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. ;-)

TBA Day 21: Guns and Another Trip to Sabinglae

Today was our last day in Ko Samui. The original plan was to go to Super Fight in Chaweng, but we soon discovered that it was fairly expensive so we decided to go to brunch and then seek out other activities.

The brunch place we planned to attend was closed, so we ended up at Luna Hut, just across a small pond from Harry’s. This actually turned out to be a brilliant idea. We ordered Deep Fried Prawn Cakes (to compare to the tasty ones we’d had at Sabinglae the day before) and Red Curry Duck.

The prawn cakes had less prawn than the ones at Sabinglae, but also contained lime leaves, which made them really delicious. The curry was also quite nice. The red curry was seasoned with lime leaves and included lychees along with the veggies. I’ve seen pineapple in duck curries in the US, but never lychees. It was interesting and also really tasty.

A little poking around on the internet revealed that the low season isn’t the best time for many of the island’s activities, but we stumbled upon information about Samui Shooting Sports. Apparently Stanley has always wanted to fire a gun, so this seemed like a golden opportunity. We hopped on the scooter and headed down there to give it a go. I’m no expert, but I was quite impressed with Stanley’s accuracy for a first-time gun-shooter… (I opted out of participating, since it was a bit expensive and not something I really have ever had any interest in doing.)

After the shooting we continued down the road to see a bit more of Lamai, before heading back towards Mae Nam (where we’re staying) and stopping at Sabinglae for a late lunch on our way back. We decided to order a completely different set of items this time, testing our theory that almost anything from their menu would end up being delicious. We started with a “Tempura Shrimp” appetizer. The shrimp weren’t actually fried in a tempura batter, but they were so fresh and perfectly cooked that I can’t complain. I love how fresh and delicious the seafood has been so far in Thailand.

Next up was a Fish Soup with Lemongrass. The seasoning in this was much more subtle than in our Spicy Seafood Soup the day before, but in a really pleasant way. It seemed like something that would cure you instantly if you were feeling under the weather.

We also ordered a Crispy Catfish Salad, which I pictured as being friend hunks of catfish mixed with other stuff. What was brought to the table (see picture below) was something completely different. This crazy catfish thingy was served with a julienne of green papaya dressed with chilies, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar. It was really unique and delicious. It was definitely unlike anything I’ve tried before, which is always fun.

Our last dish was Red Curry Mackeral. It was beautifully presented, and was a nice curry if not particularly mind-blowing. The curry was nice (although both of us wished for more sauce… probably because we’re Americans) and the fish was really nice, but we’ve had more impressive curries on this trip.

After lunch it was back to the hotel to jump in the pool, then just a bunch of sitting around relaxing with cocktails and enjoying a lazy last evening in Samui (including introducing Stanley to the totally awesome show that is The Amazing Race). We’re on an early flight to Bangkok in the morning. Looking forward to a bit of city time after a few days in paradise.

TBA Day 20: (Finally) Some More Culinary Adventures

Having a wingman definitely makes the culinary adventuring easier. Aside from being great company, Stanley is also a pretty great person to go find amazing food with (in part because he seemed to get all of the laid-back and easy-going genes in the family). Having a wingman also makes it possible to order more different foods at each restaurant, which is awesome.

After a relaxing morning (view from our patio pictured above), we rented a scooter and Dan drove us down to check out the west coast of the island (where most of the tourists stay). Past Chaweng Beach and just before Lamai there was supposed to be a restaurant called Sabinglae that serves amazing food. From the back of the scooter I spotted the somewhat subtle sign:
We pulled over and found that down a flight of stairs was this fairly large restaurant with gorgeous views right on the beach. We ordered more food than was probably necessary, but it was all fantastic and the total cost (including 2 large beers) was less than US$17 for the two of us, so it’s all good. The first dish to arrive was the Spicy Seafood Soup. I could seriously eat this every day. The flavors in the broth (especially the lemongrass and lime leaves) were so assertive, and the shrimp were tender and delicious.
Next up were the Mussels with Sweet Basil. These were a different style of mussel than I’m used to, and came with a really spicy dip and a creamy sligly-less-spicy dip. Very tasty.
After the mussels they brought out the “Traditional” Curry with Grilled Fish. This was so unique and delicious. I’ve never had a curry that tasted quite like this, and I love how every time we order a “Traditional” curry here it ends up being something completely different. This may not look like much, but it was fantastic and was Stanley’s favorite curry by far on his trip.
The last dish we ordered was the Deep Fried Shrimp Cakes. These were pretty darn tasty as well, served with a sweet dipping sauce. Really nicely flavored and perfectly cooked.
I had reasonably high expectations for this restaurant, but they were exceeded by far. Our timing couldn’t have been better, either, as about 5 minutes after we sat down to eat there was an awesome torrential downpour. The rain finished up just in time for us to hop back on the scooter and drive back to the hotel to jump in the pool.

The other great thing about having a wingman is that when you’re feeling tired and lazy they can make you get up the energy to still go out and find interesting food. For dinner we headed the other direction around the island to Bangpo Seafood, which some consider to be the best restaurant in Thailand. The seating is right down on the sand, so I suspect the view would be beautiful when there's still enough light to see the ocean.
We started with the complimentary appetizer of a paste of prawns, chilies, and spices baked in a coconut shell. Really strong flavors, but tasty and a nice way to get your palate ready for more good food to follow.
We ordered an appetizer of oysters, which were huge and a bit more subtly flavored than the oysters we’re used to. They came with chili sauce, sweet chili sauce, limes, and fried shallots as garnish. The chili sauce completely masked the subtle flavor of the oyster, but with just the fried shallot and a touch of the sweet chili sauce it was quite nice.
We also ordered a crab meat curry (note the big ol’ hunks of crab meat in the picture below) and what turned out to be shrimp ceviche with lemongrass (pictured below after we dug in).
The sauce for the crab curry was very good, but too strongly flavored to allow the crab to shine through (which is a shame when you love crab as much as I do), but the ceviche was spectacular. Definitely the best ceviche I’ve had.

I would say that, based on what we ordered, I was more impressed with Sebinglae than Bangpo, but both places provided really unique and delicious food. I’ve seriously been craving Thai food this week, so it works out nicely that I happen to be in Thailand to deal with that. So far so good…

TBA Day 19: Elephants and Refreshingly Uneventful Travel

This morning Stanley had the pleasure of discovering that his sister is a morning person… I was hyper and ready to go while he kept discussing the benefits of a 15-30 minute nap. This information will be relevant below…

Just after 8:30am the truck came to take us to our elephant trekking adventure. We did the half-day (largely because we needed to be sure we were back in time to catch the 4pm ferry to Ko Samui) which featured temples, a waterfall, a mediocre lunch in a spectacular setting, and a monkey after the elephants. The elephant riding was pretty cool (with several moments of “Dude! There’s an elephant right there!”) as long as you don’t mind the fact that the elephant occasionally has to be nudged with a sharp stick to encourage him to carry on along the proper path.
From there Stanley and I went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and wait for a cab to the ferry. A mojito or two at the beach bar added to the festive, laid-back feel of the day… We boarded the boat with no problems (a refreshing change for both of us after travel plans going horribly wrong on the way to Phangan) and were in Ko Samui about 20 minutes later and checking in to Harry’s Bungalows. This place is absolutely gorgeous. It’s about 100 meters from the beach, but we each have our own room (with TV and mini fridge) and our own bathroom/shower. This will come in handy in the mornings when I’m a giant spazz and Stanley is a grumpy sleepy-head. The rooms share a patio right next to the pool, so we can still sit outside together when the mosquitos are willing to take a break from attacking me.

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and it turned out to be really nice. We had a complimentary appetizer of fried wontons with sweet chili sauce, followed by a fried wonton-wrapped prawn appetizer. From there we moved on to two curries (“Traditional Thai” prawn curry and a Massaman beef curry). Both were pretty darn delicious. The prawn curry had a nice level of spice and a lot of complexity with lime leaves and coconut milk. The Massaman curry made me retract previous statements that I would try to incorporate lime leaves in this dish next time I make it at home. It was made very similar to the style I usually make (with potatoes and peanuts) but was way better. Absolutely delicious.
Now we’re sitting on the patio with a tasty beverage and Stanley is mocking me for being so long-winded with my blog posts. All in all a really nice day… Eventful in the right places (riding elephants and getting into a brawl with a monkey) and uneventful at the right times (travel). Looking forward to checking out Ko Samui tomorrow.