So I discovered these boat noodles a couple of months ago when I was at Bugis Junction and looking for something to eat.
I think the plan had been to have sushi, but then the queue was long and I was lazy and since there was this (then) new Thai restaurant, thought we'd give it a try.
What I didn't know at that time was that Tha Chang wasn't just a restaurant.
It was in fact a drinking place, a pub, a club, however you want to describe it, and it had both food and beer and drinks and alcohol.
If there's one thing I have come to understand about pub grub, it is that the food is usually good. Kitchens at these places don't normally screw up their foods, and so, whilst you might not get them dishes at wallet-friendly prices, you can be sure it will be as fulfilling, and authentic as one's dinner can get.
Boat Noodles here was not going to be a dollar a bowl- that much I was certain.
But I didn't think it very expensive either.
I mean, look at the bowl!
Never mind the fact that I was hungry and needed soup at that time, this is not the small kind of a bowl that merely gives you a taste of what boat noodles is, and nothing more.
Now, whilst that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the small ones (an outlet at the National Library serves up some really good and satisfying cute little bowls) it is the full-sized solid ones like those served here that brings me straight back to Thailand, to the place where for the first time I had one of the best Boat Noodles which taste I have never forgotten.
The magic lies in the soup.
It is the soup of this bowl here at Tha Chang that brings me to this place at Ploenchit near Mediva Clinic right next to Ploenchit BTS station. Theirs is somewhat thicker compared to here but the taste is memorable, nearly the same, and leaves me with a very pleasant smile.
It is because of this taste, I tell you, that I refuse to have boat noodles at anywhere else on this island (thus far) except for here.
I'm stubborn like that.
What's funny is that I don't really know what goes inside the broth.
Google tells me that the soup is made with stock of either pork or beef, has herbs- galangal, cinnamon, lemongrass, dark soy sauce, fermented soybean paste, and thickened (usually) with a bit of animal blood.
That will probably be what's in the bowl over in Thailand.
Here, gahmen regulations and all, I'm presuming the blood is what's absent at Tha Chang, but on the whole, it has, generally, everything else.
I'm not sure if they have bean sprouts in the bowl- I can't really remember now, goodness me- but coriander (parsley?) and a bunch of other vegetables- spinach, maybe, yes, they have.
Of course, it will not be boat noodles for me if there is no protein.
My bowl today had plenty of pork slices, pork meatballs, and pork liver mixed amidst my choice of egg noodles, all of which were done in a way that made me think of ramen, but which wasn't really ramen at all.
What I loved was how tender the pork slices were.
At first sight one might have thought they would be on the tougher, drier, chewy side, but to my surprise, no, they were incredibly tender, full of flavor from the soup, and pleasantly nice to chew.
I'll have rice vermicelli when I come here next time though.
Egg noodles might go well with certain flavors of soup of different thickness, but the broth of Thai boat noodles goes best with rice. The taste of egg noodles seems to get lost in the savory soup of the cinnamon and galangal and everything else.
It was a nice, fulfilling, satisfactory bowl I had this particular afternoon, one which- after Havelock- I actually needed, and I'm pretty sure I'll be back here at Tha Chang in future.
After all, Ploenchit's never far from my mind, and I'm just so glad that on days where I can't be there, I can be here.