Spoons ducks the issue. He knows about Bangkok street food but every time I ask him where's hot to eat, he becomes vague. "Look in the guidebook," he suggests. The guidebook? I'm supposed to be the Hungry Traveller, for chrissake, not the Hungry Tourist. I don't want to nosh with my overfed Western brethren, I need the skinny on where the Thais eat. He caves in, eventually."Ask Thais where they eat," he says. "People will try and put you off, but insist that your stomach is strong. Alternatively, follow your nose." This is a joke, as my nose is large.
His advice was sound. I asked the receptionist at my smart hotel where she goes to eat. Armed with her map, the four-block walk into a half-lit area populated mainly by pye dogs and shopkeepers slamming their shutters leads me to be a hawker's barrow, now stationary with bricks under its wheels and makeshift awning above it. There's a prep table at right angles to it, behind a rough charcoal fire. Eight plastic stools around a table complete the design. I smile uncertainly, and the bandanna'd woman behind the barrow stares at me like I'm an alien. In alien food situations, the best thing to do is just point, and I find myself pointing at a bowl of something brown. This turns out to be a pile of roasted duck bills, with duck tongues attached. My braveness is now evaporating faster than ice in hot tea.
A roll of single-ply toilet paper is brought over. Does eating duck head have so rapid (and explosive) an effect? The food arrives in five minutes, during which time passersby send me over a variety of mute, frank stares. Should I explain that noses like this are considered handsome back home? My amuse bouche of bouches de canard is brought, and a plate of unidentifiable shards of grilled duck, hot off the grill. Som tom salad: I see this all over Bangkok - shredded green papaya with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, dried baby shrimp, julienne of galangal (a type of ginger), roasted peanuts, fresh green and fried red chilies all bashed up in a mortar and pestle, with a pungent sweet hot vinaigrette. A bamboo container of sticky rice, and a salad plate of white cabbage, knobbly beans and Thai basil, plus an elegant steepled finger bowl from the bandanna'd one.
Dinner tastes extraordinary and exciting. The flavours are fresh and loud. The textures are crunchy and soft, fatty and crisp. Even the duck heads are delicious, seasoned with ginger, chilli and salt. By the end of it, my mouth is alive and we're all wreathed in smiles. I ask for the bill. It comes to just under £1, which is average.
The stall is outside Soi Suan Plu, a night market which closes around midnight, where you have 20 or 30 other street food options (Silom and Lumpini Park Skytrain stations). All-night street food is also yours at the Flower Market near Chinatown (nearest Skytrain is Saphan Taksin).
· Tailor Made Travel (tailor-made.co.uk, 0845 4568050) can arrange three nights' B&B in Bangkok from £561pp, including Emirates flights and superior hotel accommodation.
