To the unsuspecting Western eye and palate, one of the most challenging culinary sights in Thailand are the corner street vendors selling fried insects. If you are not warned by another visitor, the first thought that springs to mind when you see the piles of cockroaches, grasshoppers, worms, and all sorts of other arthropod varieties sold complete with seasoning, soy sauce, salt, and pepper is: "Surely this is not real". Yet it is. The Thais buy them as if there is no tomorrow.

Piles and piles of fried insects will disappear in front of the very startled Western eyes. Thai buyers and Western overlookers look at each other bemused and puzzled. The Thais scorn the Western reluctance to sample what they consider a Thai delicacy (and an undisputed source of animal protein), and the Westerners have a mixed reaction in the boundaries of disgust and disbelief. I suppose the cultural gap prevents the two groups of understanding each other. I must admit that on my first visit to Bangkok 4 years ago, my gut reaction was a mixture of disgust and disbelief.

After several nights of watching Thai young people eating pounds of insects, I decided to approach a street vendor and ask hesitantly (pointing to the cockroaches): "How much are they?" A prompt response from a language savvy vendor was: "The big ones or the small ones?" (pointing at two different piles with two distinctly different sizes) At that point, I burst into rude (I suppose) laughter and ceased my first attempt to sample the impossible.

Two years later, as I was watching another vendor equally busy selling her insects, our eyes met, and she somehow guessed my mix of hesitation and temptation. She smiled, picked a four-legged insect from a pile, and offered it to me. In a naive manner, I asked: "Is this the tastiest one?" She smiled and nodded obligingly, and I hesitantly extented my hand to pick the fried insect. After all, it was a free try. Spyro, from behind, shouted: "John, you can buy as much as you like--I shall pay for it." While I chewed the insect, she kept smiling, and I realised that although it was not the best meal I'd ever had, it had a rather neutral taste with a nutty flavour.

My hesitations well and truly over, I proceeded to buy a whole bag of a mixture of everything and sampled them one by one. I must admit, I was too much of a novice to appreciate the subtle differences between species, but I could see why the Thais were buying them. Yet I failed to convince even one of the six members of our group to sample an insect.

We ate mostly from street vendors. You can choose from fried chicken, noodle soup, rice, fish (dried squid reheated on the BBQ was a favorite of mine), and even insects (I bought a two-inch long black scorpion for 10bat just to walk around with), fried and ready to eat! (I must add that I was unable to eat the scorpion, but it was cool to have for a while!) These vendors sell from push or bicycle carts. The food is most often delicious and very cheap!

I know your mother told you not to drink the water or eat anything off of the street, but she doesn't know what she is missing. Vendors line the streets in the Khao San area at night, serving up some of the tastiest local cuisine you'll find. Heaping plates of Phad Thai, suculent sliced pineapple, curries, Tom Yam (spicy soup),Noodle soup, Satay and the traveler's favorite, banana pancakes can all be found on carts on the street, most of it for less than a dollar. These mini chow wagons are not blessed with visits from a local health inspector so if you see something that doesn't look right just move on. You'll find ten more place that serve the same thing. The rule of thumb is hit the ones that the locals eat at, as they've had a chance to find out who does a good job.
Along with the culinary delights, a whole host of oddities like chicken feet, tripe, dried squid on a stick and a variety of deep fried bugs are available for both the adventurous and foolish alike. You don't have to eat it, but you should at least get a look at some of the crazy things other people call food.
Adventurous eating can be a great way to spend an evening, assuming that you are responsible about what you put in your mouth. Start off slow. Order something small and see how it sits with you. Eating too much greasy food anywhere in the world will get you sick, and the beer is likely to do more damage than the chicken feet so don't go shoveling in unidentified munchies at the end of an evening at the bar. And keep some Immodium around just in case.