Well, frugal or not, the dishes you can find in the street in Thailand are renowned. It`s true that for those who are extremely squeamish or for those who keep a proper hygiene before having a meal, street food might not be the most appropriate choice, but if you get there, you can`t miss a ”visit” to the Thais`market stalls, trust my colored word. The effervescence, the hustle and bustle, the vibes of the place, the flavors, each and all very interesting, weird or unknown are a quite pleasant mix of emotion and appetite. I discovered a lot of vegetables, fruits, traditional dishes and all sorts of products in Chiang Rai, in the night marketplace, which starts at 5 o`clock in the afternoon and lasts until late, at night. I tasted a lot of them. Ready?

Fish cooked in steam, meat and many different kinds of joint roasted on the spit, steaming soups with vermicelli. Tasty, eh? (oh, if only those images had a bit of aroma!)

Herbs and vegetables of all sorts, cute piles of lemon grass, galangal or the blue ginger and greenish kaffir lemon leaves, for the famous and tasty Tom yam soup, very spicy and sourish and highly appreciated in Thailand.

The colors and the flavors of fruits mix with those of vegetables, like guava, rosella, dragon fruit with acacia flowers, tamarind and bamboo. You may say that some of them are unsuitable for cooking, but the answer is no, they are extremely tasty.

You`ll see many species of flowers, which are used in the kitchen, like the acacia flowers  or those beautiful, mauve butterfly pea flowers, because, beside the wonderful décor they create, they are also edible.

And it`s obvious that the Thais are very skilled at making sweets, because you can see a thousand desserts on the market stalls.

Last, but not least, I should mention the less usual things for us, Europeans: sauces packed in bags, worms, crickets…M? Is it tempting?

Colored curiosity: I particularly liked their small and green egg-plants,  which the Thais use so much in their traditional cuisine.