Bangkok: Tasting the Big Chili

Coffee World is one of the main coffee chains in Thailand; their branch in Khaosan Road offers excellent coffee in a pleasant, tastefully and air-conditioned environment. A Viennese corner in Bangkok. Four Sons Village is one of the more luxurious and newest hotels in the Khaosan Road area; its big restaurant dominates the access to the handsome semi-walking street in the backside of the Chana Songkram Temple and offers comfortable seats on solid wooden tables and chairs. Tuptim is a classical Thai establishment, where you sit on a wide teak-wood balcony surrounded by lush Thai vegetation; the place provides the perfect historical background for the food. The dark, rich wood enhances the effect of the cooling breeze and partially absorbs the obtrusive noise from the modern streets. With such a preamble, the excellent – but pricey – food served there becomes secondary. The Thanon Rambuttri and Thanon Chakraphong junction, one block away from Khaosan Road, offers an exciting opportunity to meet original Thai food. The stalls change along the day and offer the right dish for each hour, transforming the experience into a kaleidoscope of flavors and colors. No visit to Bangkok would be complete without tasting the electrifying local cuisine.

Quick Tips:

Try everything, but with care at the beginning. Be especially careful with the chilies and their sauces; try a little bit on rice before you lushly pour them over your food. Simple local dishes in the local fashion are a good way to get to know a new culture, and are mainly available on Soi Rambuttri, the road north and parallel to Khaosan. They are cheap and tasty: noodle soups, steamed pig’s knees, and curries of all colors rule here. Westernized local food and western food are served in restaurant-like establishments which sell variations of tom yum kung and pad Thai, as well as adaptations of Western staples; the last would ease the casual longing for a known dish. The video Restaurants are one of the preeminent characteristics of this area. They serve basic variations of local and Western dishes and count on your watching the free videos on giant screens to distract you enough from the food’s quality. Many snacks are served from stalls placed all over the place. Fruits, pad Thai (the local dish is very different from the version served here), banana pancakes, fried insects… everything is available.

Best Way To Get Around:

Bangkok is a huge metropolis and covering it by foot is not easy. Foreign letters, strange sounds, and many variations of public transport do not transform the task of traveling around into an easy one. Taxis and their local mutants, the tuk-tuks, are not recommended; sometimes you will find yourself at the driver’s tailor uncle instead than at your desired destination. The great diversity in buses and the need to make a quick transaction on them without understanding the language may sound frightening, but there is no reason for that feeling. Traveling in an air-conditioned bus is more comfortable than in a taxi and both advance at the same speed. While boarding the bus, do not pay. A ticket seller will approach you during the trip, expecting to get approximately the right fare; do not attempt to pay a B7 fare with a B1000 note. Buses in Bangkok are very cheap and effective, and they will take you anywhere at anytime. At peak hours it may take hours to cross the city; planning is the answer.

A highly aromatic and tasteful pleasure, coffee deserves an equally attractive logo, a rich, evocative one, capable of creating a visual foreplay before the drink is enjoyed. Coffee World succeeded on that and features a complex logo composed of three images; the first is an oversized coffee bean, next to it there is what it seems like a coffee bean with an exaggerated central gap of irregular shape. In the third picture the central gap transformed itself into a map of the Americas and the rest of the bean has been transformed into the oceans. Coffee World; live it, drink it.

Coffee was slow to penetrate the Thai world. First, wheeled stalls crossed the borders from the French colonies; then, many years later, tourists began asking for more westernized forms of the drink and the instant drink became popular, mainly through the convenience stores and restaurants catering for jetlagged backpackers. The last event in the saga was the appearance of gourmet coffee chains. Black Canyon inaugurated this market, but not much later the local Coffee World appeared; nowadays the last has many enjoyable branches along the country.

The one in Khaosan Road, the backpackers' uncrowned world capital, enjoys a prime location within the Buddy Lodge, near the northeastern side of the road. The shop offers a clear view of the street through its glass walls while being insulated from its noise due to the respectful distance from it. The interior's setup is very pleasant and includes a wall-size, old-fashioned map of the Americas, which plays on their logo theme. Only few sitting places are available within its inner, air-conditioned room; it is worthwhile waiting for a place there since Bangkok's heat and humidity are not a good companion for a hot drink.

The drinks are offered in three Thai sizes, which are significantly smaller than the used in other international chains. "Presto," the smallest available cup, has roughly the volume of a double espresso; "Pro" fits what I would call a small cup of coffee and "Alto," the biggest, would fit a medium sized cup in other chains. The prices are very similar for the different drinks in a given size; a presto costs between B45 and B55 each (less than $2), while an alto drink costs between B80 and B90 (less than $3).

Prices and sizes are secondary while speaking about coffee; the acid tests are the aroma and taste. Entering the shop from the sweaty, chili and papaya spiced street, creates a cognitive dissonance: it looks like Bangkok but it smells like Vienna. Worried about the sudden expectation created, I ordered a cappuccino alto and began writing this entry on one of their napkins, which feature their bluish logo. After cooling down a bit, a frothy cup of a perfect cappuccino was placed in front of me and everything was clear: I was back in Vienna.

The Four Sons Village is one of the more luxurious and newest in the Khaosan Road area and attempts to address all the travelers’ needs at once. Its big restaurant dominates the access to the handsome semi-walking street in the backside of the Chana Songkram Temple and offers comfortable seats on solid wooden tables and chairs.

Following a day that turned out to be more complicated than I expected, I entered the restaurant in the search for a late lunch, and the staff immediately gave a flyer to me. I was expecting to see the day specials, but instead it was a promotion of the in-house Thai massages service. I looked at my right and saw a podium advertising the video movies to be shown in their restaurant; further away, someone was worshipping a big spirit house placed within the complex. By then I was amused enough to give the place a chance.

The restaurant has an extremely varied menu and in the five hundred words allotted to dining entries there is no enough space to bring all the details, nonetheless, scanning the categories will give an idea of the options.

The main options for breakfast are the Continental one, which costs B65 and the American, at B90, but simpler options are available for less. An Asian breakfast of boiled rice with different kinds of meat is also available (B50 to B70).

Appetizers fitting different cuisines include anything from mozzarella sticks, through Thai sausages and French fries to shrimps and croissants. Salads are available for B80 or B90, and Thai salads for B40 to B80.

Seafood - sea bass, red snapper, crabs, mussels and shrimps among others - are sold by weight or as a set dish and the ones eaten cooked can be steamed or fried. The prices begin at B70 (almost $2) and rise quickly up to B450 (a bit above $12) for a kilogram of big shrimps.

Thai main dishes occupy several pages of the illustrated menu and cost between B80 and B300. The extensive menu includes a list of sandwiches and special offers as well. Overall there were much more than a hundred meals to choose from.

I visited there the same day I was obliged to drastically shorten my visit to Thailand, fact that caused me to avoid local food - I wanted to forget Bangkok for a while. Hence, I asked from the attentive and friendly waitress for a lobster bisque and a club sandwich. The rich, creamy lobster soup was excellent - pale sour cream whirled within a dark red sea of lobster - and came accompanied by two fresh toasts; the dish took a while to arrive, but a movie was being played - Bad Boys - and provided some entertainment. Later, a tasty club sandwich was served with a generous amount of French fries and included a bit of everything in the kitchen. Four sons preparing a hundred dishes turned to be not such a bad idea.

Culinary experiences are measured by more than the food eaten; sometimes the surroundings can be as significant as the food itself. In modern Bangkok it is not hard to find classical Thai teak wood structures; there are plenty of old neighborhoods which haven't been replaced yet by concrete monsters. However, very few of them are used for tourism purposes.

A classical place, where you sit on a wide teak balcony surrounded by lush Thai vegetation provides a more appropriate and historically correct background for the food. The dark, rich wood enhances the effect of the cooling breeze and partially absorbs the obtrusive noise from the modern streets.

Such a place is Tuptim, which is located on Thanon Rambuttri, the first street north from Khaosan Road. Whenever I am in Bangkok, it is my favourite place for breakfasts. The whole hotel is an adapted teak house and provides plentiful of architectural surprises; its restaurant offers a real opportunity to relax and enjoy a good meal in a real Thai environment.

Aware of that advantage, the place is rather pricey; a lunch or dinner would be substantially more expensive than most other options in the surroundings. The same is true for the breakfast, but the net differences then are smaller, making it more accessible.

The breakfast menu has three main options: the Continental, the American breakfasts and several variations of muesli. The Continental costs B70 (roughly two dollars) and includes two toasts with jam and butter, coffee or tea, fruits and a cup of orange juice. The American option costs B120 (a bit over three dollars) and adds to the first option an egg with bacon, ham or sausage. The third option, healthy muesli in a variety of styles, costs around $1.5. Pancakes and French toasts are available as single dishes for around $2 each.

The amount of food served is quite limited, but if searching for a big breakfast, then additional items are available. Freshly squeezed juices and plates of fruits cost around $2, toasts with butter and jam cost B25, a soft roll with butter costs B10 (two for B15) and croissants with butter and jam cost B10 the unity or two for B18.

Setup, options and prices are not everything; quality also plays a role in our ability to enjoy a meal. The ingredients here are top quality, with the only exception of the coffee, of which an instant version is served. Overall, Tuptim offers an extraordinarily clean and attractive environment and serves the food in an aesthetic and caring fashion.

It would be a sin to write such a journal – or to visit Bangkok – without dedicating some space to the local food. Next to Khaosan Road, on the junction of Thanon Rambuttri with Thanon Chakraphong, there is a cluster of stalls offering local delicacies. According to the local customs, the stalls change along the day; some foods are good for the mornings while others for the evenings. This is a good reason for visiting and exploring the corner at all hours. The food – as always in Thailand – is always fresh, clean and safe, despite the foreign spicing.

Early in the morning is a good time to eat a toast "to-go" at the very corner of the junction. A generous slice of the slightly sweet Thai bread is toasted there over coals and served with butter and sugar or with jam. The toast is carefully cut into comfortable bites and is served within a plastic bag. Each slice costs B5 (slightly above a dime).

Coconut cookies also appear in the mornings. The stall preparing them is easily recognizable by its peculiar oven, which is shaped as an eggs’ tray. Spherical in shape, the crusty, golden exterior hides sweet coconut cream. Five units cost B20 (slightly above half dollar).

The national staple - Thai noodles soup - is a favourite at all hours and can be found next to the corner on Rambuttri. However, one shop further inside that street there is a more thrilling option. Khai Pa Ro is a dish-over-rice prepared of delicately cooked pork meat, an egg and soft tofu cubes; all of them are cooked in a rich, dark brown, tasty broth and acquire its color and taste. This is a good introduction to the Thai cuisine and the place seems to belong more to the Mekong riverside, the Thai heartland, than to cosmopolitan Bangkok. A generous portion costs B20.

After sunset the streets change and new stalls appear. The Pla Meuk Ping stall is a must. This snack looks a bit strange at first and it may take some time to dare it, however, in this case being brave has its reward. A dried roasted squid is flattened with a hand press until is as thin as a sheet of paper and then it is shortly toasted over hot coals, one squid costs B10 and has a vaguely fishy taste.

And later? At the very small hours, along Thanon Chakraphong (away from Khaosan Road) it is possible to find a stall of Thai South East Asia (B12) next to a stall preparing the tasty fried donuts (B2 each) usually consumed with it. With an option for every hour of the day, there are no excuses to skip a local meal in Bangkok…