On my last morning in Bangkok, I reserved my tummy for a very sinful breakfast at KuppA, one of my favourite restaurants in Bangkok. Met up with Col there and I ordered the Big breakfast - we're talking bacon, eggs, mushrooms, potaotes, toast and jam. This, accompanied with a glass of pure nam som (beats Sunkist anytime!) and a creamy latte was definitely breakfast for this Champion!

Col was good and had the vegetable sandwich which was huge and had grilled veges and melted cheese.

We then gave in to temptation and ordered their yummy tiramisu, another favourite dessert but if I had to choose between this and Anna's Cafes' Bannoffee Pie ...no competition of course!

KuppA
39 Sukhumvit Soi 16 *
Bangkok, 10110
Tel: +66 2 663 0495
BTS: Asoke (20 minute walk)

* Be careful, Sukhumvit Soi 16 runs off Ratchadaphisek not directly off Sukhumvit.

Saturday, May 15th
I woke up in the plush surroundings of KL's apartment, almost drowning in the sea of big fat cushions. Had a quick breakfast of nam som (Thai orange juice) and a really yummy butter twisted donut and some other bread-y thing with some minced meat in it.

It was then time to run errands. First stop, to the tailor to collect my shirts.

JR Tailor is located at Silom Road, between Soi Saladaeng and Silom Complex. Mr Jaray is Thai-Chinese and has excellent workmanship and good quality materials. He does take about 3-4 days to make the shirts though.

Next stop was to see Malaysian-born, married-to-a-Thai Lin, who also owns Indra Beauty, located at Soi Saladaeng. I like having my hair treatments here and they have now also expanded the business to include foot massages, Thai and Oil massages. It's great here because the place is very cosy and homey and Lin speake English!!!

After getting my hair done, I caught the BTS to Siam Square. Had a quick lunch at Black Canyon (Fried Rice and Rum Coffee!) and headed off to the Nail Cafe to have my nails done!

It rained heavily when I finished so I had to dispense all thoughts of going to MBK. Instead, I went to Suan Lum to get my Thai-silk triangle pillow. It had to be very quickly packed because I had to be back at the apartment to meet PC who was picking me up for dinner.

As usual, running late. The girl who was wrapping the pillow had a hard time because it was so large but anyway, we got it done in the end. Rushed back to the apartment and was embarassed to find PC already there waiting. When he saw me with the big pillow, he could only smile, shake his head and sigh, "Khun C ... Shopping huh?"

Anyway, 15 minutes later I was all showered and ready for a night out on the town. We went for dinner at a Seafood restaurant which was very near the Rama VIII bridge, right on the Chao Phrya river. We had salt-grilled sea bass, Tom Kha Gai and Yum Pla Meuk which was just nice for the two of us. It was a really busy restaurant too and there was a small acoustic guitar group playing in the background. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the restaurant except that it started with "Kilom ...." and I forgot to get the name card.

We headed to the Piano Bar on Silom Road after that. I was told that it's like going for karaoke except that the guy on the piano will accompany you and not a machine. Way Cool! Anyhow, when we arrive, we were informed that the pianist had quit earlier so too bad .. :(

I suggested we head for dessert to iberry, a homemade ice cream place which now had a branch near Chidlom BTS (next to Erawan). I was looking forward to the Cha-yaan (Thai milk tea) flavour but unfortunately, this was a small branch which only had limited flavours. Anyhow, I settled for lychee sorbet and tiramisu while PC had coconut sorbet (good choice!!) and tiramisu.

Perfect ending to perfect evening before I had to go back to face packing my suitcases!!!


Indra Beauty
4-6 Soi Saladaeng, off Silom Road
Bangkok
Tel: 02 2335262
House: 10:30am - 21:30pm

Nail Cafe(sorry, no food here!)
315/1 3rd Floor, Siam Centre
976 Rama 1 Road
Patumwan, Bangkok
Tel: 02 6581198

Interhome (for Thai silk triangle pillow)
Suan Lum Night Bazaar
D68 Lopburi Soi 3
Saladaeng
Bangkok
Tel: 06 5438422

iberry ice cream
99/356 President Park
Sukhumvit Soi 24
Klongtoey, Bangkok
Tel: 02 2629473

Branch: Near Chidlom BTS, opposite Gaysorn

Friday, May 14th
The gals last morning in Bangkok!! As they had to leave for the airport by noon, we decided to have a quick lunch at my favourite Anna's Cafe, which was round the corner from our Guesthouse. There are 5 branches all over Bangkok but my favourite one is still the one on Saladaeng.



Anna's serves my favourite dessert, the Toffee Banoffee pie. A review of the pie from
The Nation "Weekend"; "What's really praise worthy are Anna's Cafés desserts. Just the right combination of banana, soft sticky brown chocolate syrup, and a melt in your mouth crust make the Toffee Banofee unforgettable" See..it's not just me!

After the gals left, I went to the Jim Thompson Factory outlet to look around and ended up buying some curtain material and other JT knick-knacks. There are a few Factory Outlets and realy good value for furnishings and out of season JT stuff. The guys at the store were really helpful but it would be better if you already had the measurements of of your windows, etc on hand

Met up with Col and friends for dinner. We ate a a place called Grill and Garden on Ekkamai Soi 2. The food was so-so and not very inspiring but it was in a nice garden setting with a band.

Dessert was at Buono Gelato, a place with very nice gelato, including durian falvour. I tried the almond chocolate and tiramisu and was not disappointed.

Anna's Cafe
118 Soi Saladaeng
Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: 02 6320620
(Reservations recommended)

Jim Thompson Factory Sales Outlet
1) 149/4-6 Surawong Road, Bangrak, Bangkok
Tel: 02 2358930
- only furnishings

2) 153 Sukhumvit Soi 93, Prakanong, Bangkok
Tel: 02 332653
- furnishings and other stuff

Website: www.jimthompson.com

Buono Gelato Italiano

Various Branches
* Petkasem 55
* All Seasons Place, 3rd Flr
* Sathorn City, G Floor
* Central City Bangna, G Floor
* Sukhumvit 23
* Thong Lor Soi 10
* Wanghin, Plaza Lagoon
* Rama 9, Plam Street Place
Call Service Tel: 02 8014331

Thursday, May 13th
We have a simple breakfast at the Guesthouse, consisting of homemade peanut butter, cereal, toast and jam. With enough fuel, we head to Jim Thompson's House, a must-see for every visitor to Bangkok. While the rest partake in the 30 minute tour, I luxuriate in the Bar upstairs, sinking myself into Jim Thompson sofas and having a cup of Earl Grey tea. It was definitely bliss, a cool respite from the heat and I would have fallen asleep if I wasn't so busy admiring the architecture of the house and if not for the sounds of the occasional sampan (boat) passing by the khlong (canal).

Lunch was at Siam Square Soi 5. We decided to have fried chicken and papaya pok pok. Incidentally, papaya pok pok is just another name for som tum. We went to Katak, a favourite of mine which serves a variety of Northeastern cuisine. This means various types of salads including larb (cooked salad thing). We order liver and pork larb, roast pork, papaya pok pok, fried chicken and to accompany this, khaw neaw (glutinous rice)

After visiting the nearby Bearary (it's a bakery where all the buns are in shapes of bears - *sigh* only in Thailand!!) we went over to Soi 4 to Mango Tango for dessert.

Being quite full, we ordered only three varieties of dessert;
1) Fresh mango with mango pudding and mango ice cream
2) Fresh mango with sticky rice and mango ice cream
3) Yin Yang tau foo fah - which had half white tau foo fah and half black sesame tau foo fah

After dessert, a little more shopping around the area and we caught the BTS back to Saladaeng station. Before going back to the Guesthouse, we decided to have some tea at Black Canyon Coffee house at Silom Complex (it connects from the BTS).

I had the yummy ice coffee with Kahlua and we ordered some sandwiches to share and also had the nothern fermented sausage salad.

That night, for supper we went to Noodi on Silom Road with some of our friends from the Bangkok Opera's production of Turandot (one of the reason we went to Bangkok was to watch it!). A great place for a variety of noodles. A safe place to try all types of noodles that you would see on the street but afraid to try. This place is opened till quite late.

Katak
Siam Square Soi 5
Rama 1 Rd, Bangkok

Mango Tango
Siam Square Soi 4
Rama 1 Rd, Bangkok

Black Canyon
Various branches all over Bangkok

Noodi Noodle house
Branch 1) Silom Road, near the Saladaeng BTS, Bangkok
Open: Till late

Branch 2) 229/1-2 Siam Square Soi 4, Rama 1 Rd, Bangkok
Tel: 658-44841-2O
Open: 10.30am-9pm

Today we checked into new accomodation which we found to be nearer to Silom and the Saladaeng BTS and much cleaner and safer than the place we stayed in the night before. The Bangkok Christian Guest House is high recommended for its vicinity and accessibility. No, you don't have to be Christian to stay there but if you are and have a Christian volunteer card or something, you do get a bit of a discount. Anyway, we paid the equivalent of RM240 for a quad-sharing room with bathroom attached and breakfast included.

We had breakfast at Tung Who Coffee House on Thanon Convent. They are one of the oldest coffee merchants in Thailand, having been set up in 1870. Click here to read more about them We had Thai local coffee with various types of breads with chilli paste, peanut butter, jams, etc. Great start to the day.

Our next destination was the Old Siam Plaza. Located north of Chinatown, this is like not just food heaven for local Thai delicacies (especially the desserts) but the shopping is really good too.

I think we bought almost everything in sight! One section on the ground floor of the Old Siam is dedicated to making old traditional Thai desserts - yup, from golden threads to the other nine golden treasures to durian and mango with sticky rice and yum ma ma, it really is a Thai food heaven, all in one place!!
What I like:
* mieng kam - these are a mixture of ginger, onions, chillies, peanuts, dried prawns, fried shredded coconut with a sticky pasted all wrapped in a kadok leaf. You can buy them separate and assemble them yourselves but if you want to eat it there, the ladies would make them into miniature pyramid shapes on a stick.
* Yum ma ma - this is a salad with mama noodles and anything else you want in it. Choose from squid to chicken to mushrooms, whatever you want ...
* durian with sticky rice
* kueh kapek with cilantro leaves
* all the high cholesterol deep yellow desserts. They are made from duck egg yolks which give the very yellow color to the dessert.
* all the various rice paper rolls and other sweetmeats in different shaped steamed rice flour coverings.

Ah...best is just pick a pack from each stall, then go upstairs to the food court and tuck in! The food court also has some yummy som tum and fruit salad.

The Old Siam is also a great place to shop, I bought lots of Thai Silk and other thai materials from there. Best would be to try to get there around 11am (thus hopefully bypassing the jam on Charoen Krung) and to leave there by 4pm to the nearest BTS station.

We left for the Old Siam and headed for MBK / Discovery Centre / Siam Centre area. After some shopping at MBK, we had dinner at the newly refurbished Coca restaurant which is located on the 3rd floor of Siam Centre. The price here is a fraction of what we pay in Malaysia where a plate of veges will set you back at least RM6. Here, veges are just RM1.80-RM2. After a yummy steamboat which had half tom yum and half chicken soup for stock we made our way back to the Guesthouse to leave our stuff. We then went out separate ways, some to Suan Lum Night Bazaar for more shopping and some to Body Tune for massages.

Bangkok Christian Guest House (located behind the Swiss Lodge)
123 Saladaeng Soi 2,
Bangkok, Thailand 10500
Phone: +66 (0)2 233 6303
Fax: +66 (0)2 237 1742
E-Mail : reservations@bcgh.org
BTS: Saladaeng

The Old Siam Plaza Shopping Mall
NE corner of Tri Phet and Phahurat Road.
Bangkok, Thailand
Open daily 10am-8pm

Coca Restaurant
3rd Floor, Siam Centre
Bangkok, Thailand
BTS: Siam Centre Interchange
There are many Coca restaurants around

Body Tune (just above GNC, near Oriental Princess and exit to Saladaeng BTS)
Silom Road, Bangkok
Tel: 02 2384377

Tuesday, May 11th
The gang from KL arrives this afternoon but before that, Gim and I have a whole lot of things to do. As usual, we woke up late and by the time we packed and got going, it was after lunch already. After a quick 'chup fun' (mixed rice) lunch we head towards Samut Prakan to visit Ajarn (teacher in Thai). She had bought for Gim some lovely lace shawls and also wanted to see Gim before Gim left for the US the next day.

Samut Prakan is on the outskirts of Bangkok, not very far away but with the traffic jam ...it becomes another story altogether.. anyway, we finally reach Ajarn's home, nestled in a lovely soi and surrounded with nice huge old trees. We had some really lovely jackfruit there and as we left I was excited to see the heart-leaf plant growing on one of the trees. Ajarn promptly got some clippers and gave me some clippings.

We were looking for carving tools so we went to Central Chidlom to look for them. Being quite hungry, since we didn't really have a huge lunch, we went to the Food Loft on the 7th Floor where we tried the Thai Fruit Salad. It consisted of grapes, guava, mango with lime juice, bacon bits and chilly. Definitely very Thai, almost like papaya salad but with other fruits. At Bt90 for a plate, it was certainly expensive but then again, we were at Central Chidlom.

On Ajarn's recommendation, we went to a Thai restaurant off Rama 8 (I think!) for dinner. Another one of those places where everything was in Thai so couldn't get the name of it. It was the gals from KL's first Thai meal so we ordered 'yum pla duk foo' (catfish salad), goong woon sen (prawn in hotpot with glass noodles), green curry and many other types of salads that I can't remember....

For dessert we went to San Luang area (near Chulalongkorn University). Many small shops there selling all types of dessert, something our ice kachang but you get to choose from a about 30-40 ingredients.

After dinner, I bid Gim a sad farewell as she was leaving for US the next day. Hopefully Food Safari will do the New York-Boston-Toronto food circuit with her next year!

'Yum' means salad in Thai

Gim and I woke up late and had more fruits for breakfast. It was a stinking hot day and we decided to make our way to Gaysorn - World Central Plaza area to shop. Had some lunch with veges and rice at the IMPACT food court before we left which was not bad. The food court is quite large and has many varieties of local Thai food including wild animals, etc.

After lunch we made our way to Gaysorn, where we parked ourselves at River Arts and swath ourselves in Thai Silk before heading to World Central Plaza to shop at Naraya and a quick bite at the Japanese restaurant there. We were both good girls and had clear vege and tofu soup.

Caught up with CKL at his apartment in Lang Suan and we decided to try Whole Earth Restaurant. While it's a vegetarians heaven, they do have a non-vegetarian menu as well.
The place was quite interesting, very Hari Krishna kinda place with incense burning, with a very wholistic feel. We ordered too much (as usual) - deep fried catfish with mango salad on top, huge prawns cooked with pineapple in a whole coconut, some yummy tofu thing and some veges. This set CKL back less than Bt1000.

After Whole Earth we wanted to go to the ice cream shop, iberry, for dessert where we were going to meet up with Lam but unfortunately it was closed so we had to make do with Haagen-Dazz instead.

Whole Earth Restaurant
93/3 Lang Suan
Bangkok
Tel: 02 2525574

or
71, Sukhumvit Soi 26
Bangkok
Tel: 02 2584900

They also have a branch in Chiangmai which is housed in a nice old teak house with a beautiful gardens
Whole Earth Sridonchai
tel: 053 282463

'Aroi' means delicious in Thai

May 9th - Bangkok
I finally leave Ko Samui (very early in the morning at 5am but the market place near the Resort was already bustling with business and probably halfway through their sales of the day!). Got into Bangkok at 7.30am and Gim picked me up at the airport with a huge bowl of sliced mangoes in the backseat for my breakfast! She's such and angel, knowing that I have to ease back my 'clean' tummy to normal food ... very sweet mango from her sister's mango orchard in Chonburi.

We head to Chonburi for the blessing of Big Sis's new home and after that, head to a Chinese restaurant in Chonburi town. Heaps of food - roast duck, 2 types of veges for yous truly, squid salad, 2 types of fish, deep-fried fish cakes, prawns cooked in coconut and various types of dim sum.

After lunch we headed back to Bangkok and did the 'makan angin' thing and drove through Bang Sean and Ang Si La, two great places for seafood. We contemplated staying back in Chonburi to have a seafood dinner in our favourite seafood place by the sea, Hang Sua (translation: Tiger's Tail) but we sacrificed it to make it back to have dinner with Lam in Bangkok.
Food at Hang Sua

For missing out on the best seafood in Thailand, Lam took us to a seafood restaurant near his place. It was a huge seafood restaurant situated on a lake. We had lala, squid salad, fish and tom yum goong. Food was ok, but nothing could compare to Hang Sua ... unfortunately, the namecard of this place is in Thai, so I didn't manage to translate it.

The view we missed out on ...

BEST SEAFOOD IN THAILAND
Hang Sua
350, Soi Kukampol, Sapan Dang
Bang Plasroi, Amphoe Muang
Chonburi
Tel: (038) 261769

I have returneth from the great North ...
My first week in Thailand was spent on the island of Ko Samui. Unfortunately, I was not there to eat. On the contrary, I was there to fast! Yup, fast as in 'puasa', no food, not eating ....

May 1st
Arrived at Ko Samui mid-morning and checked into Spa Samui's Cleansing Program. Yup! After years and years of stuffing all kinds of food down my hatch, I thought it was time to give the ol' body an overhaul. I also had my 'last' proper meal for the week and I was lucky that it was at one of the World's Top 50 vegetarian restaurants. I tried their version of 'som tum' (green papaya salad) which was actually very yummy considering that it was not only just vegetarian (the real one does have dried prawns or fermented crabs in it) but they also used a lot of healthy substitues like amino acids and vinegar in place of salt and lime juice, etc. Also had a liver flush to go with that. The liver flush is made up of orange and lemon juice blended with garlic, ginger and cayenne pepper. Definitely not for the faint-hearted but all in the name of good health!

For dinner I had the Spa Salad - a HUGE bowl of many types of raw vegetables. Normally a huge salad fan, I couldn't even finish it and I ordered the small sized one. Another liver flush and I was ready to start my week of fasting ....

May 2nd to 7th
My daily schedule as follows:
7am - Power Shake (Liquid Bentonite clay, Psyllium Husk and watered-down Pineapple or Watermelon juice)
7.30-9.00am - Iyengar Yoga with Ute
8.30am - Chomper and Herbal Nutrition Pills
9.00am onwards - Colema #1
10am - Power Shake
11.30am - Chomper and Herbal Nutrition Pills
12 noon onwards - Vegetable Broth
1pm - Power Shake
2.30pm - Chomper and Herbal Nutrition Pills
4pm - Power Shake
4pm onwards - Colema #2
5.30pm - Chomper and Herbal Nutrition Pills
7pm - Power Shake
7.30pm onwards - Vegetable Broth
8.30pm - Chomper and Herbal Nutrition Pills
..and LOTS of coconut water and plain water during the day! Also more carrot juices and liver flushes from Day 3 onwards!!

May 8th
I got to eat today!!! My first meal was a bowl of papayas and mangos with goat yoghurt and bee pollen and a carrot juice. Must say I didn't really enjoy the yoghurt as it was really runny and I'm not really a yoghurt person.

My second meal of the day was the 'som tum' again. I really love som tum and this one even had raw bean sprouts (taugeh).