But this blog post is not about Chiang Mai's famous Night Bazaar. This is about what happens when you chuck the travel guides and take David's advice instead. This is about Warorot Market.
27 April 2012. After the elephant experience, we were hungry. I decided we should check out the street food and the market was calling my name. It was a leisurely 15-minute walk from our guesthouse Funky Monkey. When we arrived, there was still daylight and it looked like nothing was happening. Panic. Were we in the right place?
We saw a couple of tables near the end of the street. People were sitting around them, contentedly eating bowls of... I still don't know they are. There were no tourists at all, only Thais. Nobody spoke English.
We sat down on wobbly stools. The lady standing behind the table picked up a bowl of thin rice noodles and gestured at the pots of nuclear-looking soups (or sauce or broth or whatever). Pick one.
I chose something orangey brown with red chili peppers and tiny meatballs. She ladled the sauce generously over my vermicelli.
Then another lady who was already deep into her own bowl paused chewing just long enough to point at the plastic baskets of chopped vegetables, herbs and sprouts. Ah, garnish.
I mixed everything together and put a spoonful in my mouth. It was reminiscent of an Italian pasta salad, but with Asian ingredients. The soft noodles and fiber-rich toppings absorbed all the gravy, so it wasn't really soupy. And you could mix and match to your heart's content. Fantastic. I ate it all.
A special mention goes to the cool and sweet pandan-infused water that they store in aluminum vats. So refreshing, and free!
