What to eat in Bangkok
Bangkok eats on the street: som tam and laab, boat noodles, khao man kai, tom yum, curries by colour, mango sticky rice and coffee with condensed milk.

[ ] Eat som tam
    Green papaya pounded in a mortar with lime, fish sauce, garlic, chilli and dried shrimp. It is made to order, and you can say the number of chillies out loud while it is being pounded.
[ ] Try tom yum
    A hot and sour soup built on lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves with prawns. It comes clear, nam sai, or with coconut milk and chilli paste, nam khon, and those are two different dishes.
[ ] Eat khao man kai
    Poached chicken with rice cooked in chicken stock and fat, served with a ginger and soy sauce and a bowl of broth. A plain dish that lives entirely on the quality of its sauce.
[ ] Try pad krapao
    Meat stir-fried hard with holy basil, garlic and chilli, served over rice with a fried egg on top. The most ordered lunch in Thailand and the default when nobody can decide.
[ ] Try boat noodles
    A dark, thick broth spiced and enriched with pork or beef blood, with noodles, meat and meatballs. Portions are tiny and people order five to ten bowls in a row.
[ ] Build your own noodle bowl
    A noodle stall where you choose the noodle, the broth and the toppings, then finish the flavour yourself from the four jars on the table: sugar, chilli in vinegar, dried chilli and fish sauce.
[ ] Eat khao kha mu
    Pork leg braised for hours in a dark sauce with star anise and cinnamon, served over rice with a boiled egg and pickled mustard greens. Look for the stall with the whole leg on display.
[ ] Get to know Thai curries
    Green curry is the hottest and uses fresh chilli, red is milder and made with dried, and massaman is sweet and spiced with peanuts and cinnamon, inherited from Persian traders.
[ ] Try laab
    A salad of minced meat with toasted rice powder, lime, chilli and mint, from the Isan north-east. Eaten by hand with sticky rice, rolled into a ball.
[ ] Grab moo ping with sticky rice
    Pork skewers marinated with coconut milk and coriander root, grilled over charcoal, with a bag of sticky rice. The classic commuter breakfast by the metro from six in the morning.
[ ] Eat mango sticky rice
    Ripe mango with sticky rice soaked in salted coconut milk, scattered with toasted mung beans. The best mango season runs March to June.
[ ] Try kanom krok
    Small coconut pancakes baked in a dimpled iron pan: crisp outside and almost liquid inside. Sold on the street by the dozen in a paper box.
[ ] Get a banana roti
    Thin dough stretched and fried in butter with banana, condensed milk and chocolate, then cut into squares. Late-night street food from the Muslim south.
[ ] Drink cha yen
    Strong orange spiced tea with condensed and evaporated milk, served in a bag over ice with a straw. The colour comes from dye, and that has been part of the drink since the mid-twentieth century.
[ ] Drink fresh lime juice
    Lime juice with water, sugar and a pinch of salt — the standard non-alcoholic drink in the heat. The salt is there to replace what you sweat out rather than for flavour.
[ ] Drink local beer over ice
    Thai lager is drunk over ice, which is not barbarism but necessity: at thirty-five degrees a bottle warms up in five minutes. A bucket of ice arrives automatically.
[ ] Try ya dong
    A strong herbal root infusion sold by the shot from street carts and chased with pickled fruit. Cheap, strong and entirely local.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/food-bangkok