Busaba, The Exchange TRX, Kuala Lumpur

Busaba (L1.02.0, Level 1, The Exchange TRX, Imbi, 55188 Kuala Lumpur) may be the first time we've having Thai food in KL. Typically, it's not something we go for since Bangkok isn't that far away and Singapore has decent ones as well. I prefer to eat something more Malaysian which we can't get back home. And some others. But one meat kinda tipped the scales in our decision. 🐑.

We did have some things we generally like. Like tom kha gai.

This was loaded with tender slices of chicken and coconut meat. Pretty delicious rendition if I might say so.

Some pomelo salad with tempura-ish deep fried prawns.

Fried prawn cakes. Decent rendition as well.

Sadly, the lamb pad krapow that walked us in was forgettable. Super forgettable. The meat was either very marinated, very fat free or both. No even the slightest hint of lamb. Pretty disappointing for RM65.

That one item on the menu which could've been it just didn't do it. As for the other dishes, it's not exaggeration to claim that they're more or less a dime a dozen in Thai restaurants in this part of the world. Will not be coming back of course.

Mama Lek (แม่เล็ก), Wisma Cosway, Kuala Lumpur

Thai beef noodle shop (Lot G-37 Wisma Cosway, 88 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur). Isaan styled apparently.

Green tea was milky. Not bad though.

This was a bowl of sen lek (rice noodles) with mixed beef parts. Broth was rich & deep in a sweet & savoury manner, steeped in their blend of warm spices. Thankfully, it was more savoury than sweet.

Amidst the mixed cuts which included sliced beef, tripe, beef balls, brisket and tendon, we also found some tongue. First time encountering them in Thai beef noodles. Enjoyable bowl. Would love to come back again.

Raohe Night Market (饒河街觀光夜市)

First time going to a night market in Taipei. This one was the Raohe market (Raohe Street, Songshan District, Taipei). Went a little wild with the food.

First time trying 大腸包小腸. While the Chinese name translates into big intestine wraps little intestine, the outer layer isn't an intestine - it's made of glutinous rice. The garlic bits stuffed into it helps make the savoury sweet sausage easier to inhale in the tube of glutinous rice. Now that I've tried it, will probably never bother with them again.

There's a stall that has amazing thin sliced roasted pork belly. The fat readily melted in the mouth and those crackling was crunchy and not hard. One of the more memorable eats here.

The other thing I liked a lot was guava with the plum sauce. There's a spin the wheel with each purchase and we won a second bag of guava from that.

Squid fried rice - the rice was bad. Possibly the worst fried rice I've ever had. Squid was not bad. Am gonna call it out as the worst eat here as a reminder to self never to get anything from the stall again if we ever came back.

This stall did a variety of braises where you could pick your choice morsels and they'd pack it up with the braising sauce. Nice.

A stall selling oyster omelette. Just oyster and eggs, no batter. This was nice. Oyster was fat and tasted good.

This was pandan flavoured kanom krok. The pandan flavour was weak. 

First lu rou fan in Taiwan from this stop. I'm gonna just call it okay tasting because there wasn't anything about it that was outstanding. It levelled up to pretty good with the chilli. Stinky tofu was also okay-ish. Rocked with that salty bean sauce though.

There're these pastries called hu jiao bing (胡椒餅) which are stuffed with peppered pork and spring onions or chives. This stall at Raohe market was suppose to be one of the better ones. Queue's long and moves pretty fast. Nice sesame flavour from the pastry and the fillings were definitely peppery. I think it's ok...meaning that while I didn't dislike it, I wasn't particularly impressed. Am unlikely to get them again if the opportunity presented.

Fried pineapples from Mrs Banana

Got these from Mrs Banana at Takashimaya. Not bad tasting. The exterior was crunchy and the pineapple inside were sweet and moist. Said pineapples are available in either sliced pieces or smaller bites. We got the latter. I would have been happier if not for the fact that a quarter of this cup at the bottom was filled with just crunchy bits.

Water Gate Chicken Rice (水門雞飯), Soy Street, Mongkok

Little did we expect to eat Thai chicken rice in Hong Kong (G/F, 21C Soy Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2809 2918). What got us intrigued was likely a combination of them being featured on social media and that we noticed their queue out at the actual shop a couple of times we passed by. 

Not bad tasting. No qualms eating again. It's not exactly the same as the Singapore version but the flavour profile wasn't very different too. Got the combi plate with both poached and fried chicken. The bunch of stuff at 5 o'clock are called giblets on the menu and it consisted of some chicken blood curd, gizzards and intestines. Gizzards were hard and chewy.

Both sauces on the side were nice.

Tried the wagyu boat noodle out of curiosity. According to them it's A5.

Could tell that it was nice fatty beef but I don't think I tasted the A5 in it. Their egg noodle option for the bowl was mee pok rather than the mee kia we were imagining. Broth was sweet, savoury and peppery - not bad tasting but also nowhere in the leagues of what we consider great boat noodle broth.

Decent cha yen.

Basil King, Margaret Drive

This was from one of numerous outlets (40 Margaret Drive) of Basil King - the local pad krapow chain of stalls allegedly "inspired" by Mark Wein's Phed Mark. "Inspired". 😏

Their rendition featured minced pork which was kinda dried out, a pretty manageable level 4 heat and creamy yolk that was kinda nice. I can't say I didn't enjoy this but that being said, I don't think it stood up that well compared to a number of other pad krapow moo we've had. Also considering that they have 13 outlets out there for a relatively new brand, isn't QC out the window already?

Fi Woodfire Thai ไฟ, Shaw Centre

Read about Fi Woodfire Thai (#03-14 Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Road, tel : +65 8776 1569) a while back and was keen on checking them out. Think of them as contemporary Thai with a wood fire oven to showcase their food.

This was watermelon with fish floss. Name pretty much described it. The fish floss according to the menu was supposed to be tom yum flavoured but I didn't notice. There was a bit of flavour going on from the watermelon and the sauce.

There's pomelo & tofu salad. Pretty much tasted like how it looked with the tangy fish sauce dressing and pomegranate.

We had son in law egg. Came with a strawberry tamarind glaze. Glaze wasn't very prominent with the strawberry but this dish was pleasant as a whole.

From their wood fire oven, some delicious grilled maitake with shredded coconut. The mushrooms were smoky and tender.

French poulet. Tender and chicken-y with nice caramelized bits. What got my attention with this one was their chicken liver jaew. Sweet, sour and spicy like typical jaew with a livery creaminess.

Pad kee mao. Okay tasting. Lacked the flavour intensity and smokiness I was hoping for.

Coffee's a little thin. I was expecting thick and intense like some of the street coffee in Bangkok we've tried or the Starbucks there which gave me heart palpitations. This was too gentle.