- Title: Heirs step up as COVID deaths ravage Bangkok's famous street-food stalls
- Date: 28th October 2021
- Summary: VARIOUS OF SARISA WORKING / PHOTO OF HER LATE-MOTHER 66-YEAR-OLD LADDA SAETANG SHOWN ON COMPUTER SCREEN
- Embargoed: 11th November 2021 08:28
- Keywords: COVID-19 China Thailand covid deaths food legendary street tourism town
- Location: BANGKOK, THAILAND
- City: BANGKOK, THAILAND
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA004F17MRLZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: PART AUDIO QUALITY AS INCOMING
Every morning, Adulwitch Tangsupmanee arrives at a run-down cinema in Bangkok's Chinatown to set up one of the neighbourhood's most well-loved street food stalls his renowned father ran for nearly 50 years before dying of COVID-19 in July.
While aromatic pork broth simmers, 42-year-old Adulwitch carefully places a framed picture of his late father Chanchai on top of the stall's window display, adorned with Michelin guide accolades dated from 2018 to 2021.
Bangkok's famous street food scene has lost some of its most venerable vendors to coronavirus - at least seven well-known sidewalk chefs have died in recent months, according to a Reuters count - in a blow to the rich culture of single-dish stalls.
Their deaths have left a legacy of rich flavours in the hands of their children, who vow to carry on traditions that over decades helped propel Bangkok into a global street food mecca.
Perhaps the most famous vendor who died was 73-year-old Chanchai Tangsupmanee - known as "Elder Brother Ouan" - whose "Guay Jub" rolled rice noodles earned Michelin recognition and where customers often had to wait for seats.
"We never saw this disease coming, never thought it would take so many lives, or that it would happen to our family," said Adulwitch.
As Bangkok is set to reopen to foreign tourists on Monday (November 1), Adulwitch hopes visitors will again snap up seats at his tables just like before the pandemic.
"This shop was what my father loved the most, and I love him most. I have to keep it going, no matter what," Adulwitch told Reuters.
While Chanchai's children did not hesitate in taking over his stall, just 650 metres (0.4 mile) away, Sarisa Saetang, 39, and her siblings had debated whether to give up the family's pot stewed-duck shop after her mother passed away in May.
Sarisa, who only started learning everything about duck stewing months ago, said she wanted the memories of her mother Ladda, a 66-year-old lady with a kind smile known to customers as "Grandma Si", to live on.
"I'll be overjoyed if customers say our ducks still taste like my mother's. Some tell me to not quit, because they can't find food like this anywhere else," said Sarisa.
(Production: Vorasit Satienlerk, Juarawee Kittisilpa) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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