Bangkok: Taling Ping (ตะลิงปิง)

Hi Hi! I know I have been missing again. No excuse, just that I'm lazy - ha! Anyway, I actually have been keeping track of what I ate but never have inspiration to put it down into entry. I will try hard from now on anyway, to update my blog regularly!

Two weeks ago, I went out for a dinner with my friend at the renovated Central Ladprao. We couldn't figure out what to eat since there are many new restaurants. S fancied Thai dinner so we decided to try Taling Ping. P was actually skeptical coz she heard so many people said it was medicore.

We ordered quite a handful of dishes like deep fried sea bass, spicy salad, stir fried glass noodle with vegetable, crispy fish with chilli paste and spicy stir fried sator (I don't know what it's called in English but it's like this smelly edible seed, I know that in Malaysia and Singapore they also eat this too).

stir fried sator with chilli and shrimp

spicy mushroom salad

crispy fish with chilli paste

deep fried sea bass

stir fried glass noodle with vegetable

Taste was actually not bad. Kinda like home cooking. I would say it's a comfort food but the price was rather shocking. I think all these dishes with rice and drinks, it was about Baht1,200. Kinda expensive for general everyday food, don't you think?

Taling Ping (ตะลิงปิง)
Ground Floor
Central Ladprao
MRT: Paholyothin

Bangkok: Doorae at Korean Town (revisited)

Hello world. This is embarrassing. I just realised that I haven't blogged for a month now. And I actually miss saying "Happy New Year" to all of you. I'm still alive and still eating. So wish everyone a good year anyway!

I haven't had Korean food for a while now so I arranged a lunch with friends at Korean town. We used to want to try all restaurants but now we felt like we couldn't be bothered anymore so I stick with Doorae, our forever fave Korean restaurant in Thailand.

The way to start a Korean meal is to eat all the assortment of Kimchi side dishes!

choices are massive here and it's free (or already include in the dish's price)

my fave side dish - raw papaya kimchi. So yummy

A ordered the marinated pork, just like the last time we ate there (previous blog post). It was still good.

Gamja-Tang

Sundobu Jigae

I was seriously craving Sundobu jigae (Soft tofu stew) and A was craving Gamja-Tang (braised short ribs and potato stew) so we ordered both. How greedy were we! Both were good; hot and very tasty. I love Korean stew dish. It looks spicy but it wasn't too bad. It kinda made the meal complete of hearty food. I would highly recommend if you don't like the tangy taste of kimchi jigae then sundobu jigae will be great option for you. Plus, it's tofu - that's good for your health!
Gamja-Tang was also good but I would prefer sundobu jigae over it - hehe.

A was as his usual, he ordered Nakji Bokkeum or stir-fried octopus while I was talking on the phone. So when the dish came I was like I so knew who orderd this! It was as good as usual.

Before J came to join us, we decided to order Tteokbokki (Rice cake in spicy sauce) just in case she missed her time in Korea last year. It was okay but if you are on no-carb diet, you shouldn't order it since that's rice cake for you.

This is definitely a fulfilled authentic Korean meal. I can only eat Korean food here in Korean town coz I feel like the other Korean restaurants in shopping malls are not authentic and the taste isn't as good as the authentic one. I'd rather drive to the city centre of Bangkok, where traffic jammed than eating non authentic tasteless food.


Doo Rae
1/F, Sukhumvit Plaza,
Sukhumvit Soi 12
Tel 02 653 3815
BTS: Asok


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Bangkok: Fabio Steak House

Merry X'mas and Happy Boxing Day to all my readers out there who celebrated it. Hope you all have a great day!

Last Friday, I went out for dinner with P, my oldest friend ever. We've been friends since primary school and always kept in touch though we went to different high school and uni etc. Amazingly we never lost touch at all and we happen to live in the same neighbourhood too! We supposed to meet up way way before but then the flood came and so on, we only were able to reschedule our meeting now. I suggested we should have Italian at Fabio Steak House which isn't far from our homes.

X'mas decoration

This place is like a hidden gem because their food is very good but not in swanky area like in Sukhumvit or Silom. I was introduced to this place by my uni friend, MM, who also lives close-by to me. We always came here for food when she or I were still in Bangkok. Now she's in the US. I heard she's coming back soon so maybe I can arrange a luncheon or dinner with her here for old time's sake!

baked mashed potato with spinach and bacon

spicy shrimp salad

For starters, P ordered the baked mashed potato with spinach and bacon while I recommended the spicy shrimp salad. The potato was nice and a good way to start the meal, though P said it was quite creamy/buttery but still nice. The salad was my and many's favourite. It was mixing between Western style mayo dressing and Thai style spicy and sour dressing. It sounded gross but it turned out very nice. This is the dish to order no matter you can stand the heat or not. It's a must!

We ordered their spaghetti with sauages in pesto sauce to share. Personally, I think this place made the best non-creamy pasta, say aglio olio, pesto or even tomato-based. This dish wasn't disappointing at all. The pesto wasn't too heavy to overpower other taste in the dish. Very nice.

I was craving pizza so bad so we ordered one to share. I can't remember the exact name but something that has mushroom, ham and black olives coz I love the black olives! I love the original thin slices pizza so much. The crispiness makes everything perfect. Their portion wasn't too which made us able to eat other stuffs too - that's what I also like about this place.

I told to P to spare her tummy for dessert coz this place's Crêpe Suzette is like the bomb! They would made it in front of you with the Flambé and stuffs so if you are on a date or with children, it's highly recommended dish. They served it with peach slices and vanilla ice cream and orange sauce. Very yummy.

I really love this place and everyone whom I introduced this place to also love them. Definitely on the top list of my fave restaurant!

Fabio Steak House
4 Soi Thesabalrangsarit Tai Prachaniwet 1,
Latyao, Chatuchak Bangkok 10900
Tel. 02-9544194


ดู Fabio Steak House View in Map

Bangkok: Din Tai Fung (ติง ไท่ ฟง)

I have been incredibly slow for this post since Tee has ordered published her version quite some time ago. My excuses are that I'm sick with cold since last week as the weather in Bangkok had cooled down a bit (but now hot again anyway - hence I'm still sick with the change of weather) and also that I'm lazy, I admit. Anyhow, I gotta tell you, having sore throat and blocked nose are not fun at all when it comes to food tasting.

Well, back to our entry. Me and Tee met up some time ago for our dine out date. I suggested Din Tai Fung as I was curious about their food and taste if it would be any difference from what I have tried in Singapore or KL.


While we were about to order stuff, their staff came to suggest this cold starter. I think it was spicy seaweed salad. We decided to give it a go. It was quite good actually but we bet nobody would order that if the staff wasn't around to recommend to clients.


I suggested we should order this spicy cucumber as my friend who used to study in Taipei said Din Tai Fung's spicy cucumber here is better than the one in Taiwan. It was cool and spicy, refreshing if you ask me. Though it seems to be too spicy for Tee so I guess it's not for those who aren't into spicy stuff.


We ordered the must of Din Tai Fung, xiao long bao. Truth to be told. The piece was so small and not as juicy as what I had in Crystal Jade. Same taste as in KL but the difference is the price. In KL for 6 pieces of xiao long bao are 9 ringgit or about Baht90 but in Bangkok, they are about Baht120 or 130 if I remember correctly. That's quite expensive.


Tee said a lot of people raved about their pork chop so we ordered that and it was really good. I really like it but come to think about the price to pay (Baht200something I think) - that's pricey.

Lastly, we ordered breasted beef noodle coz I really like this menu from KL's Din Tai Fung. It was about the same however the meat in KL was more tender.

If anyone ask, I would have to be honest and say I actually like Crystal Jade more since the menu is more variety and the taste of xiao long bao is more juicy. If I'm going to pay this much for food, I would have gone for something that suits my taste bud. I guess Din Tai Fung is not for me. Service was good anyhow, staff was very attentive.

Din Tai Fung (ติง ไท่ ฟง)
6th floor,
Central World

Kuala Lumpur: EAT!

Two weeks ago, I was sent to Kuala Lumpur for work-do on behalf of my boss. That was like during the peak of flood crisis so in a way, KL trip was like stress-relief trip. It's good to go away from all the flood information and the fear. I stayed in KL for almost a week and when people know I'm from Bangkok, there is no one that wouldn't ask me about the situation; hotel staffs, chefs, taxi drivers, colleagues. That's how big the flood is to other countries' eyes, I suppose.

Anyway, I did keep track of what I ate as much as possible. Some were pretty same old boring stuffs - I'm boring like that. So let me recap a bit;

Madam Kwan's

First meal in KL was a re-visit to Madam Kwan's at Pavilion. I was still Teh Tarik (tea with condensed milk) addicted as usual. Never would I thought I had enough of Teh Tarik, whether it's cold or hot, I can have any day.

You could never say you are in Malaysia unless you eat Nasi Lemak so I ordered my first Nasi Lemak of this trip. Madam Kwan's Nasi Lemak is quite a plate-full (if that's an actual word for it). It's rice cooked coconut milk with chicken curry (the chicken was tender - so much love from me), hard boiled egg, dried shrimp floss (very tasty!), spicy ikan bilis (dried anchovies), cucumber, and some pickled vegetables. You might wonder how to eat this, should I mix them altogether? Trust me, I have wondered about the proper way to eat it. My Malaysian friend said the proper way to eat Nasi Lemak is that eat whatever you like, however you like it. So you can eat curry with egg or ikan bilis with pickled vegetables. It doesn't matter as long you enjoy it.

I would say Madam Kwan's is quite pricy for Nasi Lemak (I think I paid 18 RM for that) 'coz you can actually get decent Nasi Lemak with only 5 RM. But if you have the money to spare, then it's quite worth it. They also served many authentic Malaysian food and Western dishes.


Food Republic

How would a trip to KL be completed if I missed Food Republic at Pavilion! It's like my food heaven coz when I have no idea of what to eat, I would just go there, walking around to see what I want.

Call me boring but I did go for some old favourite that didn't have in Bangkok. Char kway teow and yong tau foo.

Char kway teow is actually a lot like Thai's Pad See-Ew but more spicy somehow. I got my Char kway teow from Thye Hong stall at Food Republic. You can find them in Food Republic in both KL and Singapore. Though it was very oily but the taste was great. Love the spicy sauce they provided as well since it got along well with the noodle. It never fail to satisfy me.

On the other hand, Yong Tau Foo wasn't as pleasant as before. Somehow it moved the stall (from what I recalled last year). The soup wasn't as nice as before. I don't know what was wrong, it's just not as nice as before. That was rather sad coz I love Yong Tau Foo so much.


Food Court in Subang Jaya

After a site visit one day, K, our colleague from KL, took us to dinner to Subang Jaya which is little bit outside of KL. We had some bonding session during the traffic jam of KL which was as bad as Bangkok. K took us to this big food court-like place close to Taylor's College. I don't know the name of that place but I guess people around the area would know where I mean. K helped us picking up seafood dishes to try then we just sat back and waited for food.

told you I could never get enough of teh tarik

Satay came first. I think we had beef, chicken and lamb satay with rice bun thing that would eat along. In Thailand, you would find satay coming with a bread instead. The peanut sauce in Malaysia is more chunky than in Thailand which puree everything. Taste wise was similar though.

Next was spicy squid with wing beans. It was different kind of spicy than Thai. It was pleasant though.

Next was steamed calms with ginger. It smelled so good, very gingerly. The soup that came out from calms tasted amazing. I love this!

K then ordered this shellfish thing which I have no idea what it was. You have to suck the meat out off the shell. The sauce was spicy kind. I think a bit like the squid dish but more thick.

Last one was sambal sting ray which was my choice. The fish was grilled with sambal (I think it's chilli paste?) paste. It was quite tasty, not too spicy.

The sitting area was opened air so it was really nice to sit down and enjoy food with friends. We did talk of so many things and even cross-country gossiping. It's amazing what happened in Thailand can also be known in Malaysia. This world is so small.


Madam Kwan’s Restaurant
Pavilion KL,
Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur

Food Republic
Pavilion KL,
Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur