Bang Saen, the nearest beach from Bangkok, was the topic of my first blog post. That was way back in 2005, and I think I've only been back once since then. It was high time for a re-run, so with Hock and Maytel and their mad wheelz, A, and all of our empty stomachs, we headed out on a recent Sunday.
Bang Saen is quintessentially Thai in that it's a beach where people go to eat, not to swim. You'll see a couple kids splashing around in the water, but the vast majority of people who go there plan to stay dry and eat all manner of seafood. All of Bang Saen's eats are prepared at dozens of tiny but bulging portable stalls at the edge of the sand:
It's been a mighty long time since I took part in good, old-fashioned yam khai maengdaa thale, horseshoe crab egg salad (shown at the top of this post), and I had plans to order this even before boarding the vehicle. Hock didn't seem so keen on it, but I really liked the combination of the strips of sour mango and the weird crunchiness of the eggs.
It's a given that somebody will order grilled prawns:
Maytel loved these. I'm not sure if I even got to taste one, but I did quite enjoy the garlicky seafood dipping sauce.
A ordered yam thua phloo, wing bean salad, which was a wise decision indeed:
mostly as there was no lack of crispy deep-fried shallots.
Somebody ordered po taek, a delicious variant on the ubiquitous tom yam:
which includes a variety of seafood and a generous handful of bai kraphrao, holy basil leaves.
And there was a grilled plaa kraphong:
which unusually, was stuffed with herbs, and less unusually, accompanied by more garlic-loaded seafood sauce.
A beautiful sunset was an appropriate end to our meal:
After which we left Bang Saen, feeling high from all the garlic.
The entire set of images can be enjoyed here.