An open top “Tommy the tourist” bus in New York is indisputably the best place to learn about New York culture. Well, if you believe the tour guides (and assuming that you tip them enough). I learnt that if you want to eat cheaply in NYC there are two options: McDonalds, or Restaurant Row on W46th St between 8th and 9th.
Bangkok House is not McDonalds, but it certainly isn’t expensive either.
I was going to title this post “Give me a Thai five”. There are at least that many restaurants of the genre in Manchester. I love Chaopharaya, the offshoot of the Leeds original. But that only opened recently. The longest serving Thai dates from 1985.
In honour of “Frank” Shinawatra, glorious and noble owner of Man City Football Club, I like to dine Thai occasionally…. Chaophraya in Leeds and Manchester are amongst my favourite Thai restos, but I am always game to try something new. In a random internet search, I found one in Wakefield which was poorly located in a ropey town square, in a one horse town, with no car park for miles around, and drab architecture all around. The omens weren’t good.
Manchester is one of, if not the, best cities in the world. So you will not be surprised to hear that I find Manchester’s Chinatown to be even better than London’s. I admit that I have never been to San Francisco where Chinatown has its own website so must be impressive. But for now, let me tell you that if you fancy Chinese food, Manchester is a better place to eat it than Peking. At the risk of supercalifragilisticity, let’s drill down a little further. Pacific is one of the best Chinese restos in Manchester Chinatown.
So it was natural to want to check out the second floor (which is the Thai menu) and presumably just as good as the Chinese on the floor below? Er, no….
Dr Thaksin sent me a text message (at his expense) with a personal invite to meet him in Albert Square after the Man City game against Valencia.
Man City invites a European team over at the start of every season for the “Thomas Cook” trophy. Some would say that this is the only chance we get to watch any European football and I have sympathy with that view. Valencia were the opponents on this occasion.
City lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, a welcome change to the dire 4-5-1 inspired home performances of last season that resulted in only 10 goals all season. However, even as pre-season friendlies go, this turned out to be amongst the most non-eventful.
Deep in Jack the Ripper territory just behind Bishopsgate Police Station lies a dark secret. Whitechapel is legendary for the murders committed by one of the first serial killers to gain notoriety. Nowadays an altogether different cereal is found in the back alleys, and the only murder is evidenced by an occasional squealing lobster.
The back alley known as Widegate Street is where I found Sri Thong, a Thai restaurant with a name that brings back haunting memories of that famous and heinous picture of Peter Stringfellow on the beach.
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