you wan thai you wan yum thai

Day 4 – Block 62

Ginnekenweg 62, 4818 JH Breda

First Impressions – Yesterday; fingers = burnt! (Beyond recognition). I entered Block 62 full of hope and desire that it would be good. You can buy pickles and stuff in here so I think the protocol is to approach the counter and make it quite clear you would like to eat. The Thai woman, (who I think is the proprietor), (unconfirmed), remembered me from yesterday and was genuinely happy to see me. As it was busy she sat me down on the table facing the window, (on the right of the picture above). I was glad this happened as I was eating by myself tonight and I'm a bit funny about sitting down in the same area as people who aren't loners. This way I could take pictures of the food without having to worry about a member of staff intercepting me.

Interior – I got the impression that the whole place was optimised for getting orders and serving food quickly and efficiently. It was extremely well lit thanks to the spotlights suspended on a ring of trunking on the ceiling. I like that industrial look, it only reinforced my initial feelings that they don't mess about in here. It was in sharp contrast to the fabric armchairs at the back of the room, the jars of pickles on the wall, and the chalk board containing Dutch information that I cannot read, but worked well. I don't think its the type of place you'd bring someone for a night out but it's definitely a venue you can drop in on without bringing on any sort of formal pressure.

Service – I felt instantly welcome by Mother Thai, she took me to the table, took my drinks order and returned with it promptly along with a small bowl of vegetarian crackers. I don't know what these are but I have had them before. They went brilliant with the Hoegaarden I selected, (I don't normally drink that but there was only one other draft on the counter and I didn't fancy it). Mother Thai then abandoned me and left me to the native waitress who is probably my favourite member of staff so far this trip. I cant put my finger on the reason why but she was like the stereotypical Dutchwoman and spoke better English than me. That normally happens in England but never abroad, as I am a modern day Samuel Pepys now I've started this blog. Anyway, she suggested the 'Bento Box', I agreed and the order was placed.

Food – €22,50 – The Bento Box is a little basket, split into four sections. One of the sections always includes a bowl of jasmine rice. The other three are a surprise. I thought to myself, "this is all very east Asian".

The first bowl contained a ginger and lemongrass soup with tiger prawns and mushrooms. First let me state I don't like mushrooms - I tried to eat a couple but they are not my cup of tea so I left them. I am certain most people would have loved them. The soup contained whole bits of lemongrass, and slices of a kind of ginger. I ate one of the bits of ginger and it tasted like spicy hot bark. At this point I didn't know what it was and I asked the waitress to identify it, she told me it was ginger, was only there to flavour the soup, and wasn't to be eaten. She said, "it can be eaten but it is not very nice at all, I should have told you before". We both laughed about it, (I didn't think it was funny, I also didn't tell her I ate some of the lemongrass too because I would have looked like a right knob). The soup was quite hot and although there were only two prawns in it, I enjoyed it.

The second bowl was a salad made of lettuce, onion, celery, parsley, and squid. The salad was very nice, if it was in a bigger bowl I would have struggled with it as the celery was quite overpowering, but it wasn't in a bigger bowl. I don't know if I should take that comment out now - it's not a diss. I may come back to it later. I'm keeping the comment in and everything I said after it up to this point > <. The squid was the softest I have eaten. It was cut into strips and then scored diagonally in both directions to make a sort of lattice effect - this must have been why it was so soft. I will be adopting this technique anytime I cook with squid from now on and sort of think it was worth coming here to find that out.

The third bowl contained yellow chicken curry. Brilliant it was. There was a leg in there and part of the thigh too. The chicken was so tender that I think I only had to look like I was going to go near it with the cutlery and it would start dropping off the bone. I really enjoyed it, and I wont go into too much detail on this dish as it was hard to pick out individual aspects of the curry. It all blended into a big yellow b*stard bowl of flavour and I would order that on it's own as a main.

The fourth was the bowl of jasmine rice which was perfectly sticky as all good jasmine rice should be.

Final Thought – This was the right choice of venue to eat alone I think. The prices were reasonable and the food quirky and fun. The bill came out with a little pack of Haribo Goldbaren, (no translation needed - spell check is flagging it up, obviously don't know what it's doing), and it was a good way to end the experience. I left a €3,50 euro tip, (took it out of the tip money I saved yesterday). I wouldn't say it was an amazing enough experience to go back during this trip as I only have seven nights left. However it is definitely a great place to eat in if you are in a hurry, or on your own like me. Loser.