BANGKOK, April 12 — It’s clear that Bangkok is a food haven, as visitors well know. But where do the locals eat?
When we first visited Bangkok, I wanted our Thai friends to take us to all their beloved stalls – all the hidden gems of mouthwatering street food. Imagine our surprise when none of them would go near a roadside stall!
So where do they eat, we asked. Their answer shocked us: shopping malls, apparently.
Siam Paragon, Central World, EmQuartier, Amarin Plaza, Central Embassy... these are the places our Thai friends dine at; not the admittedly more atmospheric but sweat-inducing rickety shophouses or mobile carts where you’d have to stand while Bangkok’s notorious humidity has its way with your hair and attire.
Kub Kao’ Kub Pla at EmQuartier serves Thai classic comfort food.
It’s not only for the sake of comfort, but also for the hygiene. Simply put: our friends are afraid of getting sick from eating street food.
Also the quality of the ingredients used for very cheap street food are naturally not the best. But surely eating at shopping malls is a touristy cop-out?
In many cities around the world, food in shopping malls is often inferior, inauthentic or bastardised. This couldn’t be further from the truth in Bangkok where mall food is often superior (due to the higher quality of produce) and just as authentic (especially given the stringent expectations of local diners).
As for oddball adaptations, well, that’s something uniquely Thai and worth hunting down rather than avoiding.
A typical Thai mall pasta: spaghetti stir-fried with crabmeat and garlic.
Take the uniquely Thai mall pasta, for example. In lieu of the freshly-made artisanal pasta trend favoured by gourmands, here commercial dry pasta is always used, especially the more familiar spaghetti.
The twist comes in the form of the flavours: local ingredients such as chillies, holy basil or crabmeat are substituted for the conventional tomato sauce and grated Parmesan cheese.
We discover a rather fine rendition of this at Kub Kao’ Kub Pla, founded by Atchara Burarak of iBerry dessert café fame.
Meaning "dishes to eat with rice” in Thai, Kub Kao’ Kub Pla also offers no-nonsense Thai classics such as kang cha-om khai (acacia leaf omelette, cowslip creeper and prawns in sour soup), khao kha moo (pig knuckle stew) and pad namprik sa-taw goong sod (spicy prawns with stink beans).
Other noteworthy local eateries that have made a mark in Bangkok malls include Luk Kai Thong, a restaurant known for its Thai Chinese comfort food (as well as for the curious crowing of a rooster every time a patron places an order), and the refined Nara Thai Cuisine.
Want to try everything in one spot? Your best bet would be to visit one of the food courts, found in office buildings as well as malls, naturally.
The Amarin Plaza Food Court prides itself as offering the best street food in Bangkok.
One of the most popular can be found at Amarin Plaza, easily accessible via a sky-walk from the Chit Lom BTS Station.
Enjoy a plate of iconic pad Thai or the aromatic bite of sai oua (northern Thai sausage) or juicy moo ping (grilled pork skewers) served with sticky rice.
Just one station away by the BTS Skytrain is the gleaming Central Embassy mall; its upscale food court, called Eathai, features only Thai cuisine – no avocado toast or fish & chips here – from every region in the country.
You can also enjoy durian at Eathai, in an air-conditioned environment.
Try nutty massaman chicken curry from the south or larb moo (spicy pork salad) from Isan – you can even enjoy in-season durian in an air-conditioned environment without anyone looking at you askance!
Here’s another secret: the locals don’t just eat Thai food, obviously, but they also have a ravenous appetite for foreign cuisine whether it’s Japanese, Italian, Mexican, French or American. It’s an inevitable part of an increasingly affluent and well-travelled society which makes Bangkok a great one-stop destination for enjoying global flavours.
Of course, trekking from one international restaurant to another would be a nightmare given the city’s infamous traffic jams. The solution is to hit one of the new "community malls” popping up in increasingly gentrified neighbourhoods such as Thonglor and Ari, where one can find something from almost everywhere, often dictated by the unforgiving tastebuds of expatriates from these cuisines’ original countries.
Dine 'al fresco' in an open mezzanine area lined with greenery at The Commons.
One of these urban/suburban oases is The Commons by Varat and Vicharee Vichit-Vadakan, the brother-and-sister team behind Roast, one of Bangkok’s top brunch spots.
Here, you can assemble your own "picnic” – a flat white or a cold brew coffee from Roots, French artisanal bread from Maison Jean Philippe, a khao kai kon (runny omelette) from Egg My God, Vietnamese duck banh mi from Eastbound, burritos from Mexican restaurant Barrio Bonito, a pizza Margherita from Peppina – and dine al fresco in an open mezzanine area lined with greenery.
Only in Bangkok: a juicy Daniel Thaiger burger laced with a secret sauce.
One of my favourites is Daniel Thaiger, which started off as a gourmet food truck with long queues along Sukhumvit Soi 38, serving juicy burgers with beef or lamb patties (made fresh daily).
Besides the oozing cheese and caramelised onions, the sauces – such as their signature California-influenced Thaiger sauce and Thai whiskey barbecue sauce – are what make their burgers a must-try.
But you’d never know this if you only trawl the streets, wandering from one stall to another...
Kub Kao’ Kub Pla
6th Floor, The Helix, The Emquartier, Sukhumvit Rd, Bangkok, Thailand
Open daily 10am-10pm
Tel: +66-2-003-6236
www.kubkaokubpla.com
Amarin Plaza Food Court
4th Floor, Amarin Plaza, 496-502 Phloen Chit Rd, Bangkok, Thailand
Open daily 10am-10pm
Tel: +66-2-650 4704
Eathai
Level LG, Central Embassy, 1031 Phloen Chit Rd, Bangkok, Thailand
Open daily 10am-10pm
Tel: +66 2 160 5995
The Commons
335 Thonglor Soi 17, Bangkok, Thailand
Open daily 8am-1am (opening hours of individual vendors vary)
Tel: +66-89-152-2677
This is the final part in a five-part series about travelling in Bangkok. Read the first four parts parts here, here, here and here.
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