Mapo Tofu, XO Seafood Fried Rice, and Dim Sum
Modern Cantonese Lunch by Canton Disco, Bangkok, Thailand
Cantonese food is one of my favorite cuisines, and it's not hard to find good, authentic Cantonese dishes in
Bangkok,
Thailand, a city with a large Chinese-Thai population.
The other day I visited Canton Disco, a modern Cantonese restaurant located on Bangkok's busy Sukhumvit Road not far from BTS Asoke, where my wife and I shared a delicious lunch set of mapo tofu, XO seafood fried rice, and dim sum.
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| modern Cantonese food at Canton Disco in Bangkok, Thailand |
Canton Disco, like its name suggests, is a Cantonese dim sum diner by day and an upscale Chinese disco by night. It's a crazy combination, but it works and I'm absolutely here for it. I've only visited during the day, but the dinner menu looks amazing as well.
My wife and I visited the restaurant during their lunch special, which allowed us to choose two mains, two sides, and two drinks for the very reasonable price of 599 baht.
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| lunch at Canton Disco in Bangkok's Sukhumvit area |
The first main dish that I tried was the mapo tofu (
麻婆豆腐), a spicy Sichuan dish made with soft tofu, ground pork, fermented bean paste, and Sichuan peppercorns. It’s known for its bold, numbing heat and savory, oily sauce, and is traditionally served with rice.
The cubed chunks of silky tofu soak up the mapo sauce and are imbued with its flavors.
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| mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐) at Canton Disco in Bangkok, Thailand |
Next, we tried the XO sauce seafood fried rice.
Developed in the 1980s in Hong Kong, XO sauce was named after the XO (extra old) rating of 10-year-old aged Cognac. Despite its name, the dark, umami-rich condiment has nothing to do with brandy. It is made from dried scallops and shrimp, garlic, smoked ham, chili, and vegetable oil, and has a sweet, slightly seafood flavor.
This Cantonese-style fried rice dish was stuffed full of shrimp and tossed with XO sauce and green onions and was topped with a perfectly fried egg that was crispy around the edges yet still runny at the yolk.
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| XO seafood fried rice with a fried egg and scallions |
The set menu also came with two orders of dim sum. We shared a serving of har gow ("crystal shrimp dumplings"), which are made from juicy pieces of shrimp steamed inside a paper-thin flour wrapping.
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| har gow, or shrimp dumplings |
We also ordered a set of xiaolongbao ("soup dumplings"), a special type of dumpling containing a juicy pork ball and a spoonful of soup broth steamed inside the wrapping. To eat xiaolongbao, pick up the entire dumpling with a spoon, take a small bite of the side, drink the soup, then eat the rest. Xiaolongbao are some of my very favorite types of dim sum!
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| xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings at Canton Disco, Bangkok |
I ordered a glass of osmanthus tea to drink. Osmanthus is a flower that, when brewed, creates a light, fresh, and herbal tea. The refreshing glass of tea was iced and garnished with a butterfly pea flower and a slice of lemon, and was a perfect, refreshing complement to the lunch.
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| osmanthus peach iced tea |
Some of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Bangkok:
Menu
The lunch menu, which lets you choose two mains, two sides, and two drinks for 599 baht, starts at 11am.
In the evenings, Canton Disco lives up to its name with a rotation of live local DJs and fun music. On weekends, they serve a bottomless, all-you-can-eat dim sum buffet.
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| Canton Disco lunch menu and prices |
Location
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| Canton Disco authentic Cantonese Chinese restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand |
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