*Sigh* March is such a busy month at the office, since we have to clear up all our work before the big week-long (yipee!) Songkran holiday in April. I’ve been loaded with work since the beginning of the month (and that’s why I’ve totally disappeared from my blog). Not to mention other non-work related things I have to do, like organize a Thank You party for a group of people and also attend to my latest addiction – Death Note. That Light is such a hottie and I sort of even developed a soft spot for Ryuk. Anyway, back to business…

Last month when KU and YS came to Thailand on their business trip, we had a big discussion on food. We all made a mental list of what to eat when I go on a business trip to Japan and at the beginning of the month when I was there for a whole week, they were true to their words. They fed me until I was fat enough to be served for Thanksgiving dinner.

On my last night there, YS and MS took me to eat monjayaki, something I’ve never eaten despite living in Japan for 8 and a half years. They took me to a shop in Tsukishima, a district famous for monjayaki. The streets were littered with shops after shops of monjayaki but YS took us to the best one out of the lot.

When we went inside the cozy little shop, the owner told us it was full. The weather outside was freezing cold but we decided to wait for a table anyway since it was my first time ever eating monja and YS wanted to be sure I got to taste the best. While we were waiting outside, I got a chance to look around the street and I felt like I was in ancient Japan (you know in one of those samurai stories where the streets are lined with little shops next to each other and a flock of samurais suddenly come charging out of nowhere?). It was the perfect setting for a night of monja.

After waiting for around 20 minutes, a group of people finally came out and we rushed into the warm shop, taking off our coats and stuffing them along with our bags into the space under the wooden bench.

YS told us he used to go there as a kid and the shop owner, an old man in his 70’s, was so good at his profession that he was frequently invited to be featured on television shows and drama series. Newspaper clippings of the shop’s review were pinned up on walls and the door of the shop.

When ordering a monja, the fillings and soup will come in a bowl. Monja has a complicated cooking method, and YS showed me how to cook it with an ika monja:

Drizzle a little bit of oil on a heated griddle. Using two spatulas, spread the oil evenly in a thin layer all over the griddle.

Spoon only the filling onto the griddle. Stir-fry the fillings and use the two spatulas to chop up the cabbage into small pieces. This will ensure that the flavor of the cabbage spreads to the whole monja.

After the filling is cooked, form a well in the middle of the filling (as if you were making pasta dough). The soup will be poured in here, so make sure the filling forms a solid barrier around the well.

Season the soup with sauce (the shops usually provide Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce) and chili powder, and mix well. Pour the soup into the well and be careful not to let the soup leak out of the well. If it does, shape the well with the spatula to confine the soup.

Let the soup cook for about 4-5 minutes until it turns transparent and gel-like.

Sauté the filling and soup together and spread it thinly over the griddle.

Sprinkle some seaweed and chili powder over the monja and it’s ready to eat!

Eating monja is another complicated matter. Monja is eaten right off the griddle and miniature spatulas called hagashi are used to press down on the monja and “peel off” the monja. (Monja will stick to hagashi.) The monja is then eaten off the hagashi. Remember…the more scorched it is, the better it tastes!

We ordered a second monja and YS let me cook it. I have to say, I was a natural! It tasted great and after that incident, I couldn’t get enough of monja. I came back to Bangkok craving monja and I finally found a shop that sells them but sadly, it tasted nothing like the one I had in Japan and I didn’t even get to cook my own monja!

Note: I left my camera at the hotel that day so the pictures were taken from MS’s mobile phones.

Categories: About
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Last night’s dinner was a pretty dramatic event. M and I went to meet middle J at Taketei on Silom Soi 10 at 7 p.m. and as everyone knows, finding parking in Silom is difficult, not to mention pricey. When middle J called to reserve our table, the shop owner said we could park next to the curb at the side of the street. We were doubtful of this, since parking at the side of the street, especially in heavy traffic areas, almost always guaranteed you a parking fine. But the shop owner said it was fine, right? Just to make sure, M went to ask a cop who was standing at the corner of the restaurant if it was really alright to park there. A brief discussion with the cop, the restaurant owner, and M confirmed that it was. Okay, cool.

With a light heart, we walked into the little shop at the corner of Soi 10 to see middle J, who was already waiting for us in the private room the restaurant arranged for us. Let me tell you first that this is their second branch – the first one located at Kao Sarn Road, another popular tourist attraction spot – and this branch is small. The first floor only had a few tables plus the one private room, which can seat up to 10 people, and combined with the second floor, can seat up to around 65 people. Middle J explained that since the whole place was packed, they set aside the private room for us, even though we were only a party of 3. Wow, great! Now we can make as much noise as we want and I can set up my own food photo shoot studio without the curious glances of the other guests! (If the hungry middle J and M would let me take that long before diving into the food!) The staffs were also very nice and friendly (as in sincerely friendly, not just flashing those I’m-only-smiling-’cuz-my-boss-told-me-to fake smiles). Or maybe we were just a funny bunch.

Taketei’s menu is a mixture of basic Japanese food and fusion sushi rolls. Most of the fusion menu contains cheese, so you’d better love cheese to try these. Normally, I’m not so crazy about unagi but the Unagi Cream Cheese Roll (160 baht) here is to die for. The bone-free unagi used in the maki had just the right amount of sauce and went surprisingly well with the rich cream cheese and crunchy asparagus. Definitely the highlight of the menu! The Salmon Cream Cheese Roll (140 baht) uses salmon instead of unagi but it didn’t taste as good as the Unagi Cream Cheese Roll. Maybe we should’ve tried the Salmon Avocado Roll (130 baht) instead for variation.

Next to come was the Yawakatsu (180 baht), thin slices of pork stuffed with different fillings and deep fried. It smelled absolutely divine and I practically drooled on the food while taking pictures. Now, I love ume (Japanese plum) but the pork with ume stuffing didn’t have that much taste. You could hardly tell that it was stuffed with ume and there were no effects of eye-shutting sourness, which didn’t do justice for the plum, I thought. The leek stuffing wasn’t that appealing either, as its strong smell overpowered everything else. It’s not that I don’t like food with strong smells…I love garlic and green onions and all but they should balance with the other ingredients. The cheese stuffing was the best out of the three.

In fact, it was very similar to our next dish, Cheese Katsu (110 baht). For some reason, we just couldn’t stay away from dishes with cheese. The cheese that came oozing out of the pork katsu was…well, see for yourself:

The Spider Roll (120 baht) and the Dobinmushi (80 baht) had just arrived at our table, and taking a few sips of the clear broth from the Dobinmushi, which contained mushrooms, two tiny shrimps, a ginko nut, and other vegetables, warmed us up (the room was really cold). The fried soft shell crab in the spider roll was crispy but it would’ve tasted better if they served it with a sour sauce rather than dipping it in soy sauce. M and J were discussing how unappetizing the fried soft shell crab legs sticking up in the air looked when I noticed the cop writing a ticket to fine the car that was parked right in front of the restaurant. Good thing the room had a glass front.

“Hey! That cop’s writing a ticket! And he’s about to lock the tires!” I shouted. Heads swivelled to look in the direction I was pointing.

“Sh*t! That car better be the first car he’s writing a ticket for!” M got up to look. Hmm…not likely. Our car was parked two spaces in front of his. Which means we probably already got a ticket and our tires locked.

“M, go talk to him! Go tell him the restaurant manager said we could park here…or go tell the manager to go talk to him!” I kept insisting. “Hurry!”

“Hey, sorry, the restaurant people told me you could park in front when I called. If you guys get a ticket, I’ll help pay for it,” middle J said apologetically.

“Hell, I ain’t payin’ for any ticket,” M said with as he went out to talk to the managers.

To make a longer story shorter, the tire locks were removed and the ticket ripped up after the manager went to clear things up with the cop. The waitress kept explaining how they have problems with the cops everyday regarding the parking even though they have an agreement that customers can park next to the curb after 7 pm. Then she said alternatively, we can also park on the 6th, 7th, and 8th floor of IFT Tower, which was located about 100 meters away. Huh, thanks for telling us now. M spent about 15 minutes turning the car around and getting stuck in traffic to go park at IFT Tower. By then, the food was cold. Or what was left of it for M.

Ever since he walked into the restaurant, M had been eyeing the ad for the restaurant’s special dessert – Sweet Bomb. It was a fancy name for fried ice-cream, or ice-cream encased in fried batter (or bread). The Sweet Bomb with green tea ice cream was 110 baht while vanilla ice cream set you back 70 baht. It came on a plate drizzled with fudge and had to be consumed quickly before all the ice cream melted. As we agreed to share 2 Sweet Bombs between 3 people and M and J grabbed the spoons when the ice cream came, I only got to taste what I could pick up with the fork. Oh well, I’m not much of a dessert fan anyway.

As we were walking back to the car, M and I analyzed the restaurant. I decided I liked the cozy restaurant and its food and M agreed except for the part about the parking.

“They kept apologizing over it and they were nice and all, but that’s not an excuse for saying we could park in front of the restaurant when we couldn’t. They should’ve just told us to park at IFT Tower in the first place,” he criticized. True. Next time we’ll know better.

* You can print out the restaurant’s discount coupon at the link below to get 10% off if you pay by cash and 5% off by credit card!

Taketei
144/3-4, Silom Rd., Soi 10
Suriwong
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel: 02-234-2345
Open: daily 11:00am-2:30pm and 6:00pm-10:30pm

Categories: Restaurant Review
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