By Low Li Yien

For all the food lovers out there, Chinatown is definitely a place to go after dusk in Bangkok. This wonderful food haven is located along Yaowarat Road, Sampanthawong District. There are various food stalls that stretch along the road. Tables and chairs are set up along the sidewalk as wide as one meter or so, right beside the busy bustling street.

At one junction of the Yaowarat Road, we can find small stalls and shops that offer a variety of seafood such as fresh crabs, fish, prawns, lobster, cockles and others. You could either have it grilled, stir-fried with chili paste, curry powder, black pepper or steamed. These dishes can be eaten with rice and other stir-fried vegetables available on the menu. After seafood, you can hop on to the next stall opposite the street. Along that stretch, you will find a row of stalls that sell chicken noodles, pork-rib rice, fish noodles and other varieties at about 40-60 baht per bowl.

Besides noodles, there are some Chinese delicacies such as ‘yu piew’ soup (fish stomach) at 60 baht per bowl, bird nest desserts that range from 50 baht-300 baht depending on the quality as well as shark fin soup that cost above 300 baht. The food available here are a hybrid of Thai and Chinese cooking. You can have it spicy or not, unlike most Thai dishes you find in Bangkok. For snack lovers, there is a variety of finger food or light items you can pick on. Besides that, there are steamed spring rolls, lin chee kang (dessert with jelly, sago and lotus seed), fruit stalls, roasted chestnut, toast bread, cookies, taco balls (flour ball with vegetables and meat served with mayo and sweet sauce), sweet snacks and others.

This part of the town is rather different in comparison to other places. We can find food sign boards and the names of shops written in Chinese characters as well as Thai. Most traders and food sellers here speak and understand Mandarin. English is rarely spoken. In the night, there are not much places available for shopping. You could find items such as bags, bracelets and clothes in Chinese designs only in a few shops. Besides that, there are CDs and VCDs spread randomly along the way.

For those who want to shop in Chinatown, they should go there in the morning. The hawker stalls in front of the shop lots will disappear in the morning. We can find a number of shops selling Chinese herbal medicine, gold and jewelry, stuff for Chinese people to put in their house or their spirit house as well as dry food (snow fungus, mushroom, seaweed, nuts, red dates and etc.). Other than that, you can get cheap stuff such as toys, souvenirs, and others along Sampeng Lane. Morever, there is also the Pahurat Market where you can get great bargain on clothes and textiles. (http://www.thaistudents.com/guidebook/chinatown.html). Therefore, Chinatown Bangkok is a shopping haven in the morning and a food haven when the sun sets.