I continue with Asia and this time I will take you to Bangkok and its delicious Thai specialities! Our culinary journey includes an overview of local dishes and street vendors selling all kinds of dishes! A trip to a country that offers one of the best cuisine in the world. There are so many things to say and photograph that I can't be exhaustive.
October 2011: I've just added some pictures to this trip, like those of the Oriental hotel's high tea and others on dishes like the Thai pad or the Vertigo bar!
We begin our visit in Bangkok with the house of Jim Thompson, the American who regained the prestige of Thai silk after the Second World War. His house is actually composed of an assemblage of old Thai houses, arranged around a typical tropical garden. The house is full of absolutely divine and beautifully presented antiques, but here, on my site, our interest takes us rather... to the museum's restaurant!
So I start the presentation of some dishes (which are already present in my recipe on my site!) very cheap, as elsewhere in Thailand. Here is the Yam Som-O salad with pomelo and shrimp with chili peppers, coriander and peanuts:
Chicken saulted with cashew nuts (peppers, onions and chili peppers are the other vegetables in this dish.
And Khao Tang nah Tang with its satay pork sauce and fried rice patties. One of the musts (for me) of Thai cuisine!
There is also the delicious "not Thai"... Rice dough sautéed with shrimps and eggs... A marvel!!
Shrimp croquettes.
A gentleman working as a guide in Jim Thompson's house even taught me how to fold lotus flowers.
To hydrate yourself with all these delicious things to eat, there's nothing like a good fresh coconut!
For dinner, a superb address: the "Face"!
The light being too weak, I only present you this little mouthful. The "Face" is actually a complex of restaurants: there is an Indian, a Japanese and a Thai. The three are located in old Thai houses restored and joined together around a lush garden.
The next day, stroll in the "weekend end market", one of the biggest markets in the world! There is absolutely everything there! It's also an opportunity to meet a lot of street vendors offering refreshments and snacks.
Like this fresh orange juice seller (oranges have a green bark and taste like clementine).
Many fruits are sold...
They are found in abundance and all look appetizing.
All types of frying are also available. In spite of the surrounding heat, everything made me want!
Did I really say everything? Well I admit it, sometimes the mountains of meat by 35°C make me a strange effect!
As everywhere in Asia, seafood is sold fresh but also dried!
In all the streets of Bangkok there are sellers of sliced fruit and I have never fallen ill despite the amount of pomelo or pineapple eaten!
Still in the "weekend end market", this miniature fruit stand is so well made that on the picture they look fresh and real!
In the evening, luxury dinner at the Sala Rim Naam on the banks of the Chao Praya river.
As an appetizer, a range of small and very fragrant dishes where vegetables, fish, omelettes and fresh leaves are dipped...
Like the "Prig Khing Crob", which is composed of a betel leaf (and not chunky as I wrote before!), and a stuffing with fried perch, peanuts, chopped kaffir leaves and other herbs... This is the dish I eat every time I go to this beautiful restaurant!
There was a fried chicken with pandanus leaves on the table! Another marvel, very easy to make.
One eats very tender chicken (without the leaf) and flavoured with a honey sauce, sesame and soy sauce.
A dish, the "Ped Yaang Naam Makham" where duck, tamarind sauce and grilled pineapple pieces blend harmoniously.
But Bangkok is not only about luxury restaurants, it's also questionable kitchens and dishes that even the most adventurous travellers wouldn't dare to venture into (well, not me!).
For those who will have the chance to go to Bangkok, it is therefore absolutely necessary to go to Ayutthaya for a whole day, even two days! This city is magical and ruined temples dot the city. I had the good fortune to meet only few tourists and to be able to take pictures that I keep carefully.
This Buddha's head comes from ruins that the tree roots have delicately wrapped around.
In the evening, return to Bangkok to continue the culinary journey!
As an appetizer, pork "golden bags" soaked in a sweet and spicy sauce.
And this is the dish that will have melted the most during my stay. The photo does not do justice, but this red curry with shrimp and crabmeat was simply from another world. A perfect creaminess and an unrivalled harmony between chilli pepper and sweet coconut cream. The crab was melting to make me cry with joy!!
Chicken skewers with satay sauce...
And a red curry with pork and pineapple chicken...
For dessert, a simple bowl of coconut cream hot and sweetened with melted banana.
To have a drink, one piece of advice: hurry to the Vertigo. Everyone enjoys this charming place on the roof of the Banyan Tree Hotel. Drinking is not excessive.
There's even a restaurant. The one is expensive enough for Western food... So I didn't try it.
But there is a breathtaking view of the city here.
The next day, walk to the Chinatown to see the Golden Buddha... But on the way, I couldn't resist in front of all these merchants who work all the time.
This lady prepared small pancakes with cream of coconut cream, sweet or savoury.
It's also where you can find local pastries (I think they are mostly Chinese inspired)...
Always pineapples and pomelos ready to eat...!
Barbecue-cooked meat skewers.
But also corn, very popular with Thai people.
Not forgetting seafood, probably less consumed in Bangkok than on the beaches of Thailand.
And dried mushrooms...
All this contributes to an incredible atmosphere in the streets of Bangkok.
For tea, it is almost essential to visit the "Salon des Auteurs" in the Oriental Hotel at least once!
A High Tea is served in the afternoon.
A profusion of "Mariage Frères" tea.
We start with a perfect flavour: a delicious and refreshing lemon and ginger sorbet.
Then the deck board arrives...! A mountain of small and tastier things!
I think the pictures speak for themselves!
Don't forget, English tradition obliges, small scones served with double cream and rose jelly.
To relax after this snack, you can walk in this colonial hotel.
And in his garden on the edge of Chao Praya.
I am once again making another non-culinary parenthesis, just to talk about the fabulous Golden Buddha that seems to be unknown to Westerners and yet it is a marvel for good reason! It is absolutely necessary to go to Wat Traimit to be able to admire this Buddha of 3 meters high and composed of 5.5 tons of pure gold! It is the largest gold statue that exists, well in front of the mask of Tutankhamen and Kate Moss (yes, there is a statue of her in massive gold of 50 kilos!). But this Buddha, probably from the Sukothaï period, has an extraordinary history. It was made in the 13th century but two or three centuries later, was hidden under a coat of lacquered stucco to give it a more ordinary appearance and thus deceive the Burmese enemy on its real value! But all this fell into oblivion and after several displacements (between Sukothaï and Ayutthaya, then between Ayutthaya and Bangkok...) the statue was stored for 30 years between the thirties and 1955 in the Chinatown in a temple which had no accommodation for it, under a sheet metal. During its final transfer, a sling gave way and the statue split at the base. The next day it was finally discovered that the statue was actually made of gold...
All this undoubtedly opens the appetite to savour some grasshoppers or fried crickets crossed at the amulets market...!
For my last meal, small soft fish cakes and kaffir leaves with red curry paste, the "Tod Man Plah"...
A last green curry with chicken and Thai aubergines....
And a very good but very strong chicken sautéed with chilli peppers and Thai basil leaves...
And finally, a very typical dessert: with iced coconut milk and water chestnuts in a tapioca coating, all flavoured with pandanus leaves.
And here is one of the typical Bangkok markets, the Thewet Market, on the shores of Chao Praya! For me it is the most authentic of all! You can still find large baskets of bamboo filled with wonders of the region.
There's plenty to make delicious and very spicy dishes!
There is always a raw beauty in these markets, especially for passionate cooks like us all!
This is really the wholesale market of the city and you can find large blocks of ice that melt very quickly with the heat.
Flowers can also be found.
And all the great classics of Thailand.
And when you leave, you quickly find yourself in the city and its surrounding frenzy that you love so much!!
My recipes related to this trip (click on the name of the recipe to access it directly!):
Thai fried Ballotins
Chicken skewers with satay sauce
Yellow curry with chicken
The curry massaman
The green curry of duck
