Som Tam Nua, Siam Square, Bangkok

I noticed this place (392/14 Soi Siam Square 5, Rama 1 Road. Tel +66 (0) 22 51 4880) while wandering the streets of Siam Square in the last trip and decided to give them a try. Apparently, they were awarded the best som tam by CNNGo's Best Eats in 2010 and have been around for about a decade. As the name of the restaurant may imply, they specialise, I use the word loosely here, in som tam; offering multiple variants of the popular papaya salad here.

The lunch crowd here was pretty intense and it was a good thing that we arrived shortly before the main bulk arrived.

The dishes here were pretty affordable, served in small manageable portions that were ideal for sharing. For those that may not be able to man up to the heat, their Earl Grey latte was pretty much the only drink that helps quell all that spice.

We had a pork liver salad. The livers in slivers were well cooked that it was neither under done nor overly so. The flavour was dominantly spicy, sour and savory. I liked this.

And there was a lemon grassy pork which arrived like a salad too. This particular dish had delicious soft cloves of garlic.

Well received were their grilled and sliced pork collar, with a nice thin caramalization on the outside while retaining juices in the meat. Delicious too.

Moving along, came a deep fried fish. I don't eat deep fried fish so often, so I don't know if they're considered great. But I thought it was well done, drained of excessive oil and very crispy to boot.

Of course, we had to give their claim to fame a go. These was what was described as the Thai som tam on the menu. The servers had explained that the regular one was spicier compared to this one. The salad still packed a mild heat, but what we really liked about this one was the very invigorating flavour from the lime. The mild heat and salt along with the medley of textures that came from the ingredients made it a very refreshing salad. Yes, that definitely included the crispy deep fried pork rinds as well.

Food Plus, Siam Square, Bangkok

Great little lane that joins Soi 5 and Soi 6 down in Siam Square. A stretch of long tables runs down this section of the sheltered alley with food stalls flanking both sides of those tables. Food is cheap and catered to the working crowd in the vicinity with petite sized meals can be had for as little as 50 baht. 

More khao kha moo can be found here. This had leaner meat that wasn't directly from the knuckle. Delicious too if I may say. 

And a stall that serves a tasty and umami braised duck rice noodles in soup. It came with gizzards, fish balls and addition portions of duck blood curds. The flavour was crisp and clear. I'd eat this again in a heartbeat.

A side of a lemon grassy hok mok (Thai otah), fried egg and stir fried bitter gourd.

And chicken rice that is served with deep fried meat from the thigh. This was as the whole pretty good in spite of the fact that the rice was in no way on par in terms of flavour with the one at Siam Paragon.

The surprising find in this street food stretch was one of two coffee stalls that sold coffee brewed from freshly ground beans. The beans were measured and then ground by to order, brewed from a machine and flavoured with evaporated milk. It puts the regular brew at Starbucks to shame. Don't just take my word for it, try it for yourself.

A khao kha moo from the MBK food court

What a delicious mess this was from the food court at Mahboonkrong (328 Rama IV Rd, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330). Like the last time we had them, it was essentially a heap of collagen, fat and tender meat with little bits of bone (careful there) chopped off from a trotter that's been stewing for some time in a large pot of more trotters and offal. All on top of a portion of rice which served as a vehicle to soak up all the braising liquid and juices. And to reiterate what I've mentioned before, this worked with the fish sauce and finely sliced chilli that they provided; to break between the richness from the trotter.

BKK Bagel Bakery, Ploenchit Road, Bangkok

As the story goes, this shop (518/3 Maneeya Center, Ploenchit Road, Bangkok 10330, tel : +662 254 8157 ) in town was set up by two friends - an American and a Thai that decided that Bangkok needed a front for real bagels. Hence BKK Bagels was born, set up to provide New York styled bagels that are rolled, boiled and baked daily. Where one simply picked the choice of fillings, selects a bagel of choice to go and that was pretty much it. 

Since this shop was also conveniently located 5 minutes walk from where we were staying, it was an opportunity for us to drop by for breakfast with minimal hassle. For at least a couple of times. It seems that the location of the deli was taken over from Kipling next door as the decor looked too similar and the entrance to this deli had the suspicious looking monkey shaped door handles.

Some of the meats such as their ham and bacon were made in house and they were actually pretty good. Good in that aromatic smoky manner that one generally likes in cured meat. The corned beef that they used was also pretty delicious stuff. Their sausages didn't taste like something that was made from a factory as well. So as little as I know about them, it had seemed like most of the ingredients that they were using were made from scratch and not simply bought. Unfortunately, the pickles which were also house made weren't agreeable as they were too salty. Their interestingly crunchy sauerkraut was definitely not very fermented, but did work with their reuben like a slaw. I suspect that their approach to pickling vegetables were much like how the locals here like their greens, leaving the vegetables a little too raw-ish for my preferences. 

pastrami

breakfast epic

reuben

moishe's lunch

verrazano

hog heaven

Taling Pling, Siam Paragon, Bangkok

This restaurant (Room G30, G/F, Siam Paragon, 991 Rama 1 Rd., Bangkok, tel : 02-129-4353-4), like Nara reminded me of the Thai version of Grandma's. A locally born restaurant in Thailand that has found success in their business with strategically placed branches serving contemporary and traditional Thai food that has won the approvals of both locals and tourists. The food was pretty enjoyable, but service was extremely spotty. It was obvious that the wait staff were never updated on availability until orders are processed and they actually forgot orders in spite of writing them down. Twice for a particular dish even. The serving sequence and timing was also messed up.

This were crispy rice crackers with and pork and peanut coconut dip. Delicious the sweet nutty dip was. Those rice crackers had also tasted a lot better than they looked.

Out of the blue, braised cow's tongue with a salty beefy broth that was very tasty with white rice. I don't pretend to be an expert with Thai food, but I certainly didn't see ox tongue coming.

This omelette with lardon sounded like a good idea. It was for a little bit until the flavors got a little boring. The lard bits could have benefited from a longer time in the fryer and the omelette could certainly have done with less grease since there was already a heap of lard. By this time, we were all wondering what was happening with the order of white rice since the food was starting to arrive. Albeit slowly.

Their stir fried asparagus with shrimp was good. Not fibrous in the slightest and freshly crunchy. 

A couple of items were sold out so we ended up with an odd suggested replacement of garlic clams with garlic bread. It's so straight forwardly unimaginative, conspicuously outstanding like a clown fish amongst piranha and rather unexpected item in a place that served Thai food - but I kinda liked it. 

This is chunky crab meat stir fried with basil and bird's eye chilli. It packed a respectable amount of heat from the chilli, had a nice aroma which wasn't overpowering from the basil and we thought this was rather enjoyable. But - one must enjoy the sadistic ritual of burning one's lips and tongue to enjoy this.

More chunky crab meat was served in a curry with quite a bit of green vegetables. You know what made this rock? No shell. Another item that makes good company with white rice, but we had to hold back against too much starch because......

.....there was also sticky rice and mango which we had been eyeing for dessert. Which was the first out of numerous we had intended to have in this trip. It was little pricey considering what one can get from off the streets, but this was Siam Paragon.

There will be blood.

My guilty pleasure in the heart of Bangkok city. Stall No. 19. This time round, with more blood curds.

I've had this twice in a few days, so I guess that they must be doing something right as a whole even though we probably do better chicken back home. 

My first experience with thunder tea rice

I've been hearing about this stuff for ages and haven't gotten the chance to try them until today. It wasn't as terrible as some people have described it. I've heard it compared to eating grass. Then again, I was also told that this food court rendition probably wasn't assembled with the traditional ingredients and that I might re-think what I feel about them after having tried those. 

The only thing that didn't quite agree with me was the liquorice like flavour in the tea that was otherwise rather mild. The rice and the bunch of chopped up vegetables and nuts certainly made great texture and it's definitely a doable option when one gets tired of all the greasy salty stuff.

The Beef House, Syed Alwi Road

I've been wanting to visit this stall (Gar Lok Eating House, 217 Syed Alwi Road) for the longest time after having heard numerous mentions of their beef balls on multiple occasion over the past years. They are apparently still the only Hakka styled beef ball makers in this country in these years. I hear that each of their beef balls are painstakingly molded by hands.

How were those beef balls you ask?

The surface had interesting looking terrain for one. Those hand molded bovine orbs were also both beefy tasting and impressively springy in texture. I dare say that these are the best beef balls I've ever had so far, bar none. What got me though, was that I couldn't figure out which was the regular beef ball and which were the ones that had tendon in them for a mixed bowl of balls since they tasted pretty much the same together. These were served in a light beef bone broth which didn't quite blow me away, but was unexpectedly 'cheng'.

There was also some rather ordinary mee kia that one could opt amongst a few noodle options. It's the variety with minced meat and lard that can be found in countless second rate yong tau foo stalls all over, but these are probably nicer and they don't clump up. What makes them really good is the garlic spiked chilli sauce which the stall also provides. 

Beef House also serves abacus seeds, another traditional Hakka food item and these were pretty tasty. Springy, lightly chewy like a sort of Asian flavored yam gnocchi with mushrooms and dried shrimp.

The soon kueh had thick chewy skin. They tasted pretty rustic and greasy, but the stuffings of chopped vegetables and mushrooms were generous and tasty.

Ohsumi Japanese Restaurant, Cuppage Plaza

This would be our first attempt at the simplicity of real Japanese shabu shabu down at Ohsumi (5 Koek Road, #03-24/28, Cuppage Plaza, tel : +65 6235 6178) which I've been passing by on multiple occasions and eyeing for quite a while. From what I've heard, this shop specializes in pork which constitutes half of more of their shabu options on the menu. Of course, wagyu can always be had for those with the intent to splurge. We picked the all you can eat pork option since this was a first visit so that we could gorge ourselves and decide if we like it enough to come back another time for their pricier kurobuta or beef equivalents.

The pork shabu came with loin, shoulder and belly cuts along with a platter of vegetable and oddly, two house made meatballs which were actually pretty damned good. Quality of meat served was pretty good; if a little lacking in natural flavour which I was hoping to experience from a clean cooking in a broth that was so lightly flavoured by little but wong bok and a bit of mushrooms. Still, the accompanying house made ponzu and goma sauces along with some unexpected options of sliced chilli padi and finely chopped garlic rescued that. What I was wondering was, are those chilli padi a thing in shabu shabu?

And since it was all you can eat, we hit up another large platter of meat and vegetables after the initial serving along with extra orders of those tasty meatballs. I'm not sure if there had been another time when I had so much pork in a seating, but we were pretty porked out by the time we finished.

The service here was attentively polite and snappy though they seem to tend to forget orders. The feelings are mixed over here. I would like to be back for another shot at something else, but it's easily a triple digit bill.

Poulèt vous?

I was initially skeptical about this French themed roast chicken joint / rotisserie (#01-175/176/177, VivoCity, 1 HarbourFront Walk, tel : +65 6376 9087) as it was opened by the people that ran Thai Express. I didn't like Thai Express. And the bunch of other chain restaurants that the group manages. In retrospect, I can see why the place draws such a crowd and that people talk about it. The chicken was pretty decent and I did like some of the stuff we had. Which left me wondering if the quality of the food was consistent across the board for each outlet or did we just get lucky here at VivoCity......

We could also see that what they're trying to do, was to simplify the food setup to let the ingredients shine along with some well managed cooking processes in the kitchen.

Mushroom soup was creamy, smooth and not lacking in flavour. This was actually better than I had imagined so I guess that's a good thing.

I thought that a name like salad de Paris was tacky. Overlooking that, it was a pretty good one. There was the piquant from the olives, fruity sweet and tart from the dried cranberries, fragrant nuttiness from the generous sprinkle of pine nuts along with the chopped up greens that lent a great deal of texture, tossed up very well with olive oil and apricot jam. I was thinking, if the food sucked, I could come back just for this. I swear.

The claim to fame for Poulèt was obviously their slow roasted chicken. It's pretty good. The meat was tender, moist and apart from their brine marination, had no other flavouring. And then the sauce. This cranberry one tasted like it had roux with the dominant flavour being cinnamon. Which was not what I had expected since I had imagined a fruity cranberry jam/compote thing. But I suppose if it had been the latter, it'll mess itself up with the smear of mustard that they had also provided.

The regular sauce option was some sort of mushroom cream which tasted like a less mushroom-y rendition of their soup. It was still rich from the cream and made you feel like you've had enough when you're done with the chicken.

Mash was good. Smooth, velvety machine blended good. It was however not the buttery type.

Dessert was caramelised apple in puffy tart. It was okay.