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Destinations known | Bangkok’s street food vendors are disappearing – those who survive may soon be inside Singapore-style hawker centres
- As Bangkok modernises, pavement food vendors are being shut down by a government that wants to tackle unregulated commerce on the streets of the Thai capital
- One vendor unlikely to be affected is Supinya Junsuta, who was awarded a Michelin star in 2018 for her street food at Raan Jay Fai
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So we want to go to Bangkok, do we? To tuck into some of the delicious street food the Thai capital is renowned for, no doubt.
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According to research by online travel company Expedia.com.hk, searches in Hong Kong for flights to Bangkok shot up by 1,040 per cent in the 24 hours following the announcement by the Hong Kong government of the slightly relaxed, 3+4 quarantine arrangement for arrivals (three days in a hotel and four days self-monitoring at home).
However, those who do head to the city officially called Krung Thep Maha Nakhon hungering for some high-quality roadside pad Thai or mango sticky rice will discover a street-food scene in flux.
As Bangkok modernises, pavement vendors are being shut down left, right and centre, “rupturing an ecosystem that’s been in place for decades”, as the narrator of the Netflix show Street Food: Asia’s Bangkok episode puts it.
According to an article this month in the Bangkok Post, “in 2011 there were a total of 773 locations where trading [of food and goods] was permitted on footpaths. That number has now been reduced to 171 after the government worked with the previous Bangkok governor, [Police General] Aswin Kwanmuang, to regulate street vending.”
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