay sauce is not too peanuty, but just the right amount of flavor.

Kouy teaw ped - Duck noodles were really flavorful.

Khanom Buang - Thai crispy pancake - Egg yolk sweet shavings on top were like cheese on top of a taco.

Bualoy nam khing - Black sesame balls in ginger soup - the soup was indeed very gingery, but the black sesame balls were made fresh with a lot of chewiness. This is a classic Hong Kong delicacy.

Michelin star donut - The green dipping sauce really made this shine. It was very fluffy and reminded me of the fried donut we’d put into congee, but a little sweeter.

Overall, an excellent food tour! Probably one of my favorites based on the types of dishes we explored. It was a little more interesting with the Thai spin on the Chinese cuisines, but no complaints on my side. I was very impressed with how massive the Chinatown is in Bangkok. I think it’s bigger than Hong Kong dai pai dong areas.

Dinner at Bangkok Heightz rooftop - If I wasn’t full enough, I went out to dinner afterwards with the DIN team. This blue crab with the yolk is really addictive bite with the crab fried rice. Unfortunately everything else was a bit mid for the price.

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Breakfast at Best Westin buffet - There’s nothing wrong with having a coconut water for breakfast. I also ate for like an hour trying out different dishes.

Chipotle of noodles at PARQ - I was really bad at choosing the things I wanted to put in my noodle soup dish, but it still turned out quite yummy.

Street mangos - I will always stop for a street mango, especially if it’s the size of my forearm.

Seafood buffet at Goji Kitchen and Bar within the Marriott - I didn’t expect myself to love a seafood buffet so much. They gave me 3 whole cuts of fatty yellowtail and I kept going back for more. I think I ate my price worth just of sashimi.

More mango porn. I love you, mangos.

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Breakfast skewers and yentafo noodle soup at Sai Nam Phueng Noodle Shop (80) - I went to this hole in the wall shop for breakfast noodles at 9AM. I just kept on getting the same thing and it was delicious.

Devcon fun and seeing the Opening ceremony - What a really cool production! On-chain minted frogs were great.

Lunch at devcon - More mango sticky rice

Hot pot DAO at shoo loong kan - Extremely delicious hot pot with some old friends. I think this would have been pretty expensive if we it was sponsored by this DAO

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AltLayer Rollup Day - Conference day with a huge announcement on the Linea Association and a timeline for a Linea token launch.

Builder nights at Emsphere - Epic rap battle and great seeing Joe talk about Network States.

Sushi pizza?!?! - Burn it. This was gross, but I felt the need to try it for science.

Ramen spot (450) - I may have just gotten lucky that the ramen places I’ve gone in Bangkok have been really delicious. This one had freshly seared pork.

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Thipsamai (300) - This is the place to go for a omu-pad-thai type of thing. The pad thai flavor was spot on, but it didn’t blow my mind. I thought it was clever.

Siam mall is huge. They sell cars in the mall and I loved just walking around and taking pictures of different food stalls.

DIN AVS Day - Half day event with our big announcement of DIN as an AVS partnering with EigenLayer and AltLayer on our journey. Super fun they hired a muay thai actor to make sure people stuck to their timeframe.

Wagyu dinner - This was absolutely delicious and would have been much more expensive in any other country.

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Street food noodles - I will keep coming here and ordering everything on the menu.

Freshly picked mango (200) - I will keep eating mangos. I honestly left out like 4 separate mango encounters, but this one was by far the best (and most expensive).

Panel at de:pin day - Yay adding value. Loved being on the panel and talking about all the great things with decentralized RPC networks and marketplaces.

~See Lemons Love Eating through Bangkok