Yaowarat, Chinatown's main street

Yaowarat is a kilometre of road with a gold shop every thirty metres, signage stacked four storeys high, and after dark a line of kitchens working on the pavement on both sides. It is the densest eating in Thailand and the least formal.

Go at night. In daylight it is a traffic-choked street of jewellers and wholesale shops. From about six the woks come out, the tables go down on the pavement, and it becomes the thing people come to see.

It is not the easy version. Ordering is by pointing, seating is plastic stools at the kerb, and the crowds are heavy at weekends. If you would rather have someone else do the ordering and the queue-picking, our street food tour listing covers the guided version, and our street food guide covers how to judge a stall yourself.

Mondays are quiet. Enough of the street kitchens take Monday off that the strip feels half asleep.

Getting there is easy now. MRT Wat Mangkon opens onto Charoen Krung a street away, which has changed how most people arrive: our rail guide has the fares.

Talat Noi is ten minutes’ walk south, and makes the obvious pairing before dinner.