Having been a regular visitor to Bangkok, I have a number of favourite places to eat, visit and spa (not all in the same spot of course!)

*Not completed - will add as I go along*

Places to Eat
Anna's Cafe, Soi Saladaeng - quick and efficient service, good Thai food and EXCELLENT bannofee pie. They have another branch round the corner (opposite the HSBC buildling) from the original bunglow. Reservations essential almost every night tel: +66 2 6320620

KuppA, Sukhumvit Soi 16 - housed in what looks like a former warehouse, it's got lots of headroom and a great atmosphere. I heared it was started by some Aussie guy. They do great coffees (and sell coffee beans too!) and excellent food. My favourites are the roast beef sandwich, pastas are not bad, desserts ...argh!!! which ones to choose? They all look SO great! I especially like to go there for their breakfasts - the ones with the works - bacon, sausages, eggs, toast, jam, etc, all nicely accompanied by freshly squeezed Thai orange juice (the color is so orange, you'd think it was articificial at first glance!) and a nice latte will just about make your day! This breakfast is definitely one to be savoured over. Open all day but closes rather early, sometimes by 10:30pm they stop taking in customers.

The Old Siam, Chinatown- for all Thai snacks and mouth-watering desserts, there's no greater place than the Old Siam. Located north of Chinatown, it's a one-stop shop for all Thai sweets and traditional food. No need to go to 10 different places to get everything, it's all there in one spot now. The first thing that hits you when you get into the buildling is the waft of sweet smells, the pandan leaves, the coconut ... all reminiscance of my grandmother's kitchen.

The visual aspect is just as exciting as the eating aspect of things because here, you get to see people make the food, probably just as they've done for generations. One thing that striked me, coming from a country where frying is a norm, is how little oil they use in their cooking. Almost nothing in this place is fried. Everything is just dipped into sugar water or steamed or boiled or cooked someother way without much use of oil.

My favourites are:
- glutinous rice with durian
- glutinous rice with mango
- this pancake looking thing where you put a fairy floss looking thin in it, roll it up and eat it
- all the miniature 'fruits' made out out green bean flour
- the MaMa noodle salad
- anything with bananas in it
- anything else with glutinous rice in it

Basically, the idea is to buy, walk and eat as you go along or, if you are as greedy as me, buy everything, and take it all upstairs to the food court, buy a drink and settle yourself comfortably down to one of the tables.

Places to induldge!
Massages
Body Tune, Silom Road (you can see it from the Saladaeng BTS, above GNC / Oriental Princess) - the place is very welcoming and most importantly, CLEAN. Massages are a tad more expensive than most, but you're assured of clean sheets, clean pyjamas (for Thai massage) and clean premises. Massages range from Bt350 to Bt600 for one hour and can go on for up to 2 hours. There's also foot and hand massages, etc. The moment you open the door and walk up the stairs, you'll feel like you're miles away from the hustle and bustle of Silom Road and the night markets. Opens 11am till midnight or 1am depending day. Reservations a must! tel: +66 2 2384377

Manicures / Pedicures (kambing)

Hair services (kambing)

I never failed to go to Tony Roma's every time I went to Singapore. Why? Because it's the only place I can get my quota of ribs, and not the ones that come from moo moos either but that of oinkus poinkus origin. That's until I discovered ....CHECKERS!!!

When I used to go walking around the neighbourhood with friends (which was a VERY long time ago!), we would walk pass a lonely row of shophouses in the middle of nowhere (ok, Bukit Damansara lah), where the shops never seem to be opened. A friend pointed out one of the shops in the middle and told me that this restaurant, CHECKERS, served great food but there was no menu. You just go there and the chef will cook for you whatever he thinks you should have for that day. And that he's can be very 'thau hong' so you never know when the shop will be open or won't be opened.

Many years passed and soon a restaurant named Hot Chocolate opened up on the left-hand end of the row of shops and later, the Rainbow Cafe on the right-hand end (incidentally, they both have the same owner). People started getting to know the place slightly better.

It was one of those evenings where MBF and I couldn't decide where to eat, what to eat ..you know lah...
"Where you want to eat?"
"Don't know"
"What you want to eat?"
"Don't know"
(I think someone should just open up a restaurant named either "Don't know" or "No idea" - it would make our lives so much easier!)

Anyway, we didn't want to venture too far away from where we were so I thought ...hey, let's see if that restaurant is open. Of course I had been there numerous times to find it closed and I thought that it may have closed down!

So we went and in the middle of this lonely, dark evening, in a row of dinky looking shops, in a small restaurant that had no signboard (the lights aren't working I think!), there was a queue of people waiting to get in! It was packed!!! Ok, so the place only sits about 30 comfortably but still ...

It was all worth it! The ribs are the BEST I've ever tasted and the salads - like WOW! None of that one lettuce leaf, two slices of tomato and cucumber and mixed vegetables business. Fresh salads with combinations of fruits and beans all overflowing off the plate. The ribs are accompanied with a mustard-type sauce and BBQ sauce, all home made. It's not just the ribs, everything I've eaten there has been fantastic, almost orgasmic (think "When Harry met Sally" at the cafe table!)

My absolute favourites (ya lah, I know the menu by hard)
Grilled calamari
Expensive Mushrooms (owner said if he put "Cheap Mushrooms" on the menu, who would order it?)
Ribs - the Porky's Best (though it can be quite fatty ..... oh well!)
Pasta - Aglio Olio
Pizza - by special request only when Sam and Uncle Pork Chop are in a good mood
Drowned ice cream
Chocolate Mud Cake

If the above isn't available, then go for the
Grilled Aubergines (large portions!)
Stinky Rose (especially if you are having a Buffy episode)

I can normally give the fish a miss ..I mean, there's oinkus poinkus, why waste time on fish?

There are also normally specials which have creative names depending on the state of current affairs or current movie titles. We had Lord of the Ribs the other day and We Found Nemo another time.

Much of the cooking is inspired by chefJamie Oliver. I recognised the way "Nemo" was cooked from one of the recipe books (stuffed with thyme and lemons) and also one of the desserts they served on Mother's Day which was a hazelnut praline + cream moussey kinda thing. The salad are JO's style - pluck, tear, a dash of this, a dash of that which gives the cooking a totally different feel, kinda very raw and primitive style, the complete opposite of the Japanes and French styles which is very neat, structured-type presentation. Kinda like Linkin' Park vs Baroque or Mozart. (Apologies to Zal, Cal and CM for this comparison!)

Ambiance
Do NOT expect a fine dining atmosphere, do not bring your date here all dressed up to the nines, the atmosphere is very local neighbourhood eating place, with red and white checkered table cloth, not so comfy chairs (focus on the ribs, the ribs, the ribs ...). The food can take a while if there's heaps of people (of which there normally is) but there's heap of piggy entertainment on the walls and you can make dents into that bottle of wine. Incidentally, another reason why Checkers is SO great is because corkage is one of the most reasonable in town, less than RM10 per bottle. They also serve a rare Belgian beer (if the owners haven't finished guzzling it yet!)

Cost
Not the cheapest but is pretty good value when you take into consideration the large portions and taste factor. Be prepared to be set back about RM35 - RM50 per head on average, depending on how much you have. They will tell you when you have ordered enough so no worries about over ordering.

Where is it?
Hee Hee, that's the tricky part. If you're coming from Bangsar, PJ or KL, take the way to Bukit Damansara. For those coming from PJ, pass Victoria Station and Ayuthaya on your left, keep going and hang a left (right will take you to Bangsar). You will pass an Esso station and the turn into Jalan Kasah on the left, keep going straight (keep left) and at the next junction, turn left into Jalan Beringin. Turn into the second road on your left, you will pass Villa Maria Kindergarten on your right. Road will swerve to the left, follow it and you will see the lonely row of shophouses on your right. "Heaven" is the middle restaurant.

It is best to make reservations well in advance else you will find yourselves eating at one of the other restaurants in the row. Tel: 20953304.

Only open for dinner and closed on Mondays.

Enjoy!!!

I've been inspired to start a blog! Yup, while having a giant mug of orange juice (NOT Sunkist, but juice from the local, green skinned oranges) at Pizza vs Satay. It was like, I FOUND it - the perfect orange juice!! I need to share this news with fellow foodies out there!! So, here's my first entry ...

Had dinner at Pizza vs Satay at Taipan USJ. Not a place I normally venture to but was in the neighbourhood and not sure what I wanted. Well, Pizza vs Satay is the perfect place to appease everyone, they have nasi lemak (which I have been told is VERY GOOD but didn't feel like it today), a selection of pastas, pizzas, western style cuisine like fish and chips to local fare such as laksa johor and satay.

Had the spicy vegetarian fettucini in tomato sauce and my first thought was "I have to bring BB here!" Incidentally, BB is my good friend who is also know as Ms Tobasco! The fettucini was pedas enough for me, though I'm sure not pedas enough for BB .. so she'll have less Tobasco to put on! Thank goodness for the GIANT mug of orange juice.

Anyway, a run down of what MBF and I had:
Beef Carpacio - not bad, came with sprinkled parmesan cheese and drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil
Cheesy Garlic Bread - four large pieces
Home-style soup - kinda tasted like Campbell's cream of chicken lah!
Spicy Vegetarian Fettucini - lots of veges, they seem to like brocolli and green peppers a lot. Good presentation though I'm not quite sure what the piece of lemon was doing there
Seafood Oglio Alio - lots of seafood including sotong (the white kind), mussels, prawns AND brocolli (to make sure you have a balanced diet that includes vegetables!)
Orange Juice (x2) - SO yummy!!
ILT - biasa lah!

Ambiance - very cosy place with photos by guest photograhers on the walls, teacup collections, old Elvis records, very rojak and campur but suits their tagline 'East meets West' very well. The colors reminded me a bit of Dave's Deli.

Cost - all the above cost us just above RM60 which is very good value. To give some indication, the pastas were around RM15-20, nasi lemak around RM4-5, giant mug of fruit juice was RM7.

Pizza vs Satay
35G, Jalan USJ 10/1D
Taipan Triangle
Subang Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 56318104