Bangkok is a tremendously cosmopolitan city, with that particular flavor that tends to belong to cities in countries called "third world," like Mexico, my country of origin.

For many people already too accustomed to sterility (a word they treat as synonymous with cleanliness, primarily in the U.S.), this city, not being the least bit sterile, looks at first glance like everything they fear. Full of visible contamination, as I say, visible. Other cities are just as contaminated, but because the exhaust fumes and whatnot aren't obvious, they fool our sense of smell, our sight, and the rest of our senses, all highly atrophied from an excess of everything.

For all of this, eating at little street stalls won't always be appetizing, at least not to everyone. Personally, I'm not a fan, though I can't deny that these places often give off genuinely pleasant smells.

Even if I don't particularly love the idea of sitting practically on the curb, listening to every engine that passes, breathing fumes straight and uncut, mixed in with the cheerfulness and music that usually accompanies these spots, I do have to admit they have their charm.

The vast majority of Thai people eat all day long. In this (and in other ways) they resemble Mexicans very closely. They're snackers, prone to craving things, and you can tell they genuinely enjoy this whole street food culture. Standing up, in some easy-to-carry-and-toss container, you can work your way through a soup, a stew, a dessert, because everything is designed to be eaten however is most convenient for you.

Almost every stall will have at least a small stool, so that if walking and eating isn't your thing you can stop for a few minutes. Quite often there are tables and chairs, and you can sit and eat in peace, washing everything down with fruit drinks that are both popular and delicious, or the classic Thai beers.

On the subject of alcohol: the Thai person's drink of choice is whiskey. In many of these places, by late afternoon you'll find, more often than not, groups of men chatting, eating, and drinking whiskey.

Sit-down restaurants follow more or less the same pattern, except that these are usually enclosed, air-conditioned, and have music. You'll find everything from earsplitting volume to medium to soft.

Almost every restaurant, however simple, will have a stack of magazines so you can entertain yourself if you've come alone or simply don't feel like talking and would rather flip through pages.

Even after a year and two months, this still makes me laugh.

One of the restaurants we go to most often is just a few meters from where we live. We like it because the food is good, not too spicy, it's clean and enclosed, and the music is always calm, jazz-ish, the kind that actually allows for conversation at the table.

A few weeks ago, one of the waiters who knows us came over very proudly to show us a magazine featuring Mr. Slim and the news that he was the richest man in the world. I think we disappointed him quite a bit when he noticed we found it entirely unamusing, and I also gave him a small lesson on who exactly this individual is and why, as a Mexican, he gives me zero reason for pride.

In Thailand, generally speaking, you always eat very well, or at least well, which is why I often compare it to Spain, where I feel the same thing happens.

Even in very touristy spots, which as we all know are almost never the best, we've eaten well here.

The custom here is to order several dishes, set them in the middle of the table, and everyone serves themselves however they like. Thai people are very sociable, and eating isn't just about filling the hole in your stomach, it's about sharing. You see very few people eating alone, and even fewer after work hours. It's noticeable how important it seems to be not just what you eat, but who you eat it with.

Their food almost always has something sweet in it, because they believe that eating well means achieving a balance of flavors, though they do go overboard with the chili, just as people do in my country.

Even with the heat that reigns practically year-round, Thai people are very fond of soups, and it's unusual for a meal not to include one.

Vegetables are almost always quite raw in every dish, and they use everything, wasting practically nothing. We've eaten some vegetable stems here that I never imagined I'd put in my mouth. They also tend to place large amounts of cabbage and green beans, completely raw, on the side so you can eat them alongside the very spicy dishes.

Thai people are very fond of cured meats and sausages in particular. Since I'm not much of a fan of either, and sausages even less so, I've tried very few of those varieties.

They do eat some roasted insects, the kind you'd recognize as crickets or maguey worms. It's very common to find little carts at night outside bars and restaurants with these creatures on offer.

Out on the streets they like to grill all kinds of meats over open flame, sausages above all. They also dry certain foods, like fish and meat, which I haven't tried either.

Eggs are another staple. They turn up frequently in cooked dishes, but they're also sold on the street already cooked in various ways. I don't know exactly what goes into them, but they can come in colors that do nothing for my appetite. In a fully Thai restaurant, out of social obligation, I had to try one that was a brownish color and appeared to have something like an eye at its center. I'm not sure whether it was true or whether the Thais we were with just wanted to impress us when they saw our faces, but they said the eggs are cooked in horse urine. Watching what were apparently the expressions on Juan's and my faces, a woman said that to her knowledge they didn't actually do that anymore. The point is, they didn't taste bad, though I wouldn't become a devotee.

Desserts tend not to be very sweet, because again, balance of flavors is the goal, and on many occasions they'll add salt.

The most common desserts are made with rice, coconut, coconut milk, and sugar.

There's the classic mango with sticky rice, which foreigners love. There's also a dessert they cook inside bamboo stalks over coals, stuffing the hollow with rice and various things like chestnuts, something resembling sweet potato, and other fillings. I only enjoy the beginning of it, because the deeper you go, the more it tastes like compacted, flavorless rice.

The drinks most commonly sold and consumed on the street are fruit frappés, juices, coconut water (from coconuts of every size), tea, and coffee.

The most famous juice, the one you absolutely cannot leave without trying, is tangerine juice, because in many places they're squeezing it right in front of you, so the flavor is extraordinary, and like all the fruit here, it's much sweeter than in Mexico.

The coconut water from the small coconuts is especially good and different, equally very sweet.

All kinds of teas are consumed, but the famous Thai tea is Cha Yen. It's a milk-based drink, very sweet, and making it is something of a performance: they pour it from high up in one container down into another below. As it falls, it seems to thicken, and the whole spectacle is very colorful. Of course there are also packaged versions sold in supermarkets. The street coffee is among the best you'll find, except that again, if you don't specify how sweet you want it, it will be very sweet.

To illustrate a striking difference from how we behave in other parts of the world: here in Asia, and in Thailand specifically, people don't seek to be individualistic. They feel good about belonging to a community. They like to live surrounded by people, by that human warmth that those of us from the West tend to actively avoid.

They seem genuinely happy and comfortable all together even among strangers, and they'll quickly invite you to join them without knowing you at all, something that contrasts enormously with other countries.

Here, if you don't want to be alone, all you have to do is go to some event, place, or restaurant, and you'll almost immediately find yourself invited to share.

A good example: one day I came back late and alone from an outing with a friend, got off at the pier a few kilometers from my house, and it was raining so hard I had to wait quite a while. The motorcycle taxi drivers who usually gather there to play ball or board games already know me, we always say hello, so they were inviting me to sit with them and have a beer or a little Thai whiskey. I didn't, because my Thai is very limited and it was already late to be getting home, so I decided to take an impromptu street-level shower, since it was clear the rain had no intention of stopping.

Sanuk (fun, the Thai philosophy of finding joy in everything)