Snack crawl
The Noodle Crawl: Bangkok
Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Bangkok sell out long before the guidebooks say they open.
- Stops
- 7
- Walking
- 3 km
- Budget
- Moderate
Before you set off
Finish somewhere sweet. There is always room; it is a separate stomach. Walk between stops. It is the only reason any of this is physically possible. Carry cash, tissues and a bottle of water. Thank us later. We recreated this one at home — see the recipe section — but it never tastes quite like it does on a kerb at midnight.
Walk between stops. It is the only reason any of this is physically possible. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. Carry cash, tissues and a bottle of water. Thank us later. Stop 12 is a hole in the wall with four stools and a queue. Join the queue. The queue knows.
Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Bangkok sell out long before the guidebooks say they open. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. Carry cash, tissues and a bottle of water. Thank us later. Here the lemon is piled on with abandon and the chilli is not a suggestion.
Stop 1: The basement counter near the flower stalls
A spoonful of nigella seeds does the heavy lifting here, giving the filling a depth that tastes like you cooked all day. Order one portion between two at every stop. A crawl is a marathon made of sprints. There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are noodle — the kind you clear your evening for. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering.
The owner, Aroha, has been folding these by hand for longer than we have been alive and has opinions about fish sauce. There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are noodle — the kind you clear your evening for. If you can chop sweetcorn and hold a wire rack, you can make this. We promise. Finish somewhere sweet. There is always room; it is a separate stomach.
Tomasz, who runs our test kitchen on Thursdays, calls this “the one that ruins other snacks for you”. There are snacks you eat standing at the counter, and then there are noodle — the kind you clear your evening for. If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. The trick with noodle is patience: let the filling take on proper colour before you even think about moving it.
Stop 2: The basement counter near the bus depot
Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Bangkok sell out long before the guidebooks say they open. We tested this 3 times in the Snack Crawl kitchen, and the version with smoked paprika won every single round. We recreated this one at home — see the recipe section — but it never tastes quite like it does on a kerb at midnight.
It reheats well, travels well, and disappears at parties at a frankly alarming rate. We like to make the filling the night before, when the kitchen is quiet and nobody is asking what is for dinner. If you can chop mint and hold a wire rack, you can make this. We promise. Every stop on a good snack crawl needs a headliner, and at our table it is usually this.
If you only have time for one stop, make it this one and order the thing everyone else is ordering. A spoonful of masa harina does the heavy lifting here, giving the filling a depth that tastes like you cooked all day. Start hungry and start early; the best stalls in Bangkok sell out long before the guidebooks say they open. It reheats well, travels well, and disappears at parties at a frankly alarming rate.
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