Cheap food in Thailand: it's pretty much all over the place except....
In tourist areas. In this country the food tends to be quite expensive there and to be honest with you, it isn't very good either. I am not an expert in Thai dining but the food seems inauthentic or even made incorrectly at these places as well. This is likely true in most (if not all) other countries in the world.
But let's focus on the positive, because this article is not about the tourist areas.
One of the best things about visiting / living in Thailand is the food. Combine this with the fact that if you know where to look it is also extremely cheap, and it's easy to stay happy in a dining sense.
this is not overpriced tourist-area food, it's just a picture
A good rule of thumb in Thailand is that if you are looking at a restaurant from the outside and there are a bunch of Thai people in there, it's probably a good restaurant. Obviously this doesn't apply to foreign food like Italian, Mexican, and Indian restaurants in Thailand as these sorts of places are mostly visited by foreigners. However for all things Thai, the rule applies.
During the time that I have lived here I have treated visitors, both friends and people who were staying in the various businesses i owned, to a visit to a restaurant that they almost certainly wouldn't have found on their own. Some of these places were in out-of-the-way locations, the staff spoke no English, and the menu was only in Thai.
I can speak / read Thai so they had a good guide but that is not what I am going to focus on here because it would be completely unreasonable otherwise.
right, so just learn all of these and then we'll go get some food!
One of the hardest parts about finding these places is that Thailand restaurants, outside of major areas like Bangkok, don't generally have much in the way of a web presence nor do they care about a good (or bad) review on Trip Advisor. Most popular places around where I live become popular by good ol' fashioned word-of-mouth and just having a good reputation locally. I guess what I am trying to say is that your smartphone isn't likely going to be of much help as far as this is concerned.
There is one thing you can count on though that will exist in really any community in this country: Markets. Market food is kept good (and cheap) because a vast majority of their customers are local. If someone is making bad or overpriced food word travels quickly and they are phased out. It really is as simple as that. Basic economics at their rawest!
It is possible to have good food, all day long, for less than $5 US per day. Here is a video explaining exactly how to do that (I am not the person in the video, but I do know him and I obtained his permission to share it before posting here.)
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Some of my favorite take away places are street stalls where I can get a near mountain of rice with crispy pork, fried chicken, boiled chicken, or all three for 50 Baht (about $1.35.) You also get free water and a bowl of pretty tasty soup. this is extremely common and is almost always sold at an outside stall surrounded by folding tables and plastic chairs.
So basically if you are a stingy-pants but still want to eat good food over here it is very very possible in Thailand.
What do you think? Do you like Thai food? do you have similar markets around where you live? I would love to hear about it if you do. As always thanks for reading and I welcome your comments.
Foods in Ghana, especially those in the local markets, are very cheap compared to that of the restaurants. Similar to those in Thailand, good foods' spots are spread by word of mouth and the huge queue in front of such eating place- online reviews about such eating places are non-exitent. The ordinary Ghanaian can thrive on 3 USD, approximately, one steem per day. Most local dishes can be very cheap, healthy, and bountiful at the same time. It's nice to see these two countries share a common cultural trait. Insightful article. Kudos.
Looks delicious! Very interesting to learn about how much a person can survive or in this case thrive off of compared to other countries. I often find myself going to local markets instead of restaurants to save money and get fresher ingredients.
what a fantastic response. that dish above looks great! Thanks for reading!
I got a terrible desire to eat this.
Something I've noticed from my travels to Asian countries is that the restaurants usually give you a lot of food for cheap compared to places like the United States. In the US you could easily pay 25 USD for a meal and still be hungry. When I was in Korea I was able to get a full meal and a ton of sides for less than 10 USD and I was never hungry. This probably goes back to cultural norms as Asian countries are more collective rather than individualist. Thanks for sharing some of the Thai culture! I definitely need to visit some day, and eat ;)
I love thai food:X:X:X Great video! I can't wait to go back in Thailand:X
ah the ol' fried rice in a pineapple. good shot!
yes, and Pad Thai..oh..I love Pad Thai:X:X:X
Pad Thai. No thanks. It have more sugar than actual food
sugar in pad thai??? really?
Yes. And allot.
Should I say I am foody?
Ok, yes I am, I love great meals, and always wanna know how to prepare them.
Thailand seem a great place to from your description to satisfy my "foodiness" hahahahahaha.
Where I come from, food is relatively cheap, but you know the word cheap itself is relative because all fingers are not equal, and what is cheap for Mr. A may not be for Mr. B and vise versa. But generally speaking, you can get a nice meal that is not very expensive, like about $2.
Thank you for sharing this @gooddream. I will love to visit Thailand one day. How would food be expensive and not very good?. I was certain that you would get good local foods and maybe for less despite Thailand’s less presence on web. The foreign dishes in the tourist area might be the cost for the high prices in those other restuarants
They have 47 letters in their alphabets. Some of the alphabets look familiar with the Hebrew alphabets too
the fact that the food in the tourist areas are expensive is likely because the land they are almost certainly renting from someone else is very expensive. The food quality is poor because foreigners are going to be less picky about what a dish tastes like because many of them are unfamiliar with the dishes they are ordering.
Oh so true. Renting in a tourist area will actually cost a lot. The expensive prices are compensation for this. The foreigners are mainly unfamiliar with the dishes so they may not really be able to say if good or bad. They just go ahead and order.
Thank you for sharing nice food and travel related post @gooddream.........
Looks like these foods of your post seem to be many tests......I would like to eat too much food......I never went to the thailand. If I ever go, I'll definitely test this food.......
A place where you can get free water and even free food? I surely would love to be there and i know my friends in German would love to visit the place too, well i dunno any part of Ghana that provide any of those free services, because if i did, i would be sure to live there however the market rate is way much affordable than that of the restaurants and the likes which is very good because if not the starvation would have been seriously serious. For those of us on steemit i can say, daily posts can cater for our meals😄, you should visit Ghana too, soon.
Ghana has the privileged position of being my most hated football (soccer) team in the world. But this is only because they eliminated my team from the world cup twice :)
The soup and water is only free if you are eating the main course. haha
I bet we would still eliminate you if there were to be a local dish or food competition. Haha
Naturally food are expensive for a common man in Nigeria (that's is where I belong) smile, but more expensive in tourist centers, hotels and some other recreational centers, just like in Thailand.
Meeeeen! I think I will have issue with food in Thailand myself, because I can't imagine learning all those consonants just to order for a meal... Lol
Basic economy as described in the post is what I will want us to have here in Nigeria too. Here in Nigeria, people sell at their own price, no government or body of individuals are controlling the price. You can buy a product for $5 in a place and $5.5 or $6 in another place, still the same country... Smile
You don't mean it, rice, crispy pork, fried or boiled chicken all for $1.35, that is too cheep already not to talk about the free bowl of soup. You are already in heaven..... Smile
Here is a little error I spotted while reading.
It should be
Thanks for this update
haha, you are my editor it seems. Good eye! Thanks for reading, as always.
Lol.... Thanks for the compliment sir....
The editor in chief 💪💪💪..... Smile
I meet so many travelers in Thailand raving about how good the food is, but all they seem to eat is green curry and pad thai at their guesthouse and the restaurants geared toward foreigners... To be sure some of those places are decent, but nowhere near as good as the incredibly cheap and delicious food you're talking about here. I will literally never get tired of eating pad graprao 555... It can be intimidating though when you're new here and don't know what kind of food a place serves until you walk in. I wrote this guide that helps with that by explaining how to identify the type of restaurant you're looking at from a distance https://itsbetterinthailand.com/guides/identifying-thai-restaurants/
I wouldn't like to spend so much for a meal I wont obtain maximum satisfaction from. If I come to Thailand because I have plans to. Maybe if there are local stall where i can buy some local ingredients to use in cooking my nigerian dishes
the fresh produce markets happen every day so yes! You could do that. I am afraid i don't know what Nigerian dishes are so they might not have all the ingredients but if you are a good chef, i think you could get something close to the real thing. For me anyway, i tried making these kinds of things at home but it actually was more expensive to do it myself (plus i am not a good cook)
Thanks for reading
But sometimes improvising may not bring out the needed flavour. Just imagine using some other nut (spice) in place of nutmeg to spice your food.
Thanks for replying!