Spent yesterday evening in bowels of Yaowarat, Bankgok's Chinatown, with China Williams, guidebook author and self-proclaimed "huge fan, really big, immense..." of RealThai, and Alex, a representative of her publishing company. In an instance of what China refers to as "research", we scanned the area in search of interesting eats--and ate them. Yes, believe it or not, some people get paid to do this! I, unfortunately was not getting paid, but enjoyed the experience nonetheless. I hadn't been to Chinatown late at night in quite a while, and was quite blown away by the food choices. After wandering a bit, this is where we eventually decided on this Chinese-style eatery with heaps of prepared foods to choose from:
The place is called Khao Tom Plaeng Naam, and is located at the Charoen Krung end of Thanon Plaeng Naam. They're apparently open 24 hours, which explains why some of the choices looked less fresh than others, but we still had pretty good meal of stewed pork ribs, fish steamed in garlic, flash-fried morning glory and deep-fried fish.
Dessert took the form of a fruit smoothie at this stall on Thanon Yaowarat, directly across from Chraroen Krung Soi 16:
I think it's only open in the evenings, but I really recommend it if you're in the area. It served by far the biggest, and probably the best smoothie I've had in ages.
Due to a Chinese holiday, the main market street, Soi 16, was open late, and was selling an obscene amount of boiled chickens (given as offerings, I'm told):
And despite the late hour (we were there at midnight), there was an equally obscene amount of people still to be found eating in Chinatown:
The people above are eating kuay jap, a thick, slimy-ish "stew" of pork at an extremely popular stall near the smoothie joint, but in Chinatown you can also get grilled seafood:
birds' nest soup:
stir-fried veggies:
noodles:
khao man kai, Hainanese chicken rice:
or the best of both worlds, noodles AND poultry, here barbecued duck:
Again, please keep in mind that these foods are only available at night, typically not until about 8 PM. Chinatown's fresh markets are fun in the mornings, but the area is not a terrific food desination during the day.