A musical interlude

A briyani poori set

It's been a little while since my last Indian meal so again, I've hit the rather convenient Komala's for their oil heavy vegetarian meals. This time round, it was their briyani poori set which consisted of their vegetarian briyani and a couple of the air filled puri. Nothing very unexpected from what I've gotten here, but I wished that they were more generous with their raita which made the rice go down a lot faster. That's not to say that the briyani was no good at all. In fact, the old Gardenia tagline on TV advertisements applied more appropriately to them rather than those generic white loaves.

My papadum was not crispy again today.

Black spicy ramen from Keisuke's Tonkotsu King

I think I prefer the original. This black spicy rendition tasted peppery, but it didn't much enhance the experience or flavours for the broth. This time round, there seemed to be more oil floating at the top too.

L'Occitane Cafe, Peninsula Plaza, Bangkok

We started the first meal of this trip at a cafe and coincidentally ended in a last meal with one as well just before we made our way to the airport. It partially out of convenience and also that I've heard that the beef noodles here were good that we landed up at this place (153 Rachadamri Road, Lumphini, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330) for lunch after dropping our belongings at the concierge.

But I ended up with a braised ox tongue with butter rice.

This was actually not bad. The tender and chewy ox tongue came with a light tomato sauce which tasted slightly beefy. Made a sufficient meal that wasn't too heavy since that butter rice didn't quite taste of butter and light was something I was really looking for before the return flight.

A breakfast of duck kuey teow at Otoko market

This was a real breakfast of braised duck rice noodles that we got in the morning. Not the type that we normally grab during lunch because we didn't wake up early enough for a real one. For 50 baht, it was a relatively cheap. The portions were pretty small as well. Gotta admit it was quite good though. It came with cubes of duck blood. This was one of those things we saw people eating around at the market and it didn't take us too long to decide to get us a bowl.

Their kuey teow was a little chewy that I had initially mistaken them for a thinner version of mee pok. The broth was a mix of sweet and savoury with an umami depth. If that made sense. All in all, a comforting breakfast that we didn't expect to find. This market will be location marked for returns.

Fireplace Grill, InterContinental Bangkok, Bangkok

There were definitely encouraging signs that this place (InterContinental Bangkok, 973 Ploenchit Road, Bangkok 10330, tel : + 660 2656 0444 ) could be good from the start. For one, it was located conveniently within strolling distance from where we were staying. The ambiance was good and the menu looked like that of a serious steakhouse that didn't attempt to confuse with variety. Service was pretty sharp. They even had some superlative award on display right near the front door by Thailand Tatler for 2011. All encouraging omens right until the moment the food arrived.

The bread was ok. There was a small variety for selection and they came with unsalted butter. I would definitely have preferred the salted ones.

Amuse bouche was a shrimp with salsa. This was ok as well. Nothing much to talk about here.

Some of us tried the caramelised onion soup with cognac because it was listed as a signature item. There were even little symbols on the menu indicating that it was a food item that contains alcohol. When the soup arrived, all that fanciful description on menu was reduced into a pretty singular dimensional French onion soup with toasted cheese topped baguette. Not one of the better ones I've had.

The biggest bummer was their prime rib. The meat was a little to close to rare for a medium rare, suffered from poor distribution of fat and lacked flavor. Even on the caps and the edges where most of the salt and rubbings went. This one tasted pretty bland. The meat in the middle was a little sinewy and could not even be redeemed by the jus they had provided. Their crispy Yorkshire pudding and vine ripen tomatoes were safe to say, the best tasting items on the plate. For the first time ever, I've left my prime rib unfinished.

Wait, there's more....the creamed spinach they had one the side were merely boiled spinach in a cream sauce. Nothing like I imagined and tasted lousier than the microwaved stuff I've had on plane. In response, I'm giving this place a pass for ever. I had xpected much better for what they charged. You know, I had much better tasting roast beef at Javier's.

Greyhound Cafe, Siam Centre, Bangkok

the hangover view

Greyhound Cafe (Siam Centre, ground floor, +66 2 6581129 30) looked much like PS Cafe. Reasonably convenient from where we were staying after a late night and casual enough to grab the first meal of the day with much hassle. Which was lunch.

We hit a bunch of finger food for starters which included plates of nicely browned and deep fried half mid wings. Those were very good by the way. And then some corn and crab fritters which was also very nicely done. All the latter just needed a little salt that would have gotten along very very nicely with the sweetness from the corn and crab meat.

The main reason for us visiting was to have their recommended Complicated Kuey Teow. What might that be? I actually hadn't a clue until it was served. I had always imagined it to be some stir fried or soup kuey teow with a fancy name. It turned out to be a board of lettuces with a stack of kuey teow, some green chilli condiment with coriander and a thick minced pork gravy on the side.

One places a thin slice of the kuey teow on the lettuce, adds the sauce and minced meat which is then folded into a vegetable wrap. That's how complicated it all was. Quite good with the play of textures and spicy flavors.

Came back the next day for more of the same stuff up there.

Phaiboon Seafood, Bangrak, Bangkok

More Thai Chinese food again here in Bangkok and this time round, it's the localized home styled restaurant (598/3 near Soi Jomsomboon, Rama 4 Road, Bangrak, Bangkok 10500, tel : + 66 0 2234 9568, 0 8504 70330) down a street near the old Mandarin Hotel.

The oyster omelette they served was a little different from the local variety. We got bigger oysters and a more sticky flour batter along with the crunch of beansprouts in a sizzling hot plate. This was quite delicious.

Phaiboon's tom yum goong has coconut milk, but wasn't done in excess like the rendition served at Baan Khanitha. The flavour from this prawn laden soup were still relatively clear in spite of that addition. It was also a tad spicier.

We had a deep fried prawn spring rolls that married savory, crispy and not excessively greasy.

One of the signature dishes at Phaiboon is apparently their curry crab. This wasn't the conventional curry as many people know of outside of Thailand. The viscous "curry" tasted only slightly spicy, was noticeably sweet and was also quite eggy. After it cooled, the "sauce" congealed and became what I thought looked like otah. While I couldn't say that I didn't like it, the taste was quite singular in dimensions and did become cloying after a while.

The crab however, was fantastically fresh with the sweetness of the meat that shone in the mash of all the other flavors.

The stir fried kang kong appeared to be quite ordinary. I suppose it was their style of the cooking here and didn't come with sambal or belachan. It seemed at the start to be a tame plate of vegetables in garlic until we all hit upon the small camouflaged slices of green chilli (very similarly colored as the kang kong there) that exploded with blazing heat. Pretty good stuff.

Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Five

This marker post might have been a little later than usual, but it's been 5 years! :)

Scala Shark's Fin Restaurant, Siam Square, Bangkok

This retro looking Chinese restaurant (218-218/1 Siam Square 1, opp. Scala Theatre, Bangkok, tel : +66 02-252-0322, 02-251-8899, 02-251 4799) has been around a little longer than I have and on the authority of someone who had been a customer for about three decades and is clinically allergic to MSG, the food here was good and recommended for its quality.

It seemed that the wait staff in this place were similar as the ones from Shaslik. Most of them had been part of the crew from the early days of the restaurant and that they had been around forever. Apparently there are a few other similarly named restaurants that use the name of Scala and this one was the original. They even indicated that they do not have any other branches on their business card.

The restaurant was an altogether not unfamiliar facade. The main stay dishes consisted of abalone, shark's fin, crabs and prawns. Traditional fruits of the sea for the wealthy Chinese. I was told that the food here hasn't changed much since the beginning.

Not to fill the shoes of Captain Obvious but, the specialty of the restaurant is shark's fin soup. These came in a claypot and were portioned from 800 - 5000 baht. The price of course, commensurates the amount of fin that one gets in the serving. The quality of the fin I hear, is all the same. Only the good ones are served. The brown broth was wicked with a healthy dose of powdered white pepper and sloshes of vinegar.

I couldn't comment much on the fins since I don't eat them so often. Wouldn't even consider ordering them under usual circumstances.

The restaurant also serves stir fried fish maw which was awesome. The texture of the maw was expectedly sponge like slightly chewy, flavoured by a certain savoury seasoning which I couldn't identify. It might have been a soy sauce based and it was to say the least, mouthwatering. I'm going to remember this place for the fish maw rather than the shark's fin.

We ordered a pot of collagen rich braised goose web. In retrospect, there was a little too much soup going on in this lunch. After the shark's fin, none of us in particular were really interested in having more fluids.

Our obligatory greens for the lunch today was boiled kale with oyster sauce. The stems of these greens retained quite a bit of crunch and sweetness, almost akin to water chestnuts. I had to admit that they were pretty good.

The carbs came in the form of crab fried rice. This was nicely done with the rice well tossed in the wok with eggs and came with very generous portions of chunky crab meat. It was also light enough that I had seconds.

I'm marking this place for returns the next time I visit Bangkok.