Category Archives: restaurant

by | 02/10/2011 · 4:18 pm

Glutton-related matters: Sick

I am sick. Actually, I am more than sick: I am a walking cesspool of germs, a petri dish with legs and arms. And although I know it could be worse, I am still very busy feeling sorry for myself, especially since my “mean” Singapore sometime-overlord is making me jump through hoop after hoop before I leave for Japan in two days.

My current state of sick is not the same as the sickness that comes from eating at a food stall. That is a scary sort of sick that goes beyond concerns about the “curry tummy” into the realm of the potentially lethal. The jury is still out on whether this terrible death was definitely food-related, but the bottom line is: you risk getting sick any time you eat food not prepared by you. Most food stalls are relatively clean, and as Richard Barrow points out, there are ways of minimizing your chances of getting ill.

But, no. My sick is the kind that turns my nose into a runny faucet and renders conversations frustrating exercises in mumble-roaring. Naturally, there is a plethora of home remedies from garlic to ginseng to chicken soup, but the Thais have their very own way of dealing with these things, and it involves bombing the crap out of your cold with chilies:

Tom yum from mushroom lady on Sukhumvit Soi 24

There is something about that heady mix of chilies, kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass that somehow cuts through the traffic jam in your sinuses, bringing you back to the land of the living. But if the street isn’t really your preferred culinary ‘hood, you can still get relief from a bona fide “fancy” place: Bussaracum, which specializes in “royal Thai cuisine”, even provides a “menu from 120 years ago” cobbled together from recipes straight out of @kanitthaifood’s old books. Here, a tom yum from a century ago and the modern interpretation (which one is which?):
Guess which one is which?

The old-school version includes roasted chili paste and mango for acidity (so if you guessed the thick, chili-looking one, you were right!). The entire menu is 690++ baht for seven courses, so head on over there if you want to try any of their other boran dishes side-by-side with their modern-day counterparts.

And if you are sick, like I am, bring a hefty supply of tissues.

6 Comments

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

by | 01/21/2011 · 11:32 am

I’m Toast

Toast: it's what's for dessert at Suan Luang market

Toast. What’s not to like? Or, more accurately: what’s not to dislike? I think that’s what ends up becoming the main rap against toast. A spineless blob of a person is a milquetoast. And something that’s effectively done, used up, ruined — it’s toast. As in, “you’re toast”. “They’re toast”. “This writing career that never started, it’s toast.” Not that I’m talking about myself, mind you. I’m doing swimmingly, thank you very much. My services are very much in demand. Now please excuse me as I edit these Tops Supermarket Recipe Cards (TM). Deadlines, I haz ’em!

*  *  *

I’m done. You didn’t even notice I was gone, did you? That’s how amazing I am. Why the Wall Street Journal isn’t bashing down my door is beyond me. I can only imagine they are busy setting up the next sap who can be publicly pilloried for more page views on their website. I don’t see what the big deal is. I, too, was raised the stereotypically Asian way (no Bs allowed, no friends, no boyfriends) and look how great I turned out!

What was I talking about? There is no way to link “Tiger Mothers” to toast, is there? See what I did? I linked them anyway! I’m a genius. Or I am still drunk from last night. One of the two. I blame @pmetz and his delicious wine. You gotta watch out for those Luxembourgers.

But as I said, toast gets a bad rap. Toast can be good, clean fun. And although you look at a big piece of freshly grilled toast, slathered with salted butter and doused in the siren call of granulated sugar, and say “I can do that at home”, you don’t, do you? You sit down there on that stool at Suan Luang Market, at that stall with the cow face on it (because milk and toast are inextricably linked in the minds of Thai people), and stuff your face with that sweet, sweet oblivion. And you cry a little bit and churn over past regrets and wonder what Padma Lakshmi is doing, right at that very moment, and if she’s thinking of you, too.

Toast cubes and coconut cream dipping sauces

(Photos by @SpecialKRB)

Yes, toast wrecks your diet. It’s evil that way. It’s that undermining saboteur who poses as your friend, casually mentioning the very worst moments of your life in a crowded room, among polite company, making you want to shrivel up and die. But it’s SO SO good. And the best place to plunge into that sweet oblivion, for me, is on Dinso Road, part of that beautiful loop in Banglamphu that is my favoritest place in Bangkok. It’s called Mont Nom Sod (Fresh Milk Mont) and it doesn’t just offer toast with butter and sugar for 13 baht, but also toast with condensed milk, toast with orange jam, toast with coconut custard (two colors, orange and green), toast with chocolate, toast with creamy corn soup, toast with peanut butter, toast with creamy taro (Mondays only) and toast with creamy pumpkin (full moon days only), all for 20 baht.

 

Toast and drink at Mont Nom Sod

Mont Nom Sod

160/2-3 Dinso Road

02-224-1147

8 Comments

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

by | 12/03/2010 · 8:07 am

The Ugly Face of Chauvinism

I have inexplicably agreed to be on a panel at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand to discuss foreigners cooking Thai food. While I am happy to do it, I am also a little apprehensive. This is the grad student who had to give her presentations sitting down in order to keep from passing out or vomiting. This is the friend who hates talking on the phone because that form of communication is too immediate and invasive. This is one of your speakers, guys! Hopefully I have moved beyond panic attacks and am now at peace with being a gibbering idiot.

Another reason I’m worried? Because I am a great big hypocrite.

Let me explain. I have been writing a street food guide for the past year, a project I have been super-quiet about because I don’t want to jinx it (yes, I am that type of person). It’s called “Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls” and it will be out early next year (knock on wood. Fingers crossed. Turn around three times).  In it, I detail different types of stalls — yummy duck porridge; buoyant oyster omelettes; exuberant iced coconut milk desserts; extravangantly stuffed flat noodles.

And not a mention of a northern Thai noodle dish, anywhere.

I know what I’ve done. I know there is ample khao soy and kanom jeen nam ngiew to be had on the city’s streets. Believe me, given my issues with northern Thai food I have tried almost all of them. But I feel like 1.) the best ones are branches of Northern Thai institutions, so why not go to the real one, and 2.) there are so many other great stalls out there. Really, though, there is no excuse. I am guilty of culinary chauvinism. I don’t want to believe Bangkokians can make a decent bowl of khao soy, much less approach the personal Freudian nightmare that is nam ngiew.

And, I am sorry to say, this is not my only prejudice. As long as I’m laying it all out there: watching the movie “Invincible”, I was struck by how Mark Wahlberg (who plays an Eagle) had a girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) who was a Giants fan. Uh, WTF?! Because there is no, no, never, ever, never any way I would go within two feet of a Cleveland Browns fan. Sure, some of them may be nice and all, but to date or even marry one? Are you kidding me? (This from the person who still cannot show her face at Bully’s because she almost got into a fist fight with a Cardinals fan two years ago. He was almost 50! I could have taken him).

People tell me about close friends, open-minded in every other way, who turn into Asia’s answers to Glenn Beck when it comes to the issue of foreigners cooking Thai food. It can’t be done: farang lack the upbringing, the tastebud training, the turbo-charged metabolisms, the innate love of the color fuchsia.  We laugh at this, but I’m the same. I have my blind spots too.

So I want to make amends before I go on this panel. Here are the Northern Thai places I go to in Bangkok when I know I won’t be going up North for a while:

People desperate for good Northern Thai noodles in front of Nam Ngiew Pa Suk

 

You know what this is

Nam Ngiew Pa Suk (Soi Phiphat, 300 m from Silom, on the right side)

Not surprisingly, this is the branch of the venerable stall in Chiang Rai. It also serves khao soy (which I find kind of bland) and khao ganjin, or what my friend calls “crazy purple Shan rice”: rice steamed in pork blood and garnished with deep-fried garlic and fresh coriander. But the nam ngiew is almost as thick, rich and meaty as the original, and very popular, unlike many other Bangkok stalls where it’s the nam ngiew that is neglected in favor of the more well-known egg noodle dish.

Maan Mueng (Ramkhamhaeng 112)

This is a good Northern Thai restaurant overall. They do everything well here: super nam prik num (roasted green pepper dip), nice gaeng ho (a sort of “goulash” of leftovers including glass vermicelli noodles and pork), and yes, a good khao soy. The nam ngiew is sort of unusual here — a thick fermented bean base that has a deep undertow of near-fishiness. I love it. A shame it’s so far away.

Maan Mueng's nam ngiew

So there. Two places I go to again and again. And not in the hopes I find something to complain about, either. I would have tried for three, but let’s not push it.

Have a good weekend. Unless you are a Baltimore Ravens fan.

7 Comments

Filed under Asia, Bangkok, Chiang Rai, food, food stalls, noodles, Northern Thailand, restaurant, Thailand