BANGKOK 2000

A Different Neighborhood

      During my previous assignments to Bangkok I worked and stayed in the older, northwestern part of the city, not far from the Chao Phya River. The neighborhood had the advantage of proximity to places of interest such as the Grand Palace and the National Museum. Also, I was a tuk‑tuk ride away from the river, where it was very convenient to take a river taxi downstream to my favorite haunts such as the Oriental Hotel and the commercial area of New Road near it. It always gave me a thrill to see the bustle of river traffic, from the rice barges to the rapid and noisy long‑tailed boats with huge outboard motors. And the sight from the ferry of the imposing towers of Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) glittering in the sunlight by the riverbank never failed to enchant me.  

This year, however, my work brought me to Sukhumvit, a district situated in the eastern part of Bangkok. This relatively new residential neighborhood offered me the opportunity of discovering the wide array of local restaurants for which it is well‑known. Moreover, very fortunately, the Sky Train, the new elevated railway system, started operating just a few months before my arrival in February, enabling me to get around with much greater ease and speed in this vast metropolis choked with traffic. In fact, I had the best of both worlds ‑ I was able to explore this charming neighborhood at my leisure, but was not cut off from the riverside attractions and other commercial centers of Bangkok, thanks to the immaculate and efficient Sky Train.

  Gastronomic Delights in Sukhumvit

      For some years now, Sukhumvit has boasted an impressive array of restaurants specializing in international cuisines such as French, Indian, Italian and Vietnamese. But it also has several highly rated Thai restaurants. Baan Khanita (which means younger sister in Thai) has been rated Best Thai Restaurant three years in a row. It is situated in an elegant house on a quiet soi (lane) off Sukhumvit Road (36/1 Soi 23, Sukhumvit) and is tastefully furnished in the Thai style with art objects and wall hangings. To whet our appetite, along with cold towels, the waiter brought us a tray of peanuts and chilies and other savory tidbits, which we wrapped in leaves and consumed with gusto, washing them down with ice‑cold Singha beer. For appetizers, my friend George and I had crabmeat prepared in the shape of a sausage and delicious deep‑fried squid with chilies. And for entrees, we had outstanding prawns fried in chili peppers and scallions with straw mushrooms. The only slight disappointment of the evening was the chicken curry masaman, which did not quite measure up to the rest of the meal. We came away feeling that perhaps seafood was one's best bet in this excellent restaurant. The service was pleasant and always attentive.

    The Red Pepper (Rembrandt Hotel, Soi 20, Sukhumvit) is located at the quiet end of the soi in the residential part of the Hotel. The outside of it has an attractive arrangement of plants and rocks and small pools of water. The interior is bright and pleasant with polished wood floors and a sleek, contemporary decor. The food is not traditional, with quite a few experimental fusion dishes on the menu, including Thai‑Japanese fusion. The waitresses were very simply dressed in khakis and T‑shirts, but they exuded grace and femininity. For starters we had spring rolls filled with salmon and crab meal, which were delightful, and also large deep‑fried prawns with a spicy mango and red onion salad that complemented the prawns superbly. At the suggestion of our waitress we had Tom Yom Kong to follow and it was one of the best I have ever had ‑ the broth was rich and suitably piquant and the shrimps unusually tasty. The entrees were equally satisfying ‑ the fresh soft‑shell crabs with chili peppers and scallions ‑were moist and succulent and the chicken in thick red curry sauce was delicious in combination with the steaming hot rice. 

    The third restaurant I tried in the neighborhood, Thon Krueng, was also mentioned in one of the guide books, but I just happened to stumble upon it while I was looking for another restaurant, Lai Cram, which is considered a first‑class gourmet restaurant. Since I could not find Lai Cram after wandering around a couple of sois for half an hour, tired and thirsty, on the comer of Soi Akkaphat and Soi Thong Lor (or Soi 55, a major street intersecting Sukhumvit.) I came upon this delightful restaurant with tables outside and an informal, relaxed atmosphere. The clientele was mainly Thai, with quite a lot of customers who seemed to have come from work. I had cuttlefish fried in batter as appetizer, followed by grilled river lobster in their shells. It was a satisfying and tasty meal, but it did not have the refinement of the other ones that I've had. All in all, it was a happy end to what might have been a disappointing evening.  

    The Lemon Grass on Soi 24 has enjoyed for years a reputation for being an informal establishment with good Thai food, and is very popular. This time, some of my friends tried the well-known Vietnamese restaurant Le Dalat Indochine (which is the sister restaurant to Le Dalat on Soi 23), and enjoyed the food enormously.  

    Of course, there are numerous small neighborhood establishments all over the quartier offering air‑conditioning, friendly service and decent, very inexpensive food. As Robert Templer, food critic writing for the Asian Wall Street Journal, so aptly puts it," (Thailand is) ... a country where at any time half the population is involved in feeding the other half." Also, I should point out, that there is a wide variety of interesting shops and boutiques in Sukhumvit selling anything from jewelry to hand-woven fabrics to rattan furniture. If the visitor had the time, it is a neighborhood well worth exploring at leisure.

  Venturing outside Sukhumvit

      The convenience of the Sky Train made it possible for us to go to a totally different part of Bangkok for dinner, which before we would certainly have thought twice about. I had made a reservation for my friends Carol and Peter and myself at The Oriental Hotel for the "Barbecue on the Terrace" and the nomenclature I felt hardly did justice to the elegant dining experience that it actually was. The trip by Sky Train involved one change and took us to Saphan Taksin by the river, where the Shangri‑La Hotel is located. From there we took a leisurely ten-minute walk along New Road to the Oriental, but it would have taken just a few minutes by tuk‑tuk.  

    The night invests the Chao Phya with a certain glamour and magical quality. There were fewer boats on this major waterway, though a few tourist vessels festooned with lights were plying their usual route and the restaurants and hotels had their own craft ferrying their guests to and from their evening meals or entertainment.

      The buffet of course was of the high standard that we have come to expect from an establishment like the Oriental. There was the usual sumptuous array of delicately seasoned seafood and vegetable salads. The cold river lobster and large prawns were delicious, and the smoked salmon superb. The hot food component offered grilled seafood and also filet mignon and various perfectly barbecued meats and fowls in dazzling profusion. It is always a mistake not to leave room for dessert on these occasions. I had filled my plate with a fruit tart and a slice of chocolate cake to die for, and a few small traditional Thai sweets as well. When Carol saw these, and remarked on how enticing they looked, the waiter (always in alert and courteous attendance) went off and brought us a whole plateful of an assortment of these multicolored Thai desserts, which we eventually consumed completely. In the languor of the tropical night, it was deliciously pleasurable to linger over excellent coffee and to cast a few more glances at that now very quiet and mysterious Mother of all Rivers, before tearing ourselves away to head back to our hotel.

 

Jeffrey Tao

Copyright by Jeffrey Tao