Eat Thai

TO try or not to try, that is the question. Street food in Bangkok, that is, as you salivate at the sight of succulent sausages, glistening fat squid and giant salt-crusted fish broiling over a makeshift charcoal brazier; breathe in the pungent sweet-savoury fish sauce fusing with herbs and lime juice to turn shredded green papaya into signature som tam; the fragrance of condensed milk and bananas wrapped in tender, chewy prata....but whoa. You involuntarily reach into your purse for antiseptic wet ones, as if wiping your hands will sanitise the dodgy, almost squalid - by Singaporean NEA standards - surroundings all this delicious food is cooked in.

We admit to being the sissified diners who rely on the comfort of food courts, Nara Thai and a healthy imagination to indulge in our street food fantasies. It took us years before we realised we could eat at the hawker stalls in Or Tor Kor market without dying or exhausting our carefully packed supply of charcoal pills or lomotil. We've had the famous oyster omelette in Chinatown, and even ate at a zi char coffeeshop. Yes, there have been near-misses, but we lived to tell the tale.

On a recent trip, we threw caution to the wind and embarked on a mini-odyssey in pursuit of real local flavours - with a few sanitised places thrown in for good measure and to counter our stomach's culture shock. We didn't go in blind, of course. We had recommendations from locals and as long as you go by the golden rule of picking freshly cooked food as much as possible, you'll be fine. And the flavours are so worth getting over your germophobia.