Since I am heading to Krabi in a few hours’ time, it is appropriate that I write about the awesome dinners Mell and I had during our visit to Bangkok last February. Something that I shouldn’t have waited so long to do, but there’re just so many things and so little time, oh well!
this guy sells a few types of typical Thai dishes
Our first dinner at Bangkok was infact our second night there, after a long day at the city, we came back to our hotel at Reflections Rooms and decided to dine right by street next to the hotel lobby. I ordered two plates of Pad See Yew for dinner.
Pad See Yew, with plenty of chili padi if you need them
The pad see yew is basically fried flat rice noodle with vegetable, egg, pork (sometimes substitute with chicken or beef), and vegetable. Fish sauce, soy sauce, and pepper are also among the ingredients that made up this dish. I’ve had pad see yew quite a number of times, and this must be one of the best tasting I’ve tried yet.
The dinner was around 70 baht, water was free.
a stall offering variety of dishes with rice
After having a pretty tiring first day at Chatuchak, we decided to try the other stall right next to the first one we ordered pad see yew from. This is one of the many stalls that littered the streets offering a wide variety of dishes that goes with rice. They only have 2-3 tables set up by the pavement, I guess most of their business are the drive-through type.
long bean with chicken, and seafood tomyam
We ordered a bowl of seafood tomyam, and with some sign language mad skills, I managed to also ordered long bean with chicken to go with two rice.
The tomyam was so good! Very sour, spicy, and full of that authentic tomyam that is so tough to find outside Thailand. Though the ingredients were nothing luxurious (some small shrimps, a bit of squid, mushroom, ginger, green onion, shallots, chili padi), the overall taste was just superb.
yes, the tomyam were spicy!
The chicken with long bean too was a very tasty dish that goes really well with rice. Though not quite as hot as the tomyam, this vegetable dish too came with green pepper (jalopeno?) and some chili padi. The base had a strong taste of fish sauce that worked well with the chicken and provided good contrast to the tomyam.
Everything came to only 110 baht, again, ice water was free.
fried egg, squid with cabbage, and tomyam
We went to the same place again for the third consecutive night cos the food was just so good. This time we asked for (by pointing and sign language yet again) fried egg that looks and tasted much like our local telur dadar; a squid and cabbage dish that for once, isn’t really something spicy, but pretty tasty nonetheless; and of course, the very same tomyam again.
It costs a something like 140 baht this time, and oh so delicious!
another stall further to the west of our hotel
Tragically, when we went back to the same place on our last night at Bangkok, we discovered the hard way that the stalls are closed on Mondays. We then walked a few minutes to the west of our hotel (still on Pradipat Road) and chanced up upon this other hawker stall that offers similar type of foods. As usual, my super limited Thai and some hand gestures came to rescue.
tomyam, pork with brinjal, kangkung with chicken
We ordered tomyam with fish, a pork dish, and a kangkung with chicken to go with rice. The tomyam was different this time, a bit more sour than previous, less soupy, and a lot more spices. I feel that I prefer the previous version but some might like the intensity of this one.
Cooked with sweet sauce, peppercorn, basil, and a type of brinjal, the fatty pork slices soaked in the flavor and made the pork dishes rather delicious. As for the kangkung, well, it wasn’t very different from what we get here, but did provide a contrast to all the meat dishes we had.
If I remember correctly, this meal was around 200 baht. A bit pricier probably due to the fact hat we had more meat dishes.
map of Reflections Rooms Hotel
Address:
Outside Reflections Rooms Hotel
224/2-18 Pradipat Rd.,
Samsennai,Phayathai,
Bangkok 10400 Thailand
GPS: 13.790110,100.545947
The mat salleh suggested that we go to De Chiengmai Thai Seafood restaurant at Sungai Buloh after reading the Malay tomyam place I posted on monsterblog a few weeks ago. Together with Kelvin, we promptly did that the following weekend.
very nice ambience
Getting to there is no trivial stuff, the restaurant is located deep in a kampung at Sungai Buloh. However, with the senior’s memory and a little luck, we finally reached there after only one wrong turn. For the readers here, you guys are lucky, there’s now, of course, a map (see below)
The architecture of the restaurant reminded me of cultural centers and museums more than a place to cure hunger. Nicely decorated and quiet, De Chiengmai offers a good ambience for dining. There are also ample parking space.
tomyam, otak-otak, steamed fish, pandan chicken
We ordered 4 dishes for the 3 of us. A must-order steamed siakap fish (bass), seafood tomyam, otak-otak, and pandan chicken. It didn’t take long before the dishes were served, with the more aromatic Thai rice to go with them.
real charcoal, and super fresh vegetable
The steamed fish turned out to be the best dish of the day. With plenty of garlic and ginger, the fish simmers in a sourish and spicey soup base and being kept warm with slow burning charcoal. Don’t miss out on this dish if you go there. The tomyam was pretty good as well, not overly spicy, but with plenty of squid, prawns, and other seafood items.
The otak-otak, well, is not anything we would call otak-otak in a Malaysian sense. This dish is a mixture of seafood in the otak-otak “sauce”. With plenty of fish meat, prawn, and squid. It was very rich and satisfying though. The pandan chicken tasted as how they should be, and provided a good alternative to all the seafood dishes we ordered.
location map of de’ Chiengmai Thai Seafood Restaurant
The restaurant definately offers one of the best Thai food anywhere, and with the great atmosphere and reasonable pricing (RM 112.88 for all those). It is really hard to beat. Especially now that you know how to get there, there is no excuse not to give it a try.
Do order some vege dishes too (we probably should have), De Chiengmai grow their own vegetables so that all the vegetables are super fresh and of top quality.
Address:
De Chiengmai Thai Seafood
No 34, Kg. Sentosa, Bt. 13 Sg Buloh 47000
Sungai Buluh Selangor
GPS: 3.224241, 101.568655
Tel: 03-6156 3225
A friend introduced this tomyam place in Petaling Jaya old town to me. A “restaurant” that is set up by the compound of a corner house in the oldest area of PJ. We went there last weekend to give it a try.
gives you that homey feeling
Suan was supposed to join us, but after I spent about 10 minutes giving her directions, she said
“ah it’s too complicated for me, nevermind you guys go ahead”
So for 3 of us, we ordered a tomyam soup with fresh grouper meat, and a fried kangkong. The owner, who looked and sounds like a Thai, told me that she uses 10 ingredients for the soup and it’s all freshly cooked, per customer basis. No tomyam paste or any of those kinda instant stuff.
some serious hot and sour power
After waiting for about 20 minutes, the tomyam and the vege was ready. My god, the tomyam was seriously one of the best I’ve had. Better than Jimmy and Nong in Cheras, the flavour was really strong and the soup was thicker. If you can’t take it hot, you might want to order more drinks. We can’t stop ourselves from drinking the soup even after finishing our rice.
The grouper fish blends well with the tomyam soup, as you would expect from the not-so-cheap selection of seafood. If your wallet permits, they have some nice grouper head for tomyam fish head too (those can run more than RM 50 for the dish) . The kangkung was pretty good itself too.
so now you know how to go to PJ old town
The place serves tomyam only at night, I’ve heard they closes pretty early. There is a different operator in the afternoon that serves pretty decent food too, however.
Our meal costs about RM 50 for the three of us. A little pricey perhaps, but the fish was of very good quality and the tomyam was definately worth it. Will go there again.
For a satellite image of the place, click on this google map link
Address:
Intersection of Jalan Dispensary 38 and Jalan 2/23,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.086394, 101.645701
Huey Fang told us about this iThai restaurant a while back, so we finally decided to give it a try due to her persistent urging. Boy, she was right about the place, really affordable and good Thai food.
note: I believe this shop has relocated to Millennium Square at Seksyen 14, PJ (OK I don’t know anymore)
Fried rice entrees are just RM 6.90 nett
iThai is a lightly decorated restaurant, unique in a sense that it offers Thai food as well as pasta. The menu offers choices of fried rice, the familiar tomyam dishes, noodles (ladna, pad se yeu, etc), ala carte (chicken, vege, seafood, etc) dishes to go with white rice, as well as pasta and dessert. That makes it possibly to dine alone, or to have a family meal there.
Alcoholic info: They serve beer too, happy hour is at 3-6pm with RM 7 Carlsberg, if I remember correctly.
Set meal with fried rice, tom yam soup, and a serving of fresh fruits
I ordered a set meal that includes a fried rice entree with Chiang Mai fried rice, a bowl of Tomyam soup, and fresh fruits. You can also choose from Tomyam fried rice, iThai Fried Rice , and a couple other choices. At RM 11.90 nett, it is very reasonable.
I’ve so far tried Chiang Mai and iThai fried rice (green curry with chicken and basil leaves), and they are both very good. Rich in flavor, and I believe they use pretty decent quality Thai rice. The tomyam soup is seafood base, with squid, prawn, cauli flower, mushroom, and tomato. Sour and spicey just as tomyam meant to be.
we sure enjoyed our meal
If you are there, try their Green Curry curry puff too, only RM 1 each and I gurantee you will want more. They are irressitable.
Here’s how you get there:
don’t you love my Public Bank logo?
GPS: 3.126718, 101.615832
It was probably more than year since we went to Nong and Jimmy Thai BBQ Seafood place the last time. A place we usually refer to as “that Cheras tomyam place”, though it is actually located in Taman Cahaya and geographically not even really in Cheras, but Ampang instead. Last friday 5 of us decided to do treat ourselves some good ol’ favorites.
we ordered up a feast
ST, faggot, margie, kerol and I got to the restaurant and luckily was able to find a table without much hassle though it was a busy friday night. (I called suan but she didn’t manage to pick up.. ) The restaurant is more like a roof with some light fixtures and fan over concrete surface where they put lots of cheap tables and chairs. Do not expect air conditioning or comfortable chairs, they concentrate on food, not comfort nor the whole dining experience thingy.
ST, faggot, margie, & kerol
We ordered a basket of BBQ cockles, a claypot tomyam, BBQ prawns, BBQ stingray fish, fried squid, and kailan vegetables to go with some fried rice that includes big juicy prawns in it. The claypot tomyam and the BBQ prawn is a must, tomyam is served with prawn and squid as the main ingredients. The tomyam here tastes a little different from those that you get from mamak restaurants or Malay outlets, it is a little closer to authentic Thai flavour, we like it.
cockles, prawns, special chili sauce with peanuts, BBQ fish
Not everyone eats cockles, but if you do, do not pass it up. The chili sauce with peanuts goes very, very well with the BBQ cockles, and basically other BBQ dishes like BBQ prawns and fish. The fried curry squid was pretty good too and provided a nice departure from having too many BBQ dishes. You can order white rice to go with the dishes, but to really get some serious prawn overdose, go for the fried rice instead.
claypot tomyam, fried rice, squid, vege
Needless to say, we gobbled up everything and had happy stomachs to kick start the weekend. You can too, check out the patented map!
oh such lovely map
Address:
Lot 27363, Jalan Cahaya 1,
Taman Cahaya,
Ampang, Selangor
GPS: 3.142669, 101.754727
Tel: 03 4251 1807
