Andy had just came back from a holiday in Bangkok when Mal and I met him for a quick pint outside The Euston Tap, as we cross paths through the worst train station in the UK. You can tell he has just came back from somewhere exotic; he has a hooped piercing in his left nostril and the faint glow of someone who passed the sun going home and going back out again. He doesn’t have much in the way of food chat, but he does have a list of the things on his phone the ping-pong lady could do with her foof: smoke a cigarette, fire darts, even pull a live hamster from the confides of her lower intestine. It’s all very exhausting. Little wonder he had no appetite.
I’m reminded of Speedboat Bar, the little spot I was at a week prior, which sits between Soho and China Town. It plays deliberately on the stereotypes of the canteens of Bangkok; brightly lit walls of yellow and turquoise, the promise of cheap cocktails laden with Eastern spirits, and upstairs, a pool table to continue the party. The menu goes wherever it wants. Some snacks, salads, stir fries and curry. Some are authentic, others are reimagined bastardisations. All are great fun.
We order just one snack, a stir fry and a curry, along with plenty of rice. Would have been more had the fried chicken skins been available. There are pickled fruits, half of which I still don’t know what they are, with a chilli sugar salt mixture that’s addictively hot. Also on the very spicy end of things is the minced beef with holy basil; a stir fry heavy on anise, soy, and Birds Eye chillies. It’s superb and needs the runny egg to add a little added richness.
Best of all is a green curry of winter melon and aubergine, seemingly with dried shiitake and miso in the paste to add loads of umami. I was told by my Thai food loving companion that it was one of the best things they’d eaten in ages. My Thai loving companion was not Andy. I feel a bit queasy when I think about what he potentially had in his mouth.
The bill with a good whisky soda and an okay negroni worked out at £30, so Speedboat Bar is not only great fun, but bloody cheap as well. As I spend more and more time in the capital I look for spots like these for easy dinners, and with it being a ten minute stroll from Bar Termini I can see it being a regular of mine.
8/10
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