Sip Song Bar

Review

Heat tastes this good

It's 7.30 p.m. and 32 degrees in the shade. The setting sun is beating down on the street, not a breath of air is stirring. And when it does, 80,000 blossoms from the 90-year-old string tree up ahead trickle to the ground, creating a shower of glitter in the slanting sunlight. Sweat is pouring down. Behind the streetcar station, reggae drifts out of an open door decorated with colorful curtains and comic strips. Inside it is dark and cool, a small, improvised-looking bar with a kind of doll's bathtub in front of it, wooden benches and wine racks on the wheel of the narrow, dark tube, in the background a Thai woman is chopping vegetables with a large knife. It's all wonderfully ambiguous, just sit down and try it out, says the feeling. Let yourself drift. Of course, restaurant manager Mia knows that the small Sip Song, the new bar of the great Thai restaurant Mamamon a few streets away, doesn't explain itself at first glance. "We have cocktails, a few natural wines and some street food." Sounds great, which cocktail should I drink? "Thai Martini", she says with certainty and places a large glass of water and a small bowl of peanuts with roasted Thai basil on the small white bench next to the door, the only outdoor seating. The nuts are great, the martini is mixed with homemade pandang leaf gin and instead of an olive, there is a small, green, pickled apricot. The heat stress gives way to relaxation. Mia explains that the homemade lobster chips made from salmon trout have unfortunately just run out, which is tragic, but instead brings Yum Tang Kwa, a salad of cold cucumber ribbons with briefly steamed shrimps, onions and toasted coconut flakes in a sour marinade. It's insanely good and wonderful to eat despite the heat (€ 7.-). Or Sai Krok Isaan, homemade sausage made from pork and fermented rice, cut into pieces and shoved into your mouth with salad, cucumber, rice crackers and ginger (€ 5.90). Oida! And of course betel leaves, the best Thai street food ever, usually to fill yourself, here already ready with a portion of crispy rice, sausage, onions, peanuts, herbs, ginger and I don't know what else topped with. So good (€ 7.00.) It will probably get as hot as last week in Vienna more often in the future. And the inevitable resilience will also mean eating things that are easy to digest in the heat. Undoubtedly the most pleasant and uncomplicated part of the exercise ... Summary: cool, fresh street food, accompanied by fun cocktails, craft beer or a glass of fine wine. The Thais know what to do in the heat.

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