Cycle 14 – Item 337
8 (Fri) December 2023
Pat Krapao Moo Ssab
1.5
at Talat Rotfai
-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-
solo
Talat Rotfai (ตลาดรถไฟ) is a Thai restaurants. Offers a handful of quick-fix items. The name refers to the famous Train Market in Bangkok.
The latest thing in the Korean restaurant scene: Thai restaurants run by Korean owners/chefs who don’t really seem to know anything about Thai cuisine. Probably they’ve been to Thailand, perhaps even lived there for a while, took a few cooking courses, watched a few YouTube videos, and now they’re in business. This is evident in the simple menu, which typically offer pho-style noodle soup, tomyam soup (with noodles, usually), maybe pad thai, maybe crab fried rice, maybe pad gaprao moo, maybe spring rolls – usually no curries or anything that would require actual expertise and effort. The rice is almost always medium grain Korean rice, not Thai jasmine rice. Another giveaway is the extra charge for cilatnro (coriander). The food is often okayish, but dumbed-down for local palates – whether intentionally or ignorantly. Exactly like Mexican restaurants run by Korean owners/chefs who don’t really seem to know anything about Mexican cuisine (see for example 14.152 (“Korean-Style”) Chicken Burrito (sans Pepperoni) (with Cheese!))
I’m still trying to figure out what compels Korean restaurant operators to provide instructions for the customers – in menus, on the table, on the wall – for “How to Enjoy” the food. The first time that I can recall seeing, or at least taking notice of, this kind of thing was at Bornga, a Korean restaurant in Manila (see generally 5.232 Woo Samgyup). Also on Korean airplanes at meal service (see for example 6.043 Bibimbap). Even for dishes that require no explanation (see for example 14.118 Rice-Noodle Pho with Beef Brisket). I realize that these documented examples on GMTD may appear necessary – that is, the instructions are intended for non-Koreans encountering Korean food, or Koreans encountering non-Korean food, for the first time; but no, instructions can be found in Korean restaurants serving basic Korean food to Korean people, which I’ll now begin to document.
Here, instructions are provided on “How to Enjoy Noodle Soup.” First helpful tip: do not to dip the noodles directly into the condiments, such as sugar – because without this warning, blithering idiots are at risk of dipping their noodles into the sugar bowl. Second helpful tip: place the condiments into the soup, but only in quantities to satisfy the customer’s personal preference – isn’t that how all condiments work?! Third help tip, in contravention of the second help tip: add 1 part fish sauce + 1/2 part sugar + 1/2 part chili flakes + 1 part vinegar – the so-called “magic recipe.”
When I’ve raised this issue to others, they always shrug it off, saying that the restaurant is just trying to be helpful, to maximize the dining experience, so why not. But it seems uniquely Korean; I can’t ever remember seeing an instruction on how to eat something at any restaurant in any country that wasn’t run by Koreans. I believe the reason is that Koreans, yes, are generally of a helpful nature, but also that Koreans assume each other to be blithering idiots.
As expected the food was lacking. Whereas pad gaprao includes by definition holy basil, I couldn’t see or taste any basil flavor. I imagine the Korean chef has no idea what the name of the dish means, so he assumes basil to be just another ingredient, which Korean customers probably wouldn’t appreciate much anyway, like cilantro, so why bother. Instead, the dish was flavored primarily with oyster sauce, soy sauce, black pepper, garlic – a very safe combination for Korean palates – but that doesn’t make it pad gaprao. On closer inspection of the photo, the dark green bits may have been basil rendered down to oblivion, as if the sauce had started with a bottled pad gaprao sauce base (see for example 10.351 Chicken Pad Ka Prow).
(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)
(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)