[bangkok] trip report

not very busy here or chowhound, not sure it’s worth posting detailed trip reports anymore, so I’ll make this quick:

day 1:

Breakfast at the lounge in eastin was good, freshly cooked eggs, smoked salmon and dim sum were excellent. we took a fabulous, all-day tour with a private tour guide to see the grand palace and wat pho. We chose to use public transportation which introduced to the various modes of transportation in the city.

Over the course of the day, our guide took us for thai iced tea, green curry and pad thai. The thai iced tea was great and shockingly inexpensive compared to nyc. We also shared a banana roti, which was a little too sweet but found the crispy crepe delicious. For lunch we had pad thai, which we found no better than nyc (queens) renditions and green curry. The curry was a little thinner than we’ve had in the past and the dominant lemongrass flavor of the soup base was completely new to us and…we loved it! With some hesitation, we ordered the same spice level as our thai guide, it turned out to be very mild. Exhausted from our nine-hour tour and still full from lunch, we skipped dinner and retired early.

day two - we asked the concierge to make a reservation at jay fai but they are closed until tues, depending on how busy they are, we may have to skip. With some reluctance, off to chatuchak market now, probably not the best place for food but I suppose when in bangkok…

4 Likes

Appreciate detailed food report if time is permitted on your side, it will be great to see the detail of dishes and the location of the restaurants, this will help the future travellers planning their trips.

HO’s Asian board doesn’t generate a lot of feedbacks, few of us live in that part of the world, but the threads are on the top of the most read posts in HO.

2 Likes

Did you join a food tour? Can you tell more?

no, it was not a food tour, however the company does offer food tours. Our tour guide after learning of our interest in food, did suggest a number of restaurants. the company is here:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293916-d1798690-Reviews-Thai_Private_Tour_Guide-Bangkok.html

We did went especially to the Siam Orchid Center which is next to Chatuchak market, back in 2015.

Some photos of the market, it was very clean and vaste, with an impressive varieties of products, but it’s not a real market that people will go shopping daily. The market was a bit cold and impersonal.

We are fan of mangoes, very impressed.

If somebody can identify this fruit.

We ate some crabs at the market.

6 Likes

It’s Gac (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gac), called fa khao in Thailand.

Other local Thai fruits listed here:

1 Like

Most former China/SE-Asia-based Chowhounds whom I know have moved onto Instagram.

Yup, Jay Fai was closed 15 to 21 Jan.

not to enter into an existential conversation about HO, but without a community, this site becomes little more than a blog or instagram with benefit to the site instead of the poster. I enjoy the community but seems like these food sites have gone the way of dinosaurs.

I’ll finish up my post.

best,

1 Like

day two (cont) - We loved chatuchak market for shopping but saved our appetite for the food court at Or Tor Fruit Market. It’s about a 10-minute walk from Chatuchak , the fruit market was uncrowded, well-lit, clean and cool in stark contrast to the chaos of the weekend market.

After moving from stand to stand, we hit upon the food court, which had a dizzying array of thai and chinese food. We started with a combination mussel and oyster omelet, made expertly by a woman that looked like she’d made quite a few omelets in her day. It was just wonderful , cost was about 80 baht ($3). Next up was massaman curry. The sauce was much thinner and less sweet than we’ve had in the states, we loved the spicy/sweet balance. On our way out we shared a wonderful pork satay with a sweetish, caramelized sauce.

We had a late-ish dinner at Baan Somtum Sathorn, a short walk from the eastin. The papaya salad was wonderful, the best I’ve had. The waiter suggested “one chile spicy” and it was on the edge of too spicy for us. The fried papaya salad was well-prepared but lacked flavor. The fried chicken wings were greaseless, spicy and perfect when dipped in the accompanying sauce. We also had a nice shrimp stir fry with a bitter/sour vegetable. Service was very friendly, this is a must for papaya salad if staying in the area. Four dishes and two beers, $13 usd, just silly.

Day 3 - lunch at mbk foodcourt, opted for a sizzling, seafood pancake instead of oyster omelet, it was just wonderful, chock full of oysters, mussells and shrimp, loved the crispy pancake too! We also had stewed pork leg over rice with an egg, and pickled vegetables. For an extra 20 baht, they threw in some crispy pork which added a nice textural component to the dish. This has always been one of my favorite thai comfort food dishes and this rendition didn’t disappoint.

We weren’t very hungry for dinner, ended up sharing holy basil chicken from the hotel, very good, the fried egg really made the dish.

day 4 - My wife had an appointment at the Infinity spa (which she loved!), I walked over to prachak roasted duck (thank you peter!) for breakfast. Had noodles with duck, crispy pork, roast pork, sausage, shrimp wonton and I think stuffed pig tail. I added some of chili powder, chiles and fish sauce. I’ve eaten a whole lot of chinese roast meat, the duck was at least as good, maybe better than I’ve had to date. The roast pork was very good, the crispy pork and sausage were just average. However, the dish as a whole, with the condiments, was the my favorite dish in bangkok. I really should have ordered another plate of duck, not sure when we’ll pass this way again.

For lunch we stopped by nailin kitcken for pad thai and yellow crab curry. Again, to my palate, the pad thai was not better than we have in nyc, the yellow crab curry was wonderful comfort food. The restaurant, right across from robinson dept store, is clean, cool and cute. My sense is that the restaurant caters to western palates but I suppose we have western palates.

to be continued…

4 Likes

Or Tor Kor market is always worth a visit for its food section alone. :joy::+1:

This former Boston Chowhound used to frequent the “other side of the globe” (man, that’s a self-centered relative term if I ever heard one) about twice a year, faithfully reporting back on the board about our wonderful (and sometimes not-so-wonderful) food experiences. The fall of CH, migration to HO (a community that I do love), arrival of spring onion, work/other family demands have sadly curtailed our long-haul travel (for now). And my food-reporting has slowed to glacier speed. But reports such as this one are appreciated and hopefully put to practical use.

I can’t wait to take spring onion to Southeast Asia when he is “old enough” (I can’t stand that phrase). And you can be sure, I’ll be turning to HO for food advice.

3 Likes

we wanted to have one splash out meak in bangkok, we decided on the blue elephant, right next door to our hotel. We ordered the tasting menu, high-quality ingredients, complex, delicious flavors but seemed overpriced at $180 USD for the tasting menu, two glasses of good wine and a beer. Still, from a food pov, it was our best meal.

Here are some final thoughts about bangkok:

  • It’s hot, crowded, the roads are in disrepair and crossing the street requires an act of faith. It took me the better part of a day to learn to float along with the chaos, but once I did, I found myself loving the city.
  • While the food was very good, coming from nyc, we weren’t really blown away by the flavors but the pricing is just incredible. Maybe we chose the wrong places, so many places to try, we do hope to get back here in the next year or two.
  • I didn’t have the courage to eat street food off the street though it’s obviously the custom in bangkok. Food courts, to my eye, seemed to be a much safer bet and as others have noted, the food is great and inexpensive.
  • I found Mark Wien’s food blog informative and his videos entertaining:
    https://migrationology.com/travel-guides/bangkok-thailand/

really want to thank Peter for his detailed posts. Off to singapore!

best,

3 Likes

I am a little confused as to how people don’t get sick eating the cooked fish that may have been left out for hours? I’d have thought it unsafe to consume after a couple of hours…

Have a good trip to Singapore! Do let us know if you need any specific tips.

Are you sure it’s been left out that long?

Anyway, having been to Bangkok many times on business or work, I do know of many local Bangkok colleagues/work associates who took time off or medical leave because of tummy problems/food poisoning: happens more often than I’d have liked to see.

In Thailand, we were slightly sick with stomach / intestine problem due to the overly spicy food. When in doubt about cooked food, go to places with high traffic. Note that some cooked food stalls, at time of serving, they recook again. Observe before engage.

1 Like

Looking forward to hear from your trip, hope you have some great meals!

1 Like

In all my trips to Southeast Asia (at least a dozen times, maybe more) and eating street food, I never once got sick. I’m of Korean descent but was born in the US so my flora is probably similar to my hubby’s, who always gets sick at least once during a trip. We usually ate different things since I was a vegetarian and shied away from straight-up meat dishes (knowing full well that “vegetarian” has a different meaning in Asia than in the US). Perhaps that was the difference maker. But B couldn’t resist the grilled meats, etc.

The one time I got sick was in a fancy tourist hotel in Delhi. Being sick at 5 am in Indira Gandhi airport was not a pretty experience.

But I digress. Enjoy Singapore! We had a great time there and I look forward to any reports.

2 Likes

Nasty!

My tip to travellers to parts of the world where food can give rise to tummy problems: eat a little of several different dishes, and never eat substantial amounts of a single dish. That way, if a certain dish is contaminated, you’d not have consumed an amount which can make you very sick. You may feel a slight discomfort but which will go away with time. That approach had stood me in good stead during my many trips to India, as well as Pakistan and Bangladesh. Anyway, touch wood, I’m vacationing in Sri Lanka this June, and am hoping to try as many local dishes as I can.

3 Likes

Travelling and eating street foods in various Asian countries, I didn’t get catastrophic intestine problem, mild discomfort in Cambodia due to food, but with medicine, we could continue to eat normally. Mild pain in Vietnam due to a cold drink which I didn’t finish. I’ve always been warned to avoid drinks with ice, as they tend to transport the big block of ice just by sliding on the ground.