I like fried chicken. I usually order extra crispy and spicy. I like well-cooked, except for roasted chicken with its too dry white meat. I prefer skinless, but that is not often offered.

The fast food USA chains for fried chicken that I have tried include KFC, Popeye, Church's, Pizza Hut (yes, one location served fried chicken as part of its buffet lunch), etc. I like the secret spice blend used at KFC. But my number one pick is Popeye due to its spice and well-cooked. Church's is a little too under-cooked for me.

However, prices at the fast food outlets make my ordering such fried chicken as more treat than regular dining.

In Pattaya, for the past several years, I stumbled on a good alternative. Big C supermarkets on 2nd Road, near soi 2. and on Central Pattaya Road, about 100 meters east of 3rd Road. They cook and sell a quarter (leg and back) fried chicken. About two years ago, the price was 29 baht. Recently, the price was 35 baht. Once, maybe more than a year ago, there was a special price of 19 baht. The taste was fair, edible but not especially great.

Big C supermarket has been cooking fewer fried chicken and more of other items. If your hotel room has a refrigerator, then buying and storing a few food items is a cheap alternative to eating at restaurants. Of course, eating at food carts on sidewalks can be a cheap alternative.

Walking along Central Pattaya Road, near the northeast corner of the road with 2nd Road, there are a bunch of fresh vegetable and fruit stands. At night, several food cars parked along the sidewalk offering cooked food for dinner.

One night a little after 11 pm, I saw one cart offering maybe two hundred pieces of fried chicken backs, legs, and wings with coating of light brown color. The cart was almost completely surrounded by 5-6 customers selecting pieces. The cart had small handwritten signs that said 15. I checked with the middle-aged lady vendor that each piece cost 15 baht. She handed me a tong and a tray, so that I could make my selections. I bought two pieces.

An hour later, when I ate the fried chicken, the crust was extra crisp, not real spicy, and had very little oil -- similar to very good tempura. The best cheap fried chicken I had eaten in Pattaya.

The next night, I looked for the fried chicken cart. At 10 pm, no such cart. At 10:30 pm, no such cart. At 11 pm, the cart was there. I bought more pieces than I could eat that night.

Again, it was good. Very crispy, but a little more oil than the night before.

The next day for a late lunch, I ate the leftover fried chicken that I stored in the refrigerator. Not crispy. Ok taste. Not worth saving for the next day. Maybe if I had a way to re-heat them, they might have been as good as the night before. No, I do not usually pack a small blowtorch.

The 3rd night (Friday), I looked for the fried chicken cart a little after 11:30 pm. It was there, but there were only two wings left in a pile of fallen-off coating. The young male vendor, apparently the son of the lady vendor from the first two nights, offered me the wings for 10 baht each. I declined, because I do not like wings.

So, the 3rd night's lesson was that the fried chicken was so good that it sold out in half an hour. Maybe the Friday night also had something to do with the fast sale.

Gone, but not forgotten. Worth a post. Hopefully, a tip not to be spread too widely.

Good cheap eats.

Note that street food carts in Pattaya come and go. In one instance, a kebab cart appeared every night, except Sundays and Mondays. In another instance, a food cart appeared every night for a few weeks and then was gone. Another example were sausage carts that would stop for maybe 15 minutes in the early evening and then move on.

Remember years ago when we had that chicken flue thing, in the UK I used to buy corn fed chicken really loved it, it was from Thailand of course after the bird flue they stopped selling it.

Must admit I haven't been looking for it, One I'll come across it.

Don't eat animal products from street vendors. I absolutely love their chicken but one evening I bought something no so fresh and almost died. Same thing happened with sushi from a decent restaurant -- haven't touched sushi since then.

Pics or it didn't happen!

Getting sick from eating food depends on your selection and immune system.

I had a friend who claimed every restaurant in a city was dirty because he got sick from eating at every one of them. But, I did not get sick.

In the early 1980s, I got sick from eating at restaurants in Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. Then I switched to eating only hamburgers and stopped getting sick.

But, I did get sick about a year ago. I believe the cause was a tuna salad sandwich bought at a 7-Eleven on 2nd Road, Pattaya. Because the toaster hardly tanned the sandwich after 10 minutes in the heater. I was impatient and told the clerk to bag it anyway. Sick for about 5 days, could hardly crawl out of my hotel bed.

The best food in BKK is hands down at the food mall inside Paragon mall. I go there practically every day and stuff my face with tasty tropical food which New York does not have as well as desert and Thai vegetable dishes. Good food is part of the fun.

Pussyboy, gotta agree on Paragon; even San Franciscans would be impressed. Those who are into steak can pick one out from a zillion different types and walk it over to the grill and they'll make it the way you want.

By the way, which desert did you buy? The Mojave? The Sahara?

The key to avoiding gastrointestinal troubles (e.g.traveler's diarrhea) is to WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP and water immediately before eating. It needn't be antibacterial soap nor hot water. Plain old bar soap is antiseptic, i.e. it kills the hell out of bacteria.

Obviously that might be hard to do when you're eating at a cart.

I'd bet the ranch that when you guys got sick it was from "bugs" (bacteria) that wiped from your fingers onto finger-food like chips or bread (or popcorn), and from there down the hatch.

Just as the plants and animals are different in foreign lands, so are the microbes. If they show up in your gut, the body goes WTF!!! and tries to flush 'em out.

I don't like the alcohol disinfectant gels. If I stay in a hotel with midget soap bars, I take one of those with me when heading out to eat.

Hot water doesn't do squat. If it were hot enough to kill bugs, it would scald you.

Costar: "you guys got sick it was from "bugs" (bacteria) that wiped from your fingers onto finger-food ..."

Maybe, maybe not.

First thing I stopped doing when I first traveled overseas was: putting my hand in a bowl of peanuts on the bar counter where everyone else was sticking their hands.

In the USA, I never thought about it. Then my brain noticed overseas the same habit and said, stop.

Then overseas I saw a waitress carrying my sub sandwich on a plate on a tray to me. On her way, she reached into the sub and pulled out a bit of meat to nibble on.

Next, overseas I saw street vendors get water from a hose attached to a spigot and use the water in their cooking. Meanwhile, I had been warned to never drink the city's tap water.

In an overseas restaurant, I watched waiters and waitresses cleared a table just vacated by diners. They carefully put the uneaten food on a separate plate. I bet the saved food was served to the next customers who ordered those items.

In one Pattaya club, one manager likes to come and sit next to me and chat about USA and Pattaya oddities. But, when he speaks, he spits. Everytime, I put my hand over my glass of beer to protect my beer from his spit.

While walking along a street or even inside a mall overseas, I have had people who cough in my face or even sneeze in my direction -- without covering their mouth or nose. I think I have instinctively learned not to breathe or to hold my breath - when close to strangers.

Above all, I do not exchange moisture with girls. My semen goes into a condom and my tongue only touches nipples and ears. No dining at the Y and no French kisses.