Around 4:30 p.m. the Boon temple area of the Chomphonstreet comes alive. In the evening it turns in to a night market with predominantly food stalls. Every single day the stalls are set up and dismantled again. The hawkers arrive with carts and motorcycles with a sidecar on which their complete “restaurant” is stacked in a very clever way, using every single possibility to the limit. It’s apparent that they constantly learn from experience from the way they have inserted a new appliance to their stack. They arrange their place at a leisurely pace, but with a routine which they can perform blindfolded, so they actually need little time. Because of the way things are stacked, there is only one particular order in which to unpack and repack their stuff. The disadvantage is that there is little room for new ideas, like new dishes.
But that is not really necessary. For years I have considered this varied collection of street stalls as ideal: every hawker has just one dish which he or she has refined to perfection. So you can sit down and choose from the specialties of the different cooks.
The timing of the preparations is sharpened by experience. Fish roasted on the BBQ in a layer of salt is put on the charcoal fire in an early stage. The fires are tempered with ashes if they are too high. Water is already simmering in the large cauldrons for soup and corn on the cob while the tables and stools are not even arranged yet. Only at the stall of two young girls who sell narm som (fresh tangerine juice) the lack of experience shows: the number of plastic cups they have brought along is many times larger than the number of bottles they have set on ice.
