Meal #04 Canada

Our next stop on the culinary journey brought us to Canada, or more accurately, Samsen Soi 2, a few blocks down from Khao San Road. Make no mistake, this is still a pretty touristy area, and the Snack Bar BKK was definitely catering for the tourist palate.

We had a small group today: Jim (USA), Douglas (India), Vivek (Australia), Siri (Thailand), Candida and myself (Singapore).

The main reason the Snack Bar is a stop on the 80 Meals tour is because they have one distinctively Canadian item on the menu: Poutine.

Hand cut fries, covered with brown gravy and cheese cubes. Purists will argue that this isn't really poutine, because it's meant to be cheese curds rather than cheese. Still, they had a Quebec flag on the wall, and there were a couple of French Canadian tourists at the restaurant having some poutine the same time we were there. Presumably they were amused by the fact that they were halfway around the world from home and they were eating "poutine". We ordered three types of poutine to share. The plain classic one above, one with bacon and onion (because bacon and onion automatically make anything taste better), and the Buddhist poutine, by Buddhist I mean it was one with everything and by everything I mean bacon and onion and bolognese.  

So while it may not exactly be poutine, we still polished off three plates before ordering our own mains. Was it delicious? Maybe - or maybe it was just there and our food took a long time to come so we devoured everything as they came.

The rest of the meal was rather mundane: Pad kratiem pork and rice, falafel, a chicken burger, a tuna pita, and a grilled chicken. It was the standard stuff you find at a tourist restaurant, and none particularly outstanding.

I'll have to add that our dining experience was marred by a few hiccups. I arrived an hour early to tell the restaurant to save us a table. When we got there later at the appointed time, there was no table - and we ended up waiting an additional half hour before being seated. And then it was a wait to order our food, and then for the food to arrive. Service was slow, because they obviously didn't have enough staff to deal with the crowd, and it wasn't even a big crowd - 20 people all in. That and the meh food means that this is probably a place to miss.

Despite the hiccups everyone had a fun time - so kudos to the gang for keeping our spirits up. In the end we each paid about THB300 for the bill, and we hung around for coffee at another place nearby.

We collected B80 for the rat fund, bringing our current pot to B840.

Meal #03: Indonesia

Last week, we visited Rasa Khas, an Indonesian restaurant at Sukhumvit 23. Rasa Khas is the first name that turns up when looking for Indonesian food in the City of Angels, and it is located in a house that has been converted into a restaurant.

This meal's food explorers were myself, Alex, Olivia, Bank, Joe, Kim, Maria and YY - a varied bunch from Russia, USA, Thailand, Switzerland, Japan and Singapore.

Indonesia's a pretty big place and so there are many culinary signature dishes from different regions. I'm not sure how representative Rasa Khas' menu is, but there were many classic dishes that one would expect to find. We got to try many of them: gado gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce), nasi ayam bakar bumbu bali (Balinese style grilled chicken with rice), perkedel (potato and corn fritters), soto ayam (chicken soup), nasi ayam padang (A Sumatran curry chicken with rice).

Gado Gado is a unique Indonesian salad made up of tofu, rice cakes and blanched vegetables covered in a spicy peanut sauce. The prawn crackers add a little crunch to the mix.

A few of us ordered the nasi ayam bakar bumbu Bali - a chargrilled chicken marinated with a sweet sauce, accompanied with spicy chili sauce and tempeh, a soybean cake. Bakar means black, and this type of grilling is typical of Balinese food.

The nasi ayam padang - rice with a chicken curry, named after the town of Padang in Sumatra.

Because this was a Christmas meal, Maria brought chocolates for everyone, and we had an exchange of gifts at the end of the meal. Some of us stayed on for coffee afterward too.

Thanks Maria for the Santa chocolates!

We collected B460 for the Apopo Rat fund, bringing the current total to B760.

Next Meal, Indonesia

For our next meal, we're going to Indonesia!

Also, in the spirit of Christmas we will have a small gift exchange. Details here.

Meal #02: Lebanon

Our culinary trip to Lebanon brought us to Beirut, a fairly well-established restaurant with several branches around Bangkok. We met at the branch in the basement of Ploenchit Center, at Sukhumvit 2 near Nana. Our explorers were Joe, Lynette, Joan, Zoe, Fabian and partner (sorry I forgot her name!), Jim, Kim and of course, myself.

The menu was pretty large, with a good selection of dips and starters, grilled meats and some specialties that were specifically Lebanese. Grilled/stewed/fried meats came in the form of beef, lamb, chicken and seafood (prawn and fish) although I'm pretty sure the seafood section was just an adaptation to local tastes. We started off with a serving of hummus fata and lahembel aajin. The former had whole chickpeas rather than smashed, but had an interesting texture because of the crunchy bread mixed in. Lahembel aajin was recommended by Joe as traditional food - an open pie of meat, tomato and lemon - much like a pizza without the cheese.

Hummus Fata (source: Beirut website)

Joe has come to the restaurant often, so he offered a lot of insight into what's traditional and what wasn't. When it came to the Lebanese specialties on the menu, they got stamp of approval. The stews too, were recommended. Some of the other dishes that were tried that night:

My mixed shwarma (beef and chicken) served with rice (you could also get fries). A huge portion - I didn't finish it and got to pack it for lunch the next day.

Zoe's couscous dish with vegetarian stew, one from the traditional Lebanese menu.

The mixed kebabs were a popular choice too, although this is a picture of the jumbo plate. (photo source: Beirut website)

Who says you can't make friends with salad?

For a table for 10 on a Wednesday evening, the restaurant didn't seem to have too much trouble seating us. I called ahead to book a space and they had one ready and waiting. By 7.30 though, the place was quite packed so it seems pretty popular enough.

This was the first meetup where we introduced the collection bag for our adopted charity, Apopo. We had extra money left over from the bill - THB300 - so that went to the Apopo fund. Once we hit 3,000, the money will be used to fund the training of a Hero Rat for one year.

Beirut Restaurant, Ploenchit Center (Source: restaurant website)

Introducing our charity project: Apopo's Hero Rats

Starting the next meetup, you might see a little collection bag going around. This is for our adopted charity: Apopo, and their Hero Rat programme. Apopo is a Belgian-based NGO that train rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis in Africa and Southeast Asia. It sounds quirky and strange, but they've been effective for over 20 years now.

I visited the Mine Detection Rat programme last week in Cambodia to see the rats in action. Here is a video of them detecting explosives under the ground as part of their training:

Rats are often thought of as pests, but they are also very clever and sociable animals. Also, they are rather cute!

The money collected during meals will go towards Apopo. The money will either used to sponsor the training of a rat (or rats), or given directly to the Mine Detection Rat programme in Cambodia to offset their operating costs of approximately USD$160,000 a year. In the interests of transparency, I will post a tally of the collections during every post-meal report.

Again, this is not obligatory. The main aim of this group is to discover new foods and to make new friends. I do not work for Apopo or intend to turn this group into a fund-raising vehicle. Give some spare change if you want to, or not if you aren't inclined.

Up next, Lebanon!

Mark your calendars, we're heading to Lebanon for our next meal!

Beirut, the restaurant and not the capital of Lebanon, was recommended a few times from the suggestions given through the signup survey. They serve Lebanese (of course) and Mediterranean food, and have a few branches around Bangkok. For this meetup, we will meet at the one at the basement of Ploenchit Center at Sukhumvit Soi 2.

Their menu is online, and they have a full range of shwarmas, hummus and kebabs. Also some Lebanese specialties like fatayer (pie) and fasolia (haricot beans). Vegetarian options available. Mains are about B300-500.

Sign up on the Meetup page.

Meal #01: Switzerland

For our very first meetup, I thought we would head to neutral territory: Switzerland, the land of the alps and cheese. Today's food explorers included myself (Singapore), Lynette (Philippines), Kim (Australia), Fabian (Switzerland/Germany/France), Ann (Thailand), Pear (Thailand), Zoe (Greece and UK) and Douglas (India). An international crew, very fitting for this meetup's theme.

Swiss Choice is located in Sukhumvit Soi 43, not far from Phrong Pong BTS. It's a short soi, and there's a red lightbox with a white cross on it so you can spot it from the main road.

I didn't take enough pictures of the interior decor, but the ground floor is where the cheese is sold. There is also a giant floating cow (man, wishing I took that photo now). The second floor is where the main dining area is, a small cosy space that seats around 30.

There are two main highlights of the menu at Swiss Choice, both traditional cheese dishes. The first is a Raclette, roasted cheese accompanied by assorted pickles and potatoes. It comes with a little oven to roast your cheese in. Once it's all melty and bubbly you scrape it on to your plate. 

The other traditional Swiss dish is the fondue: a pot of melted cheese served with bread cubes. You were given long thin forks to dip the bread in the cheesy goodness.

Besides the cheese, Swiss Choice had a small number of mains in their menu, pastas and pork escalopes (top), which a few of us had. Lynette had the Tomme Vaudoise poêlée (bottom), which was a pan-friend cheese which was crispy on the outside and soft inside.

So for starters, this was a great opening meetup. Lots of small conversations, lots of big conversations, and of course, lots of cheese. Here's to many more to come!