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Would you sample anything they sell?

Sure, I've eaten several things from the vendors. The real barrier is asking for something. You're not sure how it will be handed to you, or how much they'll give you, or what the price should be, so you hesitate to buy anything.

But I've eaten at one of the little dinner cafes once, by pointing at things in the pots, and I've bought some packages of the little sweet things they sell. But the sweet treats often have a weird taste to us. Like they use lots of coconut butter, or some strange spice, plus the consistency is unfamiliar to Westerners. Sometimes mushy, some times "fleshy", and very often extremely gummy, but made from dough, or pounded rice gluten.

I bought one bag of "things" (medium sized, white doughy balls with a yellow spot on each one) from a handicapped lady in Bangkok. When I ate them later, well they tasted alright, but it was a mushy sugary sweetness, combined with a bizarre mesquite-like bbq flavor, with something that tasted vaguely of egg inside (they cook a lot of tiny eggs, I guess they're pigeon eggs, or quail or something). So the over all experience of their preferred foods is not what Thailand is known for.

The beaches, sunshine, temples and beer are much safer ground for outsiders!