Watch Video of Nang Loeng Market – Best Traditional Food Market in Bangkok
When you travel in Bangkok, food should be a part of your Bangkok experience. To get an authentic Thai food experience in Bangkok, you should visit a traditional food market. But finding an authentic traditional food market in Bangkok might not be easy for foreign travelers unless you have a local help. In this blog, we take you to Nang Loeng Market, the oldest land market in Bangkok. Located in a historic community and offering a variety of rare traditional Thai food and desserts, Nang Loeng Market feels like a live museum that is definitely worth your visit.
Also check out other blogs related to food markets in Bangkok here.
10 Thai Street Snacks You Must Try
5 Bangkok’s Fresh Markets Travelers Shouldn’t Miss
7 Off-Tourist-Radar Areas to Eat Street Food in Bangkok
Top 5 Night Food Markets and Spots in Bangkok
Remember that Bangkok is a big city and there are tons of possibilities for foodies to dive into local dining experiences. One of the best ways is to take a tour with professional food tour agencies like Bangkok Food Tours and Smiling Tuk Tuk. Check these 2 tours out: Motorbike Food Adventure & Amazing Night Market and Thonburi Food & Canals Adventure, for dining at local food markets in Bangkok.
Brief History of Nang Loeng Market
Nang Loeng Market was officially opened in 1900, and is located in a small community as old as itself. (For your reference, Bangkok was founded in 1782.) The majority of residents in Nang Loeng are Thai Chinese. And where Chinese people are, delicious food is never far away! Apart from the Chinese, there are Cambodian, Lao, Vietnamese, and other ethnic residents. The mixed culture makes food and cooking techniques here really special, and makes Nang Loeng Market one of the best food market in Bangkok. Some vendors in the market have made the same dishes for generations. Some serve recipes passed down over 200 years.
Navigating the Nang Loeng Market
Delicious Thai ready-to-eat food, snacks, and desserts are centered at the food court in the middle of the market. Around the food court is a plenitude of food stalls. There is also a small section selling fresh produce like fresh vegetable and meat. To the south of the food court, there is a Chinese shrine dedicated to the father of the modern Thai navy, Chomphon Khet Udomsak. The market is surrounded by heritage shophouses on all sides. Some shophouses operate as restaurants. Others have food stalls in the front.
A short walk from the market, Sala Chalerm Thani Cinema, built in 1918, remains an iconic wooden structure of the community. In its heyday, the cinema saw well-off people enjoying what was then a cutting-edge entertainment.
What to Eat at Nang Loeng Market
1. Aew’s Yen Ta Foe (อิ๋ว เย็นตาโฟ)
A pink noodle soup may not look appetizing at first. But your first sip of the broth will change your feeling about it. The pink color is made from fresh tomato paste. Aew does her sauce so well you don’t need to add any condiments to your noodle. First, choose a type of noodle you want: egg noodle, flat rice noodle, or thin noodle. Then, soup or dry. Your noodle comes with different kinds of fish meat balls, tofu, morning glories, congealed blood. Don’t make a face. It’s really good!
Opens 9am – 2.30pm
2. Rattana’s Khao Gaeng (ข้าวแกงรัตนา)
Khao Gaeng means rice with assortments. The assortments are already made. You just have to choose from one up to three assortments to eat with steamed rice. Rattana’s rice with assortments is affordable (30-50 THB). They have more than 20 choices of assortments including fish curry, chicken green curry, spicy salad, and stir fried vegetables.
Opens 9.30am – 1pm
3. Nang Loeng Braised Beef (เนื้อตุ๋นนางเลิ้ง)
This shophouse restaurant serves five-hour braised beef in a savory broth packed with aroma. You can have your braised beef in a noodle soup, or have it come in a broth served with a separate bowl of steamed rice. Try not to come at lunch hours. It’s hard to find a seat.
Opens 9.30am – 2pm, off on Sundays
4. Ya Chaem‘s Kanom Bueang Yuan (ขนมเบื้องญวนย่าแช่ม)
Kanom Bueang (crepe) Yuan (Vietnamese) is a Vietnamese savory crepe that inspired a Thai version. This is a traditional Thai snack that you can treat as a light meal. A pan size thin deep fried crepe is stuffed with shredded coconut, roasted peanuts, shrimp, salted radish and fried tofu. It’s served with fresh bean sprouts and sweet cucumber sauce. Ya Chaem uses uses a charcoal stove to cook her crepe – a slow cooking technique that adds aroma to the food.
Opens 9am – 3pm
5. Loong Noi’s Kanom Bueang Boran (ขนมเบื้องไทยโบราณลุงน้อย)
Kanom Bueang is a taco-shape crepe with sweet or savory filling. The Kanom Bueang sold by street vendors are usually filled with coconut cream. But traditional Kanom Bueang or Kanom Bueang Boran recipe omits the cream. Still, you choose between the sweet or savory filling. The sweet filling mixes sesames, raisins, Chinese plums, and extruded duck egg yolks cooked in syrup. The savory filling features orange-color ground dried shrimp.
Opens 8am – 2pm
6. Nanta’s Kanom Thai (นันทาขนมไทย)
Nanta’s sells traditional Thai sweets. The recipes are from her ancestor who worked in a royal palace’s kitchen. Her traditional Thai desserts include steamed kanom gluay (banana cake), kanom tarn (palm cake) and kanom pueak (taro cake).
Opens 7am – 2pm
How to Get to Nang Loeng Market
The market is not on a city train routes. You can get there neither by the BTS Skytrain nor MRT Subway, but the closest BTS Skytrain station is the National Stadium station. Then you take a Tuk Tuk or a taxi for another 3 km. One thing to note about visiting a food market in Bangkok, you want to go early. These markets don’t stay open past early afternoon.
