On the last day of every visit, I post an entry called the Food Porn Entry. This is not it. This entry is a step into investigative journalism where I go deep into finding out stuff for Bangkok Blog readers.
In August, I wrote a post on a Pad Kaprao restaurant indicating that this dish was considered by Thais to be the national dish. And a couple of days ago I posted about how Pad Thai had been borne out of political interests to increase the marketing appeal of the country and its dictator.
My investigative efforts led me to various convenience stores, all of which sell refrigerated quick meal kits. Upon closer examination, almost all of these shops sell Pads Kaprao and not Pad Thai. Interesting.
So being the good reporter, I walked over to my local convenience store and for 30 baht ($1.16 CDN) purchased a Pad Kaprao dinner. I brought it back to the apartment for testing.
Opening the plastic cover revealed something that looked very much like the version I had eaten at the specialty restaurant. I loaded it onto a plate, put it into the microwave and ran into my first serious problem. I had not used the microwave for probably 3-4 years. I had no idea how to use it. I was too lazy to find the manual. I pressed a lot of buttons. The language on the screen turned into German. The more buttons I pushed caused nothing to happen except that I think the language on the screen turned to Japanese. Finally after 10 minutes of button pushing, I got the machine to work and one minute later, I had a steamy plate of Pad Kaprao.
It tasted great. It was very spicy but also very tasty. I think it was better than the version from the restaurant but not as good as what I get at the hospital. But it was good and for $1.16 I couldn’t lose.
Every convenience store in Bangkok sells this little dinner. No Pad Thai in sight. This investigation has demonstrated that the national dish, at least in Bangkok convenience stores, in Pad Kaprao. The Food Porn entry is still to come. However, it will omit convenience store food.
So very thrilled about the idea of gas station frozen TV dinners… I hope you at least removed it from the plastic before heating.