I love Thai food, but after eating it day in day out sometimes I want something different, something a bit more exotic, something like... fish and chips. The Brits in the audience will no doubt laugh, but as a teenager growing up in Oregon, fish and chips seemed pretty exotic to me. Upon moving to Bangkok I was delighted to discover that fish and chips were quite readily available, and my usual (and now former) fish and chips haunt became a characterless room adjacent to a bar near Soi Cowboy, which, according Wikipedia is "perhaps Bangkok's best known fish and chips shop". This may be true, but in retrospect, a visit to this place is an exercise in mediocre food in desperate surroundings. (For an excruciatingly detailed, and sometimes impassioned discussion on the fish and chips scene in Bangkok, check out this forum.)
Thus I was overjoyed to discover Oh My Cod!, a relatively new fish and chips joint and a card-carrying member of the British Federation of Fish Fryers. Today I finally made the long trip down to Banglamphoo, and was fortunate indulge in one of my favourite foods with Newley Purnell,
fellow Oregonian, fish and chips aficionado, and the body and brains behind newley.com.
Apparently there are other food products for sale at Oh My Cod!, but Newley and I dove straight into the f & c. The restaurant offers a choice between red snapper or the more traditional cod, and being men of conscience we went for the not-yet-extinct snapper. As illustrated above, the dish takes the form of a mind-bogglingly puffy portion of fish accompanied by thick-cut chips ("French fries" for you American English speakers) and peas prepared either "garden" or "mushy" style. The fish batter was spot-on crispy and flaky, but the enclosed snapper was a tad soft and mushy.
The fish was followed by a right proper cuppa:
of PG Tips no less. And being "fully licensed to sell drinks" the menu at Oh My Cod! also includes some imported English beers and ciders, as well as the elusive Beer Lao. The restaurant also sports a pleasant outdoor dining area:
and what must be one of the most detailed websites in the history of fish and chip restaurant websites. The only bummer was our surly nose-ringed waitress, who refused to speak Thai with us, but who didn't seem able to speak English either. Not sure exactly how she expected to communicate, as my sign language skills are pretty rusty. Regardless, I will doubtlessly be returning.
Oh My Cod! British Cafe
5d Rambuttri Village Inn
Soi Rambuttri (near Khao San Road, see map)
02 282 6553
7:30am-10pm
technorati tags: fishandchips, bangkok, restaurants, food