BO + DyLAN = Bo.lan!
Don't you just love the imaginativeness?
Seriously, minus the cheesiness of the restaurant name, I love husband and wife tandems. This British-husband-Thai-wife couple does not just own this house-turned-restaurant, they do the actual cooking, too. I am a sucker for this kind of set up. It assures me I am getting the best in quality and taste.
The beautiful one-storey that houses Bo.lan
So I give it a dinner slot in my eating-filled Bangkok itinerary. After all, it is recommended to me by Sam, whose taste in food I trust one hundred eighty eight percent. And while googling for Bo.lan's address, I discover that the restaurant made it to Chubby Hubby's 10 Best Meals of 2009. Wow.
Check out the ceiling decor. I love it.
We arrive some 10:30pm after a day of walking and shopping, with not enough energy left in us to browse through the one-page menu. Thank Emerald Buddha for the Bo.lan Balance, a set menu which contains a bit of everything.
Our cheerful server Net enthusiastically explains to us the dishes as
she brings us each course
Ya dong grachai dum served with sour fruits
Thai rice spirit, pandanus juice, and local fruits - kamias, some brown thing, green mango. I take a baby sip of the spirit and I suffer instantly from a bad hangover. That is how poisonous! I eat the little fruit bits and my face wrinkles. The sourness ignites my appetite.
Bo.lan amuse bouche
Pear with peanut and crispy coconut, crispy wafer with chicken and basil, lime-cured prawn and pork skin wrapped in egg net, steamed egg with pork and crab topped with garlic, fried taro dumpling. I like the first two pieces.
Issan style spicy ku beef shank soup with toasted sticky rice
Net warns me about the heat level of this soup, but I am naturally stubborn and the name of the soup sounds like something we shouldn’t miss. Let’s just say, I’ll heed my server’s advice next time. This is so hot it burns everything it touches, from my lips down to the very last organ of my digestive tract. Let me not mention it here. Anyway, ouch.
Coconut based soup with prawn and young tamarind leaves
This is so delicious I wish we skipped the spicy torture soup and had two orders of this. My stomach warmly welcomes another bowl.
Salad of grilled Ayutthaya river prawn with mangosteen and salty duck egg – love all the flavors in my mouth fighting for my attention.
Fermented rice simmered in coconut cream with prawn and served with deep fried stuffed local flower and fish cake – does not do anything for me
Paneang red curry of peanuts with ku beef – if this was less spicy, I’d finish it in no time
Stir-fried santol with with tender pork and shrimp paste – honestly, at this point, my tongue has turned completely numb. I taste nothing. Sorry.
Thai Jasmine rice or brown rice? I have both. Lots and lots.
Net gives us a plate of sliced fruits and vegetables and some cured pork strings to help our tongues cool down.
Mock Ruby: water chestnut steeped in pink dragon fruit, jack fruit, and tody palm served in scented jasmine syrup with crispy coconut and smoked coconut cream
Net smilingly instructs us to: 1. Eat the longan, 2. Pour the coconut milk into the glasses, and 3. Enjoy. We follow her obediently, most especially that very last part. We enjoy this dessert. Very, very much.
We are given some more itsy-bitsy sweets that I don’t really care for that much.
Rice flour gnocchi with dried longan, agar agar and crunchy rice cake
Grilled sweet corn in corn husk with Thai meringue and Thai popsicle
Petit fours: local fruits, tamarind, pandan glutinous cake, taro chips, coconut candy
I love the mint infused sugar served with the fruits. So minty, and pretty!
Bo.lan Blend: Chiang Mai tea with chamomile, mint, ginger and honey – light and sweet,
a nice end to the meal
The food Bo.lan serves is not the typical Thai dishes we’re used to. I can’t really say I’m in love with the food and that I will be back again soon, but dining here is quite a nice and unique experience overall.
Bo.lan: 42 Soi Pichai Ronnarong, Sukhumvit 26 Road, Klong teoy, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel : +66 2260 2962 to 63
