Food FANTASIA
CentralWorld’s Living House gathers many of Bangkok’s top eateries in one fabulous section
Diners in Bangkok today are facing two gastronomic challenges. One is the mind-numbing plethora of eateries the city has on offer, and the other, as contrarily as it sounds, is the “shortage of time” people have in order to explore them one by one.
Providing consumers with a solution to such challenges while complying, perhaps, with the popularity of the mixed-use development trend, Central Retail Corp (CRC) has recently turned an expansive space on the 7th floor of Central Department Store (formerly known as Zen) at CentralWorld into a haven of diversified gastronomy and retail convenience.
Dubbed “Living House: Co-Living & Eating Space”, the 5,000m² venue boasts a large new-concept home department and an eating arena.
Showcasing more than 20 options of the city’s culinary highlights, the food zone offers two different styles of dining.
The first, called Michelin Guide Thai Street Food Deck, is a gathering of Bangkok’s well-established street food masters, each listed in the Michelin Guide Bangkok either as a Bib Gourmand or a Michelin Plate eatery. The zone is set in a food court style with each vendor occupying a cart-like cooking station and customers pay for the food with a prepaid food card.
The selection includes Go-Ang Kao Mun Kai Pratunam, a five-decade-old chicken rice restaurant; Pa Tong Go Savoey, Chinatown’s master of deepfried Chinese dough served fresh from the grill with sweet dipping condiment; Khao Soi Ongtong, an eatery specialising in northern-styled egg noodle curry; Lim Lao Ngow, a home-made fish ball noodles master; Hoi Tod Chao Lay, a street food joint offering oyster and green mussel pancakes; Khao Kha Moo St Louis, a master of savoury sweet braised pork leg; and Moo Ping Tha Nam Non, a street stall selling grilled marinated pork on skewers.
Among my personal favourites are beef noodle soup from Ten Suns Rai Thiam Than. This three-year-old venture, a brainchild of three keen connoisseurs of guay-tiew nuea, serves up the beef noodle soup prepared to a long-cherished recipe from Woeng Nakhon Khasem (an age-old commercial neighbourhood in Bangkok’s Old Town).
A regular order of noodle soup comes with an assortment of braised beef slices from belly, ribs, shoulder, cheek, shank, skirt and tongue, all in generous sizes and with pleasingly chewable texture. Customers can also request their preferred parts of beef.
The stock, which is the top highlight, is made with beef scraps and not bones. So the broth is clear yet full of beefy flavour and aromatic fragrance.
Highly recommended dishes include beef soup; beef soup with your choice of noodles; rice topped with braised beef; and egg noodles topped with braised beef.
Sawang Bami Kam Pu is another joint worth sampling from. Regarded as the king of egg noodles, the shop first opened more than 50 years ago in Soi Sawang on Rama IV Road before moving to Si Praya Road. The speciality dish here boasts super-fine home-made egg noodles and options of pork and crab with or without a soothing soup. Prices range from 75 baht for noodles with slices of roasted pork to 150 baht with additions of shrimp wonton, crabmeat and crispy pork belly and 400 baht with crab claw topping.
Also popular among locals is Gai Tod Jae Gee, aka Polo Fried Chicken. Best-selling is a combo set of golden deep-fried chicken topped with crispy garlic, a decent helping a som tam (green papaya salad) and sticky rice (150 baht).
Surrounding the street food cluster are several open kitchens by the city’s well-loved restaurants and cafes.
This section, with each tenant operating as a casual dining bar, includes Mono+Mono, a home-grown venture offering American-styled fried chicken; Kinniku Gyudon, a Japanese-style rice bowl with beef and pork topping; Peppina Italian restaurant; Prow Pad Kaphrao eatery; Cher Cheeva and Wannjai dessert cafes; and Louisa Coffee.
The Living House’s real culinary gem, Baan Benjarong Pai, is quietly tucked in a deep-end corner of the zone.
Rated a Michelin Bib Gourmand eatery, the restaurant serves up a vast array of Thai cuisine dishes prepared to well-preserved family recipes.
The restaurant first opened 23 years ago in Pai district, Mae Hong Son province, before opening its second outlet in the Bangkok outskirt of Nonthaburi, and the third at CentralWorld.
The menu here lists more than 50 items of home-cooked and palace-style dishes.
Among my most favourite are baked pork spare ribs with salted fish (185 baht); sweet and sour tom som soup with fried snakehead fish fillets (185 baht); crispy mee krob vermicelli with sweet and sour dressing (145 baht); deep-fried snapper fillets with acacia, herbs and chillies (195 baht); and nam
phrik ru phak lam, or a platter of spicy shrimp paste relish with chopped grilled prawn and assorted vegetables. All proved delicious and generously portioned.
The 50-seat Baan Benjarong Pai is a full-service restaurant ideal for both casual and business dining. Service was cordial and attentive.