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June 21, 2024

Welcome to Part 2 of Almond's trip. This week I took Almond and Jess to Chinatown: a place that I have taken many friends over the years. Surprisingly, Almond had never been to Yawarat (Chinatown) before. Surprising because even the rich kids usually have to have come at least once in their life. But no, entirely new, and entirely exciting! I'm loving this already!

Confession time: Last week I actually took Pauline on this exact itinerary (except we had lunch with a bunch of the peeps first before coming here quite early in the afteroon, so we had more time to stroll the markets and shop in Sampheng — the wholesale area. I might take Almond around the wholesale area the next time we are here... surely he'll love it.) Anyway, this itinerary is great and takes you to all the local gems (literally — you can't find these places on the internet, well, at least the Pad Thai place anyway), so if you want to copy my itinerary... do feel free.

We met at the Wat Munggorn MRT Station. Because they had gotten here before I did, they converged and waited for me at exit 3... which is actually the farthest exit from Chinatown itself. So we did quite a bit of walking before we got to the Yaowarat Road. (By the way, take Exit 1... it's the closest to Chinatown!)

Almond was very interested in every shop we walked past... he wanted to buy everything! Dried noodles, fresh noodles, canned foods, weird fruits... everything! We convinced him not to get any mostly because he had no idea what he would (or could) do with these foodstuffs.

Our first stop was the Lim Jing Hieng shop, which is on the corner of the Old Market (Talat Gao) and sells crispy pork. Not the kind of crispy pork you find in fancy Chinese restaurants, rather these cost 85 baht for a gigantic bag. They are flat, dried and toasted minced and seasoned pork. It's very good! Last time I took Ms Pauline to get these, she told me she came back the very next day. I got some for Almond to bring home and try. (PS. restaurant style is "moo thord", this stuff is "moo toob").

After buying the crispy pork, we decided to get dessert before dinner, mostly because the Pad Thai sets up shop at around 6.30pm... and it was only 5.30 at the time. We walked back through the Plaeng Narm street to find Jaroen Krung road, where we got to the Jaroenkrung intersection, to find "Singapore Pochana" where we had the original "Lod Chong Singapore."

Front of Singapore Pochana

A common joke that Thai people make about "Lod Chong Singapore" is that you can't find it in Singapore! Much like how you can't find American Fried Rice in America or the Tokyo snack (Kanom Tokyo) in Japan.

Anyway, I explained to them that the reason it was called "Lod Chong Singapore" is because this particular style of Lod Chong originated from the shop "Singapore Pochana" (oh! the one that we're sitting in!). Lod Chong comes in different sub-types and they just get named after whoever came up with them, I guess. Much like "Lod Chong Wat Jed" which originated from a small cart in front of Wat Jedsadaram in Mahachai, Samoot Sakorn many many years ago.

The original Lod Chong is a green flour batter that is shaped into the shape of a water droplet, and it is served cold in coconut milk and syrup. Lod Chong Singapore is distinct for its different style of batter, which is stickier and shaped into a long noodle shape. Lod Chong Wat Jed is also shaped into a noodle, but is usually more slippery and cut very thinly.

I also explained to them why it was called "Lod Chong". Directly translated from Thai, "Lod Chong" literally means "through the hole," which is actually how it's made. The batter is rolled out and fed through a metal mold with small holes in them, and the batter is squeezed through those small holes becoming "Lod Chong" or "through the hole"... a very literal name.

Thumbs-up from Almond!

Next, we crossed the street to "Kan Kee Nam Thao Thong" or called by its Chinese name "Kan Kee Sang Hoew Lo Liang Tay". I chose this as one of the locations we would visit since Almond mentioned last time we hung out that he liked chrysanthemum juice, however everywhere seems to make it very sweet with sugars and other artificial sweeteners. Kan Kee has been around since 1901 (so essentially 123 years this year) and still make it the traditional way, with no added sweeteners. So I wanted him to try their chrysanthemum ("Gek Huai") or their "Jup Liang" which is another superb mixed herbs drink (and has a very cooling effect internally for your body, it's very good!)... "Jup" in Chinese meaning "ten" or in this case just "many", and "Liang" meaning "cool"... so ... "many cools".

However this was where he got duped! By none other than the girlfriend.

The second we walked up to the shop and saw their menu of drinks... before I even had a chance to order, Jess ordered "Nam Khom" for Almond... in Thai translating literally as "Bitter Water". It is actually very good for you, but it's so bitter even I refuse to taste it. But Almond was none the wiser, and so we have a hilarious video of him trying it for the first (and last) time. Video

Before		After

 

She's so proud of herself!

Afterwards I handed him the chrysanthemum juice I had got for myself, because I knew he needed it. And yes he did! Even after downing half of the chrysanthemum and walking all the way back into Yawarat Road (which took like 8 minutes) he said he could still taste it in the back of his throat. Boy am I glad I didn't get a sip of that!

As we walked back Jess snapped a photo of these uncles playing a game of chess by the side of the road. That's a slow-life old town Friday evening for you!

We walked past the main Chinatown and Old Market area, and past grilled squid stall after grilled squid stall, as well as other seafood (but my oh my were there so many grilled squid). Almond said we're definitely getting some next time.

Eventually we made it to our Pad Thai shop. A small roadside stall in front of the Kikuya Mall on Ratchawong Road. This Pad Thai is especially good (and vegetarian too, by the way), there are no meats and no shrimp, which actually makes it better because it isn't oily and full of shrimp fat (which tastes good but oh boy does my stomach get upset on that), and also... it's charcoal fired. The aroma is great while you sit and wait (and boy are there long queues), however you should wear long pants because the mosquitos are crazy! If you order home (which most people do... which explains the long queues despite there being very few people around) they come in these cute little "pouches" (kratongs) made from banana leaf, however we ate there so it was plates and chopsticks as usual. 40 Baht per each plate which is very cheap for Pad Thai, however the serving is quite small and most everyone eats at least two.

We however, only had one serving each, beacuse we were going to get a second course at another shop!

We trotted down the road to a small alleyway (a small Soi) behind the Grand China hotel where we plopped ourselves down at the only shop open at this time of night (7.30pm) in the small alleyway. "Siang Kee" is a shop that sells only "Kao Thom" or rice soup (not to be confused with porridge... this is rice in soup, and the rice are still grains... porridge is mostly soup and the rice is more blended), however has one specialty that most Kao Tomm shops don't have... which is the Grey pomfret or Chinese silver pomfret... in Thai "Pla Thao Thoei". It is better than the usual rice soup which is served with seabass "Pla Krap Pong" as it is not only sweeter and more succulent, but also has a nicer richer texture and practically melts in your mouth (I am not exaggerating). It is, however, a deep sea fish, and so it comes at a whopping 300 Baht per bowl, which is rather expensive compared to the usual seabass variety which is in the 80 to 120 baht vicinity depending on the place. But it is super worth it!

And this was it for our trip today! I actually had a dessert for after dinner planned which is charcoal fired buns with different fillings, but we were full to the brim and so we decided that we would save it for next time.

Overall I am very happy with this trip, especially with my fellow travellers enjoying the stuff I have put together. Planning a trip takes quite some time for me, I tend to do a lot of research for places to go and what to eat and see, as well as what history and interesting artefacts that we might see, hear or experience along the way. Enjoyment is the best form of repayment! Seeing happy and smiling faces gives me joy on these trips and makes me want to plan another one... which of course, is already in the works!

Until next time! :)

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