Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Flavours of yesteryear
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 24/05/2013
» They still do exist, you know: real raan khao gaeng _ curry shops _ where the cook pounds the nam prik personally and takes the time to squeeze genuine, fresh coconut cream, separating it into the hua (first pressing) and the haang, instead of opening a container of dairy milk or (in hanging-offence cases) a can of evaporated milk.
Obscure objects of desire
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 19/04/2013
» If there is such a thing as a culinary endangered species, a type of dining establishment that occupies the same doomed territory as the Asian golden cat, the bumblebee bat and the Javan rhino, it is probably the small, informal restaurant, owned and operated by the same family for many years, where exceptional food is prepared using personal recipes that have been polished to perfection over time.
Arather mixed bag
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 30/11/2012
» A food-alert friend of Ung-aang Talay's recently recommended a restaurant in the Silom area, mentioning that it was related to the Sukhumvit-based Baan Khanitha, whose kitchen has been attracting loyal customers for many years with excellent curries and nam prik dishes, and with its signature multi-coloured rice. As a regular at Baan Khanitha back in its early days on Sukhumvit Soi 11, U-a T's curiosity was aroused, and a group supper planned for last week seemed like a good opportunity to give the place a try.
As good as it looks
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 12/10/2012
» You have to hand it to the Yaowarat area for its ability to keep cultural invasion and pollution at bay. The lone McDonald's that opened there a few years back packed up and left some time ago _ a first for Bangkok? _ and even 7-Eleven has only made minor inroads.
Fruit of the egg
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 05/10/2012
» There was a time when the Bangkok weekend market was held at Sanam Luang rather than at Chatuchak, and those who remember it as it was then will recall that it had a character very different from now. The tourism frenzy that began in the late 1980s was still many years off, and the great majority of the people who went to Sanam Luang to browse the market were Bangkok locals. It would have been unusual to spend a couple of hours meandering around there without running into someone you knew.
Northern heat
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 21/09/2012
» A craving for the nuclear heat of southern Thai food has steered Ung-aang Talay to so many southern food shops recently that when some friends suggested a visit to Gedhawa, a restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 35 that specialises in northern cuisine, U-a T leapt at the opportunity for a change.
Hot in the city
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 07/09/2012
» Time really does devour all things, and seems to have an especially voracious appetite for the quality of the food served at once-favourite restaurants. How many times have you gone to a place you once revered but have been away from for a few years only to find that the dish you went back there for, even correcting for the heightened allure imparted by nostalgia, wasn't quite what it once was?
Surprises from the South
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 31/08/2012
» Ask a food-savvy Bangkokian to name some southern Thai dishes and you'll usually hear the same list: kaeng tai pla, kaeng lueang, pat sataw, khua kling, khao yam, some kind of fish fried with turmeric _ in other words, the usual. And no wonder, because these dishes, plus a few others, define the boundaries as far as most Bangkok restaurants are concerned.
Going Chinese
Life, Ung-Aang Talay, Published on 10/08/2012
» Mention of the word "goose" in the context of Bangkok dining triggers a Pavlovian mechanism in Ung-aang Talay that leads to a mealtime visit either to Chua Kim Heng in Phattanakan or to Kui Tio Pet Jao Thaa across from the Harbour Authority, both of which serve versions of traditional Chinese haan phalo (Chinese-style aromatic stewed goose) so delectable that U-a T had never felt motivated to look further.