Thai Hawker Food

"The aim of this book is to help the reader identify a particular hawker food regardless of where it is being sold. It is not to single out and claim that one particular stall is better than another since that is a matte of personal taste. We leave it to the reader to discover and discern. Thailand is a paradise for hawker food and this book is probably the first complete easy-to-know and easy-to-find list of nearly all available dishes one is likely to encounter. Each item is described in detail. Sketches show where stalls are concentrated ; a glossary provides some guidelines to the local language and for added reading pleasure we have included some medical tips and grandma's myths. Most helpful of all, we think, is that we have also put the Thai script next to the English equivalent for each food item. The reason for doing this needs no explanation : just point out the item and give your widest blank smile to the hawker if all else fails. These 'moving restaurants' are a challenge to locals too, in the multitudes of dishes offered and the expanse of hawking territory. Your 'dining hall' may just be a small table with uneven legs and seasoned chairs crammed onto the smallest section of an already crowded narrow walkway. Or you are your own eating hall : standing up, leaning against a doorway, sitting in a park chair or resting on the stairs of a modern building. No problem, mai pen rai, as the Thai loves to say ; feel free, feel at home ; enjoy life, enjoy hawker food. Try everything once."--