Banh Khun Mae

And I'm disappointed that after all these years of pilgrimage to Bangkok faithfully year on year, I still cannot speak a sentence in Thai. :(

For what I can't speak, I'll just point and eat :)

"Secret recipes passed down from generation to generation were collected, treasured and presented for your delectation by Ban Khun Mae, the restaurant that is equally famous for its authentic tastes, ambience and warm Thai hospitally." taken from their website. Which I will concur, save for the typographical errors. :)

If you've never heard of the term repeat visits, then you have not joined my family on our repeats. It's a cycle really. A fixed pattern of change. Every year we go on our annual Bangkok trip and for at least one meal, we have it at Ban Khun Mae.

This was our version of the restaurant.

Nigel says, "Which one? The dark and dim place? There's live music at night?"

Yup. That's right. :)

 

The dollop of coconut cream that must be stirred into the green curry to enjoy the richness of the tender chicken green curry gravy that makes you want to eat a lot more rice than you already are having. :p

Just in case you don't know what gives it that green color, it's not the eggplant but a mixed paste of green chillies that have been pounded and mashed before its addition to the curry paste that gives it a green colour. Likewise for red curry, which gets its colour not from the curry paste but made a deeper shade of red by the red chillies pounded and mashed into a paste.

This is lard nation. Honestly. Thick pieces of pork fat give that glistening texture to the glass noodles and that also accounts for all that flavour and more bite! You can't stop eating those flavourful glass noodles fried with shallots and dark soy sauce perhaps till you see those pork fat pieces but even then...

Huge river prawns accompany this dish. Fresh and firm prawns. Mmm.

Pla Gow, the garoupa is used for this deep fried fish dish drizzled with tamarind and sweet Thai chilli sauce. This is the dish that saw my dad eating both the head and the tail, crunching his teeth on those deep fried pieces of fish meat, cartilage and bone!
The sauce might be too sweet and cloying after a while but the flesh of this fish stays juicy and sweet, well encased in its deep fried exterior. :)

And let's not forget our greens. I'm not biased but really, even this was well done.

Fresh and crunchy kai lan fried with straw mushrooms and oyster sauce.

No one's gotta tell us to eat our greens when cooked like this :)

458/6-9 Siam Square Soi 8, Rama 1 Road, 10330, Thailand

11am - 11pm

Mondays- Sundays.

There's nothing like fresh. Or generous for that matter.

I'd do sushi takeout from here anyday. :)

First time we are here at novena square 2 for sushi instead of the long favoured nihon mura. For convenience purposes more than anything else.

But wow. When I saw salmon maki that looked like this,

I just had to grab it. Yum :)

They also do lunch sets for affordable prices of $10.80 and up which includes choices like grilled yellowtail head, unagi, codfish which comes with slices of sashimi, complimentary miso soup and green tea which applies for all dine in customers.

What was stopping us all this while?

Space.

A simple sushi counter with a seating capacity of probably not more than 20 pax. We had 9 and took up just about half the shop already.

Be prepared to wait too as the staff do everything from cleaning, cashier and of course cooking prep.

But wait you shall. And wait I will.

For quality food that I know will satisfy my tummy for sure :)

never belated. always treasured. :)

Reflected in the menu as squid paste but they probably ran out and we were advised that it would be prawn paste instead. We decided to give it a try anyway and were pleasantly surprised by the taste. Nothing too pungently seafood. The prawn paste was roughly fashioned and had a springy texture with ample bite. The gravy was well absorbed by the beancurd sheets making it a tasty vegetable dish. 

It was a toss up between the beef cubes or the venison of which we were recommended the latter. The wok hei was evident in the ginger and scallions but the venison itself saw either no addition of a tenderizer or that it was overcooked which resulted in a meat texture too tough for my teeth to handle. (Bearing in mind that my teeth are weak individuals, it doesnt mean that it's tough as rubber) :)

Cod never fails. This was a tasty treat! Juicy flakes of fish well marinated with a special sauce that we were advised to be a little sour but worked out sweet. It faintly reminded me of miso marinated cod. And by the way, the charred ends were deliciously sweet like the charred ends of barbecued pork. Now that, should be more than enough reason to order this. :)

The red bean souffle balls did not resemble the picture offerings in the menu. I was expecting dim sum styled deep fried red bean sesame balls but these turned out larger than golf balls. Thankfully though, they were not deep fried to a crisp. The egg taste of the souffle was very evident on my first bite. These were airy and very soft. Almost like sponge cakes. :)

The filling was too little which made the exterior seemed like too much dough. I think it would have been better had their dusting of caster sugar been icing sugar.

But this made for a sweet treat that isn't too heavy on the tummy.

Then of course if you wanted a more traditional chinese dessert, you probably want to choose this taro offering. :)

I didn't see the chinese namesake of this dessert but was intrigued by its unique presentation in a coconut and the fact that I really do like taro. When we made the order and heard that this was orh nee (芋泥) I was pleased as punch!

And when it arrived, piping hot in its shell, I was all too excited to open the coconut cover to reveal a milky mix of mashed taro and almond cream!

ohmyyum!

But this, should definitely be shared. With a few others preferably. I only had one dining partner to share with and she only took one small scoop.

And what's there left for me to do?

EATITALLUP. *licks the spoon clean

Once you pop, you really can't stop.

This was good relief for my cramps but way too heavy for a 930pm dessert option.

Eat first, think of the waistline later. :p

Traditional chinese restaurant settings tucked away in a corner on the second floor of novena square 2. This was a good place for a dinner catch up with it's relative tranquility (till a table of 10 sat at the tables next to us). Haha. This is a good venue for families and even for just friends who feel like doing good quality chinese food once in a while.

I had an awesome dinner with good food and great company.

Thanks SC for taking time off to celebrate my birthday for me year on year.

My spiritual, emotional and physical hunger are very well satisfied and blessed by your friendship. :)

Love,

childhood treats from bangkok

I just love these colourful strands of sugar!

Makes me smile. Makes my day.

Add some splashes of colour to life! :)

When growing up means:

Being upset that there aren't enough pandan flour sheets for me to roll my sugared strands in.

When it used to be all about the sugar. None of those flour sheets needed. :D

last lazy afternoon of 2011 @ tcc shaw

A lazy teatime date from 3 till 6pm on a saturday as the last day of 2011 before catching MI4. All that thrill spills in that jam packed action movie where Tom Cruise impressed me with his agility at his age. I gre up watching this guy! The Firm was the first movie I caught him in. Imagine reading The Firm at eleven years of age. :) Well, that left us hungry for a sweet treat at Swensens near Ion to end what eventually became our dinner before we each had our new year's eve parties to be at. :)

For food that never fails and company that always leaves us wanting more. The year might not have been all good but it definitely ended well. :)

delicious @ scotts square

With seven outlets in KL and Penang enjoying homegrown success,

this flagship outlet at Scotts Square in Singapore is the Eastern & Oriental Berhad Group's

first foray of its Delicious cafe into our shores.

The glass enclosed cafe with their robin's blue egg colored namesake sports a brick front facade.

It offers a contemporary dining atmosphere in a soothing turquoise and white themed interior with added quirks like birdcages and stylised trees. Very much like how their cafes are styled in Malaysia.

The menu has an East West fusion that give diners a wide range of choices at affordable prices. We are talking about deep dish pizzas to pastas and local delights like their famous Nasi Kerabu.

A hearty offering of grilled chicken covered with red curry, this savoury dish will leave you wanting more. :) And unfortunately, seems as if it's the -only- reason for a return visit, if ever.

This seriously delicious cheeseburger was seriously generous but definitely not as delicious as its namesake. It looked like an awesome choice. With fresh greens, a thick patty covered with melted cheese slice, side salad and fries. However, the beef patty was dry and tasted more of panko than actual minced beef which would account for its lack of juicy bite. The onion relish was well done but too little for my liking. The house dressing would have been better off served at the side. The shoestring fries were a good accompaniment for munchers, especially when the patty would probably be left unfinished. Hmm.

Now I havent had a terrible carrot cake yet. But this just about takes the cake (pun totally intended).

The cream cheese icing was heavy on butter which has a very oily aftertaste.

The cake was crumbly and way too dry.

This was a disappointment and not my sweet ending.

This sticky date pudding was served warm, separate from the vanilla ice cream and the thick, dense caramel sauce. The ice cream was in first sight, definitely one off the supermarket shelves and leaves me little to speak off. The sticky date pudding was served warm in a ramekin. There were no pieces of dates but probably minced and mixed into the batter. I'd much prefer pieces of dates for that extra bite. The caramel sauce was thick, a little too much for our palates. This was sticky indeed and overly sweet.

The atmosphere was brilliant. Quiet with ample seating in a relaxed atmosphere. But if the standards of their food and cake offerings continue as such, it'll only remain a novelty and will no see repeats in customer visits. At least not for me. Perhaps only for the nasi kerabu though. :) I do hope to see the delicious cafe see through their aim of another two new outlets in Singapore living up to the delicious standards of their namesake.

Gelato #3 and it's a STRIKE!

Grom opened its first shop in downtown Turin in May 2003, and it was an instant success: lines 15-20 meters long in front of the shop and enthusiastic smiles encouraged the two founding partners to do even better. In January 2005, they invested in a production workshop suitable to meet the demands of the other Grom shops that opened that same year. The goal is always the same: to offer the very best. The liquid mixtures are checked by a team of experts and then distributed 3 times a week, just like fresh milk, to each shop, where they are creamed.

Grom is synonymous with gelato of the highest quality. The idea is to apply a principle common to all the best restaurants in the world to the production of handmade gelato: the purchase of raw materials of absolute top quality. It was with this purpose in mind that, at the end of 2002, Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom set out to search for, from the Langhe to Sicily, the best that agricultural Italy – and not only that – could offer. The standards are strict: only fresh and in-season fruit, coming from the best consortia in Italy, no colorings or additives that are not natural, Lurisia mountain water used as a base for sherbets and high-quality whole milk for the creams, organic eggs and selections of the best cocoas and coffees from central America.

Grom interprets gelato by following the tradition of Italian gelato makers, where fresh milk, egg yolk, white cane sugar and the best raw materials such as pistachios, hazelnuts, vanilla and many others play a leading role. A moderate use of cream allows our ice cream to always have a low fat content, likewise with the quantity of sugar used, in order to avoid cloying and non-refreshing gelato. As a result, Grom’s gelato is very suited to those who want to eat gelato low in fat (8-10%) and sugar (15-18%) but rich in precious raw materials and proteins, easy to digest and with a full and intense flavor. Gelato made in this way, using only carob flour as a very noble thickening agent, requires a longer and more difficult processing by our operators at the counter.

This was after lunch and still burdened with our backbreaking groceries. The weather was in the region of about ten degrees. But gelato? Best served cold! :)

We have officially been Grom-ed!

Torrocino (nougat), extra noir ciocolatto (extra dark chocolate), egg cream and a hazelnut.

There were too many other flavours we wish we had the stomach to try.

And then there was also hot chocolate (calda ciocolatto). This guy in front of us ordered one of that and it looked like pure, molten, unadulterated, chocolate love!

But no my stomach cannot afford that kind of richness (in fat content!) so we passed on that.

What about gelato?

Oh that's milk. Good for growth! :)

It's more expensive than your usual run-of-the-mill gelato shops but it was well worth every cent.

With stores in Japan and NY, I'll be back for more even if it isn't in the northern region of Italy.

Have you had Grom before?

Fondamenta della Misericordia Venice

After a day's worth of Murano and Burano, the outlying islands of Venice, Dad was the grumpiest man alive.

No, it wasn't the islands. We pretty much enjoyed our island hopping experience taking the boat from Fondamenta Nuove to Murano and taking our mini glass making tour, taking a switch of boats to get to Burano where we unfortunately missed seeing women doing lace handicrafts but we were rewarded by colorfully painted quaint houses and a special knit dress buy for me :)

Oh, so about Dad. It was lunch time and we had been walking about looking for Fondamenta something or other with bags of groceries (there aren't many stores around Venice so we thought it's best to grab what we wanted when we saw one) Nigel and his bags of pasta almost broke our arms and backs carrying those around.

Eventually we settled on Fondamenta della Misericordia. It would have honestly become pure misery for us had we gone on to search for the original place we wanted to get to for their recommended lunch sets.

Lunch sets in Venice are good value for money if you know where to find them.

Apparently according to so many reviews from tourists, prices rise exponentially for dinner. There's even a difference dining al fresco or indoors. In this kind of winter, I'll pay the difference to dine indoors.

The lunch set came with starter, main and sides selection. If I don't remember wrong, it was 13 Euros per set. The clams pasta was cooked just right, not al dente that made it too hard. There was just enough sauce to coat the pasta and clams that although had shrunk to the tiniest possible, tasted fresh and marinated well. :)

The beef lagsane was a pleasant surprise. Made with a white cream sauce, it was rich and had a fair amount of minced beef enveloped within the sheets of pasta. Small quantity but more than enough for sharing.

Then there were the mains. The grilled chicken was a little dry and this probably due to the fact that it's probably chicken breast and lacking in fat content to lock in some juices which being grilled. I distinctly remember ordering swordfish steak but after a few mouthfuls, I was pretty sure this was chicken.

Then there was squid that was served in a black mass.

I was bracing myself for horridly pungent taste of the sea (my previous experience of squid ink was at Saizeraiya at City Square Mall that was just the messiest ever with black stains all over my mouth and a very pungent fishy smell) but there was none of it.

The squid rings were fresh. Tender and chewy coated with a sauce to remember. There was no fishy taste. It was decadent and ohsogood to dip my chicken pieces and bread into. Now this was NOT meant for sharing.

For sides we had two servings of fries that were mediocre and no there were no drinks included. Dad was too used to having tea/ coffee as part of his sets and ordered two shots of espresso which were way too bitter to be drunk black and costing 1.50 Euros each.

Four people sharing two lunch sets. I was full from the fries and bread sticks amongst other nibbles but there's always space for dessert.

Guess what it could be? :)

day trip out to pisa!

What's your idea of Pisa?

The idea of the trip around Italy should be enough to prompt you to instinctively think about the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa of architectural magnificence.

Pisa is a serene and sleepy town. You don't need a map to get to the leaning tower. It's pretty straightforward from Pisa Centrale you walk straight past the Solferino Bridge and after another street, turn left and you can see the tower right ahead. The people walking about on the streets are all probably headed in the same direction- Towards the Piazza dei Miracoli ("Square of Miracles").

The Piazza del Duomo ("Cathedral Square") is a wide, walled area at the heart of the city of Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as one of the main centers for medieval art in the world. Partly paved and partly grassed, it is dominated by four great religious edifices: the Duomo (cathedral), the Campanile (the cathedral's free standing bell tower), the Baptistry and the Camposanto.

In 1987 the whole square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

At 241 kilometres, this river runs through Arrezo, Ponte Vecchio in Florence and around Siena was mostly infamous for its wild floods especially one in 1966 where the raging water collapsed the embankment in Florence, killing at least 40 people and damaging and destroying millions of works of art and rare books. New conservation techniques were inspired by the disaster, but even 40 years later, these hundreds of works still await restoration.

We're almost there! :) A easy walk through the sleepy town of which I basked in its quiet and serene atmosphere till we got to the Piazza which was filled with visitors. Taking that ubiquitious shot of having to hold onto the leaning tower from all angles and in so many wacky ways. Oh if only I had a more adventurous brother. :p



We popped into a small store enroute for an energy boost.

But having had Old Bridge just yesterday, this just didn't cut it. :/

A few hours in Pisa and we bade our farewells. We've been there, done it, seen it.

And our gelato hunt continues.

italian gelato a roma

Tripadvisor scores!

On the way from St Paul's Basilica to the Sistine Chapel. You won't miss this with its queues.

For 1.60 EUR for a piccolo (small cone) with the option of up to three flavours.

Where do you find prices like these and quality like this for gelatos!

And if a picture could speak a thousand words.

Or maybe just two.

Like.

EAT THIS!

I would have died happy.
The eating part. Not the talking picture. :)

First fall in Roma

Taking a walking trail in the late afternoon starting from the Patheon, to the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and to the Spagna metro station which overlooked the Spanish steps. It was tiring but we felt accomplished- covering quite a few tourist sights in just a couple of hours. It looked like a lot on the map probably that's why.

Coming back to the place where we stayed near the central station, Dad needed his Chinese fix. Mum probably did too so we split up and went out separate ways.

When in doubt, go back to enquire with the hotel.

Taking a card with a 20% discount, we were glad to walk just around the corner for dinner. It was late and we were tired.

A complimentary bruschetta. What a nice gesture. Plump tomatoes. But very dense and stale bread. Typical of all Italian establishments.

Don't bother looking for Gardenia. No one eats olive oil with those. ;)

Most or perhaps all the tables around us seemed like they had the same discount card.

Something was amiss. Hmm.

Well, how would we know if we didn't try?

First fall.

Deciding on a pizza main was easy. I wanted olives. Eggs, artichoke, mushrooms and salami sounded like awesome pizza toppings too!

Alas, it was served semi cold. :(

Pizza loses out when served cold. Where was my stringy mozzarella?



Now this, was piping hot. And the ugliest lasagne we've seen. Haha.

A better word might be homestyled. :p

This was full of tomato sauce (tasting like it was out of a can), random bits of meat (random being code word for measly and unnoticeable maybe) and it's saving grace was stringy cheese. :)

This definitely needed a discount or patron rates would be equally random (codeword: nonexistent) on most nights!

What made it worse? Dad and mum had xiaolongbaos, stir fried veg and mushrooms and fried rice for a 2 pax set that was cheaper that our substandard dinner. Why oh why.

And while we're on that point, chinese food is really pretty affordable in Italy. Fear not, my dad the chinaman at heart survived our ten day escapades without starving! :)

ichiban desho :)

A new & updated menu.

Prices have also been accordingly revised.

I didn't see the salmon mentaiko but I did see my assorted sashimi gozen back on the menu.

Dinner with my cell for a birthday celebration.

9 days after the birthday and the celebrations are still on. :)

Makes it so much easier to love growing older, together with my friends at cell. <3

It was a brilliant change to my usual orders.

Ponzu sauce on my aburi salmon was not what I fancied. But the problem was the sauce. The salmon? Fresh. :)

The black peppered dory slices were thin and when fried, didn't let you taste much of fish at all. The wagyu beef steak was sublime. Kept hot throughout the meal, the slices were medium rare. Tender. Juicy enough with its fat content. That special sauce was salty but ohsoaddictive. Makes you want to ask for MORE rice but no, I stopped myself. From rice. But not from eventually finishing up the sauce.

Thank goodness for hot green tea!

Everything else on the set was the same.

And how do they always manage to have watermelon slices that taste so sweet!

Thanks for the love. In all those little ways.

Zio Gigi in Florence

Searching on tripadvisor for dinner places (please take reviews with a pinch of salt. actually, maybe a gallon. depending on who writes them. just. try. reading. the. singapore. ones. the horrors! :p)

Zio Gigi was in the top twenties, located behind the musee duomo. It was a long walk to dinner. Maybe it just felt long because we were ravenous! And we had a cause to celebrate!

My almost twenty seventh birthday, their twenty eighth wedding anniversary. :)

Meat for mains. Dad is not the most adventurous when it comes to western food (in this case, Italian food). But with the many courses of a dinner order in Italy, if you order a meat, you basically just get meat. It is unlike the side salad and fries that we are very accustomed to back here at home.

Dad had to add on a side order of fries to feel like he ate a proper meal. Maybe that's his vegetable excuse. :) The meats were nicely grilled- check out the lovely char grilled lines. Not overcooked. The chicken was juicy and tender but the pork was a little dry, perhaps due to the lean quality of the meat.

Our first attempt at an order of gnocchi. It was. GOOD. Like crazily good. The potato gnocchi was cooked with just the right amount of bite. And the sauce was like molten gold. Not that I think molten gold might be appetizing at all but it was -that- kind of richness on your tongue once you take a bite of that baked goodness. Very filling. More excuses to share. :)

These tagliatelle ribbons were cooked al dente and tossed in a tomato based gravy of wild boar (!) meat. I know. How does that taste! It was. Meaty. There's no other suitable way of describing it. In the menu, it states that the wild boar meat is frozen meat. Nope, it did not taste frozen. It tasted like a cross between pork and beef and infused with tomato flavour for a tasty and juicy bite. Definitely for red meat lovers.

And this is what love looks like to me. :)

Happy anniversary.

A first in Italy and more in the years to come.