Small Bangkok Restaurants

Right across the road from Bangkok’s main railway station: Hua Lamphong, is a parade (British English term) of shops fronting a small street market. Just about anywhere else such a prime location would have been redeveloped into fast food outlets and shops. But not in Bangkok.

Although there is a 7-11 store there – cheaper for supplies prior to a train journey than the shops in the station – it’s an old style market. Hidden inside is the entrance to the Station Hotel.

There are also several hole-in-the-wall restaurants that sell unexceptional Thai and Thai-Chinese food. I had lunch at one today. The staff are friendly and speak some English – they get many impecunious backpackers as customers. The decorations are basic – the wall may be held up by layers of posters.

I had pork soup and BBQ duck. Both were good portions and served with plenty of sauce and chilis. The vegetables served with the duck were fresh – not the frozen stuff served at places like Black Canyon.

BBQ Duck

Pork Stew

Total price: 150 Thai Baht (about US$4.50 according to Oanda.com). Not the cheapest meal in Bangkok, but it was good and filling – and in an interesting location.

Shooting My Lunch Again

This time it’s Thai food.

Green chicken curry with cold noodles and preserved egg at S&P, Rachada. 95B.

See https://bkkphotographer.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/shooting-my-lunch/ and http://blog.michaelwillems.ca/2009/11/09/assignment/.

This time I used RAW with the Nikon Coolpix P6000 and adjusted the colours quite carefully in Lightroom. The restaurant had strange fluorescent lighting to a JPEG looked most unappetizing.

This is one of my favourite Thai lunch snacks. It’s quite light but delicious. Even chain restaurants like S&P have to maintain a good standard of food. We have so many choices.

Unfortunately this is what many Bangkok people eat:
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Frugal Note

I am boycotting the Bangkok Subway for a few days. They put the price of a 30-day pass up to 1,150B recently. I have so many choices for everything I need close to home. I won’t buy another pass until I have to travel further afield.

Shooting my Lunch

This is my photo for Michael Willem’s assignment “Shoot Your Lunch Tomorrow”. See here.

I guess it would have been more interesting to take a photo of some exotic Thai food, but today I felt in the mood for “farang food”.

I was on Silom Road and remembered a restaurant called Little Home Bakery in the basement of the Central Department Store right by Sala Daeng Skytrain Station. They have a big menu from Western food through some fairly elaborate Thai dishes.

Inside you’d think you were in an American family restaurant. My “American Breakfast” included bacon, eggs, a grilled tomato and home fried potatoes. There were side orders of both toast and pancakes. A cup of tea or coffee was included in the 165 Baht price. That’s about US$5.

The portion was small by US standards and the coffee wasn’t a “bottomless cup”. But that’s no bad thing – American portions tend to be excessive. I’m down to my “ideal weight” for my height after three years here. In the States I was getting a bit “prosperous”.

I could quibble about the quality of the potatoes but overall it was good and freshly cooked.

I usually take a photo of my food in a restaurant unless it is a very hi-so place. I wrote here about cameras that have a special setting for food photography. I used the “close up” setting on my Nilon Coolpx P6000 and used the available light in the restaurant.

Here are some examples from my Flickr photostream:

There are many more.

Minute Steak

I often eat lunch at Foodland, Sukhumvit Soi 5. Most Foodland supermarkets have a 24-hour food counter. They all serve the same menu of Thai and Western standards.

I usually take a photograph of my food, much to the amusement of the staff. Foodland must be a good employer. This branch has had the same cooks for a long time and they all seem enthusiastic. The turnover is usually high in Thai service businesses. Not here.

Surprisingly if the order taker is busy any of the cooks speak enough English to take orders. That’s very rare in Thailand.

The clientele is a mixture of all types from business people looking for a cheap lunch in an air con environment to western tourists and residents with or without their girlfriend of the moment.

It is also popular with the Indian traders who frequent the lower Sukhumvit. Maybe it is because Foodland has a lot of vegetarian options and even make a passable Indian style curry alongside the Thai varieties.

Their minute steak was not the best meal I have eaten. When I posted the photo to Flickr I said that it gave my teeth good exercise.

Does anybody know where the term minute steak came from? I could look it up but it is more fun to ask online.

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