[papabrown]

Agreed 100%. I know of a few winners. Places I'll go out of my way to visit. But most of them serve garbage to dumb tourists thinking they're having an authentic Thai experience and locals too poor to care about the quality.

I can't help at laugh at the people who freak out over a hair in their food back home but gladly sit there and eat off plates that have been washed in a tub of dirty water. Or the locals who think they're being clean and taking a tissue and wiping their utensils before eating. Believe me, the stuff you should be afraid of does not wipe off with a piece of toilet paper (aka Thai napkin).

And I have the same answer every time they have one of these crackdowns and someone bemoans the plight of the poor Thai person just trying to make a living. Thais have a knack for killing things. A few food stalls would go mostly unnoticed. Instead, they slowly consume the entire sidewalk. And then they spill out onto the street. They become hazardous to both pedestrian and vehicles. And because there's so much competition, they go to increasingly annoying lengths to get customers.

I've seen people get clipped by motorbikes walking off of the sidewalk into the street because the vendors have completely blocked the sidewalk. Screw the street vendors. How about a little sympathy for the people almost getting killed so someone can sell some fish balls?