Pig's knuckle rice, soi 38 night stalls, Thonglor BKK

 The third time I visited this place for a nice pig's knuckle rice.  Found out the portion is quite big.  So THB50/60 isn't expensive in this regard.

Methavalai Sorndaeng, Royal Thai cuisine, Democracy Monument, Bangkok

It's been 4 years the last time I visited here and also one of the first few blog postings since I started this blog. Glad and thrilled to come here again. After this second visit, I would insist no matter how bad the traffic and no matter how difficult to walk from the pier of the riverside, I am determined to come back here again and again. The interesting thing for me to be so determined over everything that I dislike, e.g. the karaoke singing in the scene. Among all the food, I am so impressed with their eggplant salad (photo 8), fish cake (photo 5), gaeng som (photo 6), steamed fish (photo 10) and deep fried to fu (photo 4). The chef did a very good job in preparing all the ingredients so freshly made, like the garlic and chili was chopped only at the time of cooking. That's very important for not having such ingredients as garlic, ginger, scallion and veggie well prepared a long time before cooking. The egg veggie cake in the gaeng som (photo 9) is so good that I needed to take a photo of how the texture and the fresh veggie look. See on the photo 12 of all the cleaned plates. Except the chili, garlic and the bones, nothing left!

Bussaracum, Royal Thai cuisine, (Surasak) Sathorn, BKK

Finally I gotta try this restaurant after so many years of their moving of several times. I can say I have had the best Khao Chae and lots of other very nice dishes, even my favourite Pad Thai! Most of all, this place is within easy reach (on a short walk of 5 minutes from Surasak BTS station). What amazed me is their relatively low prices for all the dishes. Another good thing is that they have Khao Chae round the year. The only flaw is their dessert - creme brulee with coconut ice cream. The ice cream is nice but the creme brulee is very disappointing. Having said that, it didn't frustrate me from the other nice dishes. For sure I will re-visit here.

Saladaeng Cafe by Jim Thompson, Thailand

This restaurant has been very consistent in its food quality. The taste may be a bit foreign but as long as their cooking skill is the point, I wouldn't mind so.

1/2. the shop.

3. Iced coffee. 4. Pad Thai. Pretty nice and the prawns are very fresh.

5. pomelo salad. Some coconut crispy bits was put to contrast the pomelo's flavour. Good combination. 6. Deep fried spring roll, prawn cake. Excellent frying. Crispy and dry. Not a touch of oil was felt. What's more. The prawn cake was put with some pork to make it very juicy inside.

7. Grilled chicken. Quite nice and juicy.

Tom Yam Krung - what does it mean?

Last night I watched a TV special hosted by the famous said-to-be experienced food critic Mr. Choy Lxx. Every time I passed by some shops with some photos of him, I would feel relieved from my immediate thought "no need to go in. Thanks Mr. Choy for saving my time.".

So Mr. Choy described the Thai cuisine only has 5 to 6 dishes variety and he translated Tom Yam Krung into something which made me burst into laughters. He said Krung means river prawn - ok this part is nothing wrong. So what do you think he referred "Tom Yam" to? I think anyone who has been to Bangkok more than 2 times should know what Tom Yam means; so please write to Mr. Choy and tell him the answer. Now this guessing for Mr. Choy's own translation is very simple - check what is it about "Tom Yam Krung".

So as per his claim - only 5 to 6 dishes? Mr. Choy, kindly go check TC's site to enlighten yourself please.

Furthermore, when he talked about dried seafood, he claimed those shark fins are tasteless and just only the chicken stock making it taste, and the collagen is not that good as the fin's skirt. Mr. Choy, if your family is from a fisherman, you wouldn't say so. Shark fins do taste! Put 1 bowl of plain chicken soup and 1 bowl of chicken with shark's fin soup - can you tell the difference? It's the natural sea taste from the shark! Just like the DJ Leung telling abalone is tasteless. Do they ever think only soy sauce or oyster sauce is tasty? Those are for the level of flavour! Just like bird's nest, people compare it to snowy fungus. Do they know how the swallow eat the micro-organic stuff in the clean Indonesian unspoiled ocean water and the rare minerals got diversed by the swallow back to their babies? If their xxxx high tech. machine can't detect those refined micro-organic stuff, it's the program of their technical level. My personal combat experiences told me bird's nest, abalone and even shark's fins did help me recover so well from the time I was put in hospital. I ate so much pork/chicken but still felt so weak for a month until my aunt suggested me take bird's nest and later on abalone to help me on my throat problem. They all worked. Why those vitamins don't? I agreed that we shouldn't over-consume shark's fins, bird's nest..etc., but those are really good for the sick people. I even don't agree with someone claiming bird's nest stimulating the cancer cell to grow because it is nutritious and gives the energy for cancer cells. If so, why on the other way, some nutritious drinks like the one by Abbott is highly recommended for the patients? Why only the western canned food drink would help, based on those "machine tech." formula?

ok, this is the Tom Yam Krung made by Samsen soi 3 by Chaophrya River.... the best I ever had! Thanks TC and Madam Fa for the patronage as I know you both can't take hot food much.

Khao Che, Bangkok, Thailand

I think whenever possible, I would get prepared to go to Bangkok in early April for the only few week season of Khao Che.

This Thai new year classic food looks simple but yet difficult to do, especially the jasmine scented water. I haven't tried many
places for Khao Che but up until this year, Tea Room by Grand Hyatt is the one I find it nice both in terms of price and quality.
B180 isn't that much but they did it quite to my taste. Most of the Khao Che is either not too chill nor the Jasmine scent is too
or not aromatic enough. Besides, the condiments is also important.
j

2. Khao Che by the Cafe of JW Marriott - the condiments is nice but jasmine scented water is not nice and not chilled enough. This one is with the buffet.

Thai Isan restaurant, Bangkok

Got brought to this restaurant in the north east of Bangkok. The restaurant offers food just as what the restaurant is named - Isan food. My favourite somtam (papaya salad) is the most representational Isan food. Somtam told the classic Thai food culture - papaya, green bean, tomato gives the vitamins and minerals. Peanut has vitamin E and vegetable protein and dried shrimp has calcium. It's a very nice balanced diet even without any meat.

1. Somtam: it's hard to balance the sour, sweet, salty taste but this restaurant made it! Also, the fresh ingredients are the key to making nice somtam. 2. pork salad with sticky rice - very nice pork and it has the aroma of pork. Must try besides Somtam!
3. grilled free range chicken: very nice! 4. this soup is a bit disappointing.

5. squid in salty duck york curry sauce - nice too but a bit oily to me. 6. the fish is so so but of course this restaurant is not taking it as their signature dish.


7. all 3 of us taking the photo after a nice meal. Thanks TC! 8. the restaurant is on the busy freeway.


9. the restaurant is in a very simple decoration. 10. some decoration reflecting the Thai culture.