11
.
Chinese herbal menu
Browsing on Soi Langsuan, where my relatives stayed, to find a restaurant for us to eat, coincidentally Top-menu Chinese Restaurant appeared to me while its name also flashed in my mind. I had been sampled her delicious Northern Chinese (Beijing and nearby provinces) provincial food they prepared in the healthy way before. Without hesitation I found a nice window seat in this bistro style restaurant to do dinner with my relatives.
The Chinese logo of the restaurant written that 'medicine and food come from the same source', which is true to Chinese wisdom that eating is the most basic health care step. When I was a child mom used to cook meals depending on my health condition. For example, when I was hot, my mom cooked me a meal with those cooling ingredients and herbs so to avoid the development of sore throat and flu. In Top-menu some soups and dishes are cooked with Chinese herbs to counter customer's concern of headache, kidney, stomach, or even heart broken. No, the last one doesn't exist and is my imagination.
I always cook healthy herbal soup at home, therefore at Top-menu I focused only on favorite native Northern Chinese street cuisine that we hardly find elsewhere with the same quality; and I don't cook them at home either. Chinese dumpling is always one of my favorite choices in those Beijing houses so I made two orders of them at Top-menu, steamed dumplings stuffed with pork and celery (zheng-jiaozi) the first order, and pan-fried dumplings stuffed with ground pork (guotie/gyoza) being the second. The dish I also couldn't wait to order was the pan-fried scallion pancake (cong-you bing). They all tasted the true Beijing standard only with less fat meat inside and less oily. Thumps up!
In a Chinese (and Thai) dining table, we share dishes (if we don't dine alone), and eat with rice (or noodle in some cases). The next orders were cold cut beef the Beijing style, and shredded potato mixed salad, I simply ordered a bowl of plain noodle soup to accompany these traditional sides dishes. Beef cut in paper thin sheets without any seasoning, tasted naturally just what good beef should be. The potato salad was somehow so-so.
For mains we ordered the deep-fried Naning pork ribs with sweet and sour sauce, braised pork knuckles, stir-fried bitter gourd leaves, and stir-fried pak Taiwan veggies. Last two items ordered were dumplings soup, now all of you believe how much I love dumplings, and shrimp fried rice of which the taste was disappointed and shrimp hahaha hardly found them existed. There are two exciting dishes I missed, stir-fried long beans Beijing style and stir-fried mutton in running oil, simply sold out when we dined at 8 pm.
Top-menu does not offer customers Peking duck. Instead it is a kind of bistro offers true Beijing street cuisine both delicious and healthy way.
Top Menu Chinese Restaurant ***1/2
34/1 Soi Langsuan
off Ploenchit Road
Lumpini, Bangkok 10330
Tel.: 02.251.1438
Open daily : 11 am - 10 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 700
* (update on 15/Feb/2010: Top-menu now expands to Sukhumvit Soi 24, near the President Park)
10
.Midnight eating pleasureI assume Bangkok has surpassed Singapore of ASEAN shopping paradise as shopping centers here are more creative tend to offer shoppers pampered services. Merchandise is diversified and creative, not just those boring brands we see everywhere. The only setback is the air-conditioning is always too cold (in any major shopping mall). We didn't shop for international brands but focus on those creative and unique local designer labels and home decor stuffs. However, we still couldn't resist the Lacoste sale with eight big bags carried back home. After a tired day we took a nap and moved the dinner to 11pm.
Where in Bangkok can still offer us with a decent dining near midnight? The answer is, the Green House at the 4-star Landmark Hotel. The Hotel has ten F&B outlets in the compound offering gourmet around the world. Green House is the hotel's coffee shop serving the hungry of us not only Western and Thai fare but the best keep secret in Green House is they also serve authentic and ho-mei (delicious) Cantonese light meal. It is a perfect match to have such a meal at late night as it is light.
The Chinese menu at the Green House is those family kind with a focus in bistro specialty and barbecued meat instead of some grand fare such as Peking duck (anyway Peking duck is not a Cantonese dish), shark fins soup, steamed live fish and braised abalone. Just some typical tea-room and street side dishes Hong Kong people eat around the corner in their everyday routine. We didn't want to eat too heavy that night, so we ordered four mains to accompany with rice and noodles. Our first order was barbecue honey glazed pork, the meat was tender and the taste is naturally sweet with hints of aroma from barbecue. Followed by soy sauce chicken, a highly recommended dish from me; just taste as good as we eat in Hong Kong I therefore wondered if the chef abandon the use of local soy sauce for Hong Kong one. Both dish has its sauce served separately. Came next were poach pak kwang-tung veggie with oyster sauce, fair but not outstanding; and stir-fried grouper fillet with Chinese celery, another dish got my thumbs up. The deep-fried fillet was fresh, crispy outside and flesh was soft, then stir-fried again with celery and other ingredients brought out the taste of celery and seafood sweetness in a good balance.
To accompany with the mains, we had rice roll noodle filled with barbecue pork, a dim-sum type food, the rice roll noodle here was not very thin but acceptable; noodle with braised beef brisket, chunk of meat was braised in its perfection and seasoned to exactly like those prepared in Hong Kong; noodle with wontons (dumplings Hong Kong), consisted of five big wontons with fresh whole shrimps; and noodle with braised pork knuckle, another dish that is outstanding. The Pork knuckle braised in broth for hours was tender and aromatic, seasoned with fermented bean curd (pink) paste, a secret weapon in Cantonese culinary.
Hainanese chicken rice in Green House served with three kind of sauces known as sweet soy sauce, ginger and chives oil, and sour chili sauce. There are not many places in Bangkok serve such marvelous sauce of the same quality, so we ordered one even we were quite full.
Judging that there are many sophisticated-looking locals out of a few tourists tucking into great mounds of good food here, I assumed that Green House already earned a reputation in causal dining among Bangkokkians. Green House also serves Western and Thai fare. I will review them in a separate post in the near future.
Green House Coffee Shop ***1/2
The Landmark Hotel
138 Sukhumvit Road
Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.254.0404
Landmark dining
Open daily : around the clock (yes 24 hours)
Pay (food only for two): around THB 600
9
.
A taste of Betong*
I spent the whole afternoon roaming in Bangkok's trendiest lifestyle street - Thonglo (Soi 55 Sukhumvit Road), shopping in the Playground, searching for antiques and premium grade handicraft and souvenirs in various standalone shops, getting ice cream and cakes in the J-Avenue, visiting my favorite Thai spa treatment in a nice spa really made my day fulfilling. Or perhaps one may add taking wedding photos in a choice of some 25 strong Thailand top wedding studios alongside on Thonglo.
Quality does come with its appropriate price tag and 'cheap' could never been associated in the Thonglo society. Except there is one unpretentious Chinese restaurant near (Thonglo) Soi 17 the food is food and inexpensive. An An Lao operated by a Thai-Chinese family originally from the Southern Thailand is famous for its Peking duck among the Thonglo society and Japanese expatriates and their aunties, also quite a number of unique Thai-Chinese dishes.
Revisit with friends. We started with the shop specialty An An Betong chicken, the chicken was soaked in boiled broth until well done instead of over boiled like those served in most other local eateries, therefore the meat is moist and tender, naturally sweet preserved, the taste of chicken got locked in. Sauce for the chicken is a secret recipe from An An Lao. Another house specialty is the An An kuay-teow-lawt (rice roll noodle wrapped on deep-fried flour rolls), with meat, dried shrimp, deep-fried flour rolls, and sausage filled in the kuay-teow-lawt an interesting alternative to the Cantonese cheong-fun, sauce for it is sweet soy sauce with a bit of spicy, unique enough!
It is a sin not to order the owner heavily recommended dish, the Peking duck. Quality is so-so but the good point is on the price, Baht 280 (US$8) for a half duck including a complimentary stir-fried duck meat or duck soup with preserved vegetables, really couldn't ask for more. Flour wrapper and condiments that go with the duck skin was very hard, dry, and cold on arrival. Instead soup with duck meat and preserved vegetables was surprisingly luscious and we almost would like to order another duck just for some extra soup. Also sampled the stir-fried mushroom in oyster sauce. Again, so-so.
Further we ordered more dishes to go with rice. First, deep-fried Thai sea bass in sweet plum sauce. Live fish from the tank, then deep-fried with a hint of using fresh oil, result to golden in outside and inside flesh was succulent worth the applause from us. However, the hot-plate pork with preserved bean curd sauce was quite disappointed. Meat was not fresh in the first place and the overuse of seasoning a real setback to the dish. For veggie we picked the stir-fried asparagus with prawn, and stir-fried watercress. I do appreciate the offer of watercress vegetable as it is less common in Bangkok restaurants.
To end the dinner we ordered some fruits which promote us better health.
Wine selection is poor in An An Lao, so Chinese tea and beer should be better choices to accompany the dinner.
An An Lao Chinese Restaurant 安安樓 ***
331/1 Soi Thonglo (corner Soi 17)
Soi 55 Shukumvit Road
Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.392.6447
An An Lao
Open daily : lunch 11 am - 2 pm, dinner 6:30 - 10 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 600
* Betong is a border city on the Thailand and Malaysia border in the south of Thailand.
8
.
Once upon a time cuisine
Tonight my friend brought me and our visiting friends from the States to a Thai restaurant in downtown Bangkok's busy Pratunam area. Entering into the venue I wondered if it was a garden in the city center, or it was a museum, or it was a gallery; it is all of them plus a lovely eatery, and it was Once Upon A Time Thai restaurant. A visit to this restaurant gave me a clear picture that why so many people cherish Thai cuisine around the globe.
Welcome by a beautiful garden with lush green (and mosquito) divided two Thai houses with the interior that a traditional Thai house would have looked like. We were entertained in the right corner house with air-conditioning instead of the al-fresco dining in the garden that is most farang (Western foreigner) customer's preference. Generously use of rich brown wood, heavy furniture from the generation of grandpa, numerous antiques (and even a show 'bedroom' of Lanna Thai), old fashioned toys, big framed photos on the wall, traditional Thai utensils and flow of Thai classical music decoration our dinner could never been more delightful. Once Upon A Time is not about Thai cuisine for the local but rather for the non-Thai palate (tourist) in a rural setting with wait-staffs wearing jong kraben (traditional lower Issan costumes).
Feel like eating in a museum did improve our appetite for dinner. In Thailand the drink that goes best with Thai food is never wine or beer but fresh young coconut juice therefore we ordered some. Our dinner kicked off with chicken satay which was probably the most straightforward appetizer; the version in Once Upon A Time had the chicken meat marinated with turmeric, galangal and lemongrass, and was tender, delicious and sweet, and had a nice taste of smoke from the barbecue; its dipping sauce had a balanced taste of coconut milk, peanut, red curry paste cooked with palm sugar, tamarind juice and little salt was great and never spicy. An accompanying salad of cucumber, shallots, and chili adding pre-cooked rice vinegar with a little sugar did go well with the chicken satay. We therefore couldn't couldn't resist to reorder another one.
Dishes to accompany with rice were; grilled chicken with full aroma of herbs from QUAT secret recipe was really another great chicken dish that night; and pla smalee tord (deep-fried king fish with green mango dip) was deep-fried to golden outside and soft inside brought us the texture of soft crispy skin and tenderly smooth flesh. Serving next was hor-mok talay maprao-on (steamed seafood with sweet and sour sauce in young coconut), this dish usually cooked with curry but since my visiting friends didn't eat hot therefore we asked for the sweet and sour version, and it came out delicious. The goong ob wensen (baked glass noodles with prawn in a pot) was very popular on any Thai-Chinese dining table but didn't know since when it was also popular in most Thai restaurants until today.
The phad pak ruam-mit (stir-fried mixed vegetables) there was unique as the pak (vegetable) included young coconut shoot, asparagus, and snow peas putting into one dish which was uncommon in other Thai restaurants. Gaeng (a curry soup) is part of a Thai meal. We sampled gaeng kieo waan gai (green curry with chicken meat) and it was satisfying. Rice in Once Upon A Time was not special but the bowl that contented them was beautiful.
After a full meal we had no room for desserts, or actually we didn't like to eat sweet before bedtime. So we skipped the desserts that night.
Once Upon A Time is one interesting Thai restaurant with good food (especially for Western palates) and multi character whether we shall call it a restaurant or a museum worth our unlimited returns.
Once Upon A Time ***1/2
32 Soi 17 Petchburi Road
Pratunam, Bangkok 10400
Tel.: 02.252.8629
Open daily : 11 am - 11 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 800
7
.Cuisine of Jim ThompsonSaladaeng Cafe, a Thai restaurant operated by the Thai Silk Company better known as the Jim Thompson after the name of the co-founder American merchant James Harrison Wilson Thompson who promoted Thai silk to the whole world after WWII while the then government was yet aware of this piece of great national treasure. Jim Thompson was also a prominent figure behind the reorganization of the Oriental Hotel Bangkok during that time. After Jim Thompson had mysteriously disappeared in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia in 1967, the Thai Silk Company is managed by a foundation with various investors and sponsored by the Royal Thai Government.
James HW Thompson had a reputation as 'Bangkok's leading farang (Western foreigner) host', during his time in Bangkok James entertained countless of noble guests in his charming house by the Klong Maha Nag Canal (known as the Jim Thompson House), his guests enjoyed a delightful evening by the feature of savoring Thai cuisine of a classic feast. Those once talk of the town evening events at the Jim Thompson House were now recreated in Bangkok. Today Jim Thompson has four commercially operated eateries in Bangkok, while Saladaneg Cafe is settled in a historical house in downtown area that seats more than 150 diners inside and outside. Both the decor and the culinary creations tend to preserve the glory of the Jim Thompson House and the guests in the old days with a modern twist. The restaurant features both open-air and enclosed air-conditioned elegant dining room decorated in heavy Indo-Chinese influence while the fare serves authentic Thai cuisine the classic way and essential Western selection plus the mouthwatering pastry as some bonus to the patrons. Top quality ingredients packed in small bag or jar, for anyone would like to try of Thai cooking at home, from lemongrass to brown rice was on the shelves for sale.
Thai food at Saladaeng Cafe is truly superbly delicious, especially to a foreigner palate. I started with the Thompson sampler plate consisting of prawn spring rolls, chicken spring rolls, and shrimp paste cakes; also well worth trying were the lemongrass salad, of which the strong aroma of lemongrass that dominated the salad was a mouthwatering treat, and the namtok moo yang (grilled pork with fresh mint in spicy Issan namtok sauce) one of my favorite appetizer dishes was doing quite well there. Since the deep-fried shrimp cakes in the Thompson sampler plate were so good therefore I opted for a full order of the tord mun goong (deep-fried shrimp paste cakes) for my friends to eat some more of them and that didn't let us down either.
Gaeng or soup was essential on a Thai or Chinese dining table. For soup I ordered the tom yum goong (sour and spicy prawn soup), and tom khai gai (chicken soup in coconut milk with galangal root) to share with my friends. They were both prepared in an authentic way that a Thai grandmother would agree with.
Main dishes I sampled were the grilled chicken set, the steamed cotton fish with herbs, the stir-fried mixed vegetables, and the stir-fried cauliflower with shrimp. The grilled chicken and the cotton fish were less impressive than I had sampled two years ago. The vegetables had a generous use of MSG. Eaten them with plain rice may dilute the overwhelming taste of seasoning, and we did.
My friends and I ordered whole coconut juice and beer to accompany our dinner. The host also offers a wide selection of fruit smoothies and wine from around the globe but wine was not popular among diners here. Home made cakes and desserts were highly recommended after meal and a cup of infusion tea or coffee was also a wise choice.
Saladaeng Cafe by Jim Thompson ***1/4
120/1 Saladaeng Soi 1
off Rama IV Road
Sathorn, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.266.9167
Saladaeng Cafe
Open daily : 11 am - 11 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 800
6
.Very Thai and tourist friendly When I first passed by Nara Thai I thought this was just another ordinary arcade restaurant, especially Nara Thai's contemporary Thai decor, trendy utensils and location promoted my further thoughts that this one was among some 'tourist class' restaurants with no taste of authentic, only expensive. My mom told me not to judge by one's appearance, her words saved me almost a miss of a treat.
The restaurant is set in a semi open-air (in the arcade) elegantly decorated in contemporary Khmer style, and a lovely outdoor terrace seating with the little waterfall to be a friend while dine alone. I received warm welcome from the waiter, chilled hand towel, a heavy metal cover menu, and a glass of refreshing lemongrass drinks (oh, I ordered that, not complimentary).
To kick off the lunch, I had three spicy Thai salad as starters to share with friends. First one was yum hed (mushroom salad), next one was yum wunsen talay (seafood and glass noodles mild spicy salad), and the third salad was yum som-o (spicy Thai pomelo salad with prawn). Excellent taste of lime, palm sugar, fish sauce and nice heat were mixed of native ingredients. The fourth dish was five-kind hors d'oeuvre consisting of chicken satay, fish cakes, pearl ball with pork stuffing (sakoo), Thai grapefruit salad with prawn, and deep fried flour stick with Thai dip.
For soup of course I ordered the maybe national soup tomyum goong (sour and spicy prawn soup), it came without disappointment. The hot and sour taste had reached a good balance. Yummy! I also ordered pearl ball with pork stuffing (sakoo) as the sample portion in the hors d'oeuvre definitely not enough for four (persons) in my table.
To go with rice, I sampled the gaeng kieo waan gai (green curry with chicken meat), plamuk phad kai khem (stir-fried squid with salty egg), fried soft shell crab in chili and lemongrass, goong tord nam makam (fried prawn in tamarind sauce), and pla samlee tord (deep-fried king fish with green mango sweet and mild spicy dip). These family dishes were nothing special, simply delicious and seafood were fresh.
Spotted there is a real-boat noddle station at entrance, offering Ayutthaya boat noodle I certainly couldn't afford to miss. The noodle broth was neither too salty nor spicy, but full of aroma and a little welcoming natural sweet from the bone the broth was made. I was surprised that one of the best boat noodles I couldn't get at those floating markets but instead at Nara Thai.
I spent less than Thai baht 2,000 for the lunch. Considering we had ten good quality dished and drinks for four persons, the price is rather cheap.
Many restaurants don't realize the importance of having servers trained to do the job right, those are the samples of failure in restaurant business. Nara Thai does not copy their mistakes, service in Nara Thai is friendly, prompt and attentive. Adding the aroi (delicious) tastiness and casual atmosphere made my dining at Nara Thai a true pleasure. Nara Thai is worth the well recognition by both native and foreign clients.
Nara Thai Cuisine ***1/2
Erawan Bangkok branch
Lower level, Urban Kitchen
494 Ploechit Road
Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330
Tel.: 02.250.7707
Nara Thai
Open daily : 10 am - 11 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 900
