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Monday, October 18, 2010

Travel to Bangkok... Traditional chinese sausages

It was my 11th wedding anniversary 2 weeks back and I made a trip to Bangkok (BKK) with my DH. It was a good trip, tho' the weather was similar to Sg, meaning, walking a few steps would result in alot of perspiration! I came back with a 30kg excess luggage, which I had to pay SGD15 for, as we took the budget airlines. Lotsa food stuff and tibits for the family! 

Since a long long time ago (I really cannot remember when)... when my parents visited Bangkok, they would always stop by a chinese sausage shop at the C'town area to pick up a kilo or 2 of chinese sausages. These sausages were all freshly and manually made. We love the taste of these sausages, especially when pan-fried to get a little crisp on both sides. It's not as oily as most sausages available in Singapore and it has a smokey taste to it too. At times it even felt like eating bak-kwah (BBQ pork slices often devoured during cny)!  Whenever we have family, friends or relatives going to BKK, my mom will always "tumpang" the person to go get some for us! LOL....

So without fail, I was tasked to bring home some chinese sausages during this trip too. I had not visited BKK for more than 10 years... when my mom passed me an old and tattered namecard and pointed to me the name of the shop, with the address on it, I was really sceptical. I was wondering if this shop still existed! I tried checking googlemap with the road name and nothing came out.

Little did I know, things had not changed much in the past 10 years in BKK, especially at C'town! The whole place was bustling with people and noise when I stepped out of the taxi we took. The driver did not bring us right to the shop, instead, he dropped us at a prominent landmark (White Orchid Hotel) at C'town. Once I stepped out of the taxi, I knew the shop would still be there... somewhere. I showed the namecard to the driver again, hoping that he would be able to point us to the correct direction... but I know that he, being a thai and non-chinese, I would be expecting a little too much. Well, he told us to walk toward our left and then turn into a lane from there... and there we went....

We turned into the lane and what greeted us was 2 rows of shop houses. The shops were small and most of them were not opened for business yet, as we went there pretty early. So DH and I decided to wander around and take our time figuring which was the correct shop. We walked up and down the entire lane twice before we finally found the shop! It was a really small quaint old shop tucked at one corner. I was so glad that the search was over! Apparently we had missed the shop when we walked past the 1st time coz it was not opened for business yet.

There was a middle-age man sitting at a recliner, watching tv when we stood at the shopfront. He finally noticed us and came forward. I remembered that most Chinese at C'town BKK spoke teochew, so I asked DH (a teochew) to ask him abt the prices of the sausage. The shop owner was surprised to hear us speaking in teochew with him and he got really friendly! So I asked if I could take some pictures of his shop and he glady agreed. He even directed us to the back of his shop and showed us where they processed the sausages. There was a huge cooking room, where piles of charcoal are laid on the floor and the strings of sausages hanging on the rods. He went thru the process of making those sausages with us. We got to know that he had inherited the shop from his father, and he's currently 58yo (and definitely don't look like it! I'll kill to get that nice complexion he has!)

We ended up buying 2 kgs of sausages from him. Apparently, he has 3 variety of sausages for sale, lean meat, mixed of lean and fatty meat, and the fatty meat type. I pointed out that the ones hanging out at the smoke room were longer and different from those he had on sale now... he said those are considered the poorer quality ones, which the locals like to buy. I don't know how true it is, but I'm happy with my purchase! Mission accomplished!

Here's sharing some pics I took of the shop.

Bunches of sausages for sale!
The shop owner (he doesn't look 58 rite?) showing us the "smoke" room... notice the piles of charcoal on the floor? It was really smoking hot (pun intended :P) even from where I stood when I took the pic. Tried taking a few step inwards and changed my mind!

The shopfront. The red signage is where the prices of the different varieties are listed.
This shop is located at 26 Plangnum Road, Samphantawong, Bangkok 10100.

Directions : From white Orchid Hotel, walk towards your left, the 1st lane you come to, there's a road signage that says "Samphtantawong". Turn into the lane, cross over to the opposite row of shop houses, and walk about 500m.

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5 Comments:

  • wow...thanks for sharing. Been to Bangkok many times but dun know about the sausages...will definitely get some the next trip.

    Emily :)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:18 PM, October 18, 2010  

  • Thanks for sharing. It's great to see such a shop still existed and the son carrying on his father's business.

    Happy Anniversary to you btw! :)

    By Blogger Little Corner of Mine, at 11:37 PM, October 18, 2010  

  • You're welcome Emily. Hope you'll be able to get some sausages on yr next visit to BKK. There are other shops in C'town selling these sausages, hv to know your way around.

    Thanks Ching! Going to the c'town on this trip, it's like stepping back in time. lovely eccentric place to be. :)

    By Blogger Baking Fiend, at 8:26 AM, October 19, 2010  

  • Sorry haven't been blog hopping for some time or blogging for that matter! Happy belated anniversary! Glad you got your sausages plus other goodies.

    By Blogger tina, at 5:25 PM, October 22, 2010  

  • Hey Tina, thanks!

    By Blogger Baking Fiend, at 8:42 PM, October 22, 2010  

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