Category Archives: food

by | 03/24/2010 · 4:30 pm

Go to this noodle shop

Let’s cut to the chase: Tang Meng Noodle (Sukhumvit Rd., between sois 47-49) is awesome. Best-known for its bamee ban (wide egg noodles, as opposed to the regular spaghetti-width ones), Tang Meng also serves a well-regarded bowl of yen ta fo (noodles in a pink seafood sauce), flavor-filled pork noodles in a sweet-sour tom yum sauce with crispy barbecued pork, and even a decently turned-out plate of khao mun gai (chicken rice).

chicken rice

seafood noodles in pink sauce

There are more dishes that I’m not even going to bother to mention, like a wide variety of khao pads (fried rice dishes) and fried noodle selections like pad see ew (fried noodles in soy sauce), @Specialkrb’s favorite. That is because they come from the kitchen in back, which technically makes Tang Meng a restaurant and not a noodle stall, but I don’t care, because the noodle dishes made up front are that good.  So go ahead and order a bowl of bamee moo (pork), luk chin pla (fish meatballs), tom yum (in a sweet-spicy chili sauce), nam yaek (noodle broth on the side) for 40 baht (50 baht for a “special” sized portion).

egg noodles with pork and fish meatballs

Don’t forget to venture a few feet into Sukhumvit Soi 49 for some fried wontons from Fried Wonton Lady (20 baht for 8, including a sweet chili dipping sauce) if, like me, you are striving to maintain your butternut squash-shaped figure. Just don’t order the nam than sod (fresh sugarcane juice), which actually comes in a can and is not, in fact, fresh. You can thank me later.

fried wontons and deep-fried tofu, taro and corn fritters

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Filed under Asia, bamee, Bangkok, food, food stalls, noodles, restaurant, Thailand, won tons

by | 03/24/2010 · 3:59 pm

Adventures in Chinatown, Part I

fish stew storefront

This is a khao tom pla (fish rice porridge) shop that was the only food stall open along a deserted alleyway in Yaowaraj (Chinatown) on a Sunday night following the Red Shirt protests. Called Sieng Gi Khao Tom Pla (Mageng Alley, behind the Grand China Princess Hotel), this shop is famous for–you guessed it–at the relatively exorbitant price of 300 baht a bowl (for Glutton-sized portions. For regular servings, it’s 200 baht).

There’s not much more to be said about fish porridge, except that it comes in three varieties: fatty pomfret with the silvery slivers of skin attached (pla jiramit, favored by Thais), plump chunks of seabass (pla kapong, which was just meh), and oyster (hoy nangrom).  The charms of such a straightforward dish can be elusive: simply poached fish in a fish stock with boiled rice, accompanied by a brown fermented soybean sauce, it draws the fine line between subtle Chinese-Thai delicacy and hospital food. And for the princely sum of 300 baht, one could find a showier, more flavorful deal somewhere else.

But, for us at least, it’s the food equivalent of your favorite aunt–comfort food, with enough exotica to differentiate it from the everyday.  In this case, some of the exotica comes in the form of a honking huge bowl of fish eggs, served on a bed of roughly chopped Thai celery and garnished with deep-fried garlic, an unusual side dish (also 200-300 baht) that is smooth and savory yet slightly grainy, like what a suede purse might taste like.

The rest comes via the–shall we say, homey–atmosphere of the shop itself, an alleyside hole-in-the-wall manned by an elderly Chinese man and his formidable wife. Entertainment comes in the form of rodent-sized cockroaches that tickle your toes as you eat; the squeamish need only complain and the waitress will be only too happy to shoo them away for you, at no additional cost. Enjoy.

seabass porridge

fish eggs

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Filed under Asia, Bangkok, food, food stalls, restaurant, Thailand

by | 03/23/2010 · 9:51 am

A Culinary Detour

A little over a year ago, I had lunch at an unassuming hole-in-the-wall next to one of my favorite landmarks in the city, Wat Kaek. It served very decent nam prik kapi(shrimp paste pepper dip) and chicken curry out of a surprisingly efficient kitchen placed prominently up front; its menu was small and seemed focused on southern Thai-inflected specialties; its khao mok gai (saffron chicken rice) was genuinely delicious, studded liberally with spices and deep-fried shallots but still juicy. It had all the hallmarks of what I would consider a great food stall: a limited menu with (arguably) one stand-out specialty, an open kitchen placed prominently up front so you can see your lunch take shape, and bargain-basement prices.

I returned this week to find the same space, but dotted by tables with tablecloths (!) and a handy English-language laminated menu that included a host of dishes from the Central and Northern Thai regions, plus a string of praise-filled blurbs from English-language publications, which immediately filled me with dread. The inclusion of pad thai on the menu sealed it: this food stall had been ruined. Ruined, I say.

The hubris of including Northern dishes like khao soy and (dare I say it) kanom jeen nam ngiew  was coupled with the complete absence of the saffron chicken rice dish — what were they thinking??? — so I ordered kanom jeen nam ngiew, expecting to be completely disappointed by a dish that I consider the culinary Bangkok equivalent of a unicorn. What confronted me was a watery mass of fermented rice noodles crowned with a generically spicy broth in which the namesake ngiew (a broom-like herb that lends the dish its name and texture) was completely missing. And it was accompanied by basil leaves! It’s official: no one in Bangkok who makes food for a living actually knows how to cook this dish. I’m better off staying at home.

I’m still puzzled by the glowing testimonials. Do all foreign food writers frequent the same places, brought there by their friends, content to continue on in a chain of bad recommendations? And what does that say about similar recommendations made by similar writers in other cities? Have I been cheated out of a genuinely good meal in, say, Istanbul? Do I think the meatball stand next to the Blue Mosque is good simply because someone told me so? It blows the mind.

I think a lot of Bangkok restaurants fall victim to a phenomenon plaguing a lot of people: they want to be all things to all people. For my part, there is better Southern food at Kua Gring on Sukhumvit Soi 40, better kanom jeen at Sanguan Sri on Wireless Road, and better Northern food at … well, up north.  Book your ticket now.

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Filed under Asia, Bangkok, food, food stalls, noodles