Yet another restaurant located way out in the wasteland of northern Bangkok, but after four recent visits, I reckon it’s worth the drive. For starters, Crokmai Thai Lao has one of the most extensive menus of any isaan/Lao restaurant I’ve been to in Thailand. It has a full page dedicated to insects:

Another page of the menu is entirely dedicated to dishes using ant eggs. Crokmai Thai Lao must also be among the few isaan/Lao restaurants anywhere with a website: www.crokmaithailao.com.  Check it out; you can even see the entire menu, including many photos, scanned into the page, and of course the obligatory page of celebrities who’ve visited the restaurant. I’ve been told the guy in the red hat with the microphone always wears red hats. Very heady stuff. Rest assured though, it’s not all fancy technology  and famous people–this place does some pretty good food.

Crokmai means ‘wooden mortar’, the tool used to make som tam, so naturally there was a dish of the famous papaya salad (pictured above), made here Lao-style with plaa raa and salted crabs.  Sour and extremely spicy. There was kaeng poerh (I really have no idea how to transliterate this last word–it sounds a lot like someone spitting bad soup out):

This soup combines a dark broth (the result, I believe, of the addition of bai yaanaang, a leaf), thin slices of crispy bamboo, mushrooms, pumpkin and my favourite bit, a pungent herb called cha om (the green leaves seen above). I’ve had this dish at restaurants and even at peoples’ homes, and reckon this bowl is among the tastiest and most balanced I’ve had.

Another great dish was mok nor mai:

bamboo stuffed (or combined?) with ground pork and a very coconutty curry paste mixture, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed.  Almost creamy in texture, and despite the disparate ingredients, a wonderful combination.

Naam phrik plaa raa:

Good, but not outstanding. The naam phrik, a ‘dip’ of Lao-style fish sauce was tasty, but watery. I liked the combination of veggies  though, including steamed pumpkin and some edible flowers.

And every time I eat here I have to order plaa som thot:

Freshwater fish that has been fermented via some rice and deep-fried.  Sour, cripsy and meaty.

I recommend a visit, be it physically or virtually.

Crokmai Thai Lao (Google Maps link)
6/257 Muu 1
Soi Ladplakhao 24 (off Kaset-Navamin Highway)
02 570 6234
11am-11pm

What do you eat when you’re on a Thai island with 11 former students? Food from the country’s landlocked rural northeast, of course. Last weekend on Ko Samet this meant sticky rice, grilled chicken and many, many dishes of som tam (a salad of unripe papaya):

The food is sold from mobile vendors, also from the northeast, who prepare both the som tam and grilled chicken from mobile basket kitchens:

At one point we ordered so much chicken that At had to lend a hand to the grilling process:

It wasn’t all northeastern food though. At a restaurant in Baan Phe we had a decent dish of puu phat phong karii, crab sauteed with egg and curry powder:

and at a restaurant in Rayong, a nice yam of raw scallops:

There were some culinary lowpoints, however, such as An An’s box of cream-filled Doraemon-shaped cookies:

Pics taken with my D100 (my beach camera) without any editing in Photoshop.

I’ve mentioned Yusup, a Muslim restaurant on the northern outskirts of Bangkok, many, many times. The restaurant’s rich curries, amazing biryani, and wonderfully sour soups have made it just about my favourite all-around restaurant in Bangkok. I’d love to see more people eat there, but the restaurant is located quite far outside central Bangkok and is something of an ordeal to find. Well, gone now are the days of excuses: armed with Google Maps, you should have no problem in locating Yusup.

I stopped by Yusup for lunch today with a companion and ordered several things, including the dish pictured above, kuruma with roti. I prefer their goat kuruma, but they were out of it so we had to settle for chicken:

Regardless of the protein, the curry is almost impossibly rich and thick, chock fulla dried spices and fresh herbs, and packing a sour bite akin to a vindaloo.
My companion ordered kaeng karii kai, Muslim-style chicken curry, over rice:

The curry is lightly spiced, probably not much more than tinned curry powder, and includes thick chunks of potato, tomato and onion. It’s served with ajaat, a side of sliced cucumbers, chilies and shallots in a sweet/sour vinegar dressing.

Together we picked at mataba nuea:

A roti stuffed with beef, a few basic veggies and egg, also served with ajaat.

And for dessert? You guessed it–more roti:

this time drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and liberally sprinkled with sugar.

Yusup Phochana (Google Maps link)
Kaset-Navamin Highway
05 136 2864, 09 923 8099
Open every day, 11am-2pm

How to get there:
The restaurant is located in northern Bangkok along the Kaset-Navamin highway (also known as sen tat mai). If you’re coming from Mor Chit BTS along Th Phaholyothin, turn right at the Kaset Intersection onto the Kaset-Navamin highway. Go past the first stop light and the restaurant is on the left side just after a very large sign with the Swiss flag (as well as several Thai-language signs advertising the restaurant). If you get lost, go ahead and try one of the mobile numbers above, but I’m pretty sure these people don’t speak English.

After all this time, it looks like Thailand is set to get to be what appears to be a premium, domestically-made, and if the Gods are kind, drinkable beer: Federbräu. Brewed somewhat surreptitiously by ThaiBev (the brewers of Beer Chang) in Ayuthaya, the beer is a Blond Lager and contains 4.7% alcohol. Interestingly, many of the sites and blogs, not to mention the beer label itself, seem to make a point of mentioning that Federbräu is brewed following the famous Reinheitsgebot, ensuring its purity. But on a tour of a Singha Brewery a few years ago, the German-educated brewmaster ensured me that despite how it sometimes tastes, Singha also contains only water, barley, hops and yeast. Well, Singha had its chance, and iff they can get it right with Federbräu, I’ll be switching loyalties very soon.

Now if somebody would only do a blonde ale…

From absolutely Bangkok.com via Thailand’s Lost Boy

After countless visits, I’ve sat down with the results and have rounded them down to 22 images that I like (at least for now). I haven’t been shooting with a specific ‘theme’ in mind, but have been partially inspired by Khun Manit’s (the owner of Kathmandu, and a well known Thai photographer) comments that the early images I showed him seemed to depict the relationship that the residents of Chinatown have with their space–typically their lack of it and the way the deal with this. Some of the pics below are an effort to explore this theme, while others are simply interesting images. It’s a big blog entry, I know, but I’d appreciate if any of you could sit down for a few minutes, take look at the images and give me some feedback, in particular, which images you reckon I shouldn’t include, and why.

In 2006 Krua Apsorn was chosen as one of the Bangkok Post’s Best Restaurants (see clip here). Apparently members of the Thai royal family like to get their eat on here, and I’ve noticed that David Thompson likes to recommend the second branch of the restaurant, located by the National Library, to visiting chefs and friends. Not surprisingly, the place is generally quite crowded and reservations are even recommended (!), but on the rainy Friday night we visited, Krua Apsorn was virtually empty.

We started with yellow curry with lotus stems and prawns (pictured above). I really enjoyed this dish. Having recently been in southern Thailand, which is where yellow curry comes from, I have had it lots lately, but think I prefer this version. Unlike in the south, where the dish is insanely spicy (and often even more insanely sour), this version had a balance of flavours. Another favourable difference is that the lotus stem was still crispy, unlike the typically soggy veggies in the more traditional version.

A laap of mushrooms:

was pleasantly sour and rich with the earthy, smokey flavour of khaao khua, roasted ground rice.

Another somewhat unusual dish was pork fried with a curry paste made with a particular type of chili called phrik karieng and milk (as opposed to coconut milk):

I particularly liked the simple but delicious stir-fry of gourd greens (fak maew) and a type of local flower (dawk khajawn):

And finally, one of the restaurant’s specialties, a round omelet with crab meat:

Because of the Thai name, I expected this to have a lighter and fluffier texture. It was good, but a bit heavy on the egg and light on the crab.

In all, we had a very good, though not amazing, meal. I’d definitely come again though, as the expansive and slightly unusual menu suggests that there’s lots of interesting stuff in store. For another view of Krua Apsorn, check out this review at previously unknown Thai foodblogger and cookbook author, Oh Sirin.

Krua Apsorn (Google Maps link)
Th Dinsor
02 6854351
10.30am-10pm, closed Sunday

A newsstand at Tha Chang, Bangkok

Along Thanon Maharat, Bangkok

A monk on the Chao Phraya Express Boat, Bangkok

Thanon Maharat, Bangkok

Streetside chess, Thanon Maharat, Bangkok

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Hairdresser, Khao San Road, Bangkok

Hawking souvenirs to tourists, Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok

Crazy tuk-tuk, Khao San Road, Bangkok

The Nikon D300. Currently in waiting outside Chicago, USA. In my hands early May. For details, go in-depth reviews at dpreview.com or Ken Rockwell’s site.

Temple doors, Wat Ratchabophit.

Live music on Thanon Khao San.

Making up on Thanon Khao San.

A vendor being chased away from Thanon Khao San.

Arguably Bangkok’s most popular hawker stall, Naay Uan’s recipe for success must lie in its simplicity. His kuay jap, a basic but delicious soup of of pork offal, thick rice noodles and broth draws literally hundreds of hungry diners to Chinatown every night:

(For a larger version of this image go here.)

But that broth…  Naay Uan’s kuay jap broth is probably the most pepper-intense dish I’ve ever consumed. The guy must pour bags of ground white pepper into his broth, leaving the diner with a mildly burning, spicy sensation. For me this is the highlight, but I think most people come for the meat, which includes your choice of pork heart, stomach, tongue or crispy deep-fried pork:

Th Yaowarat, across from Soi 16 (Google Maps link)
02 224 3450
7pm-late