Sharrie
"It's All in a Name!"
Where gourmands come to meet/eat.
Rating:
When it comes to property, it's a case of location, location & location!
+4
When it comes to restaurant, it's all in a name! That is, if your restaurant is known as Cabbages & Condoms!
This is quite a famous and popular restaurant in Bangkok on Sukhumvit Sol 12. I first learned about this restaurant from another traveler on VirtualTourist.com. Apparently, this is a must visit for many tourists in Bangkok. As some of you may know, other than a religious country, Thailand, especially with regard to Bagnkok, it is also a popular sex destination! There are moral issues when it comes to this topic but this is not a review about those issues.
As rampant as sex is available in this city, what is one to do in order to control the situation? Well, someone came up with a "brilliant" idea. He's Mechai Viravaidya who's an activist who popularized the idea of condoms in Thailand. As the chairman of PDA (Population & Community Development Association), the largest NGO in Thailand & also one that's been awarded the 2007 Gates Award (as in Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) of $1 million for its work in family planning & HIV/AIDS prevention, Viravaidya believes that to be successful in rural family planning, condoms have to be as easily accessible and accepted as cabbages! Hence, the name Cabbages & Condoms! Truly, I'm not kidding!
Well, you've to see it to believe it! The restaurant is decorated with condoms. I know, that sounds gross!
But the food is great! At first I did have reservations about going to such a restaurant! I mean, what to expect? I've no idea! I'm curious though and anything that sparks my curiosity can't be bad, I figure ;-)
First, you've got to find the place though. The direction was easy enough. Just 5 mins walk into Sukhumvit Sol 12 which is directly across from the hotel I was staying in. Well, I walked and walked. Saw the sign but where is the restaurant? I walked right past it and knew I had overshot when I saw Ramada. There was a foreign couple behind me and they mentioned about going into Ramada to ask. I guessed they were heading to the same place. So, I walked back to where I found the sign and true enough, there was a path leading into the restaurant. It was a late afternoon, after 2 pm and there wasn't any crowd. Just some in the air conditioned part of the restaurant. There is also the open-air beer garden area but since it was a hot afternoon, no one was sitting there.
So, what's so special about this restaurant? Well, you gonna get lots of condoms, esp. in its decor!
Take a look!
What is a restaurant without the right food? Well, this one has all that Thai cuisine has and more.
Some of the specialty dishes include the following:
- Samlee Det Deao (mouthwatering deep fried cotton fish with mango & chili sauce)
- Chicken in Herb Leaf Bikini (deep fried chicken wrapped in pandan leaves)
- Tom Kah Kai (chicken breast in coconut milk and galanga soup)
- Gung Obb Mapraow On (steamed prawn in whole coconut)
- Spicy Condom Salad (A naughty combination of Shanghai noodles garnishes with chili sauce and herbs)
Here they are:
- Pla Ka Pong Nueng Ma Nao (Seabass in lemon sauce) - a popular way of cooking fish which you can eat elsewhere in Thailand as well. I love fish and thought this to be quite good price. A whole seabass at 350 thai baht (before taxes and service charges of 17%) is quite reasonable. In Thai terms, it might be a tad more expensive than the normal restaurants. However, if you've been to Bangkok before, you'd know it all depends on where you eat rather than what you eat! There is a wide range of pricing of the same dish.
- Poo lone (Steamed crab in coconut fish sauce) - this is something which I've not tried before. It is a little similar to Lalap in Indonesia where raw vegetables (salad) is eaten with some cooked meat, in this case, crab meat. Quite tasty although a tad sweeter than what I'd enjoyed. At 200 baht, it is reasonable.
- Coconut juice - Love this especially in the warm weather of Bangkok.
- Water chestnut dessert - I forgot the name in Thai but this is the red rubies in coconut juice which can be seen almost in all Thai restaurant. I was reasonably full by the time I finished the fish so I simply ordered something light.
All in all, I enjoyed my 2 lunch visits to Cabbages & Condoms. I'm pretty sure I'd be back again in future to try out its green & red curries. If you're in Bangkok or the vicinity, you might like to visit this restaurant run by the PDA. There is also a handicraft shop at the entrance to the restaurant whereby sale proceeds are used to fund development and social welfare activities of the PDA.
Other branches of C&C Restaurant can be found at:
- Nakhon Ratchsima: 86/1 Suebsiri Road, Nai Muang Sub District, Muang District Nakhonratchasima Province. Tel: (044) 258100-2
- Vieng Pa Pao: 153 Moo 6 Pa Ngiew Sub District, Viengpapao District, Chiangrai Province. Tel: (053) 952131
- Chiangrai: 620/25 Tanalai Road. Muang District. Chiangrai Province. Tel: (053) 719167
- Nangrong: 81 Moo 6 Chokchai-Dej Udom Road. NongBoth Sub District. Nangrong District. Buriram Province. Tel: (044) 657145-7
So, how about this? A santa dressed in condoms? ;-) or if you have a queer sense of humor as the Thai did, Tiger in condoms! What a joke!
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More Cabbages & Condoms reviews
Quick Tip by Sharrie.
December 18, 2010
As it's been said, it's all in a name! What has cabbages got to do with condoms? Find out for yourself in Bangkok! It's just part of life for the Thais!
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About the reviewer
Sharrie (Sharrie)
Ranked #2
Ranked #2
I'm a traveler at heart & have been nicknamed Travel Queen by friends & colleagues alike. Traveling has been my life passion for the last decade or so. As we enter a new decade, I'm excited … more
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@Count_Orlok_22, I'm sure you won't have problem getting dessert, whatever form they come in, in Bangkok! I've never heard of men complaining about no dessert in Bangkok ;-)