A Riverside Feast

Several Singha beers down the line (see ‘Riverside Beers’ below) and we realized that we had been sitting at the Riverside bar and restaurant for so long that it was now dinner time. Luckily they have a vast menu, and after trawling through all 158 tempting Thai dishes, we finally made a decision.

We dove straight in with some Spring Rolls to start with:



and followed them up with Deep Fried Pieces of 'Pla Kapong' (Sea Bass) sautéed in Chilli Sauce:



a Spicy Green Curry with Chicken Curry:



and Roasted Spareribs in Honey with 'SomTam' (Spicy Green Papaya Salad) with Shrimps:



It was all fairly tasty (except the spring rolls were a bit too stodgy for my liking)... although I'm guessing most things would be after the vast amount of Singha we had sunk...

The Riverside Bar & Restaurant, Chiang Mai - http://www.theriversidechiangmai.com/

Riverside Beers

After an afternoon of pounding the busy Chiang Mai streets, we stopped for some foot reflexology which strangely put us in a mood for beer… must have been the pressure points they were pushing. We took a wander towards the river and our beer-homing beacons led us to the Riverside bar and restaurant.

We settled ourselves in on the verandah overlooking the river, ordered up some Singha beer, and told ourselves we'd rest for an hour or so before continuing with the sightseeing.

Well, we were still there well into the night sinking those Singha beers... those Reflexology ladies sure know how to make you thirsty...

The Riverside Bar & Resturant, Chiang Mai - http://www.theriversidechiangmai.com/

A Peaceful Haven

We were in Chiang Mai for the weekend and having recovered from our 4:30am start to catch our flight, we headed into town to see the sights. Having wandered around the impressive Wat Phra Singh, we realised it was lunch time and so found ourselves in the nearby Rachmankha hotel and its little oasis of a courtyard, hidden away from the bustle of the Chiang Mai streets. The crisp white linen tablecloths and cut crystal glasses were a world away from what we were expecting from our first Thai meal in Thailand, but the interesting menu and the traditional music tinkling through the courtyard encouraged us to stay.

The menu focused mainly on Thai dishes, with the odd influence from its neighbouring countries, so we started with Fish Cakes from Myanmar – again, not what we were expecting looking more like Indian Bhajis than Thai Fish Cakes, but they were delicious all the same.



Alongside these we enjoyed a Spicy Thai Salad with Pomelo Segments and Fresh Prawns which was pleasantly spicy and zesty, although we felt a little aggrieved that it only stretched to two prawns! The dressing also made for a tasty dip for the Fish Cakes which weren’t afforded their own and were slightly dry without.



We followed up with another Thai dish – Dry Braised Chicken Sautéed with Fresh Herbs, Lemongrass, Galangal, Shallots and Garlic which was packed full of flavour and wolfed down happily with a portion of rice.



It wasn’t until later when we passed another nice looking restaurant offering a 7 course set meal for two for the same price as our Spicy Salad that we realised quite how expensive our lunch was in Thailand terms… but we enjoyed the hour of peace and quiet in this little haven… and we were on holiday after all…


Rachamankha, Chiang Mai – http://www.rachamankha.com/

A Thai Meal in an IT Mall

So we found ourselves in the Funan Electronics Mall on Saturday shopping for various bits and bobs for the computer – a boring way to spend your Saturday I know. What wasn’t so boring was that we arrived just in time for lunch and found the A-Roy Thai restaurant on the 4th Floor.

We were a little bit concerned about the over-riding smell of dirty dishcloths when we walked in, but we needn’t have worried – the service was friendly and the food was excellent. We were in a picky kind of mood so ordered up a selection of appetizers and smaller dishes, starting with a Glass Noodle Salad with Chicken and Prawn, which was zesty and spicy, although not being huge fans of dried shrimps was a slight problem, as these had been sprinkled over in abundance.



Also on our order was a Kway Teow with Pork and Vegetables, Thai Fish Cakes and Thai Spring Rolls – the latter being the strangest looking spring rolls ever, being served flat like a pancake rather than rolled like a roll – but they tasted great, so no complaints from us.



All in all a tasty and satisfying lunch, and a good incentive to find new gadgets we need for the computer… only in Singapore would you find a little gem like this in an Electronics Mall…

A-Roy Thai - Funan DigitaLife Mall

Friday Night Curry

We have been to Go India a couple of times before, but I haven’t had a chance to include it here because the first time I forgot my camera, and the second time the battery was flat – well, what a perfect excuse to have to come back again! We took an outdoor table overlooking the water and ordered in some beers while we cast our greedy eyes over the menu.

Having taken our order, the waiter brought us along some spicy poppadoms with equally spicy dipping sauces, which unfortunately meant we had to drink our beers quicker…

The mains then arrived and were promptly devoured – Black Pepper Coconut Mutton, Chicken Tikka Masala, and Roasted Methi Bindi all wolfed down with Rice and a Tandoori Roti.

Go India isn’t the best in Singapore I’m sure and it certainly isn't the cheapest, but it’s good enough for us to have been back time and again, and as it’s our local, I’m sure we’ll be here a good few times more.

Ah… there’s nothing like a curry and some lager on a Friday night…

Go India - http://ivorykitchen.com/singapore/goindia/go-india

A Popiah Party

Ok, not a party exactly, but lunch with friends at Lao Beijing in Plaza Singapura on Friday. I had only had popiah once before, from a hawker stall on Smith Street in Chinatown, but here it was make-your-own, and all the better for it! One of the girls is Malaysian and has grown up eating popiah, so she was able to talk us through the ingredients and show us how it is done like a true expert!

As I took my seat, the waitress removed the lid from a teacup filled with fruit and flowers and filled it with tea for me. This, I later found out, was Eight Treasures Tea – the first treasure being the jasmine tea, which is poured over chrysanthemum flowers, red dates, dried longan fruit, walnut kernals, raisins, sesame and rock sugar (the other seven treasures). Apparently it has medicinal properties to help decrease body heat, promote digestion, induce appetite and relieve fatigue – well, what a perfect accompaniment to a popiah party!

A display of ingredients was then placed in the middle of the table – the main portion being steamed vegetables with pork, surrounded by various accompaniments – plum sauce, garlic sauce, chilli paste, beansprouts, shredded omelette, crushed peanuts, crushed dried shrimp, some large lettuce leaves and a plate of paper-thin pancakes.

So then the fun began – each of us taking a pancake, smearing on the plum sauce, topping it with a lettuce leaf, scooping in the vegetable/pork mix and sprinkling on the various accompaniments, before rolling it up fajita-style. The result was really pretty good, with the combination of all the different flavours and textures – the sweetness of the plum sauce, the heat of the chilli paste, the juiciness of the vegetables and the crunch of the peanuts and beansprouts all in one delicious fresh spring roll mouthful.

Being a greedy group of friends, we also ordered some side dishes to enjoy alongside the popiah – some pork dumplings and onion pancakes, which were fantastic, and so very moreish…

There was even one extra pancake left at the end… and no prizes for guessing who it went to… must have been that Eight Treasures Tea inducing my appetite…

Lao Beijing - http://www.tunglok.com/laobeijing/

Hong Kong Dim Sum

Sunday morning in Hong Kong and the haze was so bad we couldn’t even see the tops of the tallest buildings. Abandoning all plans of going up the Peak to admire the view, we made our way to City Hall for Yum Cha at Maxim’s Palace (well, we couldn’t leave Hong Kong without sampling their dim sum, could we?)

We climbed the stairs, hearts sinking as we saw the throng of people waiting to be seated. Having been given ticket number 241 our hearts sank even further to hear the latest number being called for seating – 168. We figured this must mean an approximate hour long wait for our dim sum, but reasoned that if all these people were waiting that long, it must be worth waiting for, especially as there were also a few wedding parties celebrating in the restaurant.

Well what do you know, our luck was in, as a kind young man sidled up to us and handed us a spare ticket for 2 people – number 194! And we were seated in less than half an hour… so there is a food fairy after all!

We were shown into a massive banqueting hall, and to a table for two amongst the vast, chattering crowd. No sooner were we seated than the first lady with a trolley appeared shouting in Cantonese at us to let us know what she had in her cart. From there on in it was a process of trial and error, peering into each cart as it passed by and agreeing to take whatever took our fancy.

We ended up with a fairly large selection (no surprises there, then!), including some Barbecue Pork Buns, Siew Mai, Prawn Dumplings, Pork and Vegetable Spring Rolls, Xiao Long Bao, Steamed Rice Rolls with Prawns, and Barbecue Pork Pastries.

While we couldn’t fault the Dim Sum, we were kind of hoping to be blown away by it, it being our first experience of genuine Hong Kong dim sum (well, in about 20 years)… but again, I guess it’s just another case of being spoilt by the quality of food in Singapore…


City Hall, Maxim’s Palace, Hong Kong - www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/CityHall/restaurants1.html

Italian Ecstasy

We were a little Chinesed out by this stage and had finally realized that chasing the dream of Min Jiang Duck was only going to lead to further disappointment (I think at this stage even returning to Min Jiang would lead to disappointment, such has that dish grown in stature in my greedy mind).

So we decided to change tack and took our chances on a free table at Gaia, an al-fresco Italian, without even a mention of Roasted Duck on the menu. We were in luck – there was a free table and we were in even more luck when we tasted their dishes. I’m going to throw my napkin in the ring here and say that this is possibly the best Italian restaurant I have ever eaten at – including during a weekend in Rome.

Every dish had my eyes rolling backwards in ecstasy – I think they call it a ‘Foodgasm’, or in this case, a Multiple Foodgasm, as they were coming thick and fast in this ristorante, let me tell you. We started with Grilled Assorted Vegetables, Melted Casatella Cheese and Aged Balsamic Vinegar, and Creamy Mozzarella Burrata Cheese with Parma Ham and Home Made Dried Tomatoes. Sounds simple enough, and it was, but the quality of the ingredients and the perfection of the cooking and serving of them was what set the eyelids quivering.

Now, I’m going to take a moment here to celebrate the Burrata – this cheese had me so turned on, that as soon as I got home I headed straight to my trusty battery operated device – my laptop – and looked it up on the internet. Never have I been lucky enough to have something so creamy and tasty in my mouth… Ok, enough already, I’ll refrain from prolonging this cringeworthy metaphor and give you the Wikipedia definition I found: “Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella while the inside contains both mozzarella and cream, giving it a unique soft texture.” So there, now you know what turns the Greedy Glutton on.

Moving swiftly onwards to the mains, where Le Paste dishes caught both our eyes – Mr Greedy Glutton opted for the Blueberry (yes, Blueberry!) Fettuccine with Italian Sausage & Porcini Mushrooms, which started very well indeed, although the Porcini mushrooms started to take their over-powering toll by the end of the dish. I, on the other hand, came over all vegetarian and chose the Paccheri (that’s big fat penne to you and I) with Zucchini, Eggplant, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Smoked Buffalo Mozzarella, which, mamma mia, we both agreed had to be up there with the best Italian dishes ever tasted, molto bene!

Once again, a dessert was quite unnecessary but also proved to be quite irresistible, so we ordered the Ricotta Cheesecake with Raspberries and Blueberries to share…. and cue those quivering eyelids all over again…

Gaia Ristorante, Hong Kong - http://www.gaiaristorante.com/

Not so Offal

After tramping around the bustling streets of Kowloon all day soaking up the madness that is Hong Kong, we sought refuge in the oh-so-cool-it-aches Aqua Spirit bar on the 30th floor of One Peking Road. This lofty bar dubs itself ‘Hong Kong’s new venue for the hip set’. Well it certainly was hip, with its luminous coffee tables, plush lounge seating and laid-back vibes, but what really sets this bar apart from surely any other in Hong Kong is its panoramic view of the harbour and city – completely breathtaking. The cocktail list was equally as trendy and their Raspberry Mojitos were delicious, and packed with a punch.

We moved down two floors to the Hutong restaurant for dinner where the über-modern décor gave way to faux-antique Chinese surroundings, yet the harbour-view remained as impressive.

On first glance the menu looked somewhat intimidating, with delicacies such as ‘Pig’s throat with Shredded Scallions and Coriander’, ‘Shark’s Lips marinated with Ginger and Chinese Black Fungi’ and ‘Lamb’s Organ Soup in traditional Beijing Style’ leaping off the page at us. Luckily a friendly waiter took pity on two ashen-faced tourists and came to the rescue.

We ended up ordering a rather tame selection of Imperial Crispy Duck Fillet with Pan Fried Northern Chinese Pancakes, Braised Prawns with a Sour Tangerine Sauce, and some accompanying vegetables and rice. The first mistake was, of course, ordering the Duck – we were still living in memory of the Min Jiang classic, and nothing was going to live up to our expectations – and right enough, Hutong’s Duck was disappointing, and definitely more fatty than crispy.

The prawns were far more successful, as were the vegetables, although again they were served on their own at the end, so there was a limit to how much Pak Choi we could eat in isolation.

The view from Hutong was out of this world and the slightly odd city-skyline light show at 8pm kept us entertained. Unfortunately, however, the evening was marred by a case of bad menu choice – the array of innards and organs sent us into panic-mode and caused us to play it safe, a shame really, as in retrospect there were plenty of other appetizing dishes to try.

Still… I would challenge anyone to find a better city view anywhere in the world to provide a backdrop to their Pig’s Throat and Shark’s Lips…

Aqua Spirit and Hutong, Hong Kong - www.aqua.com.hk

A Chinese Meal, Hong Kong Style

This was my first time in Hong Kong for about 20 years – I can’t really remember a lot about it from when I came before, but when I walked into Yung Kee, it reminded me of the restaurants our Chinese friends used to bring us to for large family banquets – bright lights, large round tables, and lots of noise.

Yung Kee is famed for its Roast Goose, so there was no argument about ordering that. It was fairly tasty, and the accompanying yellow beans made for good nibbles, but unfortunately it was rather overshadowed by the Roast Duck we had eaten a few days before at Min Jiang (see ‘Delectable Duck’ below).

On further perusal of the menu, we found, to our delight, our two favourite dishes from our local Chinese takeaway in the UK and decided it would be fun to try the ‘authentic’ versions here in Hong Kong. So ‘Shredded Chicken with Chilli’ and ‘Pan-fried Beef Fillet, Chinese Style’ it was. We added some Yeung Chow Fried Rice and a side order of Kai-lan with Garlic… and upon being told ‘Enough!’ by the waiter, we thought it prudent to stop there. (Did he not realize he was in the presence of two greedy gluttons?)

Of course the Shredded Chicken with Chilli bore no resemblance to its namesake at Scotland’s ‘Taste Good’ Takeway, but I’m also not sure it was any better. The lovely sticky chilli sauce we had grown to love over years of takeaway was replaced with – well, no sauce at all, and really very few chillis. It was ‘nice’ but no more than that and unfortunately the beef didn’t fare any better – although the sauce was tasty, the beef was disappointingly chewy… and the less said about the so-garlicky-I-can’t-even-put-it-in-my-mouth Kai-lan the better.

Now I think I’ve painted a much muddier picture than was intended. We did actually enjoy our meal, but I do think perhaps we have become rather spoilt in our expectations over the last 3 months of high-eating in Singapore.

One thing I will say – the portions were enormous. Our waiter was kind enough to feign surprise at our half-eaten dishes that were left on the table… at least he didn’t say “I told you so”…

Yung Kee, Hong Kong - www.yungkee.com.hk