Instagram

in

Only I would be stupid enough to go to a relatively remote Chinese restaurant... on Chinese New Year. Closed. Only I would be stupid enough to go to a relatively remote Chinese restaurant... on Chinese New Year. Closed.

Gedhawa/เกดถะหวา

in

IMG_1235-Edit Every January for the last four years, I've spent the month up in the northern Thai province of Mae Hong Son. Unfortunately, this year, I've just had too much work and was forced to camp out here in Bangkok. As a result, I'm really missing northern Thai food. That's why I was excited when I stumbled upon a review of Gedhawa, a previously unknown-to-me northern Thai restaurant, in local listings mag BK.

Gedhawa is located off Th Sukhumvit, sports a somewhat cheesy Lanna-style interior and appears to be frequented almost exclusively by Japanese customers -- all factors that don't exactly work in the restaurant's favour. The menu spans just about all of Thailand, but there's an expansive northern Thai section, and this is what I was interested in.

IMG_1233-Edit

On my first visit, I ate, starting at the left of the image above, a soup of phak waan (ผักหวาน; a type of vegetable) with dried fish and tomatoes, a somewhat obscure but delicious northern Thai dish; nam phrik ong (น้ำพริกอ่อง), the famous northern-style dip of ground pork and tomatoes; naem (แหนม; fermented pork sausage) wrapped in banana leaf with egg and pickled garlic and grilled; and the famous northern-style fried laap.

The flavours were mostly there: the soup had the smokey flavour of dried fish, the dip was rich and meaty, and the laap had more than just a whiff of makhwaen (a unique dried spice used in northern-style laap). But ultimately, the meal reminded me of most other regional Thai meals I've had in Bangkok: the dishes looked the way they should, but the food lacked nuance and soul. Worse than that, they got a couple things wrong at Gedhawa: nam phrik ong is usually served with fresh, not par-boiled veggies, and real northern-style laap contains blood and offal.

On a second visit, I was keen to try their northern Thai noodle dishes. A truly good version of khao soi (ข้าวซอย; pictured at the top of this post), the famous curry noodle dish, is even hard to find up in northern Thailand, and Gedhawa's version was no exception. The broth was thin and bland and tasted mostly of curry powder. Slightly better was their version of khanom jeen nam ngiaw (ขนมจีนน้ำเงี้ยว):

IMG_1239-Edit

a rich pork and tomato broth served over fresh rice noodles.

Consider Gedhawa if you're looking for a crash course in northern Thai dining, but look elsewhere if you're already familiar with the food and, like me, are craving something authentic.

Gedhawa 24 Soi 35, Th Sukhumvit Bangkok 02 662 0501 11am-2pm & 5-11pm Mon-Sat

View Thai Eats in a larger map

Bangkok, 14 January 2012

in

DSC_0321 Last night I was at Bangkok's 'flashlight' market -- so called because it's held at night and shoppers need to provide their own source of light. Unfolding on the sidewalks around the Phlap Phla Chai Intersection, at the edge of Bangkok's Chinatown, it's sort of like an open-air jumble sale, with lots of junk:

DSC_0322

but also a handful of interesting antiques (see pic at top of this post), food:

DSC_0334

fortune tellers:

DSC_0336

and beggars:

DSC_0345

Bangkok's 'Flashlight' Market Phlap Phla Chai Intersection 5am Sat to 5pm Sun

View Thai Eats in a larger map

Bo.lan Farmer's Market

in

DSC_0308 Today, the folks behind the Bangkok Thai restaurant Bo.lan transformed their parking lot into a farmer's market. There were vendors selling organic herbs and vegetables, rice, organic health care products, fruit and even a few prepared snacks and sweets. The turnout was greater than expected, and Dylan (the lan in Bo.lan) suspects they'll continue hosting the market, holding it on the first Saturday of the month. Stay tuned to Bo.lan's Twitter feed, @bolanbangkok, for details.

DSC_0315

Bo.lan Farmer's Market Bo.lan 42 Soi Phichai Ronnarong, Soi 26, Th Sukhumvit, Bangkok 02 260 2962 1st Sat of the month, 9.30am-2pm

View Thai Eats in a larger map

Lunch at nahm

in

DSC_9999-Edit At the risk of repeating the previous post, I apologise for the lack of blogging over the last couple months... I'm currently finishing work on a very large guidebook project, and if you haven't already noticed, I've also been preoccupied with revamping this website -- if you read this blog via RSS, be sure to go directly to my homepage to check out the new look. Stick around for a bit and look at my portfolios, which I've updated with new images.

But I have been eating -- most recently, at nahm. I've mentioned this upscale Thai restaurant previously, but it's only in the last month or so that they've started serving lunch, and a couple days ago I stopped by to investigate.

Lunch at nahm takes the form of a reduced menu of the usual curries, salads, soups and stir-fries you'd find at dinner, but Chef David's real pride and joy is the khanom jeen, fresh noodles made from rice and topped with various curries. On my most recent visit, I had green curry with freshwater fish dumplings (pictured above), which also comes served with some delicious dried beef (nuea daet diaw made from Wagyu beef -- easily the best version of the dish I've encountered) and deep-fried fish. Other curries are available, including a rich and slightly sweet prawn curry, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, the fiery fish innard curry, which has long been one of my favourite dishes at nahm. At 800B, it's almost certainly the most expensive khanom jeen in town, but the dish comes as a part of a set, which also includes three canapes and a dessert.

nahm Metropolitan Hotel, 27 Th Sathon Tai 02 625 3388 Noon-2pm Mon-Fri & 7-10pm daily


View Thai Eats in a larger map