Dinner Finale with the Red Shirts

Foong and I started touring Bangkok Chinatown once again after a satisfying merienda at Double Dogs Tea Room. We are walking around the place not to search for souvenirs but to hunt for another place to eat. It is not surprising if the list brought by my travel companion contained the name and rough address of restaurants because Bangkok Chinatown is popular for its food.

The place reminded me of Binondo Chinatown in Manila. That place is also popular because of the food. I believe that Chinese cuisine is a magnet for food enthusiasts everywhere. This is also the case with Bangkok Chinatown.

Foong is looking for a restaurant or street stall that offers a certain pork dish. Too bad that we didn't locate it so we just searched for another restaurant in his list. One of the clue that he found in the Internet is that the crew of that restaurant wear red shirts.

This is definitely not a red shirt.

We almost failed in locating the red shirts and almost dined with the green shirts. Good thing that we noticed the restaurant of the red shirts, which is located just across the road from the green shirts.

Lek and Rut Seafood Restaurant

The red shirt restaurant that we are looking for is Lek and Rut (R & L) Seafood Restaurant. It is not a formal sort of restaurant. It is more of sidestreet kind where the tables were placed on the sidewalks and the streets. This is the reason why this restaurant is only open during the evening.

We only had a modest dinner. We only ordered a seafood hot pot or better known as Tom Yum and some prawns.

I am already familiar with the tom yum since I had that during my visit to Koh Samet Island. I actually had tom yum numerous times while I was in Thailand. 

This tom yum from the red shirts costs 200 Thai baht.

The roasted prawns were really big. I enjoyed removing their shells and feasting on the big meat inside. This is what happened to the prawns after I was done with them:

Our dessert is the Bird Nest – Gingko, which I tasted for the first time.

The bird's nest that I had is not the typical bird's nest that is made of straw and grass leaves. I believe that it is the same as the nests being harvested from our local birds called as balinsasayao.

Red shirts' bird's nest felt grainy but tasteless. The same goes with the yellow-colored gingko fruit.

Our dinner may be simple but what made it special is the friendly chat with a fellow blogger. It will be a long time before I see Foong again. But who knows? I never expected to meet him in Bangkok. I might meet him again in Manila or Singapore or Kuala Lumpur or anywhere in Asia.

A Relaxing Stop at Double Dogs Tea Room

Our adventure at Chao Phraya River, Wat Arun and Bangkok Chinatown is fun but it is also very tiring. My feet are already aching and I am thirsty. That's why I felt so relieved when travel companion Foong asked me to stop awhile in a tea shop.

I find Foong to be a peculiar tourist. He is the only friend of mine that brings a piece of paper containing a list of popular restaurants. Such habit is good since the restaurants that we visited during our trip are truly good. Double Dogs Tea Room is one of the restaurants that is in his list.

I wondered why the owner named the tea shop as double dogs. My best guess is that the owner has two dogs and he likes them so much that they graced the name of his tea shop.

Made me think if the dogs also like drinking tea.

We immediately settled at a table upon entering the tea shop. We were obviously tired of the long walks and we needed to recharge.

I ordered one bowl of egg soup. We both ordered Bloodhound Beer because the name sounded interesting. Another thing is that the menu said that this beer-mix can be “find nowhere”. A preposterous claim that challenged me so.

Aside from tea, Double Dogs' pride is their homemade desserts. We ordered a cake and a homemade ice cream for desserts.

Double Dogs Tea Room is neat. It is cool enough due to the air conditioner, which is perfect for tourists who want to take a break from the heat outside. I like the design of the whole shop, especially the bookshelf. It means that patrons are being invited to stay for a while and read a good book while sipping their tea.

The waitress that we met is polite but a little reserved. The reason maybe is that she is not fluent in speaking English.

The Bloodhound Beer came first. Followed in a few minutes by the egg noodles.
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I tasted nothing special nor weird with the Bloodhound Beer. It tasted like ordinary beer. This beer can't be found nowhere but everywhere. Nonetheless, the beer is cold and refreshing. I partnered it with the egg noodles.

I enjoyed eating the egg noodles, though its taste not that different from the ones I had tasted in other places. Or maybe I'm not an expert in judging food since I am not a food connoisseur.

What we enjoyed the most is the homemade cake and ice cream. We ordered a tart named Tarte Au Citron and Kulfi Ice Cream.

The Tarte Au Citron tasted fine. But the award goes to Kulfi homemade ice cream because of its unique and very delicious taste!

Double Dogs' homemade ice cream has three flavors; namely Tradition (with ten spices and the “scent of the Orient”), Dance of Orient (with spices and 23-year aged Guatemalan rhum), and Mixed Fruit. We ordered the first one on the list.

I can't explain the taste since I can't fathom what spices were placed in this ice cream. It does not matter because it tasted really good. I guess that anyone who visit Double Dogs Tea Room should order the Kulfi Homemade Ice Cream.

We paid a total of 450 Thai baht. I think that what we paid should be lowered since the Bloodhound Beer that we had is just an ordinary beer. Well, at least I tasted a very delicious ice cream and I was refreshed.

I guess it's time to finish the day with another walk around Bangkok Chinatown.

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Yaowarat Road: An Almost Familiar Place

After our visit to the world famous Wat Arun, Foong and I went to another place that for me is both new and familiar. It is new because this place is located outside of my home country. It is familiar because it is very similar to that one place in Manila that I see almost everyday.

From Wat Arun, we rode another orange flag Chao Phraya River Express boat and went down the Rajchawongsee (Ratchawong) Pier at the end of Ratchawong Road. We followed Ratchawong Road until we reached a street that obviously is an enclave of the Chinese. It is obvious because Chinese letters dominate the skyline. Aside from that, things that are definitely Chinese are everywhere including the clothes hanging from the street shops.

Chinese clothes for sale in time for the New Year.

I am definitely in a Chinatown, particularly Bangkok Chinatown.

The current Chinatown in Bangkok is the place where Chinese immigrants transferred after King Rama I ordered them to move from the west bank of Chao Phraya River to give way for the palace complex that is being built during the time. Bangkok Chinatown includes Yaowarat Road and Charoen Krung Road,* and even included the River City Complex and the Kalawar Church.** The River City Complex is the area where Chinese junks berth in the past.

Of the many places in Bangkok Chinatown, the most popular is the Yaowarat Road. Many Thai-Chinese businessmen placed their shops along Yaowarat Road because it resembles the dragon's curvy body.*

Whatever is present in Bangkok Chinatown is also present in Binondo Chinatown in Manila. This is the reason why I said that Bangkok Chinatown is somewhat familiar even thought it was my first time to visit the place.

The two Chinatowns have lucky charms for sale on the sidewalk:

Even the waving-cat lucky charm looks the same with what we have in the Philippines. I suspect that manufacturers of lucky charms follow some standard. It is also possible that most of these lucky charms were imported from mainland China, that's why they look the same.

I was delighted to see that Bangkok Chinatown has castañas (chestnut) being roasted on the sidewalk. We also have castañas in Binondo. The only difference is that their castañas is cooked using a machine.

I actually haven't tasted castañas even if I see it a lot of times when I walk along Ongpin Street of Binondo. I know the smell but I didn't know its flavor.

One of the difference between the Chinatowns of Thailand and the Philippines is the streets. I noticed that the vendors in Bangkok Chinatown keep to the areas assigned to them. They don't hog the street to the detriment of passing vehicles and pedestrians. For Binondo Chinatown, just look at Divisoria and you'll see how orderly we, Filipinos, are.

In fairness, Bangkok Chinatown seems to cover a wider area than our Chinatown. That's why they can afford to  have wide streets that can accommodate street vendors, vehicles and pedestrians. Binondo Chinatown don't have such luxury. Ongpin Street, which is the main road of Binondo Chinatown has just two lanes and is severely restricted by street vendors and parked vehicles.

By the way, it is Bangkok Chinatown where I bought the pomegranate fruit juice that I featured in an earlier blog post.

Like Binondo Chinatown the Chinatown in Bangkok is likewise a mecca for Chinese food. This place has plenty of tea shops, Chinese restaurants, and side street food vendors. Both tourists and Thais visit Yaowarat Road for the food.

We did some foodtripping here. We ate both merienda and dinner at this place. I will talk about it in the next blog posts.

Bangkok Chinatown is also alive during the night. Many restaurants only open in the evening, like the restaurant where we had our dinner. Vendors, street sellers are everywhere to sell their wares to both tourists and locals. Yes, even Mr. Balloon-man is busy during the night.

Bangkok Chinatown, particularly Yaowarat Road, is another interesting place in Thailand. It is good to note that this Chinatown is not that different from our Binondo Chinatown. Tourists must visit Yaowarat Road, especially after a gruelling day of touring Bangkok, to enjoy the great food that this place has to offer.

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References

*”Yaowarat Road” in Wikipedia.

**”A Walking Tour In Chinatown: An Old Place With A New Look” by Dararai in Thaiways