It is World food day on Friday and I wanted to start sharing some of the foodie experiences I’ve had on my travels.
I wanted to start with quite an unusual dish, which can be found in Bangkok, Thailand. Locally it’s known as the “45 year old broth” which does sound like it would give even food safety officers the fear, however local and international visitors alike flock to this food establishment.
The Wattana Panich restaurant is famous for serving a rich beef broth soup, situated in the up and coming neighbourhood of Ekkamai has been running for three generations. The restaurant decor is very classic of Bangkok, long tables for communal eating and set in an old school chinese style shophouse. The first thing you’ll come across in the entrance is the five feet in diameter fat of bubbling broth.
The owner, rightly so, wants to disperse a common misconception: at the end of each night, the cauldron is emptied out, and the noodles, vegetables and meat are carefully separated from the broth.
The broth is then cooled and stored in the refrigerator to be used as the base for the next day’s soup. Everyday, fresh meat, noodles and other spices are added for guests to enjoy. They have been carrying out this technique for over 40 years and it seems to be working.
The soup is made from beef bones and the meat is stewed for 7 hours each day to extract the sweetness. The broth contains up to 10 different chinese herbs, star anise, cinnamon, fresh garlic, black pepper and coriander root.
There is no real measurement or recipe to the broth making, the art of it is in the tasting. The 3rd generation owner, Nattapong says “since my grandfather’s time, we’ve never really had a set recipe about how much of each ingredient to put in so the person making the soup will constantly have to taste it to know what needs to be added.”
One of the main reasons we wanted to visit this restaurant was it was awarded a Michelin star, and for thrifty backpackers like ourselves it was a rare opportunity to have it budget friendly, high quality meal. However, what I will say is don’t count on receiving a 5 star service!
100 Baht for a small bowl. (£2.50)
2 bowls of broth, and 2 beers cost about £8.00
You can either order the beef in a bowl with noodles (kuay teow neua ก๋วยเตี๋ยวเนื้อ), or you can order the beef and soup without noodles and instead get it with a bowl of rice on the side (gao lao neua เกาหลา). We opted for bowls of the broth with fine noodles, sliced beef and beef balls. They also offer a goat meat stew, which for this region of the world was quite unique.
If you are in Bangkok and want to experience something different and enjoy some rich tasting Thai food then head here.
View our small video clip below! @travelkattours
Interesting read.and well done