TBA Day 24: Pancakes, Laziness, a View, and Hustlers…

Our last day in Bangkok was relatively eventful, considering how little we actually did. I woke up at 3am to watch the Bucs lose. Stanley joined me at 4pm but then went back to bed after the game (at 6am) for a few more hours of sleep. When he (finally) woke up we headed out to find some breakfast. We’d seen a lot of really good-looking crepe-like pancakes around in several restaurants, so when Stanley saw a restaurant with banana pancakes on the menu we decided to stop there. Stanley ordered his banana pancakes with Nutella and I went with the ham and cheese variety (more into savory than sweet most mornings…). The pancakes came. Stanley’s were as ordered (though not crepe-style) while mine were… just plain half-raw pancakes. Originally I thought they’d just left out the ham and stuffed it with cheese, but the “cheese” I thought I saw was actually just raw pancake batter. The whisked the plate away to fix things (I tried to explain about having ordered the ham and cheese version), but then just returned the plain pancakes, now less raw.

Afterwards we went over to a place that’s more my style of breakfast, with US$1 bowls of spicy delicious noodle soups. We both got the Spicy Rice Noodle Soup with Pork, Fish Balls, and Bean Sprouts, and it really hit the spot. As Stanley can attest to, I get disproportionately disheartened by crappy food, so I really needed something like delicious cheap spicy goodness to lift my spirits, and this did the job.
Feeling a bit lazy after our early morning and a busy day the day before, we spent the early afternoon just sitting around with a cocktail watching atrociously bad movies on the Stars movie channel before getting dressed up to head down to Moon Bar.

Rain ended up delaying things a bit (Moon Bar, on the 59th floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel, is an open-air bar, so they couldn’t set up chairs until the rain subsided) but we sipped Manhattans in the posh lobby while waiting and, when we finally made it up there, it was definitely a view worth the wait. Most times I go to really tall buildings for views of a city the observation area is glassed in, but it was cool (especially for picture-taking) to be outdoors getting the panoramic view. There were fireworks off to the west, lightning in the sky to the north, and gorgeous views of the city lit up at night all around.
Leaving Moon Bar to head over to Lek Seafood for dinner was when the fun started. As I mentioned yesterday, there are apparently many impostor branches of Somboon Seafood that taxi drivers try to take you to rather than going to the real thing. I was a little disappointed to have had our trip to Somboon go so smoothly, and was starting to wonder if all of that was a bit exaggerated. It isn’t. Stanley has a (good) theory that since our hotel is so far away from Somboon the cabs near our hotel aren’t in cahoots with the restaurants in Somboon’s area. Lek, on the other hand, is just down the street (about a block) from the Somboon branch we’d eaten at the night before, and was also near (~8 blocks) Moon Bar, so the taxi drivers in the area were up to no good.

Stanley asked our first taxi if he knew where Lek Seafood was. The guy says yes and starts to take us there on the meter. Once we get going he says he’s never heard of Lek, but can take us to a very nice seafood restaurant somewhere else. “No,” we say, “We are meeting people at Lek. It is the only place we can go. If you don’t know where it is, take us to Somboon Seafood and we’ll find our own way to Lek.” He seems OK with that and starts driving again, but again doesn’t seem to be heading in the right direction. Finally he stops in front of a hole-in-the-wall seafood counter and tells us we have arrived at the branch of Somboon we’d asked to be taken to. Now, Somboon is a 3-story building with a giant red sign with a crab on it I had assumed that the imposter restaurants would at least have the sign, but in fact they’re just random seafood places with no sign (so you can’t be sure you’re in the wrong place). I was rather irritated (Stanley much less so), particularly since he was leading us on a wild goose chase on the meter. When he insisted that we were in the right place we got out to find a new cab.

Our next taxi (an auto-rickshaw) started driving and, again, hadn’t heard of Lek but said he could take us to the branch of Somboon we’d requested. He kept insisting that Somboon is too expensive and we should go somewhere else, but we gave him our “meeting people at Lek” story and insisted that he take us there. A bit later he acts like he has this epiphany “Oh! Lek Seafood. Near Somboon. I will take you there,” then heads off in what is clearly the wrong direction and stops in front of a busy seafood restaurant. “Lek” he says. We tell him no (there’s no sign, and this is not the right road), and tell him to take us to Somboon as we’d asked… The difference with this guy is that he’s agreed on a fixed price of 50 baht, so instead of making more and more money (as a metered cab would) the longer he drives us around, he’s actually costing himself time and thus money. He did indeed take us to Somboon next, and we headed down the street and found Lek Seafood right where it was supposed to be.
As I mentioned yesterday, some people feel Lek is superior to Somboon, and I can end the suspense right now by telling you that really is not the case. It is, however, a really great restaurant, probably tied with Sabinglae for second best on the trip. The food was great, just not as spectacular as Somboon. For about half the price, though, and being much better than half as good, I could see why a lot of locals choose to come to Lek more often than Somboon.

First up we ordered the Tom Yum Goong. The lime leaves and lemongrass in the broth weren’t as intense as in the others we’ve loved, but there was a nice spiciness and an interesting smokiness to it that made it really unique. Good stuff.
We also tried the Spicy Triple Crispy salad (Stanley is my official salad-selector, and he hasn’t let me down yet), with three types of seafood, some veggies, and a really nice (quite spicy) sauce.
This was followed by Sizzling Prawns, which were tossed with beans and Thai basil. After the disappointing basil at Hemlock it was nice to taste really fresh Thai basil (which, in case you haven’t tried it, has strong anise accents in the flavor profile) and the shrimp were fresh, delicious, and perfectly cooked.
Finally, we had to order the Crab Meat Curry to compare with Somboon. It was quite good (miles better than the disappointing dish at Bangpo) but it just couldn’t compare to the heavenly curry at Somboon. There were nice big chunks of crab, though, and again the crab was not overpowered by the other ingredients. In conclusion, Lek Seafood certainly rocks, but Somboon Seafood rocks much more.
All in all, a nice last day for this adventure. (I’ll stop bogging this down with daily posts when I make it to Dubai.) his trip has been an amazing experience, and it’s been fun to document it for friends and for my own future reference. Up next: hanging out in Dubai.

TBA Day 23: A Palace, an Election, and Crab Curry

Apologies in advance for the excessive (even for me) length of this post… It was a good day.

Day 23 featured both completing our obligation to do touristy stuff out of the way and eating the best meal of the trip thus far. The day opened with wandering around the neighborhood a while, stopping for a bit of deep-fried street food and a couple iced coffees for brekky. The food was decent, especially once dipped in sweet chili sauce (the picture is of the lady's entire inventory, by the way, not our breakfast). A nice (albeit somewhat random) breakfast.
From there we hopped in an auto-rickshaw and headed down to the Grand Palace, which Stanley had heard was definitely worth checking out. Turned out that rumor was true and this place was pretty sweet. I’ve never seen so many very very shiny buildings. It doesn’t really come through in the pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was seriously impressive.
After the Palace visit we spent the rest of the morning wandering around checking out the wares of street vendors (and accidentally ending up in the Amulet Market where, not being connoisseurs, it appeared that about 200 stalls were all selling the exact same little hunks of stone and/or metal…). If I haven’t mentioned it yet, I really dig this city. Again, the people I’ve met who were distressed by how “dirty” it is here must have been from really clean cities. We did a good bit of exploring today and I never found any “Wow, this is dirty!” thoughts crossing my mind… I’m sure it’s out there, but I’m not seeing it yet... Both Stanley and I found ourselves feeling like this is a city where we could definitely live quite happily.

We came back to the hotel and made use of the rooftop swimming pool to cool off after all that wandering around in the sun, then it was off to lunch. Mostly out of laziness and apathy (but also due to the fact that we enjoyed our meals yesterday) we went back next door for lunch. We ordered a cheesy fried wonton appetizer, which was obviously good since deep-fried wontons dipped in sweet chili sauce are always a good thing…
Stanley ordered Pad Thai while I ordered Massaman Chicken Curry (yesterday was the same dish but with pork, so I’m not being completely redundant). Stanley requested some chili flakes for his Pad Thai which was great because then I got to spice up my curry a bit (which is why you see all those little red flecks floating in it in the picture below) which was a definite improvement.
So, at dinner the night before there had been a sign at the restaurant informing us that there would be no alcohol served due to election day, but apparently that was just in preparation and this was the actual election day. We tried to order beer with lunch, but were denied for election-related reasons. Our waitress, however, told us we could order off the hard liquor menu. That wasn’t a problem for me and Stanley, so we each ordered a Black Label on the rocks. After asking if we wanted coke in it (no), the waitress returned with a coffee mug and asked if it was OK to serve us drinks in this vessel instead of the regular glass. At this point we figured out that it was to hide the fact that they were serving us (which the coke would have hidden in a clear glass if we’d let her add it…). Good times.
The lock-down on alcohol put an end to our plan to hit Moon Bar (on the 59th floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel) that night, so we decided instead to focus our efforts on tracking down a great dinner. There are two restaurants in Bangkok (Lek Seafood and Somboon Seafood) that the folks in the know over at Chow.com tend to say are two of the best in the city. There has been quite a bit of discussion about which is best, with Lek often coming out ahead. Given Lek’s proximity to Moon Bar, however, we decided to save that for Day 24 and check out Somboon today.

Somboon is apparently so good/popular that there are many impostors in the city and cab drivers get paid off to take you to an impostor rather than the real thing. We found a picture online of the location we wanted to try, wrote down the address, and noted nearby landmarks. The auto-rickshaw driver at one point seemed like he might be trying to take us somewhere we didn’t want to go (after we’d handed him a piece of paper with the name and address of the restaurant he started to say “you know, there’s actually other locations I could take you to…”) but Stanley was politely firm and we ended up in the right spot in the end. I’m so glad we did, because I would say this was by far the best restaurant on the trip so far (sign viewed from inside below).
We started off with a simple dish of garlic-marinated grilled calamari with sweet chili sauce. The calamari was perfectly cooked and so tender. A great way to start the meal.
Next up was the dish this place is most famous for: Crab Meat Curry. We had read that Somboon may have the best Crab Meat Curry in Bangkok, and after trying it I would have to say “Believe the hype.” Wow. This dish was totally and completely outstanding. Sometimes a thing will be delicious on your first bite, but then you stop noticing by the end. Every bite of this from the first to the last made me pause to say “Holy crap, that is insanely delicious!” (or some variation thereof).
This dish also made us realize how horrible the dish by the same name at Bangpo Seafood in Samui was. In that dish the curry overpowered the crab meat completely, so you could see big hunks of crab but could only taste sauce (which led us to believe, erroneously, at the time that Crab Meat Curry was just intrinsically not a very good dish rather than understanding that we were just being served a bad version). At Somboon, the crab is clearly the star of the dish. This is by far the best thing I’ve eaten on this trip.

Next up was Tom Yum soup, which was also rumored to be exceptional. Initially I thought the broth was on par with that at Sabinglae (which I loved) although the shrimp here were much more tender and succulent here and practically melted in your mouth. As the broth simmered in the pot at the table, though, the flavors became more and more intense and by the end I had to admit that this was a far superior soup.
This is where the order probably should have stopped, but we added two more things: a crab meat salad (referred to as “Crap Meat Salad” on the menu) and steamed fresh water prawns with garlic. Both dishes were very tasty (the salad was a refreshingly light accompaniment to the other heavier dishes, and the prawns were fresh, tender, and delicious), but by the time they came we were pretty much mesmerized by the amazingness of the Crab Meat Curry and becoming aware of the finite capacity of our stomachs…
Oh, and this was an "expensive" meal for this trip, which is to say that all of this amazingly fresh and delicious seafood cost us a total of around US$20 each. Not too shabby, eh?

All in all, a great day in a great city. When I was in Malaysia I wondered a couple times why I was even coming to Thailand (rather than just spending more time in Malaysia and Singapore), but I’m so very glad I came. My whole time in Thailand thus far (with one day to go) has been a great experience. Some of that may be due to having great company , but I think the location deserves a good portion of the credit as well.

TBA Day 22: Moving on to Bangkok

This was by far the best travel day I’ve had yet. We caught an early (but not too early) flight out of Ko Samui to arrive in Bangkok at around 11am. We got checked in at our hotel and discovered that it’s in a pretty cool neighborhood in terms of activity. We are clearly in Backpacker Central. In the cab we started to see some lightning and hear some serious thunder, followed by a torrential downpour for the next hour or so (did I mention that this is the monsoon season?). “Every day…” said the cab driver. Good stuff.

While driving to the hotel we’d seen a restaurant a couple doors down that looked pretty cool and was full of backpackers. I guess it’s the Sawasdee restaurant, attached to a hotel by the same name. We wandered in for a pretty decent lunch. I ordered Massaman Curry Pork and Stanley ordered Chicken with Basil, Garlic, and Chilies. Both were really quite good.
I was surprised in Stanley’s dish that it actually had a nice heat to it. My curry was brilliant, in that they replaced the peanuts you typically find in Massaman curries with cashews and, as anyone who has talked to me about such things knows, I feel that the cashew nut is the greatest of all nuts. Brilliant. That is an idea I will definitely be employing in the future. After lunch we sat around drinking mojitos until the storm subsided, then went to check out the surrounding areas a bit. We’re right next to Khao San road (where tons of street vendors hang out) and it was fun after the semi-isolation of our resort in Samui to be surrounded by so many people. I even picked up some sweet mini iPod speakers for a great price (which I’m using to blast Wake Me Up Before You Go Go with as I type this, in hopes of making Stanley finally get out of bed), so now I have my souvenir from Bangkok.

For dinner we headed just around the corner from our hotel to a place called Hemlock, which I’d read good things about on Chow.com. Our experience there went something like “Wow! Hmmm… Eh. Mmmm….”
The “Wow!” was the appetizer we ordered (Miang Kam). I wasn’t sure what to expect from the menu description instructing us to “mix with your fingers until touching your mouth,” but it looked intriguing so we decided to order it anyway. It turned out to be (going clockwise around the plate in the picture below, starting at the top, ending in the center) piper leaves served with Thai bird chilies, shallots, lime, dried shrimp, peanuts, ginger, and toasted coconut. This all went together with a sauce that seemed to be hoisin with minced peanuts. You basically load up a leaf with the other stuff and a bit of sauce, then take a bite and say “Wow! That is GOOD!” This dish was seriously delicious, and fairly unique. The way that all of these strong flavors combined to create a perfectly balanced bite was pretty damn cool.
The “Hmmm…” was the Jungle Curry Beef. It was OK, and they tied the snake beans in little knots, which was pretty adorable, but neither of us were particularly impressed. Not bad, but not something we would order again. I don’t think this dish was helped by the fact that the fantastic appetizer had really raised our expectations.
The “Eh” was the Pork with Holy Basil. It tasted good, but wasn’t particularly special. I make a similar dish at home (which I like a lot better) using Thai basil. I feel like the basil they used here wasn’t particularly flavorful and in the end the dish ended up being fairly boring.
We got back to “Mmmm…” with the delicious spicy salad Stanley had selected from the menu. Scallions, shredded chicken, hearts of palm, ginger, snake beans, and green papaya were combined with a spicy peanuty dressing. This was really flavorful and refreshing and had a good amount of heat from the sauce. Definitely cheered us up after the two mediocre dishes that preceded it.
After dinner it was already getting to be late, so that was pretty much the end of our first day in Bangkok. Still, it was nice to arrive early enough to really start enjoying the city on our first day. We only have 2 more full days here before heading off to Dubai, so we’ll have to make the most of our time. I should add that all the people whining about how dirty Bangkok is are obviously more sensitive to such things than Stanley and I are. So far Bangkok doesn’t seem any dirtier to me than any other big city (other than Singapore). I’m sure we’ll see more of the city in the next couple days and some of that will be dirtier, but so far it certainly doesn’t seem like the hell-hole that so many travelers described it as. Oh, and no wi-fi in the hotel room here, but there’s a 24-hour internet café (two, actually) in the lobby so we should still be able to stream the Bucs-Broncos at midnight tonight… in case you were worrying about that. ;-)