Saturday 5 January 2013

Bangkok's biggest fresh market: Klong Toey

If you love going to fresh markets and discover the local culture in a cool way then you should definitely not miss the Klong Toey market! This place is huge, its the biggest Bangkok's market for fresh fruits, veggies, spices, fish, meat and cooked food. The market is opened every day starting from 6 am till after midnight. Spicy is an unthinkable part of the Thai cuisine and one may find here peppers in all colours (green, red orange, yellow), the bag in the middle (with the green looking grapes) below shows fresh black pepper.
Green pepper Bangkok
Drinks Bangkok Klong-Toye-Market 
The drink to go are surved in plastic bag and always with a straw.
Seafood Bangkok Klong-Toye-Market 
The choice on fresh seadood is huge An interesting way to know if a crab is male or female are the colourd on its belly, as on the pic below the top one is the female one and the one under it: male.
The walk might be something narrow as a lot of locals come here and a lot of luggage carriers help the buyers for restaurants&shops, but the visit is really an exciting experience. Next to mountains of fresh local fruits and exotic spices one can see tons of still live fish and seafood and choose from different food stands...We came twice. Once before our cooking workshop and one more time before we left in order to buy some fresh things for home:-)
Bangkok Klong-Toye-Market
Below one may see the famous mix for Thai soups (like for the "tom yum"), made out of lemongrass (the long stalks), kaffir lime leaves (the green leaves) and the galangal (the root ginger-like pieces).
TomYumMix Bangkok Klong-Toye-Market

21 comments:

Lies said...

Bergen , dozen, zakken vol, verse groenten en fruit... *D*e*l*i*c*a*t*e*s*s*e*n*, Jana !
Lie(f)s.

Filip and Kristel said...

Great, all this food, love the squid and crab.

Greetings,
Filip

Barb said...

Jana, I've become an armchair adventurer just by reading your blog! I never know where you'll take me next. I wonder what that pearly grape-like green food is in the second photo? My grandsons were looking at your pics and wanted to know if the crabs and squid were "parts of dead people."

Karen said...

Hi Jana, lovely photo's I love the underwater images, they are really great.
Best Wishes
Karen.

Jana said...

@Barb: the grape-looking green spice is fresh pepper (while they are fresh the black peppers are actually....green:); I have added a bit more detailed info to each pic, thanks for the hint! how old are you grandsons?:-)

papillon said...

Hallo Jana,

da gibt es ja wirklich nichts, was es nicht gibt, oder?
Wir wünschen Euch auch für 2013 viele wundervolle Erlebnisse und hoffen, dass Du Sie in Bildern mit uns teilst.
Liebe Grüße
J&C

kulasa said...

a walk my hubby would definitely enjoy! buying seafood to cook and veggies is his stress buster...he usually does the buying while I do the photo taking...funny coz he used to stop me from taking shots but now when he sees something interesting he even draws me near to take a photo :) lovely shots as always Jana! Happy New Year Too! :D...the crabs reminded me of my dad...I guess he taught me how to identify male from female a long time ago and it is only now that I remembered thanks to your post...

stardust said...

Thai cuisines is hot and spicy. I’ve seen the various colored peppers but never used so many in my cooking. The drink with a straw in a plastic bag is interesting.

Thank you for your comment to my old posts about energy, to be rich, and to be happy. Personally I don’t think Japan needs to be the leading economy in the world. I’m not interested in GNP but GNH (Gross National Happiness).

Yoko

Marco Luijken said...

Hello Jana,
What a great shots of this market. There is enough delicious food for sale. And funny to see the most special sea animals at the market.
You makes me hungry Jana,..hihi..!!

Many greetings,
Marco

Dietmut said...

al de verse dingen op deze markt zien prachtig uit. Leuk om aldaar tussendoor te lopen. Groetjes, Dietmut

This is Belgium said...

wonderful market reportage! the diversity, colors, one can almost taste what you are showing us!

Erika said...

I like very much this market.I wish you, cara Jana, a Very Happy New Year.
A big hug from Italy.
Erika

Unknown said...

Hoi Jana
Nu weer in Bangkok ...Het is en blijft "Jana around the world" :)
Het ziet er geweldig uit ..maar ik zie de vissen liever onderwater ..
Wat een geweldige foto's in je blog bericht hiervoor..
Onderwater is zo'n andere wereld ..en zo mooi om te zien. Ja helemaal Top Jana
Ik wens jullie ook.. :

Wishing you all a good end of the old year and a very good start in the new one! ( copy richt Jana :)
Groetjes Henk

p.s. Ik heb het helaas erg druk ..en te weinig tijd gehad om blogs te volgen ..Ik hoop in 2013 meer te kijken/genieten van jou momenten.

Anonymous said...

Wow, so much amazingly fresh choice! Happy 2013 to you!

Anonymous said...

Wow, so much amazingly fresh choice! Happy 2013 to you!

Koryn said...

Your posts are making my stomach rumble! I love tom yam too!

Have your tried their green mango dipped in sugar and chili? If not, you should! :)

Jana said...

@Koryn: I did not see the green mango salad in thailand, but made one myself here few days ago (I got the recipe online and thought lets give it a try); in Thailand I enjoyed a lot the pomelosalad and the green papaya salad...next time I will try your recommendation too; what is your fav dish/food in/from Philippines btw?

Koryn said...

I see you still have a hangover from your trip! :)

Filipino dishes... hmmm.. there are so many! There's kare-kare, a kind of stew made from peanut sauce with a vegetables, stewed oxtail, beef, and sometimes offals.

There's also Bicol Express, a specialty from my province! Another kind of stew made from chili, coconut milk, shrimp paste, onion pork and garlic.

And then there are the seafood dishes too!

Haha, sorry I flooded your post but I do hope this entices you to visit our country someday! :)

AVCr8teur said...

I can't imagine working such long hours at the market. The drinks in a bag look refreshing. I can imagine eating freshly boiled crab now.

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

So different to supermarket shopping! So colourful and vibrant.

Jana said...

@Koryn: thanks so much for this info, actually I am vegetarian/pescatarian, so curious about your seafood-dishes; and yes, I would love to visit your country soon!
@Karen: Very handy indeed, most stands sell raw ingredients, but there are stands selling ready-to-eat food (+desserts) all the time; one could also get the famous Thai dessert sticky rice with mongo here;
@Pieces of Sunshine: indeed, everything looks so fresh+real (not wrapped in plastics or plastic bag as in the supermarket);