Eat and eat trip (part 3)

Our wonderful eating trip continued.

After the day trip to the pottery village of Dan Kwian, we went back to Korat main town, and boy, were we hungry even before we got off the bus! And it was only around 5pm... We headed back to the same restaurant where we had the late dinner on the first night in Korat to have a snack, since we'd planned to eat dinner at the night market later. The restaurant staff recognised us (of course, we were the only ones who couldn't speak Thai and could only gong gong smile at them, what!).

They have the most yummy fruit "shakes" - they're called shakes on the menu, but I think they are more like fruit slush. Made from fresh Thai honey mandarins, coconut juice or other fresh fruits, they are simply delicious and so refreshing!



We ordered a seafood salad...but there were only fried prawns, and the salad came with 2 types of dressings - a home-made mayo dressing and a lighter vinegary dressing. The grape was not part of the salad.



Prawn cakes - we were surprised there were 6 very decent pieces served with sweet pineapple



Braised fish noodles - this "snack" turned out to be large enough for 2 full servings!



All in all, very satisfying, and very good value for money! Highly recommended. :-)

Our visit to the night market didn't yield anything spectacular, and since I was still feeling full from our earlier "snack", I didn't stuff myself further, but the SO had the seafood noodles from the roadside stall near the hotel for supper (that was when we met the baby elephant).

We went back to the hotel cafe for a night cap and I had Thai ice milk tea.


I've always wondered why their ice tea looks so orangy, even those found in Singapore. Knowing the famous Thai sweet-tooth, I'd asked for less sugar (narm-tam nit noy in Thai), so the tea tasted very good and just right.

The next day, we walked around the vibrant street along the Memorial area before leaving for Phimai.

These grilled bananas looked very good, but I forgot to try them.



The street-side market stalls selling peeled pomeloes, sugar cane, preserved tamarind (assam) , water chestnuts (I think) and the horn thing traditionally associated with the Mooncake Festival (dunno the English name?)





Here's a stall selling pan-fried gu-chai kueh, Chinese style



At Phimai, we had a hard time looking for something decent to eat as the Bai-Teiy restaurant seemed to have moved away, and it was made worse coz hardly anyone there spoke English.

We had no choice but to eat the duck noodles at our guesthouse, and yes, it came with pieces of curdled blood ( duck blood, I presume) - not satisfying nor filling. I didn't like it and didn't finish it.


We saw a French guy walking around looking for some substantial Thai zhi-char food, so we can understand it must be worse for him.

In the evening, we had snacks at the night market, though only selectively coz some food wasn't cooked and were quite exposed, so we had to play safe.

After asking around, we finally walked like 2.5km in the semi-darkness to find Bai-Teiy restaurant, and had some real food. This was where we found the one and only Korat cat (outside the restaurant).

Phad Siew (dry hor fun)



Fried Hokkien mee (different from our local version)



Kai-lan stir-fried with roast pork (very fatty roasted pork... wrong choice!)



Unfortunately, I can't say the food was good. It was rather oily and quite average lah! Besides, prices were on the high side for this type of so-so standard...a bit disappointing after all the trouble we took hunting for the restaurant.

Oh well, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

(to be continued)

" Tortoise beans "

Dear ksn, this is "Tortoise beans" aka 乌龟豆 in Hokkien lor.

According to Wiki, they are called green beans....so I understand. :P




I read in a Chinese cookbook that says these beans must be properly cooked, or they may be toxic or contain undesirable substance (or something to that effect), and definitely not to be eaten raw.

By the way, there is now a slimmer version of these beans which are more crunchy and faster to cook...very nice to eat.

Pasta Aglio Olio (vegetarian version)

After having it for lunch at Basil Alcove (which was very good), I've decided to cook it myself, and save 9 bucks per serving... Heheh.



I didn't have the red chilli powder or whatever, so modify the recipe a bit. It's got:

- lots of garlic
- about a quarter cup of olive oil for 2 servings (or slightly less oil)
- mushrooms (white, brown and portobello)
- zuchini which I like very much
- red and green capsicum
- cut red chilli (seeded and de-veined)
- "tortoise beans" i.e. 乌龟豆
- a little bit of water added after everything above was stirred and mixed

Agar agar seasoning:
- 1 tsp of salt (for 3.5 servings)
- ground black pepper
- paprika
- lots of chopped Chinese parsley

Yum...(if I may say so myself), and quite satisfying.

Eat and eat trip (part 2)

After touching town in Bangkok, we proceed to take a bus straight to Nakhon Rachatsima (aka Korat). The trip took almost 4 hours.

Inside the Bangkok to Ratsima bus



Service on these long-distance coaches are quite good, we were given a sandwich and a coke, and along the way, the lady attendant would serve us more cups of coke and water.

The triple-layered sandwich with ham and pork/chicken floss...quite yummy.


Luckily, there is a toilet on board the aircon coach.

I also bought the Thai green mango to munch on the bus. This version comes with a sugar-chilli-powder dip. There's another version had a spicy sauce that looked like rojak sauce as a dip.



By the time we reached Korat, it was almost 9pm. At the bus terminus 2, we took a tuk tuk (50 baht) to the hotel. After checking-in, we went out, hoping to find some nice dinner. Most of the shops were closed by then, although there was a roadside stall near the hotel selling noodles which wouldn't be satisfying for us after having travelled for the whole day.

After about 8 minutes' walk, we saw a small cafe/restaurant and promptly went inside to try out luck. We were lucky that night!



The food and fruit shakes/freezes were very good and also good value for money! I was very satisfied with my Tom Yam Seafood soup which came in a mini steamboat. The SO had the E-mee and Chang beer. The prik nam pla (chilli padi in fish sauce) was also supplied voluntarily...yum!



We spent the next day exploring Korat town, and the surrounding streets to look for breakfast. We found a market and also a vegetarian restaurant a few doors away from the hotel.

Snacks seen at the market:





Some glutinous rice snacks which we didn't try.





I can't remember exactly what we had for breakfast, but we must have eaten some street food like yu tiao (fried dough fritters) and some really yummy pastries from Sweet Home cake shop. The pastries were freshly made and so good that we walked back to buy some more.

There was this fantastic pastry that had a small sausage and bits of pork floss in it (6 baht)




We passed by this shophouse that sells porridge (chok) and SO had a bowl of pork porridge

The interesting thing is most shops only sell their food and soft drinks or water, but they don't serve hot beverage, so we headed back to our hotel's cafe for tea and coffee. The freshly-brewed coffee was good, except that they used non-dairy creamer seemingly everywhere (instead of fresh milk).

The nice, cozy cafe at the hotel



There's a framed photo of the Thai King and Queen in their youth, and some car models in the background.

We explored the town a bit before proceeding to look for the bus to take to Dan Kwian, the pottery village. Along the way, we passed by this rustic eating place where the locals were having lunch, so we joined in.



The remains of our noodles soup (with char siew aka bbq pork & fish cake) and Phad Thai



Cold water with ice was free, but the SO cautioned me not to drink their water or ice, although I did drink it at some point during the trip when I forgot.

After lunch, we went on to look for the bus to Dan Kwian. Along the way, we saw a "push-cart" food stall selling food. When I saw what a lady customer had bought from the stall, I couldn't helped but asked to take a photo.

It was coagulated blood, which is no long available in Sg! The lady said it's chicken blood (in English). There were two huge chunks of the "kwey huiek" (Hokkien translation my own) and just a little noodles in her bowl. :P

We dare not try it lah, although I'd eaten curdled pig's blood as a kid.

At the Korat night market, we also found other foodstuff which we dare not eat.
Fried crickets, maggots, and other creepy crawlies...

(to be continued)

Eat & eat trip (part 1)

When it comes to food, our recent short sojourn to Thailand can be considered a pretty good trip. While we did not splurge on lavish meals (can't afford to), I had my fill of some of the yummy Thai (or Thai-Chinese) food that I like, so much so that within a day of returning home, I had started to miss the food in Thailand already. :(

Our eating started even before we left Singapore. Well, we didn't have a good breakfast, and lunch on board the plane would be late. So...

Here's Mee Rebus and Teh-C from Wang Cafe and Spinelli's coffee at Changi's Terminal 1. The mee rebus was surprisingly good, and better than those sold at many hawker centres. SO also had kaya & butter toast which was good too.



We'd booked air tickets for Economy Class. While checking-in, somehow, we got upgraded to Business Class, but who's complaining?!? *Grin*



Almost immediately after we sat down in the plane, the air stewardess came by to offer us welcome drinks. Look mom! A real (non-plastic) glass! ;P



Our legs felt very comfortable on that flight.



There was a very attentive, clean-cut young steward serving our whims on that flight. At one point while I was reading the Today paper, the young steward came to me, squatted down (I think he's not kneeling bah) so that his eyes were level to mine, then asked me what I'd wanted. I was like "Huh?" and looked at the steward with a blank look. Then we realised the SO had accidentally / keh-kiang pressed my seat's "call button" with his elbow! :-[

Then there was another round of drinks - the pre-lunch cocktails. I had a non-alcoholic cocktail with a dreamy name which I'd forgotten. It's the airline's specially-concocted cocktail with its own non-generic-cocktail name.

(ps: the green drink's got mint, lime and coconut juice in it)


We did not have to tear our own packet of almonds.
(On the return flight in Economy Class, peanuts were not even served, much less almonds!)

The SO had the Pacific Sunrise, the airline's specially-concocted alcoholic cocktail. It's got bubbly champagne, drambuie and citrus peels in it.



Then came lunch, served on a small table-cloth and with (real) ceramic utensils, and a (real) cloth napkin.



Here's the dessert and appetiser which I didn't like. I'm not a fan of chocolate or the prosciutto ham, so I just ate the pieces of fig, salad and cheese, and just a bite of dessert.



The 2 pebbles weren't paper/cloth weights, but salt and pepper shakers. They are like... so elaborate until a bit overdoing it hor? Haha!



I didn't like the main course at all. It was a choice between beef steak (which I don't eat), or seafood laksa. Normally, I like laksa, but only when it has hum (cockles). Worse, I could tell the laksa was made with packet coconut milk. I took a mouthful of it, just to try. The SO (with his not-so-discerning palette) found the laksa tasted ok.


The air stewardess (who addressed us by a salutation+our first names, by the way) did offer me a fish dish from the Economy class, but I didn't want to be troublesome and declined. It's only airline food afterall, and I'm sure I can have nicer food at our destination.

And oh ya, we were given real cutlery and real knives to eat our meals with...as if terrorists don't take Business Class??

(to be continued...)

Thai food, Thai food, I luv you!

Deepavali lunch

An egg dish and a mixed vegetables dish, served with rice




Egg with tomatos and onions




Stir-fried baby kai lan with carrots, fresh shitake mushrooms & leftover wong bok




Pre-lunch snack of Japanese buckwheat noodles (Cha Soba)