Kuai tiao: Thai street fare that will bowl you over

One of my favourite snacks to eat when I visit Thailand is kuai tiao. It's mainly sold by street vendors, but I've also eaten it in restaurants and food courts.

Kuai tiao is similar to Chinese cart noodles, only more assertive in flavour, making it distinctively Thai.

The street vendor heats either rice or egg noodles, of varying thicknesses, in a vat of boiling water, adding whatever additions the customer has ordered: meat balls, fish balls, fish cake, minced pork and roast pork, for example. After putting the hot ingredients into a bowl, the vendor ladles in a clear, meaty broth, adds minced spring onion and fried garlic (plus the aromatic garlic oil) and hands it over to the customer. Flavourings used to personalise each bowl - chilli flakes, fish sauce and minced fresh chillies - can be found on rickety dining tables nearby. In Thailand, the portion size is quite small (making it a not-too-filling snack), but the versions I've had outside the country have been supersized, so it's enough for a meal.