Blue Elephant
This was the best of the upscale Thai we tried. I've since decided we
should've eaten more "regular" food, but was enticed by the favorable
exchange rate (it's not every day that a poor New Yorker like me can afford
high end restaurants). It also seemed sort of odd to eat at a worldwide Thai
chain restaurant while actually in Thailand. But I was curious.
The dcor wasn't minimalist chic, but rather made use of lots of bamboo
and accoutrements, in a royal Thai vein. The menu wasn't completely
traditional, however. There's were a few fusion flairs scattered throughout.
We way over-ordered, which made me feel guilty to leave so much behind (I'm
usually the queen of doggie bags). We had mixed satays: chicken, pork, and
buffalo, for a starter. Then a side of pad Thai (the only time in Thailand I
ordered the ubiquitous dish) which barely got touched. I ordered a green
curry with black chicken that came with mini rotis. It was really very good,
perfectly spicy and filled with those tiny pea eggplants you can never find
in NYC. Being addicted to gai pad grapow (which he's dubbed E3 after its
listing at the Thai restaurant near his office), James had to try the lamb
chop kapraow with wild rice and fried basil, which looked pretty impressive
(I love those fried herbs). Grapow? Kapraow? I know, there's not
consistency, I'm just going with the individual restaurants' spellings.
We were seriously walking distance from our hotel, but being Bankok in
the midst of a furious downpour, we opted for a cab. Also being Bangkok this
was a trauma because we were on the wrong side of the street and going right
(where our hotel was) would take going left for like a mile or so then
looping back. I felt like such the dirty American, as the maitre d' made one
of the staff go out in the rain and hail us a cab. We were given enormous
umbrellas to keep dry while the French, slightly sleazy (I didn't really
think he was sleazy, but he made some comment about how in Bangkok "you can
have anything" and James took that to mean sexual favors) maitre d' made
small talk with us, commenting on how he and James were dressed the same
(wearing a suit-kind of weird in Bangkok) and sort of tried bonding with us,
like one rich Westerner to another. I'm probably reading way more into the
little exchange we had, but I felt sort of spoiled with all the service and
attention we received in Thailand (it's supposed to be the land of smiles,
right?).
Blue Elephant * 233 South
Sathorn Rd., Bangkok,Thailand
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