Was recently fortunate enough to meet Michael Elliot, a Montreal-based food stylist (now there's an occupation that didn't exist 30 years ago!), fellow blogger, cool website owner, and fan of Thai food. Michael and friend were passing through Bangkok and we met up for lunch a few days ago. As I've done in the past when others have visited, I like taking people to a brilliant Thai Muslim place down near the Oriental Hotel. The restaurant, called (if I remember correctly) Muslim Home Cooking, is relatively new, and specializes in Indian-influenced Thai-Muslim cuisine.
We started with a speciality of Thai Muslim food, fish curry:
This Thai Muslim staple sees hearty "steaks" of fish (usually plaa insee, Spanish mackerel) in a thick, sour curry broth. Usually there a few vegetables thrown in for shits and giggles, in this case okra and tomato (sometimes also eggplant or green bananas).
This we followed with mutton spareribs in curry sauce:
I've never come across this dish in Thailand and assume it is Indian-Muslim in origin. It's a great dish; we finished every drop of the curry sauce, and really enjoyed the garnish of crispy deep-fried shallots.
As one usually does when eating Thai Muslim we skipped the rice altogether and instead took our curries with the cripy pancakes known as roti:
Other highly recommended dishes here include the khao mok (briyani), which is served with a raita (cucumber-yoghurt mixture), a sweet and sour sauce, and a savory eggplant dish. The restaurant is located virtually across the street from the French Embassy in the Haroon Mosque area.