I spent in a month in Thailand during my break for Chinese New Year.
While doing research on where to eat in Bangkok’s Little India, called Pahurat, I came across this post about a cafe in Pahurat called Toney’s. The food blogger said it was a little tricky to find because it’s out in the middle of an alley, but utterly delicious and cheap.
When we found the cafe, there was no sign for the restaurant, but I recognized it easily from the blogger’s video. The menu had the name “Toney’s” and confirmed that we were in the right place. We were so grateful to know about this place, and ate there twice while in Bangkok. Most of the dishes were familiar Indian dishes, but the photos on the walls were of Nepal, and the cooks told us they were from Burma.
This dal is topped with a sliver of fermented butter, which quickly melted. The flavor of the butter was rich and reminiscent of a strong cheese.
An aloo gobi (potatoes with cauliflower). The potatoes were cut into long slices instead of cubes, and the sauce was spicy and complex with lots of ginger. This might have been my favorite dish there.
This saag paneer was just lovely, but when I showed the photos to some of my Chinese students later, they said it looked awful, like something they would see on the ground. Their loss.
Shahi paneer, which is cheese with a royal tomato-butter sauce. Exquisite.
A dry spicy potato dish.
Chana (chickpeas) with potatoes. Simple and delicious.
Here the cooks whipped up a fresh batch of roti (flatbread) for us.
My friends Molly and Andrew were blissed out after a feast. Chai is a perfect way to relax after an overwhelmingly-delicious Indian meal, even on a hot day.
Toney’s cafe is right next to a canal, where we saw large monitor lizard swimming. The manager at the the next-door cafe located on the canal bridge told us that monitor lizards like to swim under her cafe because they give the lizards clumps of rice to eat. I actually saw 4 monitor lizards on my Thailand trip!