A Japanese woman is singing a Japanese language rendition of Seals kiss from a rose, as I sit and write this, reflecting on my time in Bangkok. Im at another ramen shop, in the middle of Bangkoks Japanese quarters, in Thailand. Japanese restaurants, bakeries, and a large supermarket fill the alley ways. To the left lies a Korean church, and Korean bbq shops pepper the streets. White kids in taekwondo uniforms with brightly adorned orange belts run past me as their parents trail behind. Thai construction workers are huddled around the street carts selling chargrilled lemon grass sausages and heavily salted river fish with grilled paddies of sticky rice. Brightly adorned massage parlors have ladies trying to pull every male pedestrian into their shops. Countless motorbikes zoom past me, in acts where each rider would fail their motorbike safety course. I ride a motorbike taxi, and as I ride off, I could smell the lingering wafts of whiskey coming from the drivers mouth. And as I look back, I notice the small bottle of Thai whiskey and 4 bottles of Chang beer where the other motorbike taxi drivers are huddled. Holy shit. I crapped my pants. The air is perfumed with jasmine, polution, sewage, curry, spices, chili, fried foods, french perfume, new buildings, car exhaust, and the moistness of a pool of human flesh, as tens of millions regurgitate back and forth in this city of plenty. A sensory overload. I feel alive. I live in a sleepy, quiet quadrant of an administrative city - Washington DC. Culturally rich and diverse, but not very exciting. And now Im in Bangkok, one of the most exciting and diverse cities in the world, with a documented population of over 14 million. There are probably much more undocumented in the underbelly of this mysterious city, where the air is always spiked with a sense of the illegal... where money rules absolutely supreme. Ive been eating my way through Bangkok, district by district, and my last leg of my adventure lands me in the Japanese quarters on Sukhumvit, at Bankara-Ramen. I ordered the tonkotsu ramen with stewed pork, spicy green onions, extra roast pork, extra large bowl, with an iced green tea. Broth was delicious. Up there with a restaurant who cares about their broth. Noodles were disappointing - thin and small like somen. I like my ramen noodles to be of the slightly thicker variety. Chashu was good. One really interesting note was that there were pieces of fresh garlic and garlic crushers where you could crush fresh garlic into your soup. Being Korean, I immediately crushed 3 cloves. After all, the legendary mother of my people was a bear that ate nothing but garlic and lived in a cave for 100 days in order to turn into a female human. Lol. The soup itself was delicious. Amazing. Creamy, rich, with lip smacking oiliness. A broth of pork bones that was boiled for at least 50 hrs I reckon. But the overall ramen dish was ok. Noodles werent my favorite, and the extra toppings were expensive. And they didnt give me enough soup. Actually thats what I noticed in all of Thailand, from Chiang Mai to south in even Koh Samui - they skimp out on the broth. Im used to a lot of soup with my noodles. Thats one of the best parts, if not THE best part - the soup. But in Thailand, the noodle-to-soup ratio is disgruntling. A lot of noodles... a little soup. To me, its like theyre just wetting the noodles. NO... I want a lot of soup. And hot soup. I want to make refreshingly big gulps of hot soup as it burns and sclads the back of my throat, while I exhale big wafts of steam and sit back in utter nirvana. What really rubbed my balls the wrong way was the fact that the total bill cost me $13.50. This is in a country where you can eat one belly stuffing meal, very well, for $2.50 or less. Having said all that, Id still take this ramen over the hipster nonsense in DC any day. I dream about my return back to Thailand.... and I havent even left yet. A sadness is coming over me as I think about my adventure here coming to an end. Bangkok is truly one of the greatest cities on the planet.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 11:38:01 +0000
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