Jodd Fairs

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I decided to go out for an evening at Jodd Fairs, a relatively new market located in downtown Bangkok.

Jodd Fairs, Bangkok

Jodd Fairs is situated right in the heart of the city, surrounded by the shopping malls, luxury condos, and skyscrapers of the Phra Ram IX neighborhood. It's a sort of oasis of calm amidst the city's constant bustle and chaos.

some shops at Jodd Fairs

It's more of an upscale hipstery-type market than what you might imagine in Thailand, but it perfectly encapsulates the general vibe of downtown Bangkok.

a beer shop at Jodd Fairs

The market sells things like pins, stickers, and t-shirts, but is mostly dedicated to food. As soon as you enter, you are greeted by several beer stalls selling not only the typical Singh, Chang, and Leo, but also craft beers from around the world and imported Korean soju.

various beers available for sale

We were hungry, and on the lookout for food.

a small tiki bar at Jodd Fairs

It was actually hard to decide... there were too many options that it took us a long time to decide what to have for dinner. We wanted to wander through the stalls first to make sure that we didn't miss anything that looked delicious.

shops and stalls at the market

a place to sit and eat

beautiful classic car

We finally decided on Tom Leng Zap, or sour pork spine soup. I wrote about this dish on my food blog, The World of Street Food:

https://www.theworldofstreetfood.com/2022/06/tom-leng-zap-or-sour-pork-spine-soup.html

tom leng zap

This spicy and sour pork spine soup, called tom leng zap in Thai, developed out of practicality. In the past, high-quality pork meat would be served as a main dish, and the leftover meat and bones would be used to make a soup broth. Today, this "spine soup" has become a dish of its own, and is gaining in popularity in the Thai street food scene.

a bowl of sour pork spines soup

A bowl of tom leng zap usually comes with a disposable plastic glove. It is difficult to get all of the meat off of the bone, and the best way to get your money's worth from this dish is by picking the extra meat off of the spine with your hand, or picking it up and eating directly from the bone.

dinner!

Eating from the bone is kind of like eating ribs. There's just no graceful way to do it. You've just got to enjoy the chaos of a bowl of tom leng zap. And, hey! At least they gave us gloves.

it's a messy dish to enjoy, but worth every bite

After dinner, we had some famous ice cream from a shop based out of Amphawa. The ice cream shop is famous for its weird flavors - such as whisky, beer, milk-fruit, and more.

at the ice cream shop

various ice cream flavors

We ended up getting two scoops: young mango and some sour fruit that I cannot remember the name of. The ice cream guy dusted the top of the ice cream with a little bit of Thai chili sugar (usually used to dip young mango into). It was good. Odd, but very good!

special ice cream