grilled sweet-and-sticky marinated pork skewers (so delicious!) | every-kind-of-‘ball you could want
there’s no better way to start a deluge of bangkok posts than with the famed chatuchak weekend market – a market square north of the city centre that’s packed with stalls selling nearly everything you could want (and most likely don’t need).
we went with the best of intentions – there are zones demarcated by category (the work of an optimist, really, as the whole place is really just a mix-and-match of stalls that set up wherever they can) – but we ended up just doing a stroll through alleys that caught our eye. which might, actually, mean we covered not half of the market that afternoon.
but you’re here for the food – so let’s go!
big-head prawns grilled with some deliciously-burnt shells – incredibly meaty and full of that seafoody sweetness (and so cheap at barely 8sgd a basket!)
what the market is, really, is an education in how well you can eat in thailand without ever stepping into a brick-and-mortar institution. stalls are set up every couple of steps selling delicious-looking-and-smelling (-and-usually-tasting) food of every kind: fresh cut fruit, meat skewers, fried chicken skin, whole salt-grilled fish – the list is endless and rather hunger-inducing.
cantonese-style roast pork (or siew yoke), sold in a huge slab or chopped up – layered with belly fat and a crisp, bubbled golden skin
when in bangkok, wake hungry – and skip that hotel breakfast. there’s so much on offer, at prices that are still ridiculously low, and we’ve found it to be both safe and extremely gastronomically-rewarding to eat at street stores.
best bet? go to a stall where the thais queue up at.
sugar-coated-and-cooked sticks of tamarind | adorably tiny fritters of fish cake and chicken balls – you’ll find fried bits-of-things like this all over the market
an asian tradition – bit of meat paste moulded to resemble other bits of meat (like those prawns in the corner), as well as sausages spliced to form different shapes | and what’s in this jar? next post!
more to come!
x
Chatuchak Weekend Market
to get there: take the BTS to Mo Chit station, take exit 1, and follow the crowds past the garden and into the market square
andmorefood 
so much meats! i think what’s attractive to the eyes is the sheer amount of everything you get to see (but not completely polish off)!
it’s a (I’m going to go all singaporean here) gastrohub!
I wish I had space to eat everything though :( but I have figured out the mathematics for the ideal group size when visiting:
x ∈ Z, where x is the number of fishballs on a skewer
Wow, this place is fascinating! Amazing photographs. I can’t believe that they bother to mold meat paste into ‘meat shapes’. Sounds like so much trouble… interesting though. Thanks for sharing this with us!
if you take a look at those orange ‘prawns’ on the bottom left, they are actually fish paste molded into the curves of a prawn and dyed for even more realism..
you should venture into your local asian store, and give these a go :D
Great photos! I didn’t last long visiting this market, there were just too many people! I remember getting coconut milk ice cream though and it was fabulous. Thanks for sharing your photos with us :)
thank you very much! I know, it was such a crush – we were lucky we visited during thailand’s tourism off-peak, or I’d bet we’d barely be able to walk around.
stick around please, more photos are coming (: and thank you for being so kind to stop by.
Thank you for taking me along with you. What a fabulous post.
thank you janet, you’re too kind!
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Would love to follow along and taste all the things in your photos!
it would also help us eat even more!
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