COCONUTS HOT SPOT – While restaurants around the world try to mix the luxury of fine dining with the casual elegance of Thai street food, few have found a way to effectively make the pairing. One Bangkok restaurant, however, inhabits that rare middle ground. Gedhawa offers delicious massaman kai and khao soi for unbelievable prices and even throws in air conditioning to boot.
Gedhawa isn’t a new restaurant by any means, but it borders on the unknown, hidden as it is down the barely-lit Sukhumvit 35 with only a wooden sign to trumpet its presence. The restaurant’s loyal following comes for bona fide northern Thai and Isaan cooking in a charming atmosphere. Traditional paintings and drawings cover the walls; the menu itself is reminiscent of a school art project, with glued-on photographs and descriptions neatly handwritten onto cuts of bound cardboard.
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My personal favorite dish is the aforementioned massaman kai (THB 130). The curry comes according to custom – sweet, thick and creamy with big chunks of potato and a couple whole chicken legs. I also recommend the khao soi (THB 75) or southern style fresh noodle. This murky yellow soup looks similar to massaman, but with a much thinner consistency. Khao soi tastes soothing and a little spicy. It consists of a blend of coconut milk, shallots, limes, ground chili and boiled egg noodles topped off with crispy egg noodles and chunks of pork or chicken. If you ask, they will even serve the soup in two bowls instead of one, to better facilitate sharing between diners.
Gedhawa also has an excellent variety of salads, from salted egg (THB95), to young bamboo (THB95), refreshing pomelo (THB 95) and naturally, papaya salad or som tum. A couple southern dishes also round out the menu, including prawn and papaya curry (THB 150).
Proper Thai cooking may be easy to come by in Bangkok, but atmosphere and air-conditioning are always more difficult targets. Luckily, little Gedhawa has got it all rolled into one.
FIND IT:
Gedhawa Restaurant
25 Sukhumvit Soi 35, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel. +662-662-0501
Hours: Monday to Saturday 11am to 2pm, 5pm to 10pm
Photos: Barbara Woolsey
