RAWBangkok

On Sunday morning I went to the park and played a game of 4-on-4 full court basketball.  I was easily the worst player on the court, but the other 7 guys were pretty indulgent.

After the game I shot around a bit by myself, then walked home.   All in all a good hour of exercise.

But I could feel my body calling out to me for nutrition.  I’ve been very focused on dropping my weight, and I’ve been eating very small portions of food three or four times per day.  Over the weekend I’d weighed in at 108 kilos on both Saturday and Sunday.  It seemed like a good time to reward myself.

So I called my friend, the Dude, and asked if he’d like to go to dinner at the Moo Kataa in Prakhanong.

Moo Kataa is probably the best value food offer in the world if you do it right.  It’s an all-you-can eat open air restaurant, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them located around Bangkok.

The picture above is a great example of a moo kataa.  You get a setup on your table with glowing red hot coals, and a metal dish that holds water on the outside, and a metal area in the middle for grilling meats and vegetables.

The water turns into a tasty soup with the drippings from the grilled meat along with a variety of vegetables and spices that can be added to the water.

There’s no time limit on a Moo Kataa, so you can sit all evening grilling and eating if you like.  You can see the price on the sign in the photo at the top of the blog… 89 baht, or about US$3.

That’s normal in the areas in suburban Bangkok or outside of Bangkok.  Along Sukhumvit Road and Ratchadapisek Road and other major thoroughfares the price is slightly higher  — 109 baht.  Still a hell of a deal at under $4.

The Dude and I decided to hit the place early, and met out front at 5 p.m.

The preliminaries are pretty simple.  Dude ordered Coke and I asked for water, then we both went to grab some food.  By the time we returned to the table we had the red-hot cooking dish on the table.  At the very top of the grilling area is a large slice of pork fat.  This sizzles at the top, sending down a constant stream of grease to keep your meat from sticking to the grilling surface.

I had grabbed two types of marinated chicken.  Dude had a bit more eclectic collection of foods.  I started cooking, as did he.  The cooking is performed using wooden chopsticks, and the cooking area will hold perhaps 6 or 8 individual items at a time.

If you go with Thai women as part of the group, the chances are high that you won’t have to do any cooking at all.  Typically, they will do all the cooking, and delicately place the food on your plate one item at a time.  They will also make sure that your meal includes lots of vegetables cooked in the soup.

The last time I had been to a Moo Kataa had been with the Dude and another friend up on Ratchadapisek Road, near the Hwuay Kwang Station.  That one put the same cooking contraption on the table, but supplemented it with a more familiar bed of open coals topped by a metal screen that made the grilling faster and easier.  The three of us consumed copious amounts of grilled meat that night.

Last night I ate my first three pieces of cooked chicken (delicious) and put three more on to grill on ‘my side’ of the grilling area.  While they were sizzling I went back to the raw food area to see what else might take my fancy.  During half a dozen return trips over a 45 minute period I took a half dozen types of sushi, viet namese style spring rolls, fried rice, ‘fish ball’ dumplings to be cooked in the soup, and several types of vegetables, along with some pork and a little more chicken.

By 6 o’clock I was stuffed, and I could see that the Dude had ceased to cook as well.  It was time to go.

Usually we have a few beers at the Moo Kataa and the bill stacks up quickly.  With just Coke and water on top of the food, the bill came to about 350 baht.  They charge for ice as well as drinks, so you want to be aware that the bill will be more than just the base price of 89, 99 or 109 baht.

We each tossed in 200 baht and waddled out fat and happy.

All that meat made me lethargic.  I decided to neither walk nor take the train, but to hop a taxi home.  I got to my room and collapsed in my bed as though I’d been out drinking whiskey all night.  I was asleep in under a minute, and didn’t wake up until close to midnight.

If you want to get out for an enjoyable eating experience in Thailand — especially if you are going out with a large group of people — look for a Moo Kataa.  They are large, open air restaurants and can be found on most major thoroughfares.   They will usually have the price posted prominently on a sign, reading either 89, 99 or 109 baht, and will usually have a picture of a pig or some sort of seafood on the signage as well.  If you’re really stumped, just ask a local taxi driver or motorcycle taxi guy to take you to Moo Kataa.

If you love freshly grilled food you’ll be glad you did.