Thai street food is one of my all time favorite cuisines. From Bangkok street food markets to tiny hidden Thai snack stalls, you will find delicious authentic Thai food all throughout the country.
These are some of the best Thai food dishes around, as nominated by some of my favorite travel bloggers. From classic Pad Thai to more adventurous dishes like Kaprao Moo Grob, once you try these popular Thai food dishes, you will never look back.
Read on to learn how to traverse the Thai street food scene, and what you need to add to your culinary bucket list!
What Is Thai Food?
Apart from being delicious? Popular food in Thailand has many strong flavors, all perfectly balanced (I’m drooling just thinking about it). The Thai people use mainly spicy, sweet, salty, and sour flavors in their dishes.
Most Thai street food can be steamed, fried, boiled, sautéed, or even eaten raw. Similar to Greek food, Thai cuisine is created with mainly locally sourced ingredients, which gives it a flavor you can’t recreate properly anywhere else.
Is Thai Food Spicy?
Short answer, yes. Many of the best Thai food dishes are made naturally spicy. Spices like chilis, ginger, garlic, and peppercorns give Thai food its signature spicy kick.
Spicy food has a ton of health benefits, and is definitely worth trying in Thailand. Large amounts of spice help reduce bacteria and and parasites in the body, which will help make you feel great. They also help to improve blood circulation which in turn, helps to cool you down in the Thai heat!
I am a fan of spicy food, so I didn’t run into any problems while I was in Thailand, but my friend wasn’t able to handle a few of the dishes he ordered before seeing a Ladyboy Cabaret. Read below to learn how to order your food without spice if you aren’t a big fan!
Why Thai Food Is The Best
When you order Thai street food, you will learn very quickly how much better it tastes than Thai food you can get anywhere else in the world. This has to do with how fresh and authentic the ingredients are!
The climate, conditions, and hardworking farmers in Thailand create ingredients that are used throughout the country. These fresh ingredients don’t hold a candle to anything you can get elsewhere. If you love Thai food, you can’t miss trying it out authentically!
In other parts of the world – more specifically Europe and North America – Thai food is made a lot sweeter and with a ton of ingredients not found in traditional Thai food such as MSG. If you visit Thailand, taking a Thai cooking class is a great way to bring home some of the authentic cooking skills found throughout the land of smiles!
Thai food is also cheap, very cheap. You can easily find Thai street food that will cost you about 40 THB or $1 US. If that isn’t an excuse to eat your heart out, I don’t know what is!
How To Order Street Food in Thailand
Thai street food stalls are pretty easy to navigate, even if you don’t speak Thai. During my Bangkok Street Food Tour, I found that heavier tourist areas such as the Southern Thailand Islands or Bangkok would often have prices posted in the standard decimal notation. Street food names will also often be written in English.
If you in an area like Northern Thailand where tourism isn’t as common, you might not see prices or English Thai food names posted. I usually stick my hand out with about 150-200 THB and the person running the stall takes the total amount. Just make sure you aren’t getting ripped off by paying 500 THB for a Pad Thai!
Another great way to make sure you are paying correctly is to let a local order their food first, and see what they order. You might get to try something new, and you will know you are paying the correct amount for your Thai street food!
Here are some useful words and phrases to help you order Thai street food:
- Moo – Pork
- Gai – Chicken
- Neua – Beef
- Talay – Seafood
- Pla – Fish
- Nam – Water
- Mai ped – Not spicy
- Ped mak mak – Very spicy
- Tow ry ka/kraap – How much?
- Tang mod tow ry ka/kaap – Altogether how much?
- Arroy – Delicious
The Best Thai Street Food Dishes
Without further ado, find out what Thai street food dishes my favorite travel bloggers can’t live without! These should definitely be added to your must-try list while you are planning a trip to Thailand!
1. Coconut Ice Cream
Katherine from suggests grabbing some coconut ice cream while you are in Thailand. She found some mouthwatering ice cream in Koh Lipe!
Countries in Southeast Asia are abundant in coconuts, so of course this fruit is often used in local foods! In Thailand, coconut ice cream is often sold by mobile carts or streetside stalls.
Coconut ice cream is delicious and refreshing, perfect for a hot summer’s day. It is served in coconut bowls, with layers of fresh coconut and then home-made coconut ice cream. Toppings may vary. Peanuts are a commonly added, while others also have an option to add other fresh fruits or bits of chocolate and other sweets. Sometimes condensed milk is also added.
Aside from this, coconut ice cream is also sold with bread or sticky rice. No matter how it’s presented or other ingredients added, the mild yummy taste of ice cream always get the spotlight.
Whenever you’re in Thailand, make sure to look out for carts or stalls selling coconut ice cream!
2. Stir-fried Crispy Pork Belly with Holy Basil (Kaprao Moo Grob)
Allan from Live Less ordinary suggest trying his favorite Thai street food dish, Kaprao Moo Grob. He loved getting it while trying street food in Bangkok!
Pad Kaprao (stir-fried holy basil) is not so well known globally, partly due to the short-lived lifespan of holy basil leaves, but it is otherwise one of the most popular dishes on the streets and shophouse menus of Bangkok.
I find it to be best paired with crispy pork belly (Kaprao Moo Grob) where it fuses the crispy pork belly, with garlic, red bird’s eye chillies, and a seasoning of oyster sauce, light soy sauce, and fish sauce. Before mixed with a handful of spicy and peppery holy basil leaves, and serving on rice.
This is dish is often perfected with a fried egg on top, and is just ridiculously quick and simple to make, so it is often the go-to dish for short lunch breaks, as well as a takeaway option served in disposable containers with a plastic spoon. Expect to pay around 40-50 Baht with a fried egg.
3. Mango Sticky Rice
James from This Travel Guide wants to make sure everyone tries this Thai street food staple: mango sticky rice.
One of my favourite Thai dishes is Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Neeo Mamuang). This is one of the more time consuming dishes to make at home, unlike say a Thai Green Curry, and it’s not always available at Thai restaurants around the world. This means I rarely get to eat it unless I’m in Thailand or at a special event like Thai Park in Berlin. The sticky rice part of the dish contains glutinous rice, coconut milk, and sugar and it’s essentially a Thai version of rice pudding. It’s much sweeter than traditional rice pudding, and just as heavy, but the fresh mango really helps to break it up. Mango Sticky Rice isn’t as readily available as other Thai dishes, like Pad Thai for example, but you normally don’t have to look too far to find it. Often, whenever there are a group of street food vendors in one area, one of the vendors will sell Mango Sticky Rice. If you haven’t already tried it, be sure to add it to your bucket list.
4. Pad Thai
Alex from Swedish Nomad nominates Pad Thai as his favorite Thai street food dish. You can’t go to Thailand without trying it!
Pad Thai is one of the most classical dishes from Thailand, and a healthy street food that will make you full for a while. It’s also popular to order in restaurants, and you can basically find a pad thai stall or restaurant anywhere in Thailand.
The dish consists of rice noodles with stir-fried eggs and veggies such as bean sprouts and could also be either vegetarian with tofu, or meat based with chicken or shrimp. The dish also includes shallots, chili, fish sauce, lime and often times chopped peanuts.
Whenever I think of Thai food, Pad Thai comes first to mind, even though there are so many delicious dishes to eat in this lovely country.
5. Thai Iced Tea (Cha Yen)
LeAnna from Well Traveled Nebraskan says that you can’t visit Thailand without trying their world famous Thai iced tea.
While not a street FOOD, you can’t go anywhere in Thailand without seeing the decadent Cha Yen (Thai Iced Tea) stalls lining the streets, and for good reason. This decadent drink is the PERFECT mixture of herbal tea with sweetened condensed milk and when made iced, it is irresistible on any hot day wandering a city or to just enjoy while lounging on the beaches.
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that on all of my Thailand trips that I didn’t get at least three cups of Cha Yen a day!! And for often no more than $2 (USD) why not splurge on several a day!!! And pretty much no matter what street food you get to fill your belly, a cup of Thai Iced Tea is the perfect compliment to wash down the spicy street foods!
Another reason why I love Thai Iced Tea? It’s really easy to order the tea leaves online and make at home, bringing you back to the amazing Thailand, all from the comfort of your own kitchen!
6. Thai Green Curry
Sally from Our 3 Kids VS The World recommends trying some Thai Green Curry while you are in Thailand.
Thailand has the most amazing food, it has to be one of my favourites to eat when travelling to Asia. Top of the list on any Thai menu for me is Thai green curry. Green chillies are reported to be the hottest while the red chillies are reportedly less so. I however do not like overly hot food so always ask for a very mild Thai green curry and I have found this is also suitable for the kids.
Thai green curries consist of coconut milk, lime leaves, green curry made from green curry, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime peel cumin and white peppercorns just to name a few. There is generally a choice of beef or chicken and will also have green beans and bean sprouts, carrots and with coriander for decoration. I have mine with white rice so that it soaks up all the glorious sauce and nothing goes to waste! I do however, have to share mine with the kids now they know how delicious it is. There are often vegetarian options for this delicious dish as well.
