Journey of the land of smiles and good food part III: Hua Hin

.At the Hua Hin train station.

.Moonsmile and Plato.

First restaurant in Hua Hin. Basically we found this place by looking at the No. 1 restaurant voted by the people in Tripadvisor. It was kinda like a so-so only and we were in fact a little disappointed with the food somehow. 

.Coconut. 

Nothing very much special other than a good drink to consume to dispel the heat!

.Ooliang. 

For those who are not familiar with this name, this is basically the Thai version of kopi-o. It's unusually sweet for a Singaporean's taste buds and for some, it may taste kinda weird. 

.Pineapple Fried Rice. 60 Baht.

.Stir-fried Kale. 80 Baht.

.Grilled Seafood. 500 Baht.

Disappointed with this dish :( Expensive and simply not nice. We were expecting the seafood to be fresh and yummy but it wasn't. To think that it was actually on the list of recommendation.

.Onn Onn Corner.
Right next to the Moon Smile and Platoo. I enjoyed my meal at this restaurant better than the one above.

.Mango Smoothie. 30 Baht.

.Chang Beer. 60 Baht.

.Stir-fried chicken with cashew nut. 80 Baht.

.Stir-fried morning glory. 70 Baht.

.Khaay ciaw muu saap. 60 Baht.

.Khaaw niaw maa muang. 50 baht.

Mango sticky rice: the most awesome dessert that you can find in Thailand. There is this rather famous stall in the night market next to our hotel, simply look for the stall with the most photos with celebrities and tadaa~ There you go :) The glutinous rice is cooked till its fragrance blends with the sweetness of the Thai honey mango. To add on to this goodness, add the coconut milk and the rice-crispies-alike in the packet to enhance the flavour and add in a crunchy factor to this dessert. You definitely gotta buy one of these in Thailand to try~ (Anyway, it's much much much cheaper to eat this in Thailand, Singapore sells this at at least double or triple the price)

.Terrace 90.

A nice restaurant that is a little further from the main hustle and bustle of the town. As its name suggests, its in Lane 90 :)

.Just to show you how ulu it is. The main road is at the end of this lane.

.Entrance of the restaurant.

.Combo Plate. 435 Baht.

St Louis ribs, BBQ chicken, pulled pork served with corn on the cob and baked potato. I must say that their bbq sauce is arguably one of the better ones that I have tasted and their baked potato is professionally baked to PERFECTION. You definitely have to share this dish with someone unless you are a true blue carnivore who adores bbq and meat. 

Terrace bacon chilli cheese burger with prime beef. 199 Baht.

Served with fries and vegetables and topped with imported cheese. Something very special about this burger that you seldom find in Singapore is its very own freshly baked burger! It's soft and fragrant and the texture of the bread is woohoo~ There's a reason why they have a bakery as well :)

.Cafe area.

.Outdoor seats.

Just to add on a little about this ulu restaurant. Basically this restaurant is family-owned and operated and they have superbly good service and reviews from tripadvisor! Another awesome about the restaurant is their ingredients, they are fresh. Real fresh and of good quality! You can definitely expect the food to be up to your expectation after trying some time to find the place :) Anyway, there are no extra charges such as service charge, it may be good to give the staffs some tips if you like their service though :)

Journey to the land of smiles and good food part II: Chumporn

Stop no. 2 in Thailand: Chumphon

This is basically a relatively less touristy town (as compared to all the other places that I visited) and we didn't really spend a lot of time here. Most of the meals were grab-and-gos or eaten while we were traveling. 

Just a side note: if you are looking for good grab-and-gos to fill your tummy, go into 7-11 and ask for "foot long cheese". It's hotdog with cheese that ooze into your mouth with every bite, that's like 25 baht only. If that is not filling enough for you, go grab a bottle of meiji milk at 27 baht or even a magnum ice-cream that costs a fraction of what Singapore charges.

Back to the few Thai food that we had in Chumporn...

.Khaaw khaa muu. Pork trotters rice. 30 Baht.

From this dish, you can basically tell how much of an influence Chinese have on Thais :) In fact, quite a fraction of the Thai people have Chinese ancestries and some of them can even speak Teochew up till today, just look out for those shops with Chinese words or Chinese looking faces. Anyway, this is kinda like our braised pork trotters, just that the sauce that they use is slightly different and lighter than what I usually have at home. Usually they will give you a generous portion of FATS and you gotta tell them to give you lean meat and not give you the fats if you don't like it.

.A typical shop selling food in Chumporn.

.Phat sii yuu. 30 Baht.

Like what I mentioned in the previous post in Phuket, this is like the Thai version of stir-fried horfun. They will ask you what meat to put it, usually I like it with beef or pork :)

.Khaay ciaw muu saap. 35 Baht.

Omelette with minced meat. There is something very special about the khaaw ciaws in Thailand, once you tried it, you'll yearn for it every time you go to Thailand. You can attempt to cook it in Singapore, but no matter what you do, there will always be something lacking and it won't taste like the one you had in Thailand. It's not the fish sauce, it's not the fire. Perhaps it's the quality of the egg, or maybe, it's simply the atmosphere of enjoying this uber fragrant egg in Thailand. When you are having a meal in Thailand, just remember these four words "khaay ciaw muu saap" when ordering, you definitely won't go wrong.

.Khaaw krapaw muu. Pork with basil leaves rice. 30 Baht.

One of the most popular dish that you will see repeating in this series of posts on Thai food. An awesome dish. Though I can't really take spicy food, when I smell this dish, I can't help but take a few small spoonfuls of this dish, painfully remove the chilli, gather a pile of rice and enjoy the unique fragrance of basil, chilli and pork combined (only to drink a whole cup of water after eating this dish). The spiciness of this dish differs from stall to stall. For this particular stall, the spiciness was phenomenal, you can even smell the chilli distinctively. But for those hard-core chilli lovers, I think you will love this dish, just like my crazy chilli-fanatic friend.

Our trip in Chumporn ended with a magnificent view of a full semi-circle of rainbow on our way to the train station! Bye bye Chumporn and hello Hua Hin!

Journey to the land of smiles and good food Part I: Phuket!

As part three of my well-deserved graduation trip, I bought a one-way ticket to Thailand and arrived at my first stop of the land of smiles and AWESOME food, PHUKET. Having experienced all the sea sport in Bali, the main focus of this trip will be none other than, food itself! The weather was nothing short of the expected excruciating high temperature and we had to seek comfort in the shopping centre, Jungceylon which was about 10-15 minutes walk from our resortel. And, we discovered our first restaurant with yummy food on the way there.

No. 6 Restaurant

.It's opened till 12am actually.

.Bustling with customers.

.My favourite Thai food, khaay ciaw (omelette).

.This particular one is called khaay ciaw muu saap (omelette with minced meat).

.Phat thai. 60 Baht.

It's like the char kway teow in our context, except that the noodles used here are glass noodles. For this dish, feel free to add peanut, sugar, dry chilli, fish sauce and lime in it.

.Phat sii yuu. 60 Baht.

This is like our fried hor fun. You can request to have it with pork, beef or chicken. 

.Phat phak ruam (Stir-fried assorted vegetables). 60 Baht.

.Tom yum kung (Prawn tomyam). 150 Baht.

.Phat phak kale (Stir-fried kailan). 60 Baht.

.Krapaw muu (Minced meat with basil leaf). 100 Baht.

Another classic thai dish that my friend loved, it can be quite spicy at times though.

Marco Polo in Sorrento

.Chang beer. 

We're in Thailand, of course we have to order Chang beer :)

.Bruschetta al Pomodoro. 80 Baht.

Garlic bread with marinated tomatoes.

.Pizza Marco Polo. 380 Baht.
Pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella, italian sausage, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, peppers, parmesan and basilico.

.Fettuccine con Sugo Rosa Gamberi e Fungi. 310 Baht.

Fettuccine with pink sauce and mushroom.

Sea Hag

This restaurant is a MUST GO :) Awesome food, awesome service. It's awesome-ness is beyond expectations! Will definitely head back to this restaurant if I go to Phuket again.

.Yum wunsen. Tomyam glass noodle salad.

Complimentary dish by the restaurant, the prawns were extremely fresh and the sweet, sour, spiciness of the sauce simply whip up your appetite in preparation of the goodness to come.

.Deep fried fish with tamarind sauce. 370 Baht.

.Kung phat met mamuang. Prawns with cashewnut. 250 Baht.

.Keeng khiaw waan kay. Green curry with chicken. 220 Baht.

.Phat phak pung. Stir-fried morning glory. 120 Baht.

.Khaaw phat muu. Pork fried rice.

.Complimentary fruits.

Fuji Japanese Restaurant

.Just another Japanese restaurant.

 Tastes ok. Price wise, cheaper than Singapore.

The sets include appetizer (pickles), rice, soup and fruits.

.Katsu toji set. 150 Baht.

A la carte: 130 Baht.

.Beef teriyaki set. 230 Baht.

A la carte: 210 Baht.

.Menchi katsu set. 150 Baht.

A la carte: 130 Baht.

.Ika maruyaki set. 170 Baht.

A la carte: 150 Baht.

Tamago yaki. 75 Baht.

At Maya Bay! Woohoo~