Silom Village
If you want to sample the scope of fresh seafood available in Bangkok, Silom Village is a great place to do that. This outdoor eatery, set smack in the middle of a shopping village, is composed of original Thai teak houses, so you’ll get a bit of culture and food in one. And at night, there’s live music and Thai dancing to accompany your meal, so you might want to visit at dinnertime. Consider yourself forewarned: There’s no air conditioning, so be prepared to sweat a bit. Seeing as spicy food cools down the body’s temperature, you’ll want to start with the Hot & Spicy Shrimp Soup better known as Tom Yum Koong. Silom Village’s rendition of this classic dish is particularly spicy, so order a Singha beer to chase it down (Thai beer always pairs best with...
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Thip Samai
If you love Pad Thai, Thip Samai is your Graceland. This is Shrimp Pad Thai the way it was meant to be eaten — incredibly light and flavorful with Thai’s signature hints of salty, sour, spicy, and sweet. It’s a gorgeous tangle of springy, yet soft noodles, mingled with achingly fresh shrimp, shrimp roe, sweet egg, sprouts, peanuts, scallions, and tossed with dried red chile peppers, fish sauce, palm sugar, and vinegar. Which is why it’s perpetually packed with young people, scarfing down plates of the stuff. But did you know that pad thai isn’t really pad thai at all? It’s true. The dish first came to Thailand by way of Vietnamese traders and it didn’t really become popular in Thailand until the 1930’s when the prime minister encouraged the production of rice noodles, even going so far...
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Or Tor Kor Market
Talk about a crash course in Thai cuisine. This lively Bangkok market is a veritable Disneyland for traditional Thai dishes and ingredients. Thai mangoes, coconuts, longan fruit, jackfruit, dragonfruit, durian and countless species of bananas, mangosteen (my favorite), lychee, custard apples, rambutan and oodles more! Ever tasted sapodilla fruit? I hadn’t either until I visited Bangkok, but I long for it daily now that I’m back in the states, so make the most of all the exotic fruits you’ll see and smell in Thailand. Reminiscent of a mango in shape with a light brown skin, sapodilla is divinely soft and fragrant with a flavor that evokes honey and caramel. And don’t listen to what people say about stinky durian. You may not care to eat it raw (it’s indeed stinky), but cooked and used to make a dessert...
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Krua Apsorn
There isn’t much in the way of fine dining in Bangkok, at least not where Thai people go to splurge or celebrate a special occasion. The fancier restaurants are for tourists or expats, most often found at hotels. But there is traditional and celebrated cooking, and one of the most celebrated is Krua Apsorn (there’s two ouptosts). Everyone who’s anyone seems to have eaten at Krua Apsorn, including the Thai Royal Family, who frequent the eatery often. Still, the decor is minimal, but clean and the waitstaff attentive. (And the bathroom is entirely usable!) We settled into a table next to the window, looking out over the bustling Bangkok streets, watching motor bikes and tuks-tuks whiz by while we reveled in an ice cold Singha served up in a frozen mug and air conditioning, which is hard to come...
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Raan Jay Fai
Don’t go to the bathroom at Jay Fai (that’s what the locals this joint), located in the Old City. Go to the bathroom before you leave your hotel or after dinner. (It’s too gross for words.) But definitely go to Jay Fai! It was by far my favorite meal in not just Bangkok, but all of Thailand. And I ate everywhere. I ate on the streets and fancy hotels, in formal restaurants and in dives. I’m still thinking about the incredible Crab Omelet (Kai-jeaw poo) I ate there. The egg itself was fluffy and sweet, subtly flavored with fish sauce, and studded with not strands or even shreds of crab, but huge hunks of sweet crabmeat. The perfect complement, as you quickly learn in Thailand, to any omelet is a sweet chile sauce that you’ll want to pour on just...
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