Food note from land of 1K Smiles (Day 3)

Day 3 :
Went to a rather unusual eating place on the 3rd day. Our initial plan is to go to another restaurant but the cab drop us at the wrong place. When we get off the cab, we realise that we were right in the middle of .... errhm ... a rather 'colourful' place for guys.

So we decide to go to another restaurant a few street down, the name of the place is called Cabbage & Condoms. Yes, the rubber ... and there is no shortage of it in the restaurant. There is a lamp made of condoms, a human size shirt made of condoms, a pot of 'condoms' flower .... condoms condoms everywhere. (I certainly hope that none of them are used ones).


There is even a poster teaching us when it is appropriate to use condom ... hmmm interesting ;)

The waitress were very friendly, sometimes too friendly that I feel very uncomfortable for them standing near to my table, waiting for the moment to either clear our plates or refill our soup. But I have to say that their services were good.

Now, back to the main topic, condoms .... err no, sex ..... err no, food.

We ordered 4 dishes, Tom Yum Soup, Fried KangKong, Fried Sun-Dried Pork Tenderloin and Roast Young Mountain Chicken. Tempted to order some more, but there are too much choices so I decide to order later (a wise choice).



The Tom Yum Soup comes in a small claypot (like those that my mum used to brew tonic soup or chinese medicine). And it was powerful ... a satisfying taste of spiciness rush into your throat on my first sip, SHIOK ! There are plenty of ingredients too, with generous portion of prawns and mushroom inside.

Thai fried kangkong (or fried morning glory) comes in the version without the balacan (malay shrimp paste). Even without it, the dish still give out a very nice fragrant. And it taste fresh and is nicely fried.



Fried sun-dried pork tenderloin tasted a bit like beef jerky, a bit on the tough side. But I like the 'fried' taste and the nicely marinated pork topped with some sesame. I personally will still recommend this dish.

Roast Young Mountain Chicken, as the name says, it was a roasted whole chicken. When I order this, the word young chicken, I thought is spring chicken (no big deal for me, I can finish one myself). But I was surprise when the dish came to my table. It looks like a full size adult chicken that we order for our chicken rice. Maybe it comes from the mountain, and mountain chickens are the bigger cousin of our domestic farm chicken. And I wonder how big will an adult mountain chicken be like ? ... the size of a full grown turkey ??
However, not to be mistaken, I did not regret ordering this dish. The only regret I had is that my stomach is too puny to finish the whole chicken.



The chicken was nicely marinated and perfectly roasted. Not too raw or too dry when it is over cooked. It had a hint of sweetness (possible honey) and the 'burnt' roasted taste that a decent roast chicken should have. Highly recommended, but don't try to take on this dish alone (not even if you have not been eating anything since morning).

Overall, this is a nice place, with friendly waitress and good food. Do take a walk around the area to look at its interesting deco and you can even get a massage if you come early. Err clean, no nonsense massage, nothing that is related to its theme and nope, straightly no hank panky. The place is not easy to find, as it is no along the main road. You need to walk through a dark lane in order to find it.

I highly recommend this place. I will give this place a Ahpui score of 8.5/10.
9/10 for the Mountain chicken, nice and value for money.

The location is at :
Cabbage & Condoms

Bangkok
(Near Asoke or Nana SkyTrain Station)

Food note from land of 1K Smiles (Day 2)

Day 2

After covering MBK yesterday, we decide to head straight to Central World Plaza where the shops there are slightly 'higher' class than MBK. And Ahpuisoh is so crazy of some bags called Naraya that she insist in searching for the shop.

Lunch for me is boring .. why, cos of all sort of eateries and restaurants available, Ahpuisoh wants to eat at Sizzler ... #yawn# So I decided not to post anything about this boring place.

Dinner is at the food court at Siam Paragon. The food court was huge and comes with a huge supermarket that stocks food for different parts of the world. On some seats, you even get to sit facing a big fish tank with marine fish swimming inside. And of cos, things don't come cheap in both the food court and supermarket. Dinner, we share a Tom Yam Soup (100 baht = $4.60) and I had the usual Pah thai (55 baht = $2.50). The Tom Yam Soup taste so so only, it lack the spiciness that I expect from a Thai made Tom Yam Soup. But it does comes loaded with ingredients like fish, prawns and Toufu. The Pah Thai is disappointing, it taste normal and comes with peanuts. Overall, I still perfer the food from the food court at MBK as compare to here.

After dinner, we came across a cake shop and I personal think it sell some of the most expensive cakes in BKK.



The cheesecake comes with 2 raspberry on top and chocolate coating on the sides. It taste good, soft and moist in the inside.




The other is some strange cake that I don't know how to describe. It topped with raspberry and each layer is soak in some syrup and with some fruits like blueberry in between. It might look sweet (yes, to a certain extend) but you will be surprise when you first take a bite. It was sour and sweet ... thou not my type of dessert, but I do agreed that it was quite a unique combination.

Overall, it was not bad. Ah pui score of 7/10. But what really bug me is the price. (460 baht = $21.20) For that price, I can have a decent dinner in BKK and for the same price, I can also enjoy a good dessert in Singapore. $21.20 for dessert in BKK ... too expensive. And only 'cai tou' like me will buy ... sigh

Food note from land of 1K Smiles (Day 1) Part 2

Day 1, Part 2 :

A few hours after our late lunch, ahpuisoh complain that she was hungry ... so who is the glutton here ....

So we went to this Japanese Chain resturant - Fuji Resturant at level 6 (same levele as the cinema) of MBK. I ordered a Soyu Ramen (90 Baht = $4.10), and me and ahpuisoh share a Katsu Roll (120 Baht = $5.50), SoftShell Crab Roll (120 Baht) and a Agedashi Tofu.



My Soyu Ramen comes with 2 small slice of pork, half an egg, some greens and a slice of 'i don't know what'. The noodles is springy and taste like good Ramen from a decent Jap resturant. The soup-base which make or break a Soyu Ramen, tasted a bit salty (well, it is soyu anyway), which is a bit disappointed, considering that the Ramen tasted good but does not have a good soup base to match.



The Katsu Roll comes is a set of six, with the Katsu neatly rolled up with a mixture of black fungus, Enoki Mushroom and cheese. The katsu is nicely fried and not too oily, and the fillings blend in well with the fried pork and give it a unique and nice taste.




SoftShell Crab Roll comes with four rice roll with softshell crab with either salad or avacodo & Cucumber as fillings. And the rice roll is nicely coated with sesame seeds. The only slight -ve point is that the portion of softshell crab is a bit small.

Agedashi Tofu is totally disappointed. The tofu is not soft, and it taste like cheap tofu. Don't order this dish.

I will give this place a Ah pui score of 7/10. Nice Kastu Roll and Softshell Crab Roll, but disappointed Ramen and tofu.

Food note from land of 1K Smiles (Day 1)

Just came back from Bangkok not long ago, and as usual, being stuffing myself with food and more food, and of cos, some occasion shopping.

Day 1

Right after we check-in to our hotel, we head striaght to MBK. Things haven't changed much ... as crowded as a couple years ago when I was here, regardless it is a Thur or weekend. (Don't the people need to work or study here in BKK ??)

How can we start shopping, we must fill up our stomach. So me and ahpuisoh went around looking for a the foodcourt that I went to last time. As we are looking around, we were tempted by the poster and a HUGE banner telling us that there is this 'Food Avenue' where they serve 'good' food from all over the world. So here we go, conned to enter this Mache-like foodcourt. The place was so empty and we can only see a few table taken up by tourist, no locals. Determined to find our foodcourt and the fish-maw soup that was sold at the foodcourt, we decide to go out and contine searching. So, for those who will be going to MBK next time, don't waste your time in at the 'Food Avenue', nothing fancy there, unless you perfer to pay more for your usual hawker fare.

And finally after some searching, we managed to find our foodcourt (which happened to be one level up ....). After changing my baht into coupons, it is time to fill up my stomach. I ordered a plate of Chili Fried Rice with Chicken (45 Baht = $2.05) and a bowl of fish-maw soup (60 Baht = $2.75).



The Chili Fried Rice was good and HOT! But nothing is too hot for ahpui, and I really enjoyed it. But this is defintely a no-no for those who cannot take spicy stuff. It comes with a hard-boiled egg, a fried chicken drumlet and a tiny portion of veggie.The rice was nicely fried (the hardness was just nice) and of cos, HOT. The only thing that is disppointing is that the fried chicken drumlet is a bit cold as it had been left sitting there for quite sometime. But the star is not the chicken, but the rice itself, so overall I would still recommend it. (Ahpui score of 7/10)



The fish-maw soup come in a claypot, and enough for 2 person. There are plenty of ingredients in the soup and a generous portion of fish-maw. It was not resturant quality, but for $2.75, it is really value for money. However, try not to leave the soup standing for too long as it will becomes watery after sometime. (Ahpui score of 7/10)

Having still got some space left in my ahpui tummy, and I am craving for Pah Thai for a long time, I decide to order a plate of PahThai (35 baht = $1.60). I got the one without the sea-food, and it comes only with a few slice of pork. But who cares, who I like is the fried rice noodles and the taste of it when you mix it with peanuts, sugar and chili flakes .... 'mo dak teng' :p Highly recommended, cheap and good. (Ahpui score of 7.5/10)