bangkok pavilion

Introduction in English

Since 1983, nightclubbers in Bangkok’s Silom district have flocked to a streetfood cart on the corner of Convent Road to sober up with their favourite late night snack: ‘moo ping’ – sticks of pork grilled over charcoal and dipped in ‘jaew’ tamarind spicy sauce. The rotund vendor goes by the name of Hia Owen, a Chinese-Thai term for ‘Fat Older Brother.’ 

This simple cart is one of Thailand’s many streetfood stalls that have gained fame for expertise at just one dish, glazing slivers of pork thigh in his secret marinade, perfected over years of repetition. His stall may look scrappy, but it’s a lucrative middle-class living. Hia Owen can sell over 2,000 skewers in the three hours between 11pm to 2am) at 15 Baht (40¢) each, with most customers buying a few in a bag plus a portion of sticky rice kept steaming in a red plastic tub. That a turnover of a quarter of a million Euros a year. 

Each day he slings a fresh floral garland from the handle of his cart, to assuage the spirits of the place, as do traders at every Thai shop and stall. Many attract custom using talismans like a miniature bamboo fish basket or the ‘beckoning lady’ Nang Kwak. 

Hia Owen’s stall is a microcosm of Bangkok’s informal sector, which is estimated at half of the Bangkok economy, one of the highest rates for any world city. In a country that’s not strong on workers’ rights, many Thais prefer to be their own boss. Millions set up informal family businesses like market booths or a motorcycle sidecar from which they can set-up an entire temporary restaurant of tables, chairs and wheeled kitchen counter under a giant umbrella. Many employees also trade on the side, whether hawking second hand clothes at retro bazaars or flogging beauty products through Twitter. Bangkok is not only a city of markets, Bangkokians also turns any event into a bazaar, with stalls cluttering even high-end parties. 

Sampling snacks while browsing stalls is the most popular Thai leisure pursuit. And its so much more convenient when the shop comes to the customer. Temporary vendors and markets appear at certain times of the day, week or month. Some sites have up to three shifts of vendors selling clothes, knick-knacks or food through the day, to catch different waves of customers: perhaps commuters, office staff at lunchtime, after-work socialisers. It’s an incredibly efficient use of space and time, and gives the city personality. But many prefer a more formal Bangkok. 

Hundreds of thousands of stalls cover every corner of the city, which is ultra-convenient for shopping and eating, but also inconvenient for those using roads, plazas and pavements. Bangkok looks chaotic with its mess of stalls and streetlife structures assembled ad hoc from found materials, but the city is organised down to the square metre when it comes to selling space. Well-connected mafias control who trades what and where, leasing public space in a giant protection racket. Those self-employed vendors might be free of company routine but have no protections and are vulnerable to extortion and sudden eviction. 

Many want to see the city tidy and beautified, with trade moved to antiseptic malls. Since the last coup in 2014, the regime has purged thousands of street traders and demolished several decades-old markets. Thailand may be cherished for its market character, but its elite doesn’t count commercial life and people’s history as heritage. 

Streetfood probably will survive, because its crucial for food security. It’s estimated that the clearance of half Bangkok’s streetfood meant that low-income residents had to spend 1-2 more days income per month to pay for replacement processed meals from convenience chain stores. Street food is also nutritious and is prized by all all levels of society for its famous socialist vendors. With most modern Bangkok kitchens not suited to cooking Thai cuisine – and definitely not smoky charcoal – streetfood remains a vital library of Thai culinary survival.

Bangkok roads are still largely lined with open-fronted shophouses. That enables the colourful outdoor interactive streetlife, with families, workshops, sewing machinists, motorcycle taxi drivers and ladies threading those lucky garlands from aromatic petals of jasmine, rose and crown flowers. Their relentless replacement by condominiums and offices removes that community vibe. Those glossy, blank-walled developments ban vendors from messing their frontage. Suddenly Bangkok’s world-famous streetlife is at risk of disappearing. 

One of those moved was Silom Night Market, jeopardising the future of Hea Owen. With Silom’s bars shut due to Covid, he took the path of many a successful street vendor to leverage his fame into franchises. In 2020, he opened an all-day 9am-11pm branch in the fashionable neighbourhood of Thonglor, from where he sends packaged meals through delivery apps, plus branches in upscale malls, all under a label that re-jigs his nickname into the brand Fat Bro ®.

Bangkok Pavilion, 2nd International Biennale of Cities, Favara, Sicilia, Italia
25.06.2021–31.01.2022
Based on the book: Very Bangkok by Philip Cornwel-Smith
Curators: Andrea Bartoli & Alice Aquavita
Thanks to Charles Landry of Creative Cities for the connection

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