Aperitif, Nr Thewet Pier
Friday 24 Jan.
English winter blues and maladies melt in honey tropical sun. Cold beers and thai snacks. It’s 29oC and the scent of the river mixes with fragrant mesquite street grills, fried shallots and chilli. In this “quiet” part of town, individual tuk-tuks are audible – there being little background din. Jetlag, beer, weird birdsong, unknown plants.
We snack on prawns deep-fried in pastry and a mix of toasted cashews with chopped spring onions and chillis.
Steve’s, Thewet Pier, Bangkok
Friday 24 Jan.
Across a footbridge and along a very narrow canalside footpath the way leads through some folks’ back gardens. White skin, weird blue eyes, bizarre mousy hair, “You MUST be lost; where you go”. “Steve’s”, “Aha yes – aroy aroy”, big buddhist smiles. It seems the locals approve of this restaurant and indeed of any seekers after its pleasures; they point the way ahead. There is no disappointment. Tom kha gai, massaman curry, prawns in
Steve’s: Dinner is served…
tamarind and a veg dish translated as “morning glory”. There is a chance the kitchen Gods and Goddesses who prepared the food may not be linguists. There is no need for someone who cooks the way they do to be good at anything else at all.
Anyone who has been to Bangkok and didn’t like town, please go to Steve’s riverside restaurant next visit and then write a full and complete apology to the city on tripadvisor afterwards. You will feel the need to. It’s not just the food, or the blissful sight of sundown across the river from the terrace or the delightful service. It’s the approach to the place past kids playing street football, grandma watching tv with window open, someone rounding up chickens, stepping over stoned looking dogs in pink tea-shirts as you go. Real Thai folk live round here…
The massaman curry (chicken) contained one single whole piece of chicken. The dish was served about room temp. The meat came off the bone so easily (no knives were provided) I deduced it had been slow-cooked in the curry sauce. It was outstanding. Are all the recipes wrong?
Tom Kha Gai. Not as creamy as mine. Plenty of stock, and very citrusy without being sour. Lemon grass?
The food came to 650bh.
Asian Food Safari 
I have been to Bangkok three times now, working each time, so had no chances to go off the beaten track. This sounds amazing, even taking into account that I am a vegetarian. We visited a vegan restaurant in a shiny mall in Sathorn that is the polar opposite of your setting, but the food was delicious. WE didn’t come across any dogs in pink tea-shirts though.