Neh Neh Pop

New ice cream shop brought to the world by the folks at Artichoke. It's at where Overdoughs, the old pastry shack selling baklava is. Speaking of which, the one encrusted with crushed nuts is the baklava flavour. Although it says orange blossom flavour for the ice cream, I'm pretty sure I tasted something like rose. It's not bad.

Black Angus Steakhouse, Orchard Parade Hotel

I had only been here (1 Tanglin Road, #01-08 Orchard Parade Hotel, tel : +65 6734 1181) once years ago for lunch and haven't stepped in ever since. This old school stage of a restaurant was actually kinda refreshing ironically.

The mains came with salad/soup options. This was their coleslaw. Never had it served that way before and it's actually not bad.

I remembered this thick stewy soup from the last time I ate here. I did not seem to have changed with those chunky pieces of beef amidst the barley and carrot.

Their fried zucchini to start had a batter that tasted suspiciously like the one next door at Modesto's. But those zucchini at Modesto's were larger and juicier. Better value for money spent there than the ones here, which were upstaged.

We ended up with prime rib which looked a lot better than the weak measly slice for lunch that I had years ago. By the way, the potato above was the one that came with the works. The toppings sure looked really sad for a steakhouse potato.

I got suckered (by the menu) for an option with lobster tail and butter. This wasn't bad but I still think Lawry's does a better job with a more tender slow roast and possibly with better quality meat paired with a more flavoursome au jus. 

Create Your Taste at the Golden Arches

No shit, this is McDonald's. Apparently this is part of their new strategy introduced at limited outlets where one can customise a burger order from a kiosk along with limited table service. Basically we get to be able to choose the component(s) that maketh the burger inclusive of any add ons based on the options they have. And it all gets served up on a wooden board with fries that comes in the little metal baskets. This would probably be the first time in my life with fast food where the food actually looks like something from the menu.

Honestly, this tasted better than the generic menu items that they have (except for the fries which are their regular fries). The glazed bun was a little buttery, the lettuce was fresh and there were real sliced tomatoes in there. You probably cannot tell from the picture, but there were also jalapeño, a spicy tomato relish and wild rockets as well. Neatly packed into the buns. Burger Up had better start sweating. McD had obviously gotten themselves a superior team to work their order kiosk software.

T&K Seafood, Yaowarat Road, Bangkok

Much has already been said about this tourist packed seafood joint down at Bangkok's Chinatown (458 Yaowarat Road, Samphanthawong, Bangkok 10100). Since we were curious enough, we came down to see what was it about the establishment that attracted the throngs. 

We came by for an early dinner deliberately to avoid the crowd. Just as we made the place and got seated, it started getting packed.

Grilled scallops were very edible and far from the better ones we've had. Strangely, it didn't arrive very warm like what I would have expected of grilled shellfish. A little disappointed that they didn't have larger corals.

These were grilled river prawns. They're not the largest around and the texture of the flesh of those bugs were pretty decent if not spectacularly firm. It was a lot less meat than the plate of it suggested since they had such big heads. But I wouldn't argue against the affordability.

Those grilled sea snails above as I've recently learnt, are known as babylonia areolatas. I was thinking that they would taste like those conches commonly known as gong gong, but these weren't the same mollusk. The meat of these snails was a lot chewier and tougher like whelk. Don't think I'll be ordering these things again.

This was deep fried squid roe. It tasted a lot better than what the very mundane looks suggested.

The thing that got me was their fish steamed with limes and chillis. Specifically the broth that packed an impressive heat and lime citrus that kept me spooning mouthful after mouthful in spite of the sweltering humidity. The fish was tender, but the flesh didn't feel as firm as I though it would. Maybe these kind are like that.

While I couldn't say that we were blown away by the quality, it remained a very affordable option compared to the cost of seafood back home. Don't think I would mind coming back.

More daybreak grubbery from BKK Bagel

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We found ourselves here for breakfast a couple of times because it was literally right around the corner across the road from where we were staying and that we remembered that the food's pretty decent. It seems that they're doing a pretty good grilled cheese with bacon sandwich (it definitely tasted better than it looked). That house cured bacon was delicious. 

My first street pad krapow

I’ve had these ubiquitous meat and basil stir fry rice plates a number of times at various places and this was probably the very first I’ve had on the street. Albeit a street smack in the middle of Bangkok city central where a glance across the road sees the window display of Marc Jacobs at Siam Paragon. So, affordable as it may be, it’s not really cheap as cheap goes for street eats at this particular location.

So how was this particular gai pad krapow? I liked the feisty heat from the chilli and the slightly edgy savouriness from the fish sauce. Again, I’m surprised by how much I liked the steamed rice here. The only thing that struck me as out of the ordinary was that the chicken came in little chunks instead of the usual minced meat.