DINING OUT - ENTERTAINMENT

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Dining Out

Nightmarch

Dining Out: Ban Chaiyapreuk - dining with the ‘family’

by Miss Terry Diner

100 metres up from the Beach Road end of Chaiyapreuk Road, Ms. May Nointara has an internet, computer and language school. In front of it there is a very well kept secret - formerly known as the Internet Kitchen and now called Ban Chaiyapreuk (though there was no sign - just a few table settings outside). This is May’s small restaurant.

As well as the outside (under cover) settings there is another air-conditioned room with some two tables and smart black padded chairs. The Dining Out Team (two couples on this occasion) joined May for dinner there.

The atmosphere is cosy, the decor eclectic, but the overall ambience revolves around the staff. Your friendly waitresses are the teachers from the school itself. A real ‘family’ touch. As May herself said, “We are not professional.”

The menu begins with some specials, which are, I am afraid, in Thai. Of course, the waitresses are on hand to do the translations for you. There are also photographs to allow for the select and point method of ordering, and I did notice that the real dishes when they came to the table did resemble the photographs!

In the middle of the menu there are some explanations of dishes such as yam neua and tom yam kung and these are followed by four pages of descriptions of herbs and spices used in Thai cooking. A wonderfully informative menu (after all it is a school).

From there, the menu goes on to list the items, with breakfasts and sandwiches up first. The items are inexpensive to say the least. Two fried eggs with ham, bacon, sausage, coffee or tea is 69 baht, or a chicken salad at 40 baht. This is not wallet breaking territory.

14 “fast” dishes are next, all priced between 20 and 30 baht with most of the usual stir-fries on offer. The names are in Thai and a description in English underneath, like fried pork, chicken, beef with garlic and pepper with rice (that will set you back 25 baht)!

After that it is 9 soups (B. 60-80) including tom kha gai, then 19 fried and deep-fried items (B. 40-70) including a fried morning glory and then 14 mainly spicy salads at around 60 baht and ending with chips for 50 baht.

We had chosen a variety of dishes, and the first was one of the rotating specials with egg and mushrooms, which was not at all spicy, but very tasty. We followed this with a panang talay, a dish with lots of squid, mussels and prawns in the panang curry which again was spicy but not harsh in any way, and incidentally Madame’s dish of the night. Then we had a tom kha gai - a large bowl with plenty of chicken, which did come with two serving spoons as well. The “bite” was there, but not at all overpowering and well within the farang chilli tolerance range. The next was a most interesting yam makua yang, based on eggplant and definitely the ‘new’ taste of the evening and Miss Terry’s choice. We finished with a deep fried beef covered in sesame seeds which was the ideal nibbly with which to finish our wine.

May is quite happy for diners to bring their own wine as Ban Chaiyapreuk does not have a large selection. Currently she is looking into wine suppliers, so this might change. They do have some local beers and whisky and a range of soft drinks and juices, however.

The restaurant opens at 8 a.m. (with the school) and (theoretically) closes at 8 p.m., but on the night we visited there were happy people sitting around after 9 p.m., but it is not a late night hangout.

The food at Ban Chaiyapreuk was excellent and well presented, the ‘homely’ atmosphere made the evening fun, and the prices are so cheap you could eat there every day. It really was dining with the ‘family’ and we loved it. All of us!

Ban Chaiyapreuk, 131/20 Chaiyapreuk Road, M 12, Jomtien. Tel 038 223 418.

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Nightmarch

Start of Silly Sunday: The Playpen ogling den will be celebrating Mick’s birthday on Sunday, October 21 with a special buffet kicking off at around 8:00 p.m. (balloon chasers please note).

The Aussie grafter is also kicking off with what he terms ‘Silly Sundays’. The chrome pole palace opens for business at 2:00 p.m. and each and every Sunday (commencing October 21) will be serving house drinks - the amber fluid and standard liver wasters like vodka, gin and whisky - at just 35 baht while the top shelf gear can be ordered for a mere 70 baht.

Dirty Dancing comes full circle: The fifth round of Dirty Dancing contests will be held this coming Sunday, October 21 at The Dollhouse (Walking Street, underneath Marine Disco). The contests always draw an appreciative crowd and with this next round being conducted back at the original home, expect the gyrations of the chrome pole fanciers to once again plumb the depths as they seek to snatch the 10,000 baht first prize.

New in town: The Feigling Fun Pub, located in Soi Marine Plaza, behind the Lucky Star group of beer boozers, opened its doors back on September 5 and is slowly attracting customers. The late night boogie barn has a happy hour from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. with draught beer at 35 baht. Feigling also offers a free soft drink for ladies and if you come with more than four friends, you get one bottle of Thai whisky for free.

Stairway to Heaven no more: Pommy Phil, the ebullient mine host of the Coral Reef beer boozer (top end of Soi 8), tells me he’s just placed his ‘x’ on a contract to keep the joint for another three years. To celebrate, Phil removed the spiral staircase at the back of the boozer and installed another bar so elbow-benders have somewhere to rest their leaden heads after partaking of a few too many Heinekens and Carlsbergs.

Watching a Western in Welsh: The Asylum beer boozer and occasional noshery (Soi Chaiyapoom) shows two movies of an afternoon, sometime between Midday and 6:00 p.m. The flicks are usually old Westerns (‘Hang ‘em High’ and ‘Fistful of Dollars’ being a couple of examples) or maybe a Vietnam-era war movie. Not quite the Royal Garden Cinema but then again Welsh Rob is offering shorts at just 50 baht throughout the afternoon. Beats a bucket of popcorn any day.

My lucky number is: Many ogling dens around Fun Town have introduced the Lucky Number board. These boards have 100 or so numbers from which to choose and charge 100 baht a time. Every number is a winner with prizes ranging from beer to bar fines.

The management of the Sexy ogling den (Walking Street, opposite Stoney’s Place beer bar) claim they’ve got the best value Lucky Number board in Pattaya. For example, there are two numbers that offer a free bar fine (valued at 500 baht each) while punters can win two free Heineken’s rather than just one. If you don’t want a Heineken, they’re willing to change to two free Singhas or Carlsbergs.

Now that’s what I call ‘tackle’: The Shrimps or Mr 99 noshery and beer boozer (Beach Road, just before Soi 7) is a kind of Alcazar Cabaret meets the Pattaya Fishing Park.

The boozer employs a large number of persons of the second category who double as hostesses as well as dancers. It also has a swimming pool-sized water tank complete with a load of shrimps, or prawns. Customers can hire a fishing rod and bait and dangle it (the rod that is) over the tank and try to catch their dinner.

Every once in a while the ‘girls’ get up on the front rim of the fishing tank and do a series of rehearsed dance routines to entertain customers and entice passers-by.

Drinks are priced between 35 and 95 baht, depending on your choice of poison. Soft drinks are 35-55 baht, beer between 60 and 95 baht and spirits between 70 and 90 baht. A ‘Lady Drink’ is 65 baht. They also have a 99 baht international menu.

Bigger schnitzel: Anybody who happens to enjoy chicken or pork schnitzel (which is just about the entire population of Germany, Austria and the eastern parts of Switzerland) then you are spoilt for choice here in Fun Town. However, the two nosheries that undoubtedly serve the biggest portions of schnitzel are the Old Vienna’s in Jomtien and the Sana in Soi Skaw Beach. Of the two, Sana offers theirs at an incredibly low 110 baht while the Old Vienna’s charges around 160 baht, but then it does have the edge as far as ambience is concerned.

There are a couple of nosheries around Fun Town that seem to take pride in serving dishes that look like the waiter or waitress took a detour through a rainforest before reaching your table, such is the abundance of foliage on the plate. This is not the case with either the Old Vienna’s or the Sana.

My e-mail address is: [email protected]

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