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.