A Chef’s Tour – roaming Bangkok foodie spots

Continuing the series of posts about places we've visited and reviewed on Google Maps, but which have never been posted to this blog, my next post is only the third Asian city I have been to. One thing you can say about Bangkok – it never seems to stop. It’s sprawling, crowded, busy and boisterous – and at times as you encounter the traffic, seemingly life-threatening. We wouldn’t normally have chosen to come to Bangkok, but our flights worked through the city, so it was an unexpected bonus.

We arrived very early in the morning at the tail end of a trip that included a cruise up the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel, followed by a couple of weeks in Northern Burgundy and a finale in London. The airport was fairly chaotic, through I did comment at the security desk on the way out of Bangkok, as we boarded the Thai Airways flight to Australia, that it was the fastest fast lane I’d ever encountered. With a long history of enjoying Thai food all over Australia – like most Australians – we discovered a food tour of Bangkok and decided that we couldn’t visit the city without going on one.

The first of many stops on the foodie tour.

Everything was ready
The Old Siam Chef's Tour was fabulous and absolutely topped off our visit to Bangkok. We went to so many markets and tiny restaurants, jumped on a canal ferry and a tuk tuk and a bus, and ate so many varied and marvellous dishes. Our champion guides, Annie and Champion, were like a well-oiled machine, ensuring everything was organised in advance and guaranteeing that the food was fresh and fabulous. One roamed ahead of us and made sure that everything was ready and everything, like bus fares, was paid.

Leaning towards Asia on a rainy night in the nation’s capital

Recently we finally made it to the tiny little restaurant in Yarralumla called Minima, where we sat at the counter and tried to avoid distracting the chefs as they got on with it. I suppose being a chef is like being a nurse – long and unusual hours, lots of stress and tight deadlines, difficult customers and high expectations. Avoiding distraction we ordered and then the world suddenly burst into colour.

Morks was a legendary Thai restaurant at the Kingston Foreshores here in Canberra. We went several times and enjoyed it – others went much more often. Then it closed. When restaurants close they often disappear – to much disappointment amongst their clientele. The good news was that Morks was miraculously reborn as Minima – and it is fantastic.

We sat at the counter and tried to avoid distracting the chefs. 

‘As I sat down the waiter explained that [the] restaurant…leaned towards China, Vietnam and Asia generally. I thought that as we neared the end of an election which would help set Australia’s direction for the future through the massive global tectonic shifts underway, increasingly we would all be leaning that way.’

Even better, we were amazed to see that the very knowledgeable wine expert, who used to give us advice at Edgars in Ainslie, had finally made a move and transferred to Minima. That means you can pick both good food and good wine.

I must go down to the sea again – Sailor’s Thai Canteen still cooking

Here we are – driven down from Canberra to say a final farewell in Sydney to someone from Adelaide. Someone who was good at steering yachts – and guiding people. When it was all over I had to go down to the sea again. We were staying at Cremorne Point, one of those fabulous spits that stick out like a finger into Sydney Harbour, so we jumped on the ferry.

We went to a favourite spot, Sailors Thai Canteen, established by renowned chef David Thompson who has now long relocated to Bangkok, where it all originates. When he was writing his first famous cookbook he drew on the ‘memory books’ handed out at Thai cremations. These contained all the things important to the deceased, and since food is often important to Thais, frequently included a recipe or so ­– and often many. Highly appropriate, given the circumstances of our visit.

I must go down to the sea again

There were just the two of us so we kept it simple. We could hardly hear seated across from each other at the long metal bench that serves as a single table for everyone in the central corridor-like room.