BITCHLOVE

The Kitchen

Bar food

Everything here is a real recipe with real temperatures. Nothing needs a restaurant kitchen — a pan, an oven, and something to drink while you wait.

4 showing · 444 plates · 15 drinks

vegan 73 vegetarian 36
the house Bangkok 15 Bangkok 24 Istanbul 17 Istanbul 22 Lisbon 13 Lisbon 22 London 16 London 22 Madrid 16 Madrid 22 Mexico City 16 Mexico City 22 Milan 16 Milan 23 Paris 16 Paris 22 Seoul 18 Seoul 23 Tokyo 17 Tokyo 22
everything dips 63 fried 120 loaded 164 skewers 43 sliders 32 wings 14 sweet 8
🍌

Fried Bananas VEGAN

กล้วยทอด / กล้วยแขก (kluai thot / kluai khaek) · Bangkok

Bananas in a coconut and sesame batter, fried hard, sold hot in a paper bag. Not a bar-table dish. It is what the cart on the corner sells you on the walk home at two.

45 min 4-6 easy
Make it

You need

  • 6 firm bananas, ideally Thai namwa; slightly underripe plantains work
  • 1 cup rice flour
  • 1/4 cup tapioca or all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
  • 2 tbsp white sesame seeds
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup coconut milk, plus water to loosen
  • Neutral oil for frying, about 4 cups

Method

  1. Whisk rice flour, tapioca flour, coconut, sesame, sugar and salt. Stir in coconut milk to a batter that coats a spoon thickly, adding water a spoon at a time.
  2. Rest the batter 20 minutes. The rice flour needs to hydrate or the crust stays chalky.
  3. Peel the bananas and cut lengthwise into thirds, or press them flat with the side of a knife.
  4. Heat 2 inches of oil to 340F/170C.
  5. Dip each piece, let the excess run off, and lower it into the oil. Fry 3-4 minutes, turning once, until dark gold and hard to the tap.
  6. Drain on a rack. Eat them within twenty minutes; they are only good hot.

Where you'd actually eat it: Carts outside the bar strips of Banthat Thong and Ari, running until the drinkers thin out. Eaten standing up, waiting on a motorbike taxi.

From behind the bar: Traditional cart batter is rice flour and coconut milk, no egg and no butter. Some newer versions add egg for color, so ask before you assume.

🥭

Sour Fruit with Chili Salt VEGAN

ผลไม้จิ้มพริกเกลือ (phonlamai chim phrik kluea) · Bangkok

Hard sour fruit under a coarse red powder of chili, salt and sugar. It is the chaser at every ya dong cart and about the only sweet thing a Thai drinking table wants.

25 min 4 with drinks ▲▲ easy
Make it

You need

  • 1 green mango, firm and sour, peeled and cut in thick slices
  • 1 guava, seeds cut out, cut in wedges
  • 2 rose apples, or half a pineapple, cut in spears
  • 3 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
  • 1 tbsp dried chili flakes, phrik pon, or 4 dried red chilies
  • Ice, for holding the fruit

Method

  1. If using whole dried chilies, toast them in a dry pan over medium 2 minutes until they darken and smell sharp. Cool completely.
  2. Pound salt, sugar and chili in a mortar to a coarse red powder, or pulse in a spice grinder. Leave it gritty; dust sticks to nothing.
  3. Taste it on a slice of fruit. Salty first, hot second, sweet last. It keeps a month in a sealed jar.
  4. Cut the fruit thick. Thin slices go limp and drown in the dip.
  5. Hold everything on ice 20 minutes. Cold, hard fruit is the whole point of the plate.
  6. Serve the fruit over ice with the chili salt in a small dish alongside.

Where you'd actually eat it: Ya dong carts around Chinatown and Talat Phlu hand you a slice of pickled fruit after the shot. Lao khao, then fruit, then soda, in that order.

From behind the bar: The other cart dip is nam pla wan, palm sugar cooked down with fish sauce and shallots. Good, and not vegan. Dry phrik kluea is the version that is.

🍠

Candied sweet potato VEGAN

고구마맛탕 (goguma-matang) · Seoul

Sweet potato fried hard, then rolled in caramel until each chunk sets glassy. Sweet enough to reset your mouth after a table of chili. Sesame seeds on top, no exceptions.

40 min 3 to 4 fair
Make it

You need

  • 600 g Korean sweet potatoes (or orange-fleshed), peeled and cut into rough 1 inch chunks
  • Neutral oil for deep frying
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp rice syrup or corn syrup
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil, for the caramel
  • 1 tbsp toasted black and white sesame seeds
  • Pinch of salt

Method

  1. Soak the cut sweet potato in cold water 15 minutes to rinse off surface starch, then dry completely. Wet chunks will spit in the oil.
  2. Heat 2 inches of oil to 325F/163C. Fry in batches 6 to 8 minutes until a skewer slides through easily and the outsides are pale gold. Drain on a rack.
  3. Raise the oil to 375F/191C and fry each batch again for 2 minutes until the crust is firm and browned. Drain.
  4. In a wide pan over medium heat, combine sugar, syrup, water, 1 tbsp oil and the salt. Swirl, do not stir, until it turns amber and bubbles thickly, about 3 minutes.
  5. Kill the heat, add the sweet potato, and toss fast so every piece takes a coat before the caramel seizes.
  6. Tip onto an oiled tray, separate the pieces with a fork, scatter sesame seeds, and let set 5 minutes. Vegan as written, using syrup rather than honey.

Where you'd actually eat it: Comes as a side plate with the fried chicken at old-school chicken shops, and turns up on pocha menus at the end of the night. Eaten hot with cold beer, which sounds wrong and is not.

From behind the bar: Move fast at the toss. The caramel goes from pourable to concrete in under a minute, and reheating it just burns the sugar.

🍠

Candied sweet potato VEGAN

고구마맛탕 (goguma-mattang) · Seoul

Sweet potato fried hard, then rolled in caramel until each chunk sets glassy. Sweet enough to reset your mouth after a table of chili. Sesame seeds on top, no exceptions.

40 min 3 to 4 fair
Make it

You need

  • 600 g Korean sweet potatoes (or orange-fleshed), peeled and cut into rough 1 inch chunks
  • Neutral oil for deep frying
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp rice syrup or corn syrup
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1 tbsp neutral oil, for the caramel
  • 1 tbsp toasted black and white sesame seeds
  • Pinch of salt

Method

  1. Soak the cut sweet potato in cold water 15 minutes to rinse off surface starch, then dry completely. Wet chunks will spit in the oil.
  2. Heat 2 inches of oil to 325F/163C. Fry in batches 6 to 8 minutes until a skewer slides through easily and the outsides are pale gold. Drain on a rack.
  3. Raise the oil to 375F/190C and fry each batch again for 2 minutes until the crust is firm and browned. Drain.
  4. In a wide pan over medium heat, combine sugar, syrup, water, 1 tbsp oil and the salt. Swirl, do not stir, until it turns amber and bubbles thickly, about 3 minutes.
  5. Kill the heat, add the sweet potato, and toss fast so every piece takes a coat before the caramel seizes.
  6. Tip onto an oiled tray, separate the pieces with a fork, scatter sesame seeds, and let set 5 minutes. Vegan as written, using rice syrup rather than honey.

Where you'd actually eat it: Comes as a side plate with the fried chicken at old-school chicken shops, and turns up on pocha menus at the end of the night. Eaten hot with cold beer, which sounds wrong and is not.

From behind the bar: Move fast at the toss. The caramel goes from pourable to concrete in under a minute, and reheating it just burns the sugar.