Vientiene Kitchen

Vientiene Kitchen is a large, wooden, thatch-roofed restaurant down Sukhumvit Soi 36. It serves Isaan and Laotian cuisine to a live musical accompaniment ranging from traditional country songs to, err, Eric Clapton. The waitresses are elegantly clothed in off the shoulder, long-skirted dresses and there are beer girls galore too.

You can sit at a table, or for a 'true' Isaan experience, lounge on the floor. There's no aircon but fans and sprays of water keep you cool. It's a relaxed atmosphere. I would say three-quarters of the clientele are foreign.

So far so nice, but what's the food like? We ordered 4 dishes. The vegetables arrived first - why do they always arrive first with the rice so that by the time any substantial dish like beef arrives, the rice and veg are cold? Anyhow, we had morning glory and it was tender and tasty, with the leaves melting in the mouth and the stalks filled with saucy juice.

Then came the Laotian steak.



Can you see it there at the back? Pale and uninteresting. And tough. Absolutely NOT recommended. To the right was gai yang (Isaan grilled chicken). It was fine, though we've had better. Juicy enough.

But the piece de resistance has to be the last dish at the front. Here's a closer peek:



What can it be? Well - and I can see you rubbing your tummies now as I speak - it's grilled duck's beaks. We had to try them right? Actually, they were the best part of the meal. It's basically the bottom jaw of the duck with the tongue attached and as ducks tongues aren't anything new in Chinese cuisine, I had no qualms about tucking right in. They're infused with lemongrass and grilled to a crispy chewiness. Excellent.

The bill though was pretty steep - 1200 baht with 3 big bottles of beer. I think we could have ordered better. There was plenty of seafood for instance. And I suppose we could have tried ants eggs salad (seasonal). I guess what with my budget limitations now though, I don't think I'll be coming back in a hurry. Also, I think the Isaan food is better at Sara Jane's - though obviously, Sara Jane's gets 0.2 on the atmosphere scale.

Fumi

Hurray! Let's revive a dying blog!! With less and less money to spend though, we're going into the slightly more cheaper eating side of Bangkok now.

Today, I'd like to rave about Fumi - a nice, cheap Japanese joint on the 5th floor of Emporium. We go practically every week to Fumi and it's not just getting loyalty stickers that keeps us coming back. The food is very good whilst being great value for money.

The bento boxes (above) are filling and filled with a great variety of titbits: tempura, chicken, sashimi. They cost about 230 baht and that's what Fatt always has.

I usually go for the grilled salmon set. It's quite sweet but tasty, with fluffy rice and soothing miso soup. Cost is about 130 baht. There's also a good selection of sushi, sashimi, rolls, noodles, donburis and salads, and also Japanese barbecue. In fact, that's one of the best things about Fumi: you can sit at the 'bar'-becue area and watch the kitchen in action. The cooks are super-clean and super-efficient - it's a real pleasure to see them fly!