New Apt but Old Pad (Thai) Photos!

Oh boy, after weeks of cleaning my apt is finally done! internet set up finally so i can start posting again! i'll take some pics of the apt soon, but today i wanna share some old food pics from BKK!

One of the clients took us to this insanely packed Pad Thai place... somewhere in BKK... i couldn't even tell you. Apparently it's very famous and i can see why. I've been wondering for years what real Pad Thai tastes like because the stuff I've had in NY and Canada have been sweet sloppy messes that cannot possibly be close to the real thing. and they're not, i'm happy to report!

So this is the place if you ever wanna go...

Sorry can't help with the name or location, but ask someone Thai! It's pretty famous.

Check out the ingredients, they use, no pre-made sweet sauce here... The stuff in the metal pots is freshly prepared shrimp oil! amazing flavor.

They are cooking non-stop for hours... legit endurance.

The trademark drink at this place is a Coconut Frosty which is some kind of shaved ice, coconut water/meat concoction. I will say that although i usually love coconut stuffs, this one had a wonky aftertaste i didn't enjoy so much. But, given how hot the place is, it really should be the perfect drink...

And here is the main event! The one of the left is pre-mixing.

So we had the slightly more complicated/premium version so ours came with from 10:00 going clockwise, green mango, REAL crabmeat, shrimps and some of nutty, crunchy leaf bits... In my opinion it was a little too much, and I kinda wanted to try the basic version... but the client wanted to spoil us so what could i say??

Anyway, needless to say it was delicious, and the extra ingredients actually worked together quite well. Of course the real point of contention are the noodles and the basic sauce themselves... and it's completely different from what i've had before. The sauce is only slightly sweet and quite savory, while still somehow remaining kind of subtle. A big surprise given the shrimp oil? But it's stupid to try and over-analyze something like Pad Thai. You know when it's right, and that's all you need to know. This stuff was right.

Bkk gets crazy points from me. You just need a guide!

Japanese in Jersey

Who would have thunk? The best chirashi I've had so far is in Collingswood, New Jersey. The restaurant is called Sagami and it's located next to a lonely stretch of highway with a hidden sign and is surprisingly always packed with people who know about this neighborhood gem. 


Pauline and I shared a scallop salad to start ($7). Great value for the amount of fresh scallops!

We sat at the bar, so could watch the chefs prepare our dish. It was great that we had such fresh fish and a great variety as well, but it literally took more than half an hour for the chefs to meticulously assemble the bowl (it was like a work of art). The business school person in me kept wondering whether this was the most efficient process. HOWEVER, the chirashi was as fresh and delicious as I remembered, with thickly sliced, plump pieces of juicy sashimi with a healthy dose of fish roe, pinch of wasabi, and one of the tastiest tamago preparations I remember (it tastes very home cooked with just the right balance of sweet and saltiness). All of this was for $25. Only in NJ? Perhaps...

Sagami Restaurant
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sagami-japanese-restaurant-collingswood


Food: 4.5/5
Value: 4.5/5

Bangkok Awesome!

Zomg so I have been in BKK for a week now for work and I can't believe how much i like it here... cheaper than Kuala Lumpur and infinitely more interesting. the food is great, and public transportation is oodles better. The only thing is the language which i SUPPOSE is a big deal.

Anyway, here are some sweet pics of the bar/restaurant from the Hangover II! it's as amazing as it looks. It's a super swanky rooftop bar with a crazy view of the city... the restaurant is posh but prices are not insane for a place like this, like USD100-150 a meal (without drinks) but the bar is insanely pricey. I saw a champagne COCKTAIL for USD60 which is bonkers... a bottle of some of the best champagne in the world only runs ~USD70. Nuts! Normal cocktails were resonable though, not a bad martini at that.

More entries of crazy BKK to come!

The cupcake edition

There's something about cupcakes that makes me impulsively want to pick one (usually two) up. Maybe it's their portable size or their deceptively yummy descriptions, but it's been a temptation i've been unable to control particularly since J hasn't been around to remind me to "walk away..." So I thought I'd give a low down on all the cupcakes I've had in NY over the past few weeks and show something for all the taste-testing I've done.


Molly's Cupcakes: This might be my favorite so far. Molly's does fancy cupcakes in that they are usually stuffed with some kind of filling, which makes eating them more interesting and closer to a dessert than a cupcake. The one on the left is the birthday cake, with bits of birthday cake batter in the center, and the one on the right is the creme brulee, which has a slightly crispy burnt sugar top and is filled with custard. The birthday cake's frosting was too creamy (I would have preferred something more sugary) but the creme brulee cupcake was really unique and light, but satisfying at the same time with the custard providing a pudding-like texture to the cake. The one thing I didn't like was that the packaging didn't hold the cupcakes upright very well and the frosting got kind of all over the place. Overall score: 4/5

Crumbs Cupcakes: Crumbs has become prevalent throughout New York, and it's not uncommon to see one every several blocks in Midtown. Unfortunately, this means I get to walk past Crumbs every single day on my way to work, and apparently their strategy of using repeated reinforcement to attract customers worked on me, because I wandered after months of restraint and picked out an apple cobbler cupcake. According to the website, this is described as: Apple cinnamon cake with apple preserves filling topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and covered in streusel crumbs. Sounds delicious right? Well no, it was kind of a disappointment. The icing was too blandish and the cake was enormous, so it kind of went limp and fell apart after I cut through and scooped up the apple filling, which was arguably the best part after the streusel topping. Must avoid from now on. Overall: 2.5/5

Two Little Red Hens: I had heard about these cupcakes as one of the originals way back when I first moved to NY, but never thought about trying since it's all the way on the upper east side. However, when I realized they were being sold at Dean and Deluca, I knew I had to try. Unfortunately, I didn't know they came in mini-sizes in the original store (Dean and Deluca only carried the bigger ones that day), so I left the store with a box that literally weighed half a pound with the red velvet and Brooklyn Blackout, two flavors that are being raved about constantly on yelp. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of XL cupcakes, and the Brooklyn Blackout (while insanely indulgent), was way too intense for me to finish more than a few bites. The red velvet also was mediocre with an interesting, somewhat tangy and creamy cream cheese frosting.The packaging also left much to be desired and resulted in a messed up Brooklyn Blackout (although this might just be how Dean and Deluca packs it). Needless to say, I will not be making a trip up to the UES for these anytime soon. Overall: 3/5

Sprinkles: My first encounter with these was at the Dylan's Candy pop-up store near Bryant Park where they also were selling Spinkles cupcakes on the side. I wasn't too impressed with the red velvet (left), but the chocolate marshmallow was surprisingly light and unique with a fluffy marshmallow icing topped with chocolate ganache coating:

This past weekend, I ventured over to Sprinkles again because my buy 1 get 1 free coupon was expiring and decided to try the seasonal flavors: chocolate chip cake with raspberry frosting and caramel cake with salted caramel frosting. I liked how Sprinkles did a good job with the packaging so they wouldn't fall over in my bag. I also like how the frosting they use is sugary enough so that the frosting doesn't smear:

The verdict? I really liked the raspberry cupcake because the frosting had a sharp, tangy berry taste which made it stand out from the typical sugary sweet frosting. I also liked the chunks of chocolate chip inside the cake batter. The salted caramel one was good too, with a hint of sea salt that paired nicely with the caramel, but I thought it was a tad too sweet. The cake for both was moist and reminded me of birthday parties when I was little where moms would bring cupcakes in to celebrate. Overall: 4/5

J, I think I need a recording of you telling me to walk away...

Salt and Fat (and everything nice)

Now, J sometimes is a bit of a snob when it comes to venturing outside of Manhattan (I'm kidding!), but considering I live in the transportation hub of NYC, I have to remind myself that it isn't such a big deal to ride the train a few extra stops to access gastronomic deliciousness. One of my friends from high school suggested we try Salt & Fat, a restaurant known for their casual asian-fusion style small plates akin to the style of korean taco trucks, if you know what i mean. Their menu consists of whimsical dishes that blend a mix of east and west, like braised meat in sweet/spicy sauce with daikon radish or bass with plum sake-soy sauce. 


The restaurant does not take reservations and only opens for dinner at 6 pm, so we decided to meet right when it opened to avoid a long wait. Luckily, we scored a quiet table on the side before the crowd rushed in. We were first presented with a mini bag of perfectly crisp popcorn toasted with bacon fat, which provided a deep, smoky flavor. This  small touch should already provide diners with an idea of how well thought-out and executed the food here is. We then asked our server to recommend a few dishes for us to share. Although I think he recommended some outstanding dishes, I have a feeling that everything on the menu is pretty excellent.


We started with the persimmon salad, which was a bed of arugula (my favorite type of leafy green to have as a salad at restaurants), topped with slices of persimmon, italian speck, spicy candied walnuts and tossed with a lemon-honey vinaigrette. The persimmon provided just the right note of sweetness, and the candied walnuts provided a slight kick and crunch to the salad. It was overall both refreshing and flavorful at the same time.

Next up was the scallops with roasted carrot puree and truffled corn salsa. This was so good, we attacked the plate before I got to take a picture. The bits of sweet corn and the puree provided a creamy and comfort-food-like touch to the scallops. The carrot puree actually reminded me more of a butternut squash puree since it was so sweet and creamy.

The waiter recommended the pulled pork sliders and the oxtail terrine, which both turned out to be true winners. The pulled pork made a big impression on me, because there was a substantial layer of pork in between the two pieces of grilled brioche buns (which is sometimes a problem with sliders when there isn't enough filling) and the meat was incredibly tender, with a slightly tangy flavor from the siracha bbq sauce. It honestly reminded me of the delicious Taiwanese beef jerky that I love, in the form of soft pulled pork. The two slices of pickles on top provided the perfect tangy accent. Upon closer inspection, my friend pointed out that the restaurant had actually grilled smiley faces onto the tops of the buns! Another sign of the little details that this place really pays attention to in delighting their customers :)

Our fourth dish was the oxtail terrine, which resembled a brownie on a plate initially, but when we broke into it, realized it was actually a block of braised beef, that was perfectly crispy on the outside and then tender on the inside. It paired amazingly well with the tangy onion puree on the side as well as the roasted mushrooms underneath. This was a surprise hit for me and only because everything else was so outstanding, would hesitate to say it was my favorite.

We were then presented with a tiny square piece of paper which had the desserts and we ordered the lychee panna cotta with yuzu buttermilk sorbet. Again, this was attacked before a picture was snapped. The lychee panna cotta was extremely light (although I almost couldn't taste the lychee) while the star of the plate was clearly the yuzu sorbet which provided intense spurts of yuzu flavor with each bite.

At the end of our meal, we were presented each with a mini bottle of Yakult, the probiotic drink I had as a kid and grew up drinking. This was another display of the whimsical nature of this restaurant. Overall, I was truly impressed with Salt & Fat, and will be coming back to Queens if this is any representation of the quality of the food there!

J, how does this compare to Social Eatz?

A Tale of Two Bears...

One in KL
The other in New York

Hello from Malaysia!!

PC problems have prevented me from posting but here is my first post from sunny Malaysia! I went back to my dad's hometown Penang for Chinese New Year, and even though it was dead dead dead (it's mostly Chinese), we went to the famous Gurney Drive hawker center one night and though most of the really good stuff wasn't open, i still squeezed in some tasty stuff. Sadly, the pictures of the main dishes were blurry but here's a couple of the others!!

A shot of the few shops at Gurney Drive that were open. It's a shared space so you can sit down anywhere and order from any of the shops. The food will then be brought to you as it's cooked.

One of my fave appetizer-type Malaysian foods! it's called popiah and i SUPPOSE you could crudely think of it as Malaysian burritos, but it's completely different. The skin is a thinner tortilla-style flour wrap and it's stuffed with tofu chunks, stewed radish (very mild), roasted garlic and plum sauce. Some mild broth is lightly ladled on at the end. Eat it quickly or else it gets soggy! The stuffing has a great mix of textures and the broth makes it all gel. Delish!

Here is my fave drink in the entire world, sugar cane juice! (water?) it's literally just crushed/squeezed sugar cane juice and ice. Sweet, but not as sweet as you'd think and so so refreshing. Here's the stall they make this amazing stuff at!

As you can see, they just run the sugarcane through a grinder and collect the juice. Natural and delish! Processed sugarcane doesn't even compare...

Too bad i didn't take some of the other delish photos including my Penang Asam Laksa and Rojak, but that will have to wait for next time! Miss you C, wish you were there!!