Bangkok Thermometer: What's hot in the city right now
We have a 48-hour attention span, which makes us perfectly suited to track (and back-track on) the latest trends sweeping Bangkok. Updated weekly.
10 years ago
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Jan 9, 2015
Hot: Upgrading your office
Not: Upgrading your home
Sorry folks, but it looks like we’re out of holidays for the month and you may actually be expected to look alive at your desk in the coming weeks (as opposed to showing up in beer garden zombie mode). To make your plight a little less cruel, we’ve rounded up some back-to-work gadgets (see Smart Office) and décor pieces (see 9 back-to-work essentials from Thai designers) guaranteed to brighten up your office.
Hot: Extra fine dining
Not: Comfort food
If you’re on team Jess Barnes—meaning you like Opposite’s full-on flavors, hearty portions and casual atmosphere—you may just feel a bit out of touch in 2015. With the recent opening of Joel Robuchon and the upcoming Origin, we’re seeing highly refined presentation and gazillion-course meals making a strong comeback. Then again, Barnes has plans of his own and Water Library Thonglor is taking things down a notch (see 25 things to look forward to in 2015).
Hot: Air-con
Not: Hipster markets
It’ll get here, eventually, the crushing heat of Mar-May. But for now, it’s time to enjoy the last of this winter seasons’ hipster markets, Made by Legacy (see BK Weekend Jan 8-11). After that, it’ll be back to the freezing air-con of malls and hotels, of which there will be plenty more opening this year: EmQuartier, Naiipa Art Complex, Park Hyatt, etc. (see 25 things to look forward to in 2015).
Hot: Rising indie stars
Not: Yesterday's hits
A glimpse at the upcoming gigs for 2015 (see 25 things to look forward to in 2015) will tell you Bangkok is no longer just the last bastion for washed-up pop singers (cough, cough, Michael Buble). With the likes of Iceage, Deers, The 1975 and even Mogwai, we’ve got touring bands coming to town either at the peak of their game or on their way to superstardom.
Dec 26, 2014
Hot: 2015
Not: 2014
Thanks for the food trucks, the flea markets and the cold brew coffee, 2014 (see The 56 most awesome, yummy, crazy things Bangkokians did in 2014). It’s been great. But one last big drunken teabased-cocktail-fueled bash (see our roundup of NYE parties) and we should be ready to move on to whatever silly trends 2015 will bring us.
Hot: Rumoured rumours
Not: Journalism
Ever since the stock market took a nine percent nosedive on Dec 15, there’s been talk that the rumours that caused the crash were completely unfounded. But what are these rumours? We’ve heard several rumours about them, not that we can tell you what they are. Maybe you should ask a journalist.
Hot: Drones
Not: GoPros
We hate GoPros, which topped our wish lists for Xmas 2013. They make you realize how unadventurous your vacations really are compared to the guy in the squirrel suit. With drones (see our roundup), it should take even less time to realize buying one was a terrible idea. In fact, keep it under 14 days and you might even get your money back.
Hot: Chinese fighting on planes
Not: Chinese pooping in canals
Another week, another cause for Sinophobia, outrage and watching videos at work instead of finishing that report. Lately, our friends in the PDRC have been getting noticed for full-on fist fights and throwing boiling noodles on airplanes. This is a marked improvement on the previous Chiang Mai poopgate.
Dec 19, 2014
Hot: Chareonkrung
Not: Sukhumvit Soi 51
That’s it, it’s over for Soi 51, now that Opposite’s chef, Jess Barnes, has gone public about moving to Sathorn next year. And in case you need more proof that Lower Silom is the place to be, Charoenkrung is the place to be, welcoming cool new exhibitions, a market at the docks and some vintage bicycle thingie.
Hot: Thais in New York
Not: New York in Bangkok
I Fine… Thank You… Love You has eclipsed Pee Mak Phrakanong at the box office with the story of Sunny Suwanmethanon trying to learn English to win back the heart of his girlfriend who has moved to New York. And one of our favorite designers this year is SSAP, which first launched in the Big Apple. But frankly, trying make your bar look like it’s in Manhattan despite it being in Silom or Thonglor is getting really tired.
Hot: Retro games
Not: Retro cameras
Instagram killed the Polaroid, Lomo killed the Holga. What’s a hipster to do with their disposable income? Buy a 10-year-old console that has a fraction of your phone’s processing power! We’ve got just the retro game shops you need, where a Nintendo Famicom goes for a mere B5,000.
Hot: French cuisine
Not: Burgers
Wasn’t French food pronounced dead at the height of El Bulli mania? You’d never know in this town, as a flurry of Michelin-starred chefs doing traditional French food have recently opened shop. Check out newcomers Henk Savelberg and Jean-Michel Lorain’s Christmas dinners (see Bangkok's best here). The headline news, though, is the opening of Joel Robuchon’s long-awaited Atelier, also on Dec 25. So put down that burger and learn some table manners.
Dec 12, 2014
Hot: Crackdowns
Not: Bangkok
First they started arresting innocent white people walking around Asoke and shaking them down for B2,000. Then they tackled Uber, because, you know, it’s just not safe riding in one of those crazy, unlicensed black sedans. Finally, they proposed a ban on alcohol in public places during New Year’s. That’s it, we’re moving to fun-loving Singapore.
Hot: Parks
Not: Markets
No, you don’t need to be buying something to step out of the air-conditioning. While all the farmer and flea markets are lovely, why not head out to a good old-fashioned park like Lumpini. In fact, it’s so nice, we think you should move there (see our guide to living in Lumpini). But if you really must go shop in the great outdoors, check out all the winter markets happening around town.
Hot: Skyscrapers
Not: Converted shophouses
Yep, we’ve changed our minds again. Why live in a crumbling old shop-house with stinking sewage backing up into your toilets and soi dogs baying at the moon all night when you could enjoy the modern comforts of a starchitect-designed high-rise? See the 10 skyscrapers set to reshape Bangkok's skyline.
Hot: Multi-label stores
Not: Pop-ups
We’d actually like pop-ups to be hotter in this town but it’s one imported trend that just doesn’t seem to be catching on quite yet (with the exception of Kenzo Café, see page 28). When they do pop up—like Uncensored at Emporium, Craft on Suk 23 and Brave Roasters at Paragon—they don’t pop down, which isn’t how it’s meant to work. In the meantime, we do already have some great multi-label fashion stores.
Dec 5, 2014
Hot: Wine pairings
Not: Beer pairings
We love beer, and we love beer with food. In fact, we’ve found the very best beer to go with your somtam. But do we want nine beers paired with our fine-dining degustation menu? No, thanks. If we’re feeling gastronomic, we’ll stick to wine. And don’t even get us started about cocktail pairings.
Hot: Tie-dye workshops
Not: Leather workshops
Have you made an ugly leather case for your sunglasses? Good. It’s now time you move on and make yourself a tie-dye dress. (Now what could possibly go wrong with that?) In case you’re unsure about your skills, we’ve rounded up a few places to stock up without getting your hands dirty.
Hot: Imported fashion cafés
Not: Thai fashion cafés
They’re back! Remember local brands Onion, Boyy and Kloset’s cafés? That’s one trend we thought dead and buried. Except that Sathorn's Vogue Lounge and Central Embassy's Kenzo and Granola (by Soulland) just opened within the past few weeks, with one notable difference: they’re all driven by foreign brands. Look on the bright side, they can’t be much worse than their Thai predecessors.
Hot: Chim
Not: Charity gala dinners
At last, a charity dinner we’d actually pay for. No more B10,000 prices. No more chefs plucked from any old hotel. No more operatic renditions of Foreigner and Edith Piaf. Chim has rounded up a who’s who of our favorite chefs in town, the dinners start at B2,500, and you don’t have to wear a borrowed tux.
Nov 28, 2014
Hot: B650 cocktails
Not: B420 cocktails
Only last month, we were complaining about the standard cocktail price jumping from B250 to B420. Turns out we were wrong. Bars have now discovered they can charge over B600. Just look at the cocktail lists at Capital or J. Boroski Mixology. We also know of bartenders who are on salaries of over B100,000. No wonder they’re disconnected from reality.
Hot: David Thompson
Not: Nahm
Not only do the tiled floor and room dividers make it feel like a shopping mall, but you have to watch tourists wallowing by the pool. Thank God you can now get David Thompson’s wonderful food without having to eat at Nahm. His banquet dinner is one of the highlights of Wonderfruit Festival and he’ll also be cooking as part of Chim Bangkok Charity Week.
Hot: Cold brew
Not: Iced coffee
The next time you’re slurping down your thick, dark, sugar-laden sludge, just know you could have it so much better. Cold brew is currently the coolest way to get your caffeine fix, and the city’s top baristas are hard at work extracting complex flavors from single-origin beans and bottling them up in a fashion that puts your old plastic cup (or bag) to shame. See Bangkok's best cafes for cold brew coffee.
Hot: Air-con outdoors
Not: Air-con indoors
It’s that time of year when a slightly cool breeze blows through town and not a single restaurant or BTS carriage accounts for the fact by turning the air-con down. That said, we do love any excuse to break out our Uniqlo puffer jackets. And since the cool breeze isn’t actually that cool, we’re still thankful for the outdoor air-conditioning at Vogue Lounge—at least while the ice caps are still there.
Nov 21, 2014
Hot: Food cocktails
Not: Coronarita cocktails
OK. We’ll submit to the beer-and-food pairings, craft-beer-only bars and “speakeasy” homebrew specialists. But please, at least leave our cocktails a completely beer-free zone. No, our drink really doesn’t need that upturned bottle of Corona to make it taste how our living room smells the morning after a big party. So bad, it makes drinks garnished with bacon look appealing. See our roundup of Bangkok's best savory cocktails.
Hot: Butoh
Not: Pantomimes
Butoh’s back! It must be a whole two months since BK Now was basically an A-Z guide of your efforts to reinterpret the pain of modern life through dance, and we kinda miss that. So bring on next month’s International Butoh Festival Thailand, especially if it takes theater space away from bad, am-dram pantomimes. They’re coming, people.
Hot: Seasonal food
Not: Overseas food
We love our local food, and never more so than right now. Not only do we get to feast on wild Thai mushrooms and Andaman oysters at their most succulent, but up in the Royal Projects, we even have non-native ingredients coming into season. It’s also way, way cheaper than stuff from halfway around the world. Need proof? Just look at Le Du’s B990 tasting menu. See the seasonal dishes you should be eating this winter.
Hot: New design
Not: Vintage Americana
Anon Pairot: there is such a thing as a chair. Ditch the insufferable architect-speak and instead be proud that right now Thailand’s producing great design that leaves no excuse for so many new Bangkok bars and restaurants’ desperate attempts at vintage, workin’ Joe, all-American interiors. See our pick of Bangkok's next big design trends.
Nov 14, 2014
Hot: Booking apps
Not: Clean eating
You’ll notice, for once, our New & Noted print column is a completely clean eating-free zone this week. No diet delivery services. No breaking news about a new rice cake flavor. Instead, we’re dining out on the idea of eating out—and eating big. See Bangkok's latest restaurant booking apps that promise you your money’s worth.
Hot: Chiang Mai
Not: Japan
You don’t need to go too far for that selfie of yourself looking kawaii in your warm clothes. Cute cafés selling proper coffee, vintage shopping, fresh food made from produce plucked straight from the earth, a brand new design week, and, of course, that legendary cool breeze—Chiang Mai has more than your Instagram feed covered this winter.
Hot: Pop-up markets
Not: Street stalls
The cheap food and clothing stalls are slowly disappearing from our streets, giving us the freedom of the footpath. But still, we miss the distractions. Where else can we wander about mindlessly, stopping intermittently to ogle items we don’t need, much to the irritation of our fellow pedestrians? Lucky then, there’s so many pop-up markets happening in Bangkok this month.
Hot: Queueing for clothes
Not: Queuing for snacks
The TAT would have you believe Bangkok’s now a fashion capital. Maybe, but it’s not our local designers or never-ending “fashion weeks” we’re excited about: it’s an American designer collaborating with a Swedish chain. The launch of Alexander Wang’s H&M collection sparked queues previously unheard of outside the realm of popcorn and doughnuts.
Nov 07, 2014
Hot: Empty restaurants
Not: Imported restaurants
We’re seeing a lot of empty dining rooms at really decent local restaurants. And with all the fancy chefs headed here—J’aime, Savelberg, Robuchon—we’re concerned our most creative home-grown talent is being ignored. Adding insult to injury, customers are still packed into some of Bangkok’s worst food offenders. We won’t mention any names, other than to say they usually have “Wine” in the title.
Hot: The great outdoors
Not: Rain
OK, as we write this issue about all these great outdoor restaurants and bars, it is absolutely pouring with rain. So we really hope that by Nov 7, when you read this, global warming will have been fixed and the seasons will have resumed their normal schedule. Otherwise, feel free to use this issue as an umbrella.
Hot: Raw denim
Not: Stretch denim
You have to buy one size too small and every wash cycle feels like opening your exam results, but when the waistband loosens up and the fades come in just right, buying raw denim is always worth it. So why are so many people still wedging themselves into synthetic stretchy jeans? See our quality denim roundup.
Hot: Cider
Not: Beer
It’s 30 degrees out. Do you really want that heavy, hoppy “craft” beer you’ve been nursing for so long it’s reached body temperature? Leave your buddies to their Dead Boy Oatmeal Inversion IPA and instead pick up a refreshing, fruity bottle of cider. You can even go back to drinking with ice.
Oct 31, 2014
Hot: Cats
Not: French bulldogs
Cat cafés were only the start. When a music festival’s best selling point is “11 cat-related movies”, you know feline love has hit the big time. Meanwhile, the same researcher who discovered peak beard is saying French bulldog ownership has reached saturation point. Rumor has it you’re never more than 50 yards from a French bulldog at any of Bangkok’s community malls.
Hot: Lakes
Not: Islands
Oh, to wear a flannel shirt and paddle your kayak through the morning mist, a hip-flask full of Talisker in one pocket. It’s not that we mind the murders and the oil spills so much, it’s just that beaches are full of sand, the water is salty and the other beachgoers wear day-glo vests. So this winter, we’re headed inland for our share of water sports. See Thailand's most beautiful lakes and reservoirs.
Hot: Thai indie films
Not: Thai indie bands
There’s only so many times you can get excited about Getsunova or Cocktail playing a mid-afternoon festival set (by all means, catch them here)—but you better get ready for a long winter of it. If Thailand’s indie music scene’s gone a little stale, that’s not the case with film. See what four of our favorite Thai directors have been working on.
Hot: Gab glaem
Not: Japanese beef
Remember the good old days when you drank Sangsom or Leo and ate fermented pork sausage with peanuts? Given the state of the economy, now might be a good time to ignore the latest Japanese restaurant serving some obscure cattle breed known only to them, and have some laab moo tod with a bottle of 100 Pipers instead.
Oct 24, 2014
Hot: French bakeries
Not: Japanese bakeries
First Ladurée, now Paul: the big French bakeries are taking over Bangkok, and we can’t help but get a little excited. So what if it means we’re now officially as trendy as Azerbaijan, as one of our Facebook followers quipped; give us baguettes and croissants over cute, matcha-flavored cupcakes. For other things Japanese, see our roundup of Bangkok's best izakayas.
Hot: Healthy food
Not: Chicken wings
Who cares how many flavors your restaurant makes; chicken wings offer the least meat and most bone of any beer snack out there. (Not to mention the sticky mess.) We’ll happily turn our back on Bangkok’s latest junk food fad in favor of clean eating—especially since we can now order it from the sofa. See Bangkok's best diet delivery services.
Hot: Drinking in bars
Not: Eating in bars
With the opening of Vesper, Hot Rod and Namsaah, the boundary between bar and restaurant is more blurred than ever. It’s time to bring back the days when you could roll up and get a drink without booking two nights in advance...could you make that near a window? No? OK, then just so long as it’s not at the counter. Luckily, there are still some spots to get blotto on a budget.
Hot: Halloween parties
Not: Gatsby parties
There was genuine disbelief when we saw Do Not Disturb launched with a Gatsby theme party. Last week. Two years after the film came out. Three years after Gatsby parties were already uncool. And they didn’t even bother to dress it up as a Beautiful & Damned party. At least you know where you are with Halloween (see this year's best parties)—plus a white sheet is so much cheaper than pleated high-rise trousers.
Oct 17, 2014
Hot: Film festivals
Not: Film screenings
Film screenings in bars seem like such a great idea—until you actually go to one. If you’re not trying to make out the film through someone’s matted hair, you’re stuck next to a group who walked in halfway through and have no interest in the movie. Give the free screenings a miss and get your indie cinema fix at the 12th World Film Festival, in a proper cinema.
Hot: Mariah
Not: Haters
Poor Mariah Carey. Her new album, The Elusive Chanteuse, sold only 57,000 copies in its first week. Then her voice cracked during “Vision of Love” at her Tokyo concert. But come on, when’s the last time someone of that stature came to Bangkok? And no, Justin Bieber does not count. Tickets for her Oct 30 concert at Impact Arena are not sold out.
Hot: Old condos
Not: 20-sq-meter flats
We don’t know about you, but it doesn’t look like we’re getting a bonus this year. Which means buying that 75-sq-meter pad at Noble Ploenchit might be a little tricky. Which also means we’re looking at 15-year-old buildings with new eyes. What we’re seeing: beautiful wide balconies, neighborly community spirit, charmingly decaying concrete!
Hot: Armchairs
Not: Stools
It doesn’t matter how well roasted or piquant your beans are if your café doesn’t have good armchairs and sofas to sink into. We’ve heard tales of Thonglor-Ekkamai coffee drinkers driven back to Starbucks because the straight-back, un-air-conditioned seating at Ounce for Onion is so bad. And speaking of painful seating arrangements, see what designer Anon Pairot has to say for himself.
Oct 10, 2014
Hot: Sunday lunch
Not: Sunday brunch
You never eat brunch between breakfast and lunch anyway, so stop pretending you do and just head to Opposite’s (Sukhumvit Soi 51, 02-662-6330) plain and simple new Sunday lunch service. You won’t get an unlimited buffet of foie gras and sea urchins, but you will get a proper four-course meal without sushi and roast beef on the same plate.
Hot: Langsuan
Not: Sathorn
Don’t call it a comeback. But with the recent openings of The Beer Bridge and now Fillets, Langsuan feels like somewhere we’d actually like to be on a Friday night. Sure, two swallows don’t make a summer, but then again we’ve been bigging up Sathorn Soi 12 as a dining mecca for the past year and it’s little more than three establishments, under one roof, run by the one group.
Hot: Running
Not: Crossfit
Forget TRX, forget Crossfit, forget whichever half-used gym membership has you shelling out B4,000 a month. That money would be better spent on a new smartwatch, because it’s time to pound the pavements, however crooked and uneven they may be. Plus, the coming months are packed with marathons and fun runs for the fit and fat alike.
Hot: Pocket squares
Not: Tasseled loafers
It’s hip to be square. But there’s a thin line. Take the tasseled loafers, there’s absolutely nothing brave or original about wearing them. It just means you spend too much time trawling Tommy Ton’s Instagram. And don’t get us started on the latest hybrid: tasseled loafer velvet slippers. No. Add a touch of understated class with our roundup of the best pocket squares in Bangkok.
Oct 3, 2014
Hot: Maggie Choo’s
Not: Grindr
First there was location-based gay hookup app Grindr, then straights got Tinder and now Grindr is back in the news. The app’s been used for so many nefarious purposes, it’s had to disable users’ distance information. Given that no gay clubs remain in Otokor and Sarasin, maybe killing Grindr altogether wouldn’t be such a bad thing. So turn off your phone and head to Maggie Choo’s this Sunday. See also: 4 gay parties coming up in Bangkok this weekend.
Hot: Micro apartments
Not: Living with your parents
There’s now a better reason than ever to move out of home: new condos you can actually afford. Sub-B2.5 and even sub-B2 million places are popping up all over town. Sure, they’re not exactly a stroll from Thonglor, and 24 sq meters seems to be the new 40 sq meters, and yes, apparently you can pull-off a 2-bedrom in 40 sq meters, but at least they’re close to BTS stations. See Bangkok's best new condos under B2.5 billion.
Hot: Pierre Hermé
Not: Ladurée
After years of flaunting their latest trip to Paris—”Oh my God, the Ladurée macarons were so divine”—hi-sos were suddenly made to backtrack as Ladurée landed in town for the hoi polloi to enjoy. Now, everyone is whispering about Pierre Hermé’s completely unconfirmed arrival in the City of Angels.
Hot: Café Racers
Not: Choppers
No more desperately searching through Thaiscooter.com looking for something—anything—that has a green book and 50s-70s styling. Modern motorcycles with classic café racer-era looks are now available in Thailand, leaving you no excuse for that Honda Phantom with high-rise bars.
Sep 26, 2014
Hot: Neon signs
Not: Quotes
There has never been such a thing as the good use of quotes on cutesy café walls. Leave the uninspiring literary references to brainyquote.com and instead do what everyone else is doing: put up a back-lit sign. Whether in pink neon handwriting or bulb-lit capital letters, the choice is entirely up to you.
Hot: Facebook businesses
Not: Pop-ups
If you’re running a stall at a flea market, that’s not a pop-up. If you’re having a sale in the central thoroughfare of a department store, that’s not a pop-up. If your store/restaurant/bar plans to be at one location for over a year, that’s not a pop-up. And anyway, haven’t you heard that the proper way to sell anything is through completely unlicensed Facebook and Instagram businesses?
Hot: Craftsmen
Not: Graphic designers
Sorry to break it to you, but the four years you just spent at art school were a complete waste of time. Put down the graphics tablet, log out of Illustrator and sell your MacBook to finance the workshop you’ll need if you want to qualify for Bangkok’s new hottest job title: craftsman—the only profession guaranteed to impress anyone who’s even remotely cool.
Hot: Vegetables
Not: Fancy ingredients
It’s official. When even Alain Ducasse is reverting to a menu which focuses on vegetables, it’s time to ditch the foie gras, veal and 8-star marbled Matsusaka beef. This Jay Fest (Sep 24-Oct 2) venture beyond the yellow flags with our selection of the city’s finest vegetarian restaurants.
Sep 19, 2014
Hot: Beer bistros
Not: Wine bistros
Last week, we got word that craft beer bastion Mikkeller has welcomed a fully-fledged chef. This week, it’s the news that Langsuan wine bistro Line-Up has ditched the Barolo and relaunched as Beer Bridge, serving up craft beers and crafty tapas dishes. The folk behind Whisgars have also opened CRAFT on Sukhumvit Soi 23, a pop-up bar serving nothing but craft beer. If you didn’t already have enough reasons to avoid Bangkok’s many ridiculously named wine bistros, you do now.
Hot: Buses
Not: BTS
Bangkok’s buses are being dragged into the 21st century—at least those belonging to the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (the orange ones, FYI). As of October (or is it January?), they’ll be fitted with free Wi-Fi, providing you with one more place to stare abjectly at your phone as it refuses to show you the internet log-in screen. Let’s hope the BTS and MRT follow suit shortly.
Hot: Suan Plu
Not: Phra Khanong
Don’t believe the hype. Not only is Phra Khanong the grayest place in Bangkok, where even weeds refuse to grow, but it hasn’t even got any decent street food. There’s only so many times you can visit GOJA and walk around W District before you realize this up-and-coming neighborhood is not what it’s cracked up to be. Meanwhile, Suan Plu has some of the leafiest sois and best cheap restaurants in the city. Oh, and some serious cocktail bars, too.
Hot: Wilderness-to-table
Not: Farm-to-table
At least according to this week’s foraged-food supporters, who champion the use of uncultivated ingredients grown everywhere from Chiang Rai forests to Bangkok slums.
Sep 12, 2014
HOT: Live music
NOT: DJs
While the rich-kid promoters seem to have tired of losing money by bringing in cool acts no one’s interested in, at least we can still be thankful to Popscene (and friends) for making sure the live music scene isn’t as stale as the DJ line-up for this month. When three of the best DJ events happening in your city are all at Ocean Urban Lounge, you know things need improving.
Hot: Organic shrimp
Not: Farmed salmon
Don’t care where your seafood comes from? Then don’t expect to hang with the foodie in-crowd at Opposite Mess Hall, Little Beast, Eat Me, Bo.lan and all the other restaurants joining Oyster Bar owner Bill Marinelli’s crusade against farmed salmon and other unsustainable fishing practices. Bill is also in the process of opening Thailand’s very first organic shrimp farm to save us from those slavery-tarnished Thai prawns making headlines around the world. More news soon.
Hot: Tea cocktails
Not: Frozen cocktails
We shouldn’t need to tell you that frozen margaritas and jugs of kamikaze have no place outside Silom Soi 4 circa 2007. If you want something new to drink but aren’t down with the whole retro-classics thing, go for one of the new tea-based cocktails spreading like wildfire across Bangkok’s bars and restaurants—a guaranteed wall between yourself and social embarrassment, at least for this week.
Hot: Chain ramen
Not: Chain burgers
Why? We don’t know. But ramen is not accountable to the same standards as other food. Nearly all of our favorite ramen in this week’s round-up comes from international restaurant chains, as do some of the picks from Thailand’s top Japanese chefs. But to the people commenting on last week’s burger story that Carl’s Jr. does the best burger in Bangkok: No. Just no.
Sep 5, 2014
Hot: Record store bars
Not: Gallery bars
Believe it or not, galleries exist for people to look at, and sometimes even buy, art, not just get drunk on cheap wine being passed around in little plastic cups. If you really want to drink at somewhere that isn’t a proper bar, then head to a record shop. This weekend stop by 1979 Vinyl and Unknown Pleasures, Badmotel’s Quay Records or Maft Sai’s brand new digs, the radio-podcast-cum-bar Studio Lam.
Hot: Ginger beer
Not: Real beer
No more beer after midnight, no more happy hours and no more beer pretties. No more taking photos of your beer or decorating your apartment with old beer bottles. That’s according to reports of a booze crackdown floating around the internet. We welcome any excuse to drink less Singha, and all those fancy craft beers, well, they do leave a hole in your pocket. Anyway, real men drink ginger beer.
Hot: Burrata
Not: Head-cheese
New in antipasti developments: head-cheese terrine is now as stale as the bread with which it’s normally served. What you need to be ordering is burrata. With a local producer in Pattaya, this season’s must-eat cheese lets you kill two food trends with one stone. But get in there quick, as stracciatella is tipped to take its place any day now.
Hot: Hyperlapse
Not: Optical stablization
Yeah, yeah, there’s talk of the bigger iPhone 6 getting an optically stablized lens so your food shots won’t look like a crappy blur and your movies will be smoother than a James Cameron steadicam shot. So what? You can get it all for free with Hyperlapse, the Instagram app that now has everyone filming their boring commute and posting it as works of art.
Aug 29, 2014
Hot: Music markets
Not: Farmers’ markets
Sure, we love our organic wheatgrass smoothies, gluten-free cakes and foie gras terrine, most of which weren’t produced by a farmer within three days’ drive of Bangkok. But now’s the time for music markets, as this weekend shows, with two record-focused flea markets, Bangkok Analog Fest at MBK and Rockademy’s Flea Fest #2. Horns up!
Hot: Buns
Not: Waffles
We almost caused a meltdown on Facebook during the week by intimating that burger trucks are no longer hot, and that Taiwanese gua bao (see Bao & Buns) are the new street bite du jour. We take that back, we still love burgers. In fact, we love all the American junk food clogging up the city’s menus. These buns are still better than waffles, though.
Hot: Tiles
Not: Polished concrete
We were amazed to see a new material make its way into the palatte of Bangkok restaurant décor when we discovered Peppina, Bao & Buns and Marlin all using ceramic tiles along with the obligatory hanging light fixtures and natural-finished teak. For those about to open a new restaurant, you could really show your creativity by ditching the acres of polished concrete as well.
Hot: Twists on Thai
Not: Thai twists
Down with pad krapao pizza. No more Sang Som mojitos. And if you must still do the ice bucket challenge, there better be ice in that bucket and not temple water. We’re through with Thai twists on things that don’t need them, so props to the new chef at Benjarong, Morten Nielsen, who’s turning the tide by putting a European take on Thai food instead. Keep it coming.
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A two-day event looking into how and what Bangkok eats.
Bangkok’s open-air film festival continues this week with a Dutch drama and a Thai slum thriller
“RedLife” and “Sea Sparkle” clear the way for “Doi Boi” and “Solids by the Seashore” the following week.
Thailand will begin registering same-sex marriages on Jan 23
The Kingdom’s registry authorities are ready for the change.
