One of the first activities Molly and I planned was a full day Bangkok city tour with "Follow Me" bike tours. We chose the Siam Aharn tour - or in English the "Bites and Bikes" tour which, obviously, seemed absolutely perfect for us - eating (for me) and exercising (for Molly).
The morning half of the day was a walking tour where we would learn about and feast on a variety of traditional Thai foods at historic restaurants that the locals have frequented for many years. This tour is certainly off the tourist path and we were thrilled that we would be seeing (and eating at) the real Bangkok city of the Thai people. Most of the walking tour takes place in the historic area known as Bang Rak which means "Village of Love".
We met at the Sky Train station around 9:30am and noticed another couple and a family of four milling about so while waiting for our tour guide to arrive we began chatting and sure enough they were all there for the Bites and Bikes tour as well. This would be our group of 8 for the day. The family was from Holland and the couple was from Samoa. Everyone was friendly and we happy for a fun group to spend the day with. Within a few minutes our tour guide, Mooshie, arrived.
After quick introductions and a briefing of how the morning would go, we started off to our first restaurant; we walked along a fairly main street to a much smaller street called the New Road that was literally overflowing with people, motorbikes (you can't believe how many motorbikes there are in Bangkok -- probably as many as there are people) and practically every shop with food for sale and a few seats/small tables out on the sidewalk or the edge of the road.
Mooshie leading us down New Road to our
first restaurant stop
some chickens whose days are numbered
You'll have to read the name of the restaurant from the photo because I don't know how you say it! This restaurant has been in existence for some 70 years and has been passed on from father to son to run it. While we were there, the father/owner came in and although he didn't speak much English he greeted us warmly with the big smile typical of Thai people.
Our eating excursion started with "breakfast" (it was after all about 10am) of crispy duck on sticky rice with special, secret sauce -- in the old school days I think this dish would have been called Peking Duck. It definitely has a Chinese influence.
The sauce was rich and the skin of the duck was perfectly crispy. It was an unusual breakfast, but I suppose not any more strange than cold pizza and chocolate cake (seriously Mom, I don't eat that for breakfast!). In any case, I preferred it to the traditional Thai breakfast of rice soup with chicken or prawns (not that I actually tried a traditional Thai breakfast but it was available most everywhere we ate. I don't think my tummy was awake enough to handle it)! They also make some kind of crispy pork which I was keen to try as well, but that was not on the menu for today.
preparing our tasting plates
Mooshie giving us the history of the restaurant
and the crispy duck
Our next stop was the Muslim Restaurant. Yes, that is actually what the restaurant is called. 95% of Thai people are Buddhists and the next major religious group is Muslim at about 4% of the population. This restaurant, which is now three generations in existence, was started by a Muslim man who married a Buddhist, Thai woman. Perhaps some sixty (or more) years ago it was not unusual to call your restaurant by the name of your religious affiliation? The photos of the original owners are still hanging on the walls.
Here we tried the yellow curry soup with chicken and eggs. It was mildly spicy but certainly not overwhelming. The broth was rich and velvety with a nice curry flavour. It was a thinner broth than some Thai curries.
Mooshie also ordered some sort of a pancake/roti. Molly and I had seen them on street carts in the days leading up to our foodie tour, and in fact she even tried one the day before with chicken. They can be filled with fruit or meat and are basically fried and folded over the filling. We also had a chicken one at Muslim Restaurant and it is served with fresh pickles.
I personally found the roti/pancake a bit bland but the fresh made pickled cucumbers that you eat as an accompaniment to the roti were delicious!
Our group awaiting the food offerings at Muslim Restaurant
We continued walking towards the pier as Mooshie pointed out to us the food and drink offerings that the Thai people make to Buddha, sometimes in a personal shrine but often just sitting on the sidewalk or under a tree. She commented that some tourists might think that the someone has left trash on the street but usually you would see food on plates and drinks opened often with straws in them. The offerings would be cleaned up, but often before that happens poor people or stray dogs may have eaten them.
We hopped aboard the ferry, crossed the Chao Phraya River and traversed through a tiny alley - only wide enough to walk single file to a small restaurant that you would definitely have to know was there or you would likely miss it.
approaching Oriental Ferry stop with
street food vendors lining the route
We hopped aboard the ferry, crossed the Chao Phraya River and traversed through a tiny alley - only wide enough to walk single file to a small restaurant that you would definitely have to know was there or you would likely miss it.
the narrow back alleys of Bangkok
and more street food readily available
arriving at our next restaurant stop
Here we would be sampling five dishes. When we arrived the adorable owner was busy preparing the first dish: papaya salad. Yay! I was super excited to be trying this; as I mentioned it is one of the dishes I was most looking forward to eating and learning how to make in Thailand. When I asked her some questions she even (jokingly) asked me if I wanted to come into the kitchen and help her - I would have gladly accepted and told her I would love for her to teach me!
Since the Dutch family was a little unsure about eating too spicy of dishes, she prepared a plate of not spicy and one of spicy papaya salad. Guess which one Molly and I had?
The papaya salad was excellent. It's cold and refreshing but crunchy from the green papaya, fresh long beans and of course some roasted peanuts on top. It was also perfectly spicy and salty in the dressing. Take note of the extra large wooden mortar and pestle that the chef is using to prepare the salad. This was my second big regret of my trip to Thailand - that I didn't find a massive wooden mortar and pestle to bring home. We found a few medium sized wooden ones as well as some fairly large granite ones but neither of those suited (and besides, granite would have been waaaayyyy to heavy to carry half-way around the world home!).
The second "menu" (as Mooshie kept calling different plates) was deep fried chicken wings topped with lemongrass. This is the appetizer dish that Molly and I had shared the night before with our dinner, so we were able to compare the two dishes. The lemongrass is shredded somehow into fine threads (for lack of a better word) and then deep fried (the Thai's love their deep frying!!). We also tried to convince the fellow from Samoa that it was, in fact, lemongrass on top of the chicken (granted it does not look anything like any lemongrass you've ever seen before). He didn't believe us, even after tasting it, until Mooshie explained the dish!
The dish we had the night before we found the lemongrass quite woody and difficult to chew but this one it seemed the lemongrass was either fresher or not fried as long so you could actually eat it. In last night's version, we also had some finely sliced deep fried garlic which was quite good. The dish is served with sweet chili dipping sauce (the same as we use here in Canada for dipping spring rolls) so that adds both a sweetness and a light bit of spiciness. I love this dish. I mean it's deep fried chicken wings first off. The lemongrass, ginger and garlic add an extra depth of flavour and chewiness in the mouth.
Next we sampled two different pork dishes. The first was a pork neck which we found slightly chewy and a bit rubbery and the skin sort of fatty, but the meat had a good flavour, similar to a roasted pork loin and it was very moist.
notice the fork and big spoon - Thai style utensils
The second pork dish was a stir fry with mint and tamarind sauce. The pork and tamarind sauce was quite tasty - it is sweet and mildly spicy. The mint, for me, was an odd accompaniment to the savouriness of the dish. I think there was just a bit too much of it. It was good for adding a bit of fragrance but you could only eat one or two leaves.
And then the final dish at this restaurant was something which was a bit unsettling to look at. I saw it and I thought: it's brains! Sheep brains topped with peanuts!
But no. In fact, it is shredded catfish, mixed with bread crumbs, then deep fried and topped with a sugary-sweet sauce and peanuts. It is so crispy there is actually no flavour to it; you only taste the sweetness of the sauce. It was a very odd dish; the two young Dutch children loved it most of all -- but clearly because it was just like eating crispy chips covered with syrup.
I made a pit stop at this restaurant which was my first experience in Thailand with a squat toilet. Later this night I would also get the opportunity to use the squat toilet on the train where you can look down to the tracks passing below you as you pee.
It was not yet noon, we were finished at our third restaurant having consumed some eight "menus" already and we were headed back to the ferry, across the river to two more eateries.
on the ferry across the Chao Phaya River
to make sure we got to taste everything
Once we reached the shore, walking down the road from the pier, Mooshie stopped at a street vendor frying bananas and cassava. Even though this was not a scheduled tasting dish on our walking tour Mooshie wanted us to have the chance to taste one of her favourite things: deep fried banana.
I was thrilled that we were getting the chance to taste the deep fried banana too, as I had already been planning on buying some from the street vendors. They are slightly crispy, but not overly so and mildly sweet - which is perfect for me as I'm not a big fan of very sweet desserts. They are sprinkled with sesame seeds after frying to add a bit of a crunch when you eat them.
We had a short walk to the Panlee Bakery - our next stop to taste their world famous speciality: the green custard bun. The bakery is family owned and has been in business for over 40 years. Although they are a staple of the Bang Rak district, when you walk to the shop you feel like you are in a western style coffee shop/bakery -- starting from the ultra air conditioning blasting throughout the shop. Not typical for food businesses we tried in Bangkok. And as it was already a "Bangkok-hot" day the air conditioning was most welcome.
Here we were offered two different samples, the traditional Thai green custard bun (made from a leaf called pandan which is also known as the "screw pine leaf" ... yeah, I had to google that shit!) and the bbq pork buns - both specialities of the bakery and well documented on TripAdvisor.
Ultimately very few of us on the tour actually ate either of the buns at the bakery. We were so full from all the dishes we had sampled up to that point, and we still had one more restaurant to go, so the employees kindly packaged up the buns for us to take to go. Molly and I ended up eating ours on the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai much later that night. Honestly, they were not delicious but you have to keep in mind that they were still warm out of the oven when they were packaged up, then jammed in a backpack, travelled around in 35*C (or higher) temperatures, sat in a store room for 4 hours while we were off biking for the afternoon, taxi, sky train and rail train till we ate them about 12 hours later. I don't think it really would be fair to give a review of them because they undoubtedly would have been much better had we eaten them at the bakery when they were just baked.
We headed off to the final stop - Royal Thai Restaurant. When a restaurant in Thailand has the title "Royal" in it, Mooshie explained to us that it is owned/run by the royal family. The restaurant we were heading to was owned by the great grandson of one of the former Kings. Luckily, it was a fairly long walk from Panlee Bakery to the Royal Thai Restaurant so we were able to burn off some of the menus we had eaten up till then.
We arrived at the restaurant and there is a beautiful garden patio with tables outside. We were set up at two tables on the second floor of the restaurant. The main floor is partly restaurant and partly bakery/grocery store. The Royal Thai Restaurant was much more upscale and western-style than any of the prior places we had been to that morning. It was also packed with very well-dressed customers. No squat toilets here!
We ate green Thai curry with fried bread. Both were exceptional. This is the first green curry I have had in Thailand and it was spicy but not overwhelming. The fried roti however was phenomenal. I mean, it's crispy deep fried pastry - how can you go wrong? It reminded me so much of traditional Aboriginal fry bread that we get at the Odawa Friendship Centre in Ottawa on Indian taco lunch day. It's crunchy and has a good texture even after being dipped in the curry.
Luckily we were served a small portion as I was already so full. The green curry was fairly thin but it was rich in coconut flavour. This was our first experience with some small (marble sized) green vegetables that Mooshie told us were aubergines. They feature prominently in Thai green curries but we found they were too bitter to eat and likely are there for fragrance and flavouring - although Wikipedia says they are edible. They are known as: pea aubergine, devil's fig, prickly nightshade, shoo-shoo bush, wild eggplant and pea eggplant (yeah ... I googled that shit). From now on though, having just learned this, I shall always refer to them as "shoo-shoo bush"! I mean seriously - I can't make this stuff up!
Finally we finished off with a choice of coconut or durian ice cream. Molly and I agreed to try one of each and share. The durian was by far the better of the two. It was much creamier and richer, and frankly much sweeter. It was more of the consistency that we know in Canada as ice cream. The coconut, on the other hand was much more like Italian style "ices" - it tasted exactly like fresh, raw, unsweetened coconut - only frozen. It was very refreshing but not nearly as satisfying as the durian flavour.
coconut ice in the foreground; durian ice cream behind
While the purpose of the food walking tour was to introduce us to some of the restaurants and traditional Thai dishes that have made Bangkok a foodie destination, we also got some history and culture along the way. We visited a school in the heart of the Bang Rak district. Less than 1% of the population is Christian, yet many Thai children attend Catholic schools. Mooshie explained that this is because Thai parents want their children to learn English from native speakers.
kindergarten class
Buddhist Shrine in the Catholic school compound
Mooshie also informed us that "Bangkok" is not actually the name of the city - that is a sort of nickname. In fact, Bangkok has the distinction of being the Guinness World Book of Records record-holder for the longest place name in the world, officially: Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit (กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์). And big cudo's to Mooshie who recited the full official name to us (which took some 45 seconds or more to say!). It means: City of Angels (for short -- the official meaning is much longer too!)
Buddhist Monks are much revered by Thai people. They often come out of the temple early in the morning to collect alms, food and to give blessings. We were advised that Monks cannot touch women and, as women, it is our obligation to move out of the way to ensure we do not touch them. They also teach traditional Thai style massage at many of the Buddhist temples (though I'm not sure how they teach the women since they are not allowed to touch them and yet the vast majority of massage therapists that we saw were women!)
Monks around Wat (i.e. temple) Arun
and taking a break
Finishing our meal at the Royal Thai Restaurant brought us to the end of our food walking tour but not the end of our day. We piled in a few taxis to the Follow Me club house where we would begin our afternoon biking tour and hopefully burn off some of those calories from the morning.
testing out the bikes at the Follow Me clubhouse
This tour was both interesting and informative as well as very delicious. Being on the tour allowed us to get to areas of the city we most definitely would not have made it to otherwise and certainly to restaurants and eating food we probably would not have tried on our own. Despite the hot, hot day we persevered for more than 7 hours of exercise, history and culture, sightseeing and obviously eating. When we returned to the clubhouse after the bike tour, we were treated to dinner - a choice between Thai food and western bbq which our group had voted on earlier in the day. We chose the burgers, dogs and fries and all of us were happy that we made that choice. After all the traditional Thai fare we had been sampling all morning it was good to have some simple western food to not interfere with our taste experience.
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