We had lots of good food in Bangkok, but two places stand out:
We went to Harmonique after our first night at the night market. But before I describe the place and food I must make a slight detour about out detour.
Before heading to the market, I had carefully studied the skytrain and subway maps to determine the best way to get there. Which was two stops on the skytain to subway for two more stops. This had the advantage of allowing us to ride the subway, which had these really magnetized button-type things that worked as tokens. Way cool. However, the downfall of this plan was, as we discovered later, it took longer than if we had just walked. What can I say: it was a forest/trees moment. Of course, we learned this painful lesson when I led us out the wrong side of the market, and, thinking we heading for a different skytrain station, headed in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. And when we finally got to the station (after consulting pedestrians and a police offer and after a long walk down a dark road), it was the station not 3 blocks from our hotel. Which meant that, to go to dinner, we had to get back and the skytrain and take two trains to get to dinner. More negative points for me.
So Harmonique. It was located just down from one of the express boat piers. You enter through a little store front with antiques and pass into a lovely courtyard with ambiance coming out the yin-yang. The food was delicious too. Our favorite dish was the appetizers for two, which had an especially delicious chicken on a stick. The stick was actually lemongrass and gave the chicken a lovely, moist lemony flavor. There was also a delicious crab cake and friend crab meat stuck back in the top of its shell. Oddly, this was the second time we had seen the latter, which was served on out Halong Bay boat.
Our other favorite restaurant – and easily the best meal on our trip – was Baan Khanita. It was after our second market night, but this time the walk was a little better, i.e., in the right direction. We had delicious food. First, they bring make your own spring rolls that you wrap in leaves. Then we had a minced pork dip served with sticky rice crackers. Totally yummy. We then shared red duck curry, which was totally wonderful. A tops last meal for Maura before she headed back to the States.
