Chinabites

Posted: Jul. 25, 2008

For the past two days I've been spending time on the eastern side of the city near the Worker's Stadium.  I've been sampling the restaurants near several major Olympic venues and trying to get tickets for men's olympic soccer.  Let's just say that the culinary research was the more successful of the  two endeavors.

I decided to try a Thai restaurant that I became aware of several days ago when some random foreigner approached me on the street with a guidebook of some sort asking me how to find it.  I made a mental note and decided to drop in for lunch yesterday at the Swallowtail Butterfly Thai restaurant.

The first impression was that the waitstaff was extremely friendly and set an excellent tone for the meal.  On the down side, they struggled mightily with the air conditioning, to little avail.  I wasn't in the mood for a huge meal, so I decided to just order the tom kha gai coconut milk and chicken soup and a mango salad.  Both were spicy, the mango salad surprisingly so.

After lunch, when I asked for the check, the waitresses had an odd request.  They said that the local police had been by and wanted each restaurant in the area to write a paragraph in English introducing the restaurant.  They wanted to know if I would help them write one.  When I said I wouldn't mind, they produced a pen and paper and looked on anxiously as I wrote and then re-wrote what I thought was a decent introduction to their establishment.  They gave me a golden elephant key chain for my trouble, but sadly no discount on lunch.

The restaurant is actually in a great location for the Olympics.  Just far enough away from Workers Stadium to not get mobbed, but close enough to walk to if you know where you're going.  I'd be curious if any visitors from the Olympics end up reading the intro that I wrote and patronize the restaurant as a result.