Bangkok restaurants with rare ethnic eats
A Shan-style noodle dish at a Burmese restaurant on Soi ABAC.The guidebooks and tourist brochures regularly tout Bangkok restaurants for their “international buffet” of cuisines. It’s a relatively accurate designation, particularly if you don’t stray from the confines of sushi and pasta.
But what if you need a peppery dish of “adobo”, a true Turkish “köfte” or the gut-filling comfort of a “couscous de Cameroun?” Find them all, and more, at these obscure ethnic Bangkok restaurants.
Despite being relatively nearby, sharing some history and ingredients, the majority of Southeast Asian cuisines are difficult to come by in Bangkok. Malaysian food is no exception, and Cili Padi is one of only two Malaysian restaurants in town. In addition to rich curries, the café-like restaurant also serves authentic "teh tarik" (Malaysian-style sweet tea) and "roti canai" (a crispy pancake served with a lentil dip).
Kopitiam, Bangkok’s other Malaysian restaurant, is a great place to get set meals such as "nasi lemak," coconut rice served with sides.
Moving east, New Mabuhay is possibly Bangkok’s only purveyor of Filipino foods. Although the menu could use a bit more explanation for those not fluent in Tagalog, the chance of discovering a dish such as "adobo," a deliciously tart and peppery meat stew, justifies some happy-go-lucky ordering.
And despite being Bangkok’s closest neighbor of all, the food of Burma is among the rarest of cuisines in the city. Nearly all of Bangkok’s Burmese restaurants are relegated to one small neighborhood near ABAC University, off Ramhamhaeng Road. If you’ve never tried Burmese food, get ready for some oil. A less greasy starting point is "ohn-no hkauk hswe," a mild curry-like noodle soup from Shan State.
To reach the restaurants, go down Soi ABAC until you reach the first four-way intersection; the restaurants are easily recognizable by their Burmese-language signs out front.
Cili Padi
160/9 Narathiwat Road. Open Sunday-Thursday, 11am-10pm Sun-Thur. Price: mains 30-100 baht. Tel: +66 (0)2 634 2839.
Kopitiam
4/1 Soi 26, Sukhumvit Road. Open daily, 10am-10pm. Price: mains 35-190 baht. Tel: +66 (0)2 665 6488.
New Mabuhay
1/31 Soi 19, Phetchaburi Road. Open daily, 8:30am-10pm. Price: mains 80-150 baht. Tel: +66 (0)2 255 2689.
The Mediterranean health craze that seized much of the Western world decades ago has been slow to infiltrate Bangkok, perhaps because Thai food already emphasizes fresh, healthy ingredients. Nonetheless, for an olive oil fix, head to Souvlaki, one of Bangkok’s few authentic Greek restaurants.
The eponymous fast-food style dish is available here, but the highlight is the special weekend menu, which features spit-roasted lamb and pork. If Greek is too mainstream, try Bosphorus, the only place in town specializing in food from Turkey. The emphasis here is on meat, ranging from köfte (minced meat kebabs) to grilled dishes, but a glass case holds an appetizing variety of mostly vegetarian mezze and Turkish desserts.
Souvlaki
114/4 Soi 4, Silom Road. Open daily, 11:30am-2:30pm & 6pm-late. Price: mains 120-280 baht. Tel: +66 (0)2 632 996.
Bosphorus
1043/4 Soi 21, Silom Road. Open daily, 10am-8pm. Price: mains 80-500 baht. Tel: +66 (0)2 237 5168.
Perhaps Bangkok’s most obscure ethnic cuisine of all is Cameroonian, which can be found in a single tiny restaurant in the Nana area. Amirra, in reality more a family dining room than a restaurant proper, serves hearty West African staples such as haricots, a bean stew traditionally eaten with fried plantains, stewed okra and "couscous de Cameroun" (not Moroccan couscous, but rather a starchy mass of grains known elsewhere in West Africa as "fufu").
The restaurant is located directly above the 7-Eleven at the intersection of Soi 3 and Sukhumvit Road; to get there from Soi 3, enter the side street that connects to Soi 3/1 and turn right into the sub-Soi that leads to Masjid Nana. Enter the red door on the right and proceed to the 4th floor.
Amirra
Soi 3, Sukhumvit Road. Open daily, noon-midnight. Price: mains 80-100 baht. Tel: +66 (0)89 824 7204.
