Maedah Restaurant

In the midst of the INDRA wholesale shopping area in Bangkok, I’m introduced to the Maedah Restaurant. Outside the restaurant sit several men of African decent drinking tea and chatting with comrades.

Inside I’m greeted by Thai Muslim hostesses. I choose a table and I’m immediately fascinated by my surroundings. Rarely have I encountered the cultural diversity that surrounds me in this restaurant. Generally restaurants cater to a particular palate which attracts a rather homogeneous clientele.

Being a primarily Arabic restaurant, the menu reads from right to left. It is not until I get to end of the menu the first time that I realize I have started at the “back”. This explains why the breakfast menu is at the “back”, when in reality it is at the “front” and I have just read the menu backwards.

Several small groups of people from diverse countries of African origin are scattered throughout the restaurant, along with a table of women from South East Asia and a table of men of perhaps Middle Eastern decent. For awhile I remain the only Caucasian in the restaurant and then a group representing the four corners of the earth arrives together.

The menu is as diverse as the patrons. First are the Arab dishes including a selection of barbecued meats, followed by the Indian and Thai dishes. At the end of the menu are the Chinese dishes, which in many cases for some reason have been whited out. Spaghetti and a variety of pasta dishes are also on the menu but don’t seem to fit under any particular cultural heading. All menu items are written in English and Arabic.

I’m told there is a very good Thai cook who knows how to cook food from many cultures and that you just choose the kind of food you want to eat and it will be sure to be delicious.

I decide to order an Indian chick pea dish with grated ginger that comes highly recommended.

While I enjoy my meal, I wonder what are the stories that have brought people here to Maedah Restaurant on a Monday night in March.