I'm currently at work on a piece about obscure ethnic restaurants for the Bangkok pages of CNNGo. You wouldn't think that other Southeast Asian cuisines would fit in this category, but for some reason, there are remarkably few here in Bangkok, and New Mabuhay is the only place my friend, a Filipina and nearly 30-year resident of Bangkok, knew of that served Filipino food.
Arriving on a lazy Saturday, we ordered adobo, one of the most famous Filipino dishes:
And justifiably so -- this was my first adobo, and I loved the combination of vinegar sourness and black pepper bite. In fact, the dish, with its use of fatty pork and copious shallots, reminded me a lot of Mae Hong Son-style kaeng hang lay.
There was pinakbet:
mixed vegetables fried with shrimp paste. This dish reminded me of a kaeng som without the broth and sourness, or even kaeng paa without the soup and spice.
We meant to order sinigang na pusit, which I was told is a soup of squid in its own ink, but due to a communication error (my own fault; I was speaking Thai when I should have just used English), we got a rather bland dish of veggies fried with squid:
We also forgot to order sinigang na Bangus (fish with sour broth), and that day the restaurant wasn't making relyenong bangus (deep fried stuffed fish), but this is just all the more reason to return.
Continuing my research for the piece, on Wednesday I'll be heading to a Cameroonian restaurant (cheers, Newley!). If anybody has any tips for other obscure cuisines in Bangkok, drop me a comment or an email.
New Mabuhay 1/31 Soi 19, Thanon Phetchaburi, Bangkok 02 255 2689 8.30am-10pm
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