Showing posts with label Yaowarat. Show all posts

[PLACE] 20150114 Chinatown @ Yaowarat, Bangkok


The Chinese community long set foot in Bangkok during the mass migration to South East Asia back in the old days. The Chinese traders initially gathered at a site where the current Grand Palace is locate before being relocated further away to the East. The Chinese traders then settled down at Sampaeng Lane before a petition for a wider street, hence the relocation to Yaowarat Road, which evolves to be what it is today, i.e. Chinatown of Bangkok.

Unlike our own Chinatown in Malaysia, i.e. Petaling Street which has lost most of its authenticity, the Chinatown in Bangkok still preserves the originality with majority of the Chinese communities and traders still residing at Chinatown.

Besides that, there are also many Chinese temples around here along with some old traditional buildings that adds to the heritage value of Bangkok's Chinatown. Colourful neon signboards that reassembles those in Hong Kong, thou not as many, lights up the busy street of Yaowarat during the nights. Street vendors along with shops and restaurants offering both goods, and food.

You may find variety of things like traditional Chinese products and food along the 1km stretch including very oriental delicacies such as sharkfin's soup (Not promoting nor supporting on consumption of shark's fin), bird's nest soup, fish maw stew, roast duck etc etc.

The best time to visit Chinatown is during Chinese festive seasons such as the lunar new year.

Chinatown (Yaowarat)
Nearest MRT Stations: Hua Lampong Station
Telephone: Nil
Opening Hours: Nil

TO GO


You have a few options i.e. by water, road or rail to get to Chinatown. Taking a cab will bring you directly to Chinatown but be mindful of the nasty Bangkok jam and some cab drivers might not want go during rush hours.

If you are taking the waterways, alight at Pier 5 (Ratchawong Pier) and walk further up to Yaowarat Road.

Alternatively, the MRT Hua Lampong station would be the nearest rail station and requires another 10 minute walk to Yaowarat Road.



ATTRACTION



The busy street of Yaowarat Road with colourful and bright sign boards that reassembles Hong Kong.


Some local names like 林真香 operated by local Chinese that sells traditional local specialities food products such as dried pork skin, pork floss, dried mango, dried longan etc. These shops have some other outlets at other areas as well if you are not coming to Chinatown.


Dried or smoked duck meat sold in the shops that is traditional to the Chinese community.


But food is the main attraction of Chinatown with traditional Chinese cuisines such as roast duck, Peking style.


Or some local seafood stalls that serves fresh river produce or seafood, grilled right in front of you.


The famous T&K Seafood Restaurant is also located in Chinatown. Read more about T&K Seafood in my separate post.


There are also many street stalls or restaurants selling bird's nest soup, which is also a local product of Thailand along with other South East Asian countries. Street stalls selling at much cheaper price while restaurants charge a higher premium for their bird's nest soup. Read more about my experience with Nam Sing Bird's Nest in a separate post.


Some other street vendors like the juice vendor above that are commonly found around Bangkok's streets.



Some Chinese cuisines that are not found at other areas of Bangkok. There's so many to try but so little space in your tummy.


Fish maw stew sold by the street vendors are commonly found in Chinatown but not at other areas. The gluey thick texture reassembles shark fin soup but using fish maw instead of shark's fin.


There are many road side stir fry stalls as well along the main street that you can order Chinese-Thai fusion food.

SUMMARY


Overall, the Chinatown of Bangkok still have the presence of the Chinese community in contrast to our Malaysian Chinatown which is now invaded by many foreigners and lost it's authenticity of a Chinatown despite a few well known names are still around. The abundance of street food and local food will not give a chance for your tummy to rest. 

Attraction
☆☆☆☆
Presence of Chinese community still available with variety of merchandise and food
Cleanliness
☆☆☆☆

Entrance Fee
Nil
Opening Hours
Daily
Wifi
N/A
Parking
Limited
Website
N/A

GPS: 13.741206, 100.508264
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[FOOD] 20150114 Nam Sing Bird Nest 南星魚翅燕窩樓 @ Chinatown, Bangkok


Bird's nest, or swallow's nest is edible and prized by the Chinese as they believed it possess rich nutrition and healing properties since centuries ago. South East Asian traders often ship these valuable products back in the older days as it is only found and harvested at steep sea cliffs in South East Asia.

Hence, these valuable products, along with shark fins are widely found around Chinatown area in Bangkok as Thailand is one of the producers of bird's nest, along with main exporter, Malaysia.

There are many traders along Chinatown that sell these bird nests, but one must be vigilant when choosing it due to existence of imitation products, usually made of agar. Other than the raw bird nests, some traders or restaurants will serve these bird's nest in soup, often clear soup with rock sugar, which is able to preserve the flavour as well as the nutrition of the bird's nest, despite no direct scientific evidence on the nutrition properties.

You may find cheaper bird nests soup from the street vendors or slightly more expensive ones from the Chinese restaurants. Price ranged from as low as 150 Baht up to 1500 Baht per bowl of these bird nest soup. The price is differentiated by the quality and quantity of the bird nest in the soup.

There are many restaurants serving bird nest soup around and I don't have the time, nor budget, nor tummy space to try one by one. After a quick search online for some reviews online and some consideration, I decided to try the one served by Nam Sing bird's nest, just next to T&K Seafood where I just had dinner previously. Nam Sing is also a Chinese restaurant which serves Chinese cuisine but they mainly promote their bird nest to the tourist passing by instead of their food.

Nam Sing Bird Nest
Soi Phadung Dao, Yaowarat Road Chinatown, Bangkok 10100, Thailand
Nearest MRT Stations: Hua Lamphong Station
Telephone: +66 2 222 6292
Opening Hours: 09:00am until 02:00am (Daily)

TO GO


Nam Sing Bird Nest is just next to T&K Seafood, hence you can just follow my directions in T&K post as below:
Unfortunately there is no direct access via BTS or MRT and most likely you will need to take a cab to reach Chinatown. But be mindful on the peak hours as some taxi drivers may not want to travel here due to the jam, hence, plan your journey ahead to avoid disappointment. 

The nearest MRT station will be the Hua Lamphong Station, which you will need to walk for another 15 minutes to reach Chinatown. Walk along the main street of Chinatown and you won't miss the smell and the scene of busy workers grilling fresh seafood on the grill. Look for the green stall for T&K and Nam Sing will be just next to it.


SPECIALITY



You can see the notice sign board of Nam Sing just next to T&K Seafood. 

Despite Nam Sing being a Chinese restaurant, I hardly see any patrons during my visit and I have no confident on their menu, no idea why. Anyway, I'm here to try bird nests soup only and they have various grade and pricing for the bird nest soup, ranging from 200 Baht up to 1000 Baht.


I ordered a Grade 2 bird nest soup which cost 350 Baht. To be honest, I will not know if they serve me a lower grade one as you can't really tell the difference between the grades from taste. Experienced housewife or frequent consumer of bird nest would probably be able to tell you the difference from the texture or taste, but not me. All I hope is that the restaurant don't con poor tourist like me.


The bird nest is served in a small bowl along with condiments such as gingko, longan and red dates, all processed and cooked in syrup. It goes well with the bird nest soup, giving a sweet addition to the soup. I have tasted bird nest soup before, prepared by my mother with Chinese herbs and also those in bottle packings. To be fair, it doesn't taste bad or good, come on, how can you go wrong with just adding rock sugar? The quantity of bird nest is not generous but still reasonable.

SUMMARY


Overall, it wasn't a bad bowl of bird nest soup. Does it worth 350 Baht? I wouldn't know. Will you get pretty overnight after drinking? Definitely not. It is more for the experience and taste if you never had one before.

Taste
☆☆☆☆
Simple, but towards sweet side.
Value
N/A
No idea, depends on individual
Service
☆☆
Bad service
Cleanliness
☆☆
Little cockroaches crawling on your table.
Opening Hours
09:00am until 02:00am (Daily)
Wifi
Nil
Parking
Limited
Website
https://www.facebook.com/NamsingBirdnest

GPS: 13.740176, 100.510641
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[FOOD] 20150114 T&K Seafood @ Chinatown, Bangkok


T&K Seafood is well known in Chinatown area for serving fresh and cheap seafood for years. It is located at the centre of Chinatown, or also known as Yaowarat in Thai. It operates in an 3-storey intermediate old shop lot near a junction with a direct competitor (Lek & Rut) located right opposite them. Don't get confused among the two as T&K will be in green while Lek & Rut in red.

If you are here during peak season or peak hours, be prepared to queue for your table as this place will be packed with locals and tourists. Their business is so good even the outdoor seating extended until the main road are usually packed. Air conditioned tables are available in the restaurant but could be very pack.

The BBQ grill is located right in front of the restaurants where you will be able to see how your dinner is prepared especially if you ordered their grill menu like their famous grilled big head river prawn or squid. Other dishes will be served from their kitchen at the back of the restaurant.

Famous dishes like the grilled big head prawn, oyster omelette, tom yam gung, fish cakes etc are among the dishes you might want to try. Although I said cheap in the earlier paragraph but I felt that I will be able to get cheaper price somewhere else. Having said that, the pricing is still reasonable for a popular tourist spot.

T&K Seafood
49-51 Soi Phadung Dao, Yaowarat Road Chinatown, Bangkok 10100, Thailand
Nearest MRT Stations: Hua Lamphong Station
Telephone: +66 2 223 4519
Opening Hours: 04:30pm until 02:00am (Daily)

TO GO


T&K seafood is located at the centre of the Chinatown. Unfortunately there is no direct access via BTS or MRT and most likely you will need to take a cab to reach here. But be mindful on the peak hours as some taxi drivers may not want to travel here due to the jam, hence, plan your journey ahead to avoid disappointment. 

The nearest MRT station will be the Hua Lamphong Station, which you will need to walk for another 15 minutes to reach Chinatown. Walk along the main street of Chinatown and you won't miss the smell and the scene of busy workers grilling fresh seafood on the grill. Look for the green stall for T&K.



SPECIALITY


I arrived at Chinatown after my visit from Wat Arun and Wat Pho due to the proximity of the areas. I negotiate for a tuk tuk to avoid the jam, although it costs more than a cab but still worth for the ride and arrived at Chinatown swiftly.


Walk along the main street of Chinatown and you will eventually arrived at a junction filled with people, and most of all, filled with aroma of grill seafood. T&K seafood is the one with the green paintjob, with their competitor (Lek & Rut) right opposite them, head to head.


The outdoor kitchen, serving part of the menu. The outdoor seating are at the side of this kitchen, towards the main road and differentiated by the green colour stools.


The BBQ counter right outside the restaurants, preparing trays of grilled big head fresh water prawns, supplied by the Chao Phraya River.


The cute menu with drawing of two young lads, which I believed to be T and K respectively. Unfortunately no further information available on the two guys. The menu is categorized according to type of seafood with pictures of their signature dishes and price stated clearly. Although the price looks cheap by going with Malaysian or Singaporean standards, it is on the high side for Thailand standards but still reasonable and affordable.




Their famous grilled big head fresh water prawns, which comes in small or large portion. The small portion is as above with 4 pieces of fresh prawn, two male two female each. I resisted to order this during my dinner in the day before at Honggi BBQ Seafood because I have already have T&K Seafood in my itinerary. Overall the prawns are fresh but the size is smaller than my expectation (body length about 4 inches) as I have seen bigger ones by the street vendors. Average. each prawn will cost about 50 Baht (RM5.50), which I think is on the high side for the size.


I also ordered egg fried rice to try out and cost about 55 Baht (RM6). Not too bad with good flavour but lack of aroma from the eggs and wok hei that Chinese fried rice usually have.


Stir fried morning glory for some fibre diet, nothing spectacular. Still think our own Kangkung belacan is much better any time.


Grilled scallop but nothing special with the size of your thumb. Couldn't remember the price for this dish but it is around 200 Baht.


Tried their curry crab, which come in small, medium or large size. For comparison sake, Thailand's definition of crab size is much smaller than Malaysia. Their large size, as the picture above, is probably the same as our small size in normal restaurants. Taste wise, the crab is fresh no doubt but the curry is heavy in coconut milk, very good for rice but overpowered the crab. Regret ordering this crab dish which has inflated our bill for another 560 Baht, which I think is overpriced. Maybe Thailand don't have large crabs.

SUMMARY


Overall, dining in T&K is still enjoyable despite the cramp space and doubtful hygiene. Seafood are fresh and taste is considered good but not outstanding. Have yet to try the oyster omelette and steam or fried fish, perhaps another time. Pricing is on the higher side for Thailand's standard but still reasonable and affordable.

Taste
☆☆☆☆
good taste with fresh seafood served, but not the best
Value
☆☆☆☆
Not as cheap as expected and high side for Thailand standard.
Service
☆☆☆
Slow service but still friendly due to the crowd
Cleanliness
☆☆☆
Dirty environment. Pray for not having diarrhoea the next day.
Opening Hours
04:30pm until 02:00am (Daily)
Wifi
Nil
Parking
Limited
Website
Nil

GPS: 13.740109, 100.510604
Read More
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