The Demise of Bangkok Street Food….and Traditional Dining Reborn

For every travel article praising Bangkok’s eclectic range of street-food, there’s been a corresponding promise from Bangkok’s Metropolitan Authority to clear those famous food vendors from the city’s increasingly congested sidewalks and streets.

Until recently, those whispered political promises had been lost to the sound of crashing woks, the flashing of hot oil, the laughter of diners, and the clatter of plastic plates on folding metal tables. But in May of 2014, a new sheriff arrived in Thailand and achieved what had previously been considered, impossible. In double-quick time, the newly installed administration had united the once disparate branches of power and brought them all together on the same page. Unfortunately for many, the page they’d chosen hadn’t been found in any travel brochure.

Having been given a bite to match its bark, in 2015 the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority finally implemented its long promised program to reclaim the city’s sidewalks and streets. And, much to the delight of Bangkok’s increasingly influential bricks-and-mortar restaurant chains, by December of 2016 more than 15,000 independent food vendors had been swept from the city’s streets.

Removing such a large number of vendors from the dining supply chain has no doubt benefited the city’s growing number of branded restaurants, but with bricks-and-mortar comes costs, and while tourists enjoyed Bangkok’s street-food for the overall dining experience, cash-strapped Bangkokians enjoyed it mostly, for the affordable price.

Today, as tourists begin dining on burgers, pizza, ramen, and sushi in air-conditioned comfort, and food writers scurry away in search of new employment for their well-crafted clichés, budget conscious Thais are rediscovering a dining experience that’s perhaps, even more traditional than street-food: The Shop-House-Diner.

Beneath an eight-storey residential building in a northern suburb of Bangkok, Apple is opening the curtain on her ground-floor apartment. Beyond three small wooden tables and a hand painted sign - Khrua Bork Rak (Kitchen Speaks Love) - there’s little to suggest that her single-room apartment has become a popular local eatery.

There’s no notice to tell diners when Khrua Bork Rak will be open, and no menus to indicate what dishes might be available, when it is. But according to the constantly smiling Apple, when you know your customers, such administrative niceties are simply garnish.

Apple isn’t big on frills, and as each dish she serves is priced at around 35 Baht, or $1:00, garnish is a luxury she probably can’t afford.

This evening, Apple hopes to serve forty plates of food, but aside from the steamed and sticky rice, nothing else appears to have been prepared in advance. I ask if I’m keeping her from the kitchen, which is half of her apartment and a small square balcony at the rear, but Apple just laughs: How can she prepare food before she knows what her customers will ask for?

An hour earlier, Apple had scoured the local food market and inspected the produce on offer. With only the outline of a menu in mind, she’d negotiated the keenest prices for the best examples of everything, before returning home with her produce on a taxi-bike. So of course, Apple knows what ingredients she’ll be using tonight, but the way in which those ingredients will be combined and cooked, will to a great extent, be decided by her customers.

As a ‘ping’ from Apple’s phone announces her first order of the evening, she wanders away to her tiny kitchen. On the small open burner, oil heats in a wok while she furiously chops ingredients; pork, basil, ginger, red chilies, green beans, spring onions. Singing as she works, as the first dish of pad krapow moo saap – fried basil with pork – flashes to completion in the pan, she responds to her customer’s text message.

Laughing, as always, Apple tells me that the customer had requested shrimp for the second dish, but the shrimp in the market had been too expensive today, so she’ll be happy to accept chicken instead.

From the open doorway, a regular customer arrives and asks not for a menu, but for the total price of the order that Apple’s in the process of completing. With an appreciative nod, Apple tells her that the total charge will be 80 Baht, including two small bottles of water from the fridge.

Two minutes later, Apple hands me a carrier bag containing the two main dishes and a large bag of steamed rice, and asks me to take it to the taxi-bike waiting in the car park. Already in the rider’s hand is a bag containing two small bottles of water, a hand-written receipt and a 20 Baht banknote that I assume is his clients’ change.

Seeing that Apple had been busy in the kitchen, the regular customer had instinctively volunteered to act as Apple’s cashier and beverage server, and at Khrua Bork Rak, this level of customer interaction, is certainly not unusual.

Back in the kitchen, having successfully negotiated the food order for a newly arrived party of four, the volunteer cashier then fills their beverage requirements from the well-stocked fridge.

Nothing appears to have been written down, and when I ask with all sincerity how Apple manages to keep track of the individual checks, she simply laughs and indicates that I should step back from the flashing oil.

Three hours into service, and the three small tables have morphed into one large table for eight, a table littered with bottles, glasses, and various plates of food that diners appear to be sharing. With all eight stools occupied, additional customers take seats on the scooters parked nearby, and for these locals, this seems to be the most natural thing in the world to do.

As the evening continues and the food orders begin to mount, random customers are volunteering to assist. While Apple concentrates on the cooking, the impromptu cashier has returned to the kitchen and is now carefully bagging rice from the steamer. In between cleaning dishes, another regular customer has taken on the role of volunteer server while her partner restocks Apple’s fridge with sodas and beer.

Tonight is a busy night, and while Khrua Bork Rak might be a small family diner, the breadth and willingness of Apple’s unrelated family, appears endless.

At around nine o’clock, aware of what ingredients remain in her fridge, Apple tells the final diners what dishes she can produce, and each of her suggestions is eagerly accepted. At this hour, Apple’s customers are exclusively locals, residents from the apartments above.

Not many months ago, after finishing work these residents would’ve eaten street-food in the vicinity of their offices, before travelling home and vanishing into the isolation of their rooms. But, with the opening her shop-house-diner, Apple has revived the traditional Thai sense of community, and in doing so, made the daily lives of these hard-working Bangkokians, far brighter.

Tired but smiling, Apple declares the night to have been a success. Having served more than forty plates of food, Apple has not only covered her costs, including the rent on her apartment, but also returned a modest profit. At ten o’clock, as the curtain at Khrua Bork Rak is finally drawn, Apple’s fridge is empty, and tomorrow, the daily cycle of market-to-mouth community-dining, will begin afresh.

Thanks for reading along …….

Riding and smiling as always ….. Geoff @poorcirculation
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