Can't get enough of Bangkok!

I was in Bangkok for yet another weekend holiday in November 2013. I arrived on a late Thursday night and left Sunday. The last time I was in Bangkok was more than 4 years ago, when the airport railway link wasn't open yet. So I was very excited to get to try it.

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Oh Phuket!

I was in Phuket in May and August last year. This post is for our trip in May with my housemates. Our first trip together! We have always wanted to go on a trip since moving in together in Aug 2012 so we were happy we finally got to do it.

L-R: Rachel, Lenin, Krizia and Alfian

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Thai Express, Raffles City

Finally, I was able to go back to Thai Express to feature them in my blog. Last New Year's eve, we wanted to eat somewhere special yet tried and tested. And what better way to welcome the new year but with an explosion of flavours and spices that is Thai Express!

We were lucky that they had a special "Celebration Menu" on that day. Too bad though that they didn't accept any discounts from credit cards since it was the eve of a holiday.

For starters, we had "Nongkai Ma Nao" (S$7.90) - crispy drumlettes with lemon sauce.

This was divine! I never knew I could describe chicken wings as such, haha. They were perfectly crisp on the outside but tender and juicy in the inside. Parang tender juicy hotdog lang hehehe.

I had the "Woon Sen Kaeng Jeut Luk Ngaw" (S$10.90) - chicken tang hoon balls in soup with glass noodles. Wow! that was a mouthful for a name of a dish. Nevertheless, the dish itself was truly mouth-watering! (figuratively and literally hehe).

I've never seen anything like the chicken tang hoon balls. If you look closely, the balls had noodles inside as well. I was actually feeling bloated that day (whats new) so this light yet filling noodle soup dish was peerrfffeecctt!

Zach had the "Pad Thai Neua" (S$11.90) - thai stir-fried beef kawy teow. As you all know, pad thai is a thai-classic-must-try dish. This was also really good! The serving looks small in the picture (sorry wrong angle) but it was really good enough for 2 (small) people.

I like the interiors of Thai Express in Raffles City the best. Casual yet somewhat-elegant dining.

2 happy campers indeed! :-)

So now I can finally say that Thai Express is my ultimate favorite bestest Thai Restaurant in Singapore! Lerk Thai & Siam Kitchen move aside!

Here is my rating for Thai Express-

Ambiance - 4
Service - 4.5
Food - 5
Presentation - 4
Value for Money - 4.5
OVERALL - 4.4

252 North Bridge Road
Raffles City Shopping Centre
#B1-13 Singapore 179103
Tel-68831490

"Live, Love & Eat!"

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Yo Yo Restaurant, Phuket, Thailand

It's funny how we found this restaurant. We were walking around trying to find authentic thai food to satisfy our monstrous cravings and when we were cautiously waiting to cross the street (as thai drivers don't give way to pedestrians), this guy came out of nowhere and bravingly gestured the speeding tuktuks to slow down so we could cross.

Lo and behold, he is the waiter for Yo Yo. So even if we still wanted to look around, we settled to eat there because of the guy's nice and clever gesture.

Anxiuosly waiting for our food hehe.

So we started off with a refreshing coconut drink. Pretty well presented for a street restaurant. The coconut meat was tender and fresh. A great way to cleanse your tastebuds to start off a meal.

I'm not sure if its thai custom to always serve these 3 sauces but everytime we ate somewhere they always did. I love the sauce on the right, the one with a lot of green and red chili on top. It was sweet, sour and spicy all rolled into one.

The chicken with ginger was ok. Tasted normal but not bad. The squid in red chilli was ultra spicy!! but the squid was tender and tasted fresh. And the portions were quite big to think it was really cheap (I think around 50baht).

The pineapple fried rice was scrumptous!!! I never knew rice could taste that good haha. There were generous portions of pineapple, chicken and cashew nuts. It was actually a meal on its own.

Finally I got to taste authentic pad thai!! This was the runaway winner! The noodles were very tasty and al dente and the seafood was abundant. This was my favorite of all the dishes. If only I could eat noodles with rice haha. Carbo load.

Overall, my yoyo experience was a rollercoaster ride of flavours. To top it all off, we only paid 500+Baht for all the dishes including the drinks. Can you believe that?! thats like 20 dollars for a thai feast. Of course we didn't get ritz-carlton ambiance but the rustic, slightly-polluted feel (haha) added to the authentic thai experience.

Here is my rating for Yo Yo:

Ambiance - 2.5
Service - 4
Food - 5
Presentation - 3
Value for Money - 5
OVERALL - 3.9

"Live, Love & Eat!"

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Siam Kitchen, Bugis Junction

What I love about Singapore is the vast variety of food - be it Asian, Western, Mediterranean, etc. In Manila, most of the grub is either Italian, American or Japanese. Eversince I got here, I learned to love thai, indonesian and malay food.

Siam was actually the old name of the Kingdom of Thailand until 1949 (thanks to wikipedia, hehe). I've actually tried Siam Kitchen in Marine Parade last year and I fondly remember it as a good eat, so I think they deserve a slot in my food blog (haha).

While browsing through the menu, we were given complimentary "keropok". In filipino, kropek. I love munchies! hehe.

For starters, we ordered "Woonsen Pad Thai Talay" ($8.90) - An alternative version of the ever popular pad thai but stir-fried with glass noodles and seafood. This is actually under the main courses but to us its a starter, hehehe. This was YUMMY. The glass noodle variety was suitably very good. There were generous portions of shrimp, fish fillet and squid. Very "Arroy"! (delicious/tasty in thai).

Zach ordered "Kuey Teow Look Chin" ($7.90) - Clear noodle soup with fish balls, "full of hearty goodness, great for kids and adults who want a break from all the spiciness" - as what the menu claims. Also quite good. There was a lot of beef and it was very tender. Zach says it was flavorful yet subtle. I actually thought the balls were beef but the menu says its fish. Nevertheless, it was good.

I ordered "Gang Keaw Wan Gai" ($8.90) - Green curry with chicken, baby eggplant and sweet basil leaves. Regrettably, this dish fares poorly with the other 2 dishes. The portions of chicken were so small I don't think it would add up to a chicken breast. There was too much sauce instead of meat or veggies. Eggplant is fairly cheap so I don't know why they scrimped on it.

Overall, not too bad. The pad thai swept me to cloud nine. The more I got excited that in a few days I will taste authentic thai food in phuket. So watch out for that.

Here is my rating for Siam:

Ambiance - 3

Service - 3.5

Food- 3.5

Presentation - 2

Value for Money - 3.5

OVERALL - 3.1

Parco Bugis Junction

#02-46

Telephone: (65) 6337-3777

Website: http://www.siamkitchen.com.sg

"Live, Love & Eat"

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