Thursday, May 06, 2010

Kalpapruek Restaurant and Bakery

Gaysorn was having a 'Shopping Must Continue' sale at the Oriental Hotel. Since the red shirts have closed down the Rachaprasong district of high-end department stores and luxury hotels area. Gaysorn rented the 4th floor of the new wing at the hotel and had about 20 high end brands having a 'up to 80% sale'. We decided to check out the sale. But before shopping we needed lunch. And one of the best places to eat lunch in the Silom area is Kalpapruek.


Kalpapruek is an institution. Everyone in Bangkok knows Kalpapruek. I have no idea how long it has been open but everyone has been to Kalpapruek at least once in their life. Kalpapruek is needed to expand over the years and it build a new building in the same compound just to accommodate the number of customers. We prefer going to the old building; we think it has more charm.



The first dish was roti with green beef curry with chillies. This is one of our favourite dishes at Kalpapruek. We always order this dish and it is always so so good. The roti is deep fried to a golden brown and it is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The roti is not greasy; which is a good thing. The green curry has a wonderful taste; but beware...the amount of green chillies in this dish is scary. How anyone can eat those tiny green chillies is beyond me.


The next dish was Kalparuek's version of kanom jeen. We love kanom jeen but this version was unique because it came with a rich and thick lemon & orange sauce. The kanom jeen rice noodles were in the middle of the plate while the deep fried vegetables, shrimp and herbs surrounded the rice noodles. We never had this and we were pleasantly surprised how good it was. I thought the sauce was sweet; but then again, my mind is used to having a savoury sauce for kanom jeen.


The next dish was Isaan platter. A wonderful selection of boiled vegetables, sour sausage, grilled beef, crispy pig skin and two sauces. The colours and textures alone in this dish was great. Everything tasted wonderful. A big portion that can be shared for two.



For dessert; chocolate chip cake. A moist cocoa cake topped with chocolate chips and nuts. The cake tasted very good and another great aspect of the cake was that it was not overly sweet. A good thing.


This is the outside of the old building; surrounded by trees, shrubs and plants. Very charming.

Kalpapruek has branches spread all over town now; but this was the original one and it has nostalgic memories for everyone. The service can be a bit slow or even non-existent because the place gets very busy. You just have to be patient, strong and keep waving at the staff until one of them sees you. The prices at Kalpapruek has stayed reasonably affordable over all these years. I think this is also one of the big factors that keeps customers to return.

27 Pramual Rd.
Silom, Bangkok 10500
02-236-4335


After lunch; we were heading back to our home and we decided to go and see the red shirts war zone at the junction of Silom Rd. and Lumpini Park.


The barricade of the red shirts. It looks very scary, dirty and chaotic. Of course all this is illegally put up; but its quite amazing to see a sight like this in the middle of the city.


It almost looks like an art instillation. It could be called 'Such a Waste'.

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