Category Archives: noodles

by | 05/05/2010 · 12:08 pm

Not good for you, but so what?

A weekend in Pattaya was a welcome reprieve from the clamor in Bangkok (literally: workers are fixing a hole in my roof) and also turned up some truly tasty Thai seafood at Nong Ae in Banglamum, the best meal I’ve had in weeks. On offer: an aggressively spiced gaeng som with fish eggs, round and alarmingly transparent like mini-balloons; a lovely nam prik (pepper dip) of crab eggs; sator (a lima bean-like bitter vegetable) stir-fried Pattaya-style in fermented brown bean sauce; a surprisingly yummy fried head of cabbage slathered in black peppercorns (the original Thai spice, long before the Portuguese introduced Thais to chili peppers); and a whole pomfret, steamed with pickled plums, whole cloves of garlic and shiitake mushrooms.

The last was the best, but least Thai of the dishes — Thais traditionally deep-fry their fish because they usually pluck their dinner from the nearby rivers, and frying ensures that any worms are killed before consumption. Steaming is a Chinese innovation, which is why a lot of Thai seafood joints are Chinese-Thai in origin.

I would show you pictures, if I had any, but I was busy stuffing my face. Instead, I can show you this:

What I had for lunch

And this:

Disapproves of what I had for lunch

But this post is not about Pattaya, or even about Thai-Chinese seafood. It’s about things that are bad for you. We are all guilty of indulging once in a while — otherwise, we wouldn’t be human, or we would be Madonna. Things that are bad for you include: passing out after a hefty lunch of pasta (guilty); an all-day 30 Rock marathon when you are supposed to be working (yeah, that too); following Thai political developments (actually, not so much. I have a strong instinct for self-preservation).  Add to that list: kuay thiew kua gai, which is basically 3-4 different ways to a heart attack, stir-fried with a gallon of oil and served with a smidgen of lettuce in an effort to pretend it isn’t the coast of Louisiana on your plate. Believe it or not, it’s yummy. And among the best purveyors of this menace to your cholesterol levels is Nai Peng (20, Chula Soi 20, Suan Luang Market).

Flat fried noodles with chicken and egg

It looks like the murky remnants of a stir-fry chef’s pan, wrapped lovingly in egg, but it is so much more than that. Silky noodles, slightly charred at the edges, large chunks of chicken, or, if you are “watching your health”, seafood, and the most important part of all, the bits of lettuce that just manage to save this dish from falling over the edge into Greasy, Unappetizing Mess. If you are hell-bent on living high off the hog, Nai Peng offers these noodles with “Taro”, a salted fish product processed to look like squid. White vinegar studded with orange chili pepper slices and generous lashings of sweet chili sauce finish this picture.

It’s good, quick and tasty, the Thai equivalent of the KFC “Double Down” sandwich — best eaten late at night, after a few rounds of beer, when you are feeling young and invincible and not thinking about the encroaching specter that is middle age. Enjoy, while you can.

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

by | 03/26/2010 · 2:43 pm

Chinatown: Round 2

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, was clear: five different dishes over the course of a stroll down Yaowaraj Road, the main drag running through Bangkok’s Chinatown. First, a plate of guay thiew lod, flat rice noodles stuffed with pork, doused in a sweet-n-dark soy sauce and slathered with deep-fried garlic and bits of coriander; then a bowl of ga po pla, viscous fish maw soup studded with shiitake mushrooms and more coriander; a stop at an award-winning lard na stand, serving quick-fried rice noodles mixed with slices of tender pork, bitter-salty Chinese kale and bits of egg; next, guay jab, a Chinese hand-rolled rice noodle in a hot pork-filled broth; and a parting bowl of bua loy nam khing, rice flour dumplings filled with sesame paste in a gingery syrup.

But first we had to get to Chinatown, a trip which started off inauspiciously when I became transfixed by the sight of a grilled corn stand and, after shouting “Corn!” to no one in particular, tumbled down the stairs out of the subway stop. We then endured a toe-curling ride in a lopsided tuk-tuk with a driver who appeared to mistake our shrieks of terror for squeals of delight. It was worth it, because what met us after our ride was this:

flat noodles stuffed with pork

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This flat steamed noodle (available on Yaowaraj Rd. in front of the Seiko Watch Shop) is a popular option at many a Sunday morning dim sum table, stuffed with pork or diced shrimp, but none is as satisfyingly over-loaded as this Chinatown version, dripping in sauce and extraneous toppings, the Tacky Showgirl to the more demure and understated traditional type. It was hard to limit our Gluttonous party (which included @Specialkrb, @anuntakob and @aceimage) to a couple of dishes, but more stops awaited, including the following:

fish maw soup

Because of its bath sponge-like appearance, fish maw soup is often misunderstood, and its slimy texture often a turnoff for otherwise-adventurous diners. But when cooked well, it can be a feathery mix of tang and salt. This version here, available at the stand next to the guay thiew lod vendor, is exceptional. 

see, it really is thick!

Next, a quick stroll down the road to Jay Oun Rard Na Yod Pak yielded plates of some of the best fried noodles in gravy in the country. It’s not me who is saying this; these noodles have actually won awards (because Thailand is the kind of country that gives awards for this kind of thing. You’ll read about some award-winning pad thai later on).

Options included sen yai (big noodles) or sen mee (angel hair noodles), but the big noodle version stands up best to the thick gravy here. The inclusion of “yod pak” in the name means this stand serves only pork, which appears to be the reason why these noodles are a stand-out: the pork is thin, tender and velvety. We were not able to restrain ourselves here and ordered four plates of this dish.

fried noodles in pork gravy

Almost-full, we trundled further on down the road to one of the most crowded spots on the road (Guay Jab Oun Pochana. “Oun”, which means “fat”, appears to be a popular nickname on this road, for obvious reasons). Now, I am no guay jab fan, but I can see why these scrolled noodles are so popular; they are obviously hand-made and the broth is full of porky, piggy goodness. Pick your table well, since we ended up sitting over some sort of subway grate that made our visit here even more uncomfortably humid than normal.

mr. guay jab at work

Chinese hand-rolled noodles in pork broth

Finally, a trip to a variation of those thao tung iced dessert stands that I love so much. This one, Jay Oun (in front of Heng Lee Goldsmith), serves the aforementioned bua loy (which literally means “floating lotus”) but also great chao guay (a black jelly that tastes a little like black coffee and is served with shaved ice and syrup) and nam khing, served with deep-fried dough squiggles and dollops of freshly made tofu, shown below: 

homemade tofu

ginger broth with tofu and deep-fried dough

sesame-filled dumplings in ginger syrup

iced black jelly with gingko nuts in syrup

If you have some space left in your stomach, order your black jelly with pa guay, or yellow gingko nut, which is not only delicious, but also supposed to make you smarter. We all can use a bit of that.

A trip to Bangkok’s Chinatown requires a lot of planning and persistence: it’s hard to get to, especially amid this city’s notorious traffic, people will open their car doors on you while you are eating, and you will get hot, sometimes uncomfortably so. But for Chinatown’s mix of great Thai-Chinese food and great scenery, it’s worth it.

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Filed under Asia, Bangkok, Chinatown, Chinese, fish, food, food stalls, noodles, pork, restaurant, seafood, Thailand

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