Revisiting Gin Khao

It's been almost 5 years since we first/last ate at Gin Khao. The vibe of the restaurant seemed to have changed. To something a little more subdued. Quiet for a week night with what little energy left that hasn't been siphoned off by the neighbouring hotpot restaurants. Felt that way.

Wanted to try new dishes but couldn't resist getting the tom kha gai which I remembered liking from the previous time. Thankfully, it was still good with the clarity from the tanginess and coconut milk. 

Tried their prawn cakes. They were dryer than the recent ones we've had from Soi Thai Soi Nice and also less springy in texture. But the flavour from the minced bits of prawns were a bit more intense. Soi Thai Soi Nice's prawn cakes tasted a little more mousse-y. 

We wanted to order their kang kong with fermented beans. They informed us they ran out of kang kong and offered to use kailan instead. It looked like oyster sauce kailan when it was served. We feedback and they said they would redo. The replacement serving looked similar. Turns out that it wasn't a fermented bean paste or sauce. Just a few fermented beans. Didn't have much of those flavour. Chilli padi made it good though.

Not a bad stir fried kailan to be fair. The dish just was not what we were thinking of. Pretty good eating with rice that's been ladled over with the broth from the tom kha gai.

Pretty sure this longan sweet and sour pork wasn't Thai. That's right - it's longan and not lychee. The longans were not part of the stir fry process. We knew because the pork was arm and the longans were chilled. The pork was nice though. Nicely deep fried before stir frying and the sauce reminded me of sweet and sour pork from days gone by.

Revisiting Nummun Thai Kitchen

Back at Nummun Thai Kitchen. We got a table as soon as they were open for dinner service. Shortly after that, a queue had formed outside. That queue had gotten even longer when we were leaving. 😅

Pretty creamy tom kha gai and delicious one as well filled with chunky chopped up pieces of chicken thigh meat. Broth was a rich concoction of sweet, savoury and tanginess. This was the second orange hued tom kha rendition we've encountered after E-Sarn Thai Corner.

Stir fried kailan minus pork belly. The original dish came with those and the order app allowed omission of the meat. Sweet. Kailan were stir fried in a light oyster sauce so it was the typical sweet and savoury taste.

This was the crab omelette which we did not successfully get the last time.

It was as good as it looked - I was half expecting those crab chunks to be relatively tasteless but they had real crab flavour in them. Loved it with or without their nam jim.

Salt baked sea bass required a 45 minute preparation time. Was nicely done. Underneath the leathery skin, the meat had all the moisture locked in.

Don't remember the last time I had a red ruby but I liked this rendition. I always had the idea that it wouldn't be something that I enjoyed but this one was pretty likeable. Did not expect jackfruit but I'm not complaining.

Kin Kao Young, 313 Somerset

This restaurant (B2-01/02/03, 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road) for some reasons reminded me of a localized and less polished version of Kub Kao' Kub Pla. Looking back in retrospect, I couldn't even pinpoint why was that so. Some of the food was a little sweet here.

Khao kha moo was not bad. Not one of the better we've had but still pretty competent. Can't compare the standards here to the ones in Bangkok of course. Which are cheaper and features better stewing. Enough of this already.

I kinda enjoyed their tom kha gai with the mild heat and tanginess but towards the end, the sweetness got to me. Broth was creamy, coconut-y and filled with mushrooms and chunks of chicken thigh.

We had a bowl of pork rib rice noodles. Didn't expect to get so much pork ribs and ones at these sizes. Nice. These tender slide off the bone ribs were delicious with the garlic chilli dip. They costed about the same as a bowl of prime rib bak kut teh.

Halibut steamed with lime, sugar, garlic and coriander. Fish was okay-ish. We ordered this because Thai steamed fish generally do not use halibut and we wanted to try it. Pretty good flavouring there from the tangy lime and garlic. Loved the heat but I thought there was a bit too much sweetness in their concoction.

Revisiting Un-Yang-Kor-Dai

S'been a while since our last and first time at Un-Yang-Kor-Dai. The restaurant has expanded with larger seating capacity. The vibe here for Thai food feels somewhat like how Tambuah Mas is to Indonesian food.

Cha ron was thick, creamy and not excessively sweet. Nice.

These were deep fried prawn and scallop cakes. Underneath the crispy surface was fluffy and tender almost like crushed tofu or egg white. Couldn't definitively discern prawn or scallops in it but it was seafood-y and pretty tasty.

Pretty impressed by their rich red curry with grilled chicken. Think sweet, fruity, spicy and creamy altogether. Pretty lemak stuff. Menu mentioned lychee and tomatoes but there's also mango and pineapple. This one has just stepped up to replace the panaeng roast duck curry from Sawadee Thai as my favourite fruity roast bird curry. 👍🏼

Omelette with minced pork not bad. 

What was kickass with rice was the stir fried morning glory with chilli and garlic. I think I tasted fish sauce and oyster sauce in it too.

Did not expect the tom yum mama noodles with prawns and minced pork to be in so large portion. Broth was sweet, tangy and spicy while those large prawns were fresh and sweet. A little refined but not bad.

Part of their festive menu included a sea bass tom yum coconut soup. From the picture, we were given the impression that it would be like tom kha gai but the real thing didn't have coconut milk. The broth was made with coconut juice. Slightly disappointed but the tangy spicy soup was delicious and the thick slices of fish were fresh and good quality.

Gin Khao, One Raffles Place

Gin Khao (#04-29 One Raffles Place, One Raffles Place, tel : +65 6532 2387) serves contemporary Thai. The food that they do is what anyone with some familiarity with Thai cuisine would acknowledge as internationally recognized Thai food - nothing with much surprises going on here. The contemporary element simply redefines the recognisable with refinement on the ingredients, preparation and presentation. The roots remain.

yam mamuang

I liked their mango salad. Nothing unnecessarily fancy, properly made and there was that citrus fragrance from the fruit that was on going there. Not just strips of sour crunchy stuff that you sometimes get. Would have been great if they were more generous with those crushed peanuts.

paw pia tod

These prawn spring rolls was unexpectedly better than I had imagined. There seemed to be nothing but prawns stuffed in the rolls and the flavours of the skin was...much tastier than they looked. Could have easily finished a serving of them myself.

stir fried squid with runny salted egg

Stir fried squid was not bad tasting but the larger pieces were kinda chewy. 

tom kha gai

Their tom khai gai was addictive. It was lightly creamy from the coconut milk with a vibrant tanginess which left me spooning mouthful after mouthful of the broth. I would be willing to return just for this.

khao phat dtaeng moe

The only thing that I probably haven't tried before from the bunch of stuff we ordered was their watermelon fried rice. This was a seafood fried rice which came laden with quite a bit of squid, prawns and mussels and strewn on top of that - cashew nuts, crispy deep fried bean curd strips and chicken floss. Not forgetting, warm chunks of warm watermelon. I liked it.

larb moo

The lard moo was served late for a salad. But it was good. Nice hit of mint and lime over fish sauce in textures of ground pork, onions and leaves.

kang ob woon seng

And we had some vermicelli with crayfish which was pretty flavourful.

For some reasons, our table had a free dessert. It was a Thai tea mousse cake of sorts which tasted like how it looked. I realised that did not really describe anything to anyone who doesn't know how Thai tea tastes like, but...

The other dessert which wasn't free was their green curry gelato over steamed black glutinous rice. There was nice creamy heat that left prickles on the back of the throat from the gelato and the rice was moist and tender. I liked this.

And some Thai coffee to wash the food down. This was a rather strong brew. Strong like how I can remember feeling palpitations when I get my triple grande at Starbucks in Bangkok. But the fragrance of the roast wasn't as full bodied as I would prefer. The coconut cream that came with it made it taste a little salty so I recommend it with a little bit of the syrup that they also provided.

Home delivery from Sawadee Thai

Oddled Sawadee Thai. They're a little pricey but the food has always been very decent.

We ordered mostly what we've eaten from the restaurant before - like the roasted duck red curry which looked a lot prettier in the restaurant. Those warm lychees in the curry were still awesome.

Liked their tom kha gai. Still like it. Gotta remember to tell them lay off the coriander the next time. How could I have forgotten that?!

Had them stuffed fat chicken wings.

This was the only dish we've never tried before - seasonal vegetables with Hokkaido scallops it said on the menu. Was that napa cabbage? Scallops were tender and still had a little sweetness in them but I can't tell that they're from Hokkaido. Can anyone?

Their sweet steamed tapioca was tasty enough that we still had room for them after the meal. As good as I remembered them.

Revisiting Sawadee Thai

We ended back in Sawadee Thai for a few reasons. The food was enjoyable, the place was comfortable and it didn't have the queue that Ah Loy Thai had.

We ordered their por pea poo again because we liked them previously. Have these fried rolls gotten larger or am I imagining it?

Sawadee Thai's stuffed chicken wings were pretty good. Those wings were clad in a nice golden brown crispy skin with no excess grease. Look at those fat mid sections. We could even find entire caps of small straw mushrooms in them.

Unfortunately, the som tam mamuang was a little weak. For some reasons, these guys hold back on the fish sauce for their salads. More crushed peanuts would have been great.

Tom kha gai was awesome. This was the spicy counterpart to Gin Khao's rendition. The flavour from the coconut milk was just brilliant. This alone would be worth a return trip.

We fell back on the panaeng roast duck curry because it was just so damn good with white rice. I can't get over those warm lychees in the curry.

Some stir fried vegetables were also ordered for the quota of dietary fibre. This was actually a pretty good stir fry.

Dessert this time round was khao neow turian - their rendition using mao shan wang durian over the sticky rice accented by the aroma of the black sesame seeds and coconut milk. I'd eat this again. In a heartbeat.