Green curry, blood curds and fish paste

We were at Terminal 21 (88 Sukhumvit Soi 19, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 10110) and noticed that there was some kind of gourmet market going on at the basement so we decided to poke our noses in. Literally and figuratively. There were the usual looking street snack vendors lined up hawking their food. Then we came across this stall selling green curry.

We inched closer and noticed the blood curds. How could we have not stopped for a bowl of that? Of course we did. A bowl of mixed ingredients we ordered featuring both the blood curds and fish paste.

There was some liquorice flavour going on from the basil in the green curry which was delicious. That paired with creaminess and a warm buzzing heat from the spices. The blood curds were tasty and tender like very soft tau kwa. What surprised me pleasantly was the rustic looking fish paste which was robustly flavoured with the flavour fish. In a good way. The texture was coarse - a good sign there and they had a nice bite. While I think unlikely, I wonder if this stall is a permanent fixture in the market.

Krua Apsorn, Samsen Road, Bangkok

We headed a bit further out for lunch this time to check out Krua Apsorn (503 Samsen Road, Wat Sam Phraya, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200, tel : +66 2 241 8528, +66 2 668 8788). In spite of addresses that we could find online, there was a little trouble locating the actual place. 

I don't remember the last time I had duck eggs apart from the salted variety. For some reasons, they aren't available back home. This was a dish of duck eggs and pork cartilage stewed in a sweet broth. The kind of sweet broth similar to the ones in kuey chup or Thai beef noodles, but sweeter and surprisingly, I liked it. And yes, those eggs do taste different from chicken eggs. There was more intensity to the yolk.

One of the dishes that Krua Apsorn is known for is their crab omelette. It's not so similar to the one from Raan Jay Fai since there were more eggs than crab meat. But then again, it also wasn't half as expensive and probably no one makes crab omelette like Raan Jay Fai.

There....still chunks of white meat to be seen in the egg. While I gather that this place wasn't the cheapest of eats around, something like this would probably cost a lot more back home.

We ordered something which was called crab dip on the menu. I have no idea what's the Thai name for this. There was quite a bit of coconut and plenty of minced pork along with pickled green chilli. Those onions added some sharpness to the richness. Which made this awesome with rice and very nice munching with the vegetables on the side.

We fished out a couple of small crabs from the crab dip. They were too small to eat and left absolutely none of their flavour to the dip. But the dip was still delicious.

Another dish that the restaurant is known for - also proven by the number of orders of it from the neighbouring tables, was their stir fried crab with yellow chilli/pepper and long beans. It's not bad but I had been expecting more sweetness from the meat. The heat from this dish was commendable though.

To add even more vegetables to lunch, stir fried cowslip creepers. Again. This time with some minced pork. We've taken a liking to this vegetable.

Of course we had rice. The plates served here were curiously heart shaped.

And a pretty nice coconut sorbet to finish. Just the thing for the warm weather in the land of smiles.

Breakfast at McD in BKK

I was duped into getting the pork porridge from McD. For some reasons, I had the idea that it would be porridge with real sliced pork from their tiny picture on the menu but it turned out to be chopped up pork patty that they were using for their McMuffins. Which I had already gotten a double.

It didn't taste bad at all. In fact, I kinda enjoyed it even. The porridge was light tasting, had a faint aroma that might have been sesame oil and was salted by those pork patty bits. The double McMuffin was just that. I just like to get those in my belly once in a while.

Nara Thai Cuisine, Siam Paragon

We had intended to visit Nara this trip and as chance would have it, we stumbled upon the restaurant at Siam Paragon (G/F Siam Paragon Shopping Centre, 991 Rama I Road). Saved us a walk down to Central World.

We ordered a bunch of stuff which we've never tried previously. Like some surprisingly delicious larb tord. The menu described them as Northeastern spicy fried pork balls. These were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. They tasted a lot better than they looked and they didn't look bad at all.

In the interest of a balanced diet, some cowslip creeper flowers stir fried in oyster sauce for greens. This was quite tasty.

There was coconut rice on the menu. We ordered a serving to see if it tasted like nasi lemak. It did, except that it wasn't salted at all.

That's their khao pad samunprai - butterfly pea fried rice with some herbs. There were peppercorn and lemon grass and that mild flavour from the butterfly pea which I don't know how to describe. This had more flavour than I thought.

Their spring rolls in tamarind sauce was okay. But it was also the weakest link for this meal. There was pork and bean sprouts in them. The sauce wasn't as vibrant as I had imagined.

Back in T&K Seafood we had a same dish of steamed sea bass in chilli lime sauce. This one doesn't seem to have garlic. Seems a relatively common dish but it's just our second time. The heat and lime was as tasty as the previous one that I even overlooked some of that coriander flavour in the broth.

Paste, Gaysorn Village, Bangkok

Paste is a progressive/modern Thai restaurant located at Gaysorn Village (3rd Floor, Gaysorn, 999 Ploenchit Road, Lumpini,  Bangkok 10330, tel : +66 2 656 1003). Our first progressive Thai food restaurant experience in all our trips here, run by husband and wife chefs Jason Bailey and Bee Satongun

The food can be described as exploratory and experimental to some extents, making use of locally gathered ingredients that used to be a big part of Thai cuisine in the past but have fallen out of use for some reasons in this era. 

What Paste is doing with their food is to re-introduce those ingredients (many herbs and edible flowers) into traditional/aristocratic/provincial dishes while keeping the core flavour profiles of those dishes intact and recognizable.

We had a welcome drink of bael juice.

Patrón Silver tequila, orange liquor, homemade ginger lime syrup & lemongrass powder

And sipped on some ginger margarita while waiting for the food.

amuse bouche

Then came amuse bouche of some pretty looking prawn toasts.

watermelon & ground salmon with crispy shallots, roasted galangal powder

This starter was outstanding. The ground salmon tasted like a sweet and salty fish floss, paired with a chilled sweetness of watermelon balls and umami brine from the pearls of ikura. Excellent with white rice.

coconut cream soup of galangal, chicken with chilli jam & premium plankton paste

Their coconut soup was a rendition of tom kha gai. These guys have a hydraulic coconut press in the kitchen so any milk required can be freshly extracted. Flavour was awesome just like I had imagined with some creamy richness from the coconut and loads of tanginess. The chicken was rolled into cylinders like a roulade and I think they had some coconut meat in them. Not sure where was the plankton paste though.

Shan minority group stir fry of salted and cured pork, fiddlehead fern, turmeric, dried fish & fermented soya beans

This dish of stir fried pork and fiddlehead ferns was new for us. I'm getting a load of savoury, umami flavours with some heat and a lot of crunchy textures from the vegetables and nutty things. Not forgetting a nice aroma from the fermented beans. Those salted pork they mentioned tasted like sausages.

rice, the only normal thing we had

With all those delicious saucy flavours, it would be a crime if we didn't get some white rice to go along. 

pomelo salad of char-grilled Carabinero prawns from Spain, Asian citron, homemade-chilli jam and gapi khoei plankton paste

The flavour bombs continued with their pomelo salad with Carabinero prawns. Paste's elevated and kickass rendition of yum som o. That chilli jam and plankton paste was so good that we would have wanted to lick them off the plate. And yes, those prawns provided a toasty crustacean flavour to the salad, along with a bit of tomalley richness. 

Shitake mushroom white chocolate parfait , with lychee sorbet, chocolate truffles and Thai nectarine

Dessert was some shitake mushroom chocolate parfait. Not really getting the mushroom flavour but the lychee sorbet was awesome. The sorbet was rich and sticky with lychee flavours and bits of meat from the fruit. Maybe a request for individual servings of that sorbet the next time if they still have them.

chocolate truffle with Thai rum

Some mignardises in the form of chocolate truffles, rum-mified.

And an espresso to help ward against the post lunch coma.

Though I don't think it's going to help much.

A khao kha moo for breakfast at Amarin Plaza foodcourt

This iconic dish of stewed pork over rice was from the foodcourt at Amarin Plaza (496-502 Ploenchit Road). One of the advantages of being a tourist is the odd hours that one gets to eat and we happened to be here just as the food was ready and the working crowd wasn't so we kinda had first dips. Tender pork, gelatinous skin, stewed egg and hot steaming rice soaked in the flavourful spiced broth? What a breakfast!