Bangkok: a city that starts with Bang! – 01/31/2024 – Zeca Camargo

It took me going to one of my favorite restaurants in Paris for the third time, a more modern Thai one, to realize that its name is a tribute to one of my top five cities in the world.

The restaurant is called BangBang and in countless texts I have certainly praised its oysters with pepper and passion fruit; their tofu croquettes; and most recently their fried malawach bread. But I never realized that…

Well, “Bang” is the first part of the spelling of Bangkok in many languages! Twice! At the beginning of the year, when I sat around one of their Formica tables and met a Brazilian family who were there precisely on my recommendation, I realized the connection.

And, most importantly: the strength that a single syllable lends to a city that the whole world calls more or less by the same name – our countrymen in Portugal write Bangkok, but it’s all the same sound.

I also realized that the capital of Thailand could only be called Bangkok. With a bang! –well marked. In fact, capital letters: BANG! As if she didn’t make sense without that sound.

This time I landed in the city late in the afternoon, when traffic, notoriously difficult, is at its most critical. Only on one of the viaducts that give access to Sathon, where I am staying, did I stand still for 25 minutes!

But, aware that I was returning to a place that is more or less like São Paulo on steroids, I didn’t even complain. From the comfort of the air conditioning in the taxi that was taking me, I researched new places to eat.

First discovery –bang! A canteen called Err, in the Thonglor region, the offspring of a gastronomic temple that closed during the pandemic, Bo.lam. I ordered seven dishes at the Err counter. And yes, I was alone…

I started with the fried (whole!) chicken skin, hollow like a carcass – bang! Then pork kebab – bang! And followed by five more delights: bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

I left there too lazy to take the skytrain back, even though I remembered that I would pass by the station called Nana, advertised in the carriages as a little orgasm… I took a crazy tuktuk (a pleonasm, I admit) after midnight and… Bang!

The next day I went to the supermarket to buy spices. Everything is delicious, but then you discover the kaffir lime leaf powder – bang! Crushed dried shrimp paste, very spicy – ​​chili bang!

At night, tired, I went to a rooftop near my hotel and got upset: it was karaoke night. But then I saw the city lit up from above – bang!

I got my hair cut at the best barbershop in the world in Sukhumvit –bang! I went to buy vinyl rarities at Bungkumhouse Records – bang!

I saw a dense sun setting red over the Chao Phraya River – bang! And I found in River City, a shopping mall full of art galleries, an old baby smock decorated with prayers, typical of northern Thailand: bang straight to my collection!

I visited Batman, Spider-Man and Che Guevara again that adorn the Pariwat temple – bang! I got a neck massage from the best oil and wax seller next to the Buddha lying down – bang and… oooooom!

The guardian spirits of Erawan –bang! Shopping malls decorated for the Chinese Year of the Dragon that starts now – bang bang! The orange juice –bang! The smell of lemongrass: take a deep breath and let it out… bang!

In the seven days I spent there in January, it was as if I heard the sound of this word coming from the most diverse objects: from a large gong to a delicate porcelain bell.

In the end, it was a symphony of bang! Which, far from causing discomfort, reminded me why I always wanted to return to Bangkok.

And for a certain restaurant in Belleville, Paris…

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