Cili Padi Restaurant (Bangkok)

Reviews

• Cili Padi satisfies authentic craving

  August 4, 2007

  The Star Online (Malaysia)

  

  You
  can easily find halal food in Thailand but it becomes a problem if you

  want Malaysian-style halal food. To get over this Azizan Ibrahim opened

  his own restaurant in Bangkok.

  WHAT would you do when you can’t find

  your favourite food in a city you visit frequently? If you were Azizan Ibrahim, a 48-year-old Malaysian, you would launch a Malay restaurant
  in Bangkok.

  One difficulty Azizan faced when visiting his

  brother-in-law who works in the Thai capital was finding halal food to his liking. Yes, halal food can be found in the Lebanese, Egyptian and 
  Indian restaurants in Bangkok’s famous Arab Street, which is around Soi

  Nana along Sukhumvit Road.

  But Azizan’s taste buds are not used to

  non-Malaysian halal food. What he craves is typical Malay food – nasi
  lemak, roti canai and teh tarik.

  I pointed out that nasi lemak, roti

  canai and teh tarik are available at a Malaysian/Thai restaurant called

  Kopitiam at Thonglor, which is a hip area in Bangkok.

  But Fahmi Sabri,
  Azizan’s 25-year-old nephew who lives in Bangkok, quickly remarked that

  the restaurant might not be 100% halal.

  How about the restaurants owned by Thai Muslims? I asked.

  I was curious as the hunt for halal food by my Malaysian/Muslim friends

  who are tourists in this city, where the most popular dishes are som

  tam (papaya salad) and moo yahng (grilled strip of pork), would usually

  end up in a fast food restaurant which provides food for thought as

  they question its “halal-ness”.

  Azizan is not a fan of restaurants owned by Muslim Thais.

  “Thai
  Muslim food is different from Malay food. It tastes like Thai food –

  sweet and spicy. The only similarity is it is halal,” he explains.

  Last
  December, Azizan, Fahmi and their Malaysian and Thai partners decided

  to open a Malay restaurant. And three weeks ago, they launched Cili
  Padi – an authentic Malaysian restaurant serving affordable Malay

  dishes such as rendang daging (60 baht or RM6.90), kari ikan (50 baht

  or RM5.80) and sambal tumis udang (70 baht or RM8.10).

  Cili Padi,
  which is the second restaurant in Bangkok serving Malaysian dishes, is

  tucked away on the ground floor of ITF Building, which is along the

  busy Silom-Narathiwas Road.

  The location was picked because of its

  proximity to two major roads – Sathorn, where several embassies

  including Malaysia’s are located, and Silom, where the world famous

  tourist destination Patpong is located.

  One of the most important elements, according to Azizan, in operating an authentic

  Malaysian restaurant is the cook.

  “We

  must have a Malaysian who can cook Malay food. If not it won’t be

  authentic,” he insists. And the cook, Noriza Mohd Tahir, who used to

  operate a cafe in Shah Alam, Selangor, is Azizan’s wife and Fahmi’s
  aunt.

  “How do you make your food taste like the one back home?” I

  asked while scooping the nasi lemak (50 baht or RM5.80) that tasted

  like the one I usually buy on Sunday morning in USJ, Subang Jaya.

  It

  was a valid question as Havinder Kaur – a Malaysian who owns Mrs

  Balbir, a popular north Indian restaurant in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Soi 11

  – had told me that in Thailand she could not cook nasi lemak as tastily

  as when she prepared it in Malaysia.

  “The ikan bilis and cili padi

  sold in Bangkok taste different from those in Kuala Lumpur,” reasoned

  the 51-year-old television presenter who is a well-known personality in

  Bangkok, adding, “it has something to do with Mother Nature.”

  Azizan agrees, saying “somehow Malaysian-made curry and Thai-made curry taste different.”

  So

  what he does is board a train from Alor Star to travel for 20 hours to

  Bangkok to transport ingredients such as belacan (shrimp paste), asam

  jawa (tamarind) and curry powder.

  Authentic or not, Fahmi acknowledges that Malay food is not popular with Thais.

  “They

  find our food too spicy and tasteless,” he says. “For example, my wife

  who is a Thai hardly eats Malay food as she is used to food that is

  sweet.”

  Cili Padi does not expect walk-in customers who are Thais.

  The bulk of its clientele will be Malaysians living in Bangkok and also

  busloads of Malaysian tourists brought in by in-bound tour operators.

  So

  far the restaurant’s loyal customers include personnel from the

  Malaysian Embassy including the ambassador and a man called Peter, a

  70-year-old Malaysian who lives in Bangkok with his Thai wife.

  Since

  finding the restaurant, Peter, who claimed he has not eaten Malaysian

  food for 20 years, has patronised Cili Padi for breakfast, lunch and

  dinner in a single day.

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