Author: Brian Spencer
In Bangkok, there are certain things one should and should not do between 2pm and 5pm. One should not, for instance, visit the Grand Palace, lest one risk a …
The over-the-counter pharmacist, with whom I’ve done business for years at a Ratchaprasong pharmacy that shall remain nameless, said that he’s fresh out of Xanax. “Oh, no, no more. …
Most nights, the roti vendor camps out near the western, street-level stairway for the Ratchathewi BTS Skytrain station on Phayathai Road. He’s behind the bus stop there, to be …
Bulldozers demolished what was left of the condemned, abandoned buildings, these battered relics of a Bangkok priced out and put down. Soon after the concrete rubble would be cleared …
Trains gliding onwards to and from Yurakucho and Hibiya stations shake Uomara Honten like a baby wagging a rattle, not that anybody cares, not that anybody really notices. Here …
When I say that these udon noodles are famous, what I mean to say is that my father-in-law still talks about them, without prompt occasionally, some two years after …
I’ve been to all but two of the brewpubs, bottle shops, and beer bars covered here, some of them a few times, though always just as a parachute writer …
They came marching down the street in droves, white-gloved young men in rows two by two, limbs swinging stiffly like animate nutcrackers, forest-green uniforms fastened with golden buttons and …
Whether by lucky chance or by clever game plan–or a little of both–this much is obvious: Druggists has completely f-ing nailed it. Though the range of beers poured from …
When I moved back to Brooklyn in 2009 following a glorious nine-month stint in Bangkok, one of the few things I actually looked forward to was Motorino pizza. Neapolitan-style, …
Some day soon it will tumble down. A team of controlled demolitionists will pack it tenderly with a lethal injection of dynamite sticks and nitroglycerin satchels, then “hit the …
We thought something might be wrong when our server offered free beer. Four free beers, to be precise. “Excuse me, sir,” he said, “but do you like beer?” Nobody …