Street food is not the risk people think it is. Here is what we actually watch for.
Busy is safe
High turnover means fresh stock and hot pans. A stall with a queue of local office workers at 12:30 is a better bet than an empty air-conditioned restaurant.
Watch it cooked
Food that goes from wok to plate in front of you is the safest thing you will eat all day. Pre-cooked items sitting in trays at ambient temperature are the ones to skip.
Ice is usually fine
Commercial ice in Bangkok is made from treated water at licensed plants — the cylindrical kind with a hole through the middle. It is not the hazard the old advice suggests.
The four places we always take people
Chinatown's Yaowarat Road after dark. Or Tor Kor market for produce and a sit-down lunch. Any sois off Sukhumvit for grilled pork and sticky rice. And one proper boat-noodle stall, where the portions are deliberately tiny so you order four.
If you have a sensitive stomach
Start with grilled and stir-fried, leave raw salads like som tam until day three, and carry oral rehydration salts. Two days of adjustment is normal and not the same as food poisoning.
