The streets of Bangkok is dotted with many hawkers selling all sorts of food for those with an appetite for adventure. While noodles and rice dishes are mainly found in food courts and small restaurants, many hawkers offer bite size snacks at road side. From the more mainstream sausages to cold drinks to fried insects, you can find virtually anything.

Bacon Stick for 20 baht each

I noticed that many snacks choices consist of pork. There are pork sausage, bacon sticks, grilled fried pork, deep fried pork skin, roasted pork, ah, it was good for the pork lovers, maybe not exactly so great for health, however.

My favorite would be the bacon stick we had at the Chatuchak weekend market. For 20 baht (around RM2), you get mini sausages wrapped with bacon on a skewer. The union of sausage and bacon was a match made in heaven as the juice and slight saltiness from bacon compliments the texture and taste of the sausage oh so well. You have to try this if you manage to find the stall!

grilled pork strips on a ring

Grilled pork strips on bamboo string is a pretty common snack that can be found at many places. The meat is marinated and carries a pretty salty taste, while pretty good, eating too much of these will make you very thirsty.

deep fried pork skin

Another sinful snack would be this little bowls of deep fried pork skin that goes for 10 baht that we found at Chatuchak. These are very crispy and goes well with a little bit of Thai chili sauce. Now imagine having this with a cold beer watching your favorite football teams on a big LCD TV, with the air-cond full blast, and maybe a hot chick dancing on the side…

roasted pork (siu yok)

Roasted pork isn’t usually served on rice over here, you just have it as snacks to munch while walking around the weekend market. I guess we deserved it since we were getting enough exercise from walking under the searing hot April weather in Bangkok anyway, right?

colorful Popsicles

Then there’s the Popsicle stalls. The popsicles are actually made on location, usually with bottled fruit juice poured into a metal mold. A wooden stick is added as the handle. The mold is placed in a contraption consisting two parts, a top with little holes to hold the molds, and the bottom container filled with dried ice.

The seller often stirs the top part of the popsicle maker attempting to freeze the products faster. A stick costs something like 5 baht, and they were perfect for the weather.

fried mini banana (including the skin)

Other than the meat items, I also tried this curious little deep fried banana Terence bought. It was basically some species of mini banana sliced down in the middle, deep fried. While they look rather uninspiring, these things were actually very sweet and rather tasty. It is similar with our own “pisang goreng”, but sweeter and more concentrated.

Of course I enjoy every bit!

You can do a fair share of walking and eating in this city. Next up would be the various type of meals I had to sit down to eat. Stay tuned!

Tags:  bacon,  banana,  bangkok,  bite,  dining,  food,  fried,  ice cream,  pork,  streets

Posted by KY | 32 Comments »

One of my main aim going into the Bangkok trip was to taste some of the weird and wonderful foods the land of smile has to offer, something that is very difficult or impossible to get from Malaysia. This of course, would be the infamous deep fried worms, insects, and alike.

for a few ringgit, we got all these wonderful snacks

I was expecting fried insect stalls to be on every street corners. In actual fact, they are not very common. We weren’t able to locate anyone selling this for the first couple days of our stay. It was only on the 3rd night at Bangkok that Terence managed to buy a plastic bag full these weird and wonderful food from the streets near Pantip Mall (the one that is famous for selling Amulets, not the IT mall with the same name). Myself and Dree were overjoyed!

McBugs, McFrogs, and Worm Fries

Inside the goody bag there were worms, crickets, grasshoppers, dragonflies, praying mantis, and of course, those little fried frogs in whole. Not knowing exactly how to start, we first arranged them into McBugs, McFrogs, and Worm Fries combo meal. A couple minutes staring at these creatures, we decided to bite the bullet bugs and go straight to it to get the maximum taste instead.

having a feast!

I attacked the worms first. I don’t know if they were just worms or some insect larvae, but the slightly yellowish exterior sure looked a lot more inviting than the dark brown insects laying next to them. As it turns out, the worms were actually pretty good, slightly crunchy and tastes a lot better than the bee’s pupae I had in Vietnam. They were seasoned with salt and some spices, I believe.

my god, we were so proud of ourselves!

Next in line were all the different types of bugs. It was a bit weird chewing down grasshoppers, crickets, and so forth, but actually they too tasted quite ok, very crunchy and tasted a bit like having deep fried small prawns with shells on. Again, it was a little salty and slightly spicy. The different bugs basically tasted the same except but with slightly different textures, you can make out the long arms of praying mantis and the grasshopper’s legs in your mouth, neat.

naturally we finished the whole serving

The more difficult part of the snack attack session though, were the frogs. Unlike the familiar big fat frogs served in Malaysia, these are tiny frogs the size of fifty sen coins. They come with everything intact except for innards, so you get the whole head, the eyes staring at you, the legs, spines and all.

We threw it into our mouths and start chewing off, amazingly there were actually pretty tasty! Crunchy with slight taste of meat, it goes well with the seasoning and not too salty like the bugs. Once you get over the fact that you have to chew the entire head, it was all good!

Of course, we finished the entire serving and like little kids we just finished their vegetables, we were proud. If you’re going to Thailand, this is a must-have!

Tags:  bangkok,  bugs,  deep fried,  eats,  fine dining,  frogs,  insects,  street food,  Thailand,  worms

Posted by KY | 59 Comments »

After spending way too much energy and sweat on our futsal last night, we decided to head to the famous Jalan 223 nasi lemak place for some well deserved recuperation session. Even though it was already past 11pm on a weekday, the Selera Jaya 223 food court is bustling with activity, there are so many hungry ghosts packed in the area you would think there’s a sideshow going on.

futsal buddies: Dree, Jeff, Shiang, and Terence

The main attraction at this place is the nasi lemak. There are two types, the nasi lemak with blue print a little sweeter and wetter, while the red print version is slightly drier but more spicy. They come with half a hard boiled egg and some fried anchovies. Since there are so many customers dining at the area, the nasi lemak is always still hot for consumption, a nasi lemak panas is always better than the nasi lemak at room temperature.

I’ve tried both versions and they are really tasty, with no fuss and no frill. You can’t beat the value at RM 1 per packet either.

2 types of nasi lemak, otak-otak, and a set of half boil egg

Half boiled egg is another item that they do very well here. Just look at the picture above, perfect boiling, and you don’t even need to crack the eggs yourself. My buddy Shiang insisted that using the half boil eggs as gravy for the nasi lemak is the way to go. I didn’t try that myself, sinful, sinful.

the most “Kao” milo ice ever

As for drinks, the milo ice is definitely the most “kao” you can get anywhere. I thought filling 1/3 of my glass with milo powder is pretty “kao” already, over here they do it at almost 1/2 glass. It is a bit crazy if you ask me.

The otak-otak, while fresh and served hot, is really not up to par as compared to those I had in some other places (most notably those Suanie brought from Johor). However, I do eat it once in a while just to refresh my taste bud. They do taste a little too sweet.

the food court is situated just across Amway building at Jalan 223

If you’re looking for a midnight indulgence with an original local theme, this is definitely the place to be.

Tags:  dining,  Eats,  egg,  food,  jalan 223,  mamak,  midnight snack,  milo,  nasi-lemak,  otak-otak

Posted by KY | 34 Comments »

After casting my vote on that fateful election day that changed our history forever, I called up FA to go breakfast as her polling station is just a mere kilometer from mine. I took a very short drive to Sea Park (PJ Seksyen 21, not to be mistaken with Taman Sea) for some Ipoh Kueh Teow Soup at Soo Kee.

master chef skillfully remove all bones from the chicken

For the two of us, we actually ordered up quite a feast. Two bowls of Ipoh Kueh Teow Soup (Ipoh Hor Fun), a bowl of prawn wan tan (with at least 8 wantans in there), and a pretty big portion of steamed chicken. I don’t get to eat early breakfast that often, so it is a feast when I get a chance.

Ipoh kueh teow soup, prawn wantan, and really smooth chicken

While waiting for our food, we noticed that a lady next to our table took out a curiously looking newspaper wrapper, and out came roasted pork (siu yok). That certainly made us salivate, and after FA checked with the lady, I was sent to the wet market just opposite the restaurant on a mission. I came back with RM 5 worth of godsend.

look at FA being so happy with the roasted pork

As it turned out, we really had too much food that morning. The kueh teow soup was actually very good and true to the traditional recipe. Some prawns, shredded chicken meat, spring onion, and a dash of chili oil that amplify the flavor. I particularly like the steamed chicken too, almost completely boneless (like Fatty Loh’s style), with the meat very smooth and succulent. The wantan was pretty good too, if not a little bit on the saltier side for my taste.

The addition of roasted pork was certainly the highlight of the day. The crunchiness of the skin on roasted pork was a stark contrast to the smoothness of chicken and the kueh teow, the contrasting taste and texture made the breakfast awesome. We had our stomach completely filled.

Soo Kee is located just a stone’s throw away from the Sea Park Shell station

I don’t remember exactly how much each bowl of kueh teow costs, but the entirely meal was more than RM 20. Certainly expensive for breakfast, but with the amount of chicken and prawn wan tan we had, I think it was still reasonable.

Address:
33 Jalan 21/17,
46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: 03-7876 7736

Tags:  chicken,  dining,  food,  hor fun,  ipoh,  koay teow,  kueh teow,  soo kee,  soup

Posted by KY | 32 Comments »

One of the local delights that I enjoy eating over and over again is Yong Tau Foo, especially when looking for a fast and no frill meal with very little waiting time. I have traveled to quite a few places to sample the few famous outlets around Ampang and Segambut for this dish, but they remain a bit too far to go on a regular basis. I was delighted that the Ipoh Road Yong Tau Foo opened a branch at Kelana Jaya, very close to where I stay.

clean and comfortable environment

Unlike the main branch at Jalan Ipoh, this place does not stress you so much on the parking situation. The restaurant, while not air conditioned, is pretty clean and comfortable. Crowd level was still quite small when I went on a weekday evening as I guess it has not been discovered by many casual diners yet.

yong tow foo, paper wrapped chicken, and fried sui kao (dumpling)

I ordered my usual favorites, including chili, bitter gourd, okra, tofu, fried dumpling, and one of their unique offerings, the paper wrapped chicken.

Unsurprisingly, this branch lives up to the reputation of the original Jalan Ipoh main branch when it comes to taste. The ingredients are fresh and the fish paste stuffings firm and flavorful. Looking at their smallish kitchen, I am guessing that all the yong tau foo is probably prepared at the main branch and transported here daily.

operating time and prices are all here!

Similar with many dim sum places, ordering is a simple affair of jotting down the number of pieces you want for each item and pass it to the waiter. Prices and opening hours are conveniently displayed on the wall, and of course, conveniently displayed here for you!

I think I’m going there again soon.

Ipoh road yong tow foo is located opposite St. Ignatius Church

Address:
No. 1, Jalan SS 4D/2,
People’s Park
47301, Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7805 3308

Tags:  chinese-food,  Eats,  food,  makan,  traditional,  yong-tau-foo

Posted by KY | 17 Comments »