Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin - Fine, Modern Thai food in Central Bangkok

Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin - Fine, Modern Thai food in Central Bangkok

Located inside the Kempinski Siam hotel (next to Siam Paragon mall) this restaurant is easy to reach and food and atmosphere amazing. I know they were previously on Asia's 50 best restaurants although for some reason it is no longer on the 2015 guide. That aside, a friend who visited both this and Nahm highly recommend this over Nahm and I took their advice. 

Soul Food Mahanakorn, Bangkok - Many expats, but definitely an excellent place for modern Thai eating

Soul Food Mahanakorn, Bangkok - Many expats, but definitely an excellent place for modern Thai eating  

Apologies for such a long hiatus! Blogging definitely requires a lot of effort and I admire those who hold a 10+ hour job and can still make time to post their foodie excursions. 

I'm currently on a long holiday break and hence have found some time to post my travels of this year. I definitely regret not posting anything whilst away in London, Madrid, Berlin, Paris, Singapore and Philippines in 2014 as I've maintained this blog as a way to remind myself what I've eaten in the past and share with the public pictures of my meals and thoughts for reference. Going forward I'm going to do my best to post blogs on my meals during my travels, and for photos of my meals in HK you may visit gastronomerr.tumblr.com! 

On to the good stuff, earlier in May my first stop was Bangkok. I was there mainly for spa and relaxation however did manage to book two restaurants I had read about and wanted to try - desperately! I picked one casual and one fine dining place to see what Bangkok had to offer. Both turned out great, and below is my experience at Soul Food Mahanakorn, which I had read to serve excellent Thai food with small twists to the traditional ingredients/methods. 

Fancy Thai - Mango Tree

When a Hong Kong person thinks of Thai food, Kowloon City aka "Thai town" of Hong Kong often springs to mind. No doubt, there is an abundance of cheap and cheerful Thai eateries there although standards have dropped since I was young - my school was nearby and visits to the Thai restaurants in the 'hood as well as Kung Wo Soybean Factory was a must-do every week... Now that I am based on Hong Kong island, trips to Kowloon City is rare and when I do go it's often for the veal goulash cakes, or "牛肉餅" in Muslim Food followed by a bowl of smooth tofu fa at Kung Wo. (If you haven't been already, what are you waiting for?!!)

Anyhow, I do often make trips to Elements - it being easily accessible and all; and one of my favourite restaurants there is Mango Tree. It's first branch in Hong Kong is in the Cubus building in Causeway Bay, but this place has a slightly longer menu and a floor to ceiling windows giving you a wonderful view of Hong Kong.... This place is definitely pricier than the many Thai restaurants around Wanchai, Causeway Bay and Kowloon City but on my couple of visits here the dishes were executed well and tasty. 

chicken and beef satays with peanut sauce and pickles (($98 ea)

Thai Basil

Date of visit: 25^th September

Thai Basil @ Pacific Place 

menu

"Hot and Sour Rock Lobster Soup" ($68)

rock lobster pieces, cherry tomatoes, shallots, ginger, hot and sour broth

A very strongly-flavoured soup of equal spicy and sourness. I enjoyed this mug of soup (despite its high sodium content), but the ridiculously over-cooked lobster pieces had lost its taste and texture, and became quite bland and soft. 

"Char-grilled Prawn Salad" ($88) 

grilled prawns, pomelo, green beans, Chinese garlic chives ('gau choy'), thai basil, fried garlic, chilli lemongrass dressing

This salad is really spicy! A twist on the traditional spicy prawn salad, this one incorporates other greens and pomelo fruit for a citrus zingg. There's an abundance of Thai basil leaves which I liked. 

"Char-grilled vegetables" ($88/4 items)

sweet potato, pumpkin, asparagus, zucchini

Everything was cooked perfectly, and the charred bits were the best. They were brushed with a little olive oil before cooked so they were naturally flavourful without the addition of any extra sauces. Pumpkins were sweet, but the sweet potatoes were not (I guess they aren't in season). 

"Char grilled basil chicken wok fried noodles" ($88)

Grilled chicken breast, basil, Thai asparagus, shallots, bean sprouts, vermicelli-like noodles, fried garlic

The chicken breast was not at all dry despite having been grilled over high heat to achieve its marks. The noodles are very lightly seasoned, and if you don't like fiery foods this is an option, as it contains no chillies. Sadly the charring ended at the chicken breast and did not extend to the noodles - there was no 'wok-hay' at all, which is what I look for in a good fried noodle dish. 

"Wok fried Thai Spicy Crab" ($188) 

Whole Crab, Thai basil, lemongrass, chilli, garlic, shallots, fresh green pepper, black pepper

My ma had tried this before and said it was good but extremely spicy, so we asked them to go lighter on the chillies, and it was indeed lightened. Nonetheless, it is still a rather spicy dish, so wouldn't recommend this if you detest any form of heat. The crabs were fried well, each piece equally coated with all the seasoning and spices, and the crab meat was not to soft (not over-cooked). 

Overall I enjoyed the food here quite a lot for its big and bold flavours, and will be back in the near future to sample other items, but I still miss Lian!

Food: ♥♥♥1/2 

Service: ♥♥1/2 

Price: $$$-$$$$ 

Thai Basil

Shop  001, Basement Floor, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway

Admiralty, HK

Phukets

Date: 24th and 30th September 2010\

Phukets @ Soho

Phukets has been in Soho for a very long time, though I never made a trip there, so I suggested to a friend as the venue for our dinner, and it proved to be pretty great, so I went back the next week to sample a few more items before writing this review!  

Prawn Chips 

A basket of crispy prawn chips arrives shortly after ordering. 

Shrimp Salad ($88) 

Very authentic, and almost exactly like the one I had a couple months ago at Tuk Tuk Thai, this shrimp salad was highly spicy yet flavourful from the many strong-profiled ingredients including lemongrass, lime juice, fish sauce, cilantro, thai basil and of course, bird chillies. Shrimps were medium sized, compared to the small ones at Tuk Tuk Thai, and fresh too. 6.5/10

Pineapple Fried Rice ($78)

Serving fried rice in the natural pineapple shell is certainly impressive when it arrives, but it always makes me think whether they use a fresh pineapple half for each order of pineapple fried rice? Anyway, the non-spicy dish of grains were fried quite well, not greasy and tasty. They could have been more generous with the pork floss on top, but on the whole a satisfying dish. 7.5/10

Green Curry Vegetables ($68) 

A good assorted mix of green vegetables as well as mushrooms and cauliflower. Flavours of sweet and spicy was very balanced, though green curry is not as mild as red so beware. They could have been more generous with the veggies though. 

Char-grilled beef fillet ($75) 

This thai-style beef was cooked to well-done (they don't ask your preference), but unbelievably tender. The spicy sauce served on the side was really spicy, but a tiny tiny dip was enough, as the beef was slightly salted anyway. Beef was also juicy and you could taste its natural flavour, yumm! 8/10

Pad thai ($68)

Phad Thai, a massively popular but easy-to-screw-up dish was chosen by my friend, but we both agreed it was a miss here at Phukets. The noodles were sweet without the extra sugar provided on the side, and not savoury enough. The fresh-looking shrimps managed to taste bland - like it has been boiled until all its flavour is sucked out. The tofu was hard and greasy too. This noodle dish definitely disappointed. 3/10

 Fish fillet ($78) 

Steamed with a bed of broccoli and served with a sweet chilli sauce on top, this rather healthy fish dish was rather unexciting. The sweet chilli sauce was not too spicy - reminds me of the sweet chilli sauce often served with fried chicken, just thinner. The bed of broccoli was vastly over-steamed, and the fish was boring old sole fillet. Taste-wise not bad, but not a dish I'd recommend. 6/10

In general I think the serving sizes here are on the smaller end, enabling diners to try several items in one go. And although the clientele is mainly expats, the chefs and waitresses are Thai, and serve authentic Thai cuisine. Definitely one of the better Thai restaurants in Soho/Central area.

Food: ♥♥♥ 

Service: ♥♥♥ 

Price: $$$

Phukets

1 Elgin Street, Soho

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2868 9672

Tuk Tuk Thai

Date of visit: 7^th August 2010

Tuk Tuk Thai @ Graham St., Soho

First off, reservations are a must. Lots of people who live around this area know of this place for its good and reasonably priced Thai food. The waitresses and chefs are obviously Thai and so communication may be a little difficult, but still manageable.

We began dinner with two lime sodas ($28 ea) (my friend’s iced lemon tea was exchanged for a lime soda since it wasn’t your regular brewed tea with lemon, but Thai tea bags, which tasted quite weird if you’re new to it!). Our drinks were refreshing and needed for what was about to come!

After what seemed like ages, our starter of prawn and lemongrass salad ($65) arrived. It was a small plate which lacked vegetables – there were two strips of Chinese lettuce on the bottom, at most, and on top sat a few shrimps and chopped spring onions, shallots, chilli, lemongrass etc. The dressing was very Thai - sour and spicy. First two bites we both agreed it was yummy… after a few more bites our mouths started burning. Whilst the shrimps itself was mildly chilli, the other parts of the salad was dressed in so much chilli we couldn’t finish this tiny plate because of its spice levels. I asked for it to be less-spicy in the beginning but I guess the chef didn’t get our message. Ahhhh I was quite disappointed really because we were forced to waste a potentially good salad… If the menu had only listed it’s spice level we would’ve avoided this dish in the first place! It was so bad my lime soda was finished within seconds, and my mouth was still burning.

Next our pumpkin and seafood curry ($75) came with our place of rice ($10). We had asked to change it to a yellow curry as my friend D only likes yellow curries. After the salad, we had asked the waitress to tell the chef not to put any chillies in our curry. By the time it arrived the burning sensation from the spicy salad had disappeared (thank god) so we had our taste buds intact to taste this wonderful yellow curry. It was actually really mild and had a thick consistency. Inside were some fish fillets, shrimps, squid and imitation crab meat. It was served in a steamed whole baby pumpkin, which was quite thougtful since you were able to scrape the sides for some pumpkin meat. Some vegetables in the curry would’ve been better, but I guess they expect you to order vegetables as a separate dish. When we eyed around the other curries seemed to be served in really small bowls.

Portion sizes here are small – good for single diners, as you will be able to finish a single curry with rice, and also good for group dining because this allows you to order more to try and share! I wouldn’t suggest this place for large groups though – service is too slow and the restaurant is honestly quite cramped!

Food:♥♥♥♥
Service:♥♥
Price: $$$


Tuk Tuk Thai
G/F, 30 Graham Street, Soho, 
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2542 2760

Some TST eats...

Date of visit: 3rd August 2010

Spice Restaurant @ Knutsford Terrace

I picked Spice as this night's dinner spot since it had a good location, and my aunt wanted some South-east Asian goods.

On a Tuesday night the restaurant was only half-full, and we were seated at a table with sofas and a curtain. It was very dark so but I managed to read the menu with the (pathetic) candle in the middle.

We decided to skip appetizers and go straight to the mains, shared, Asian style. One Chicken Tikka Masala ($88), one Tandoor Fish Tikka ($132), one naan ($24) and a Pad Thai ($90) all came together soon enough after our drinks.

The chicken tikka masala was the waitress’ recommendation. It was slightly spicy, spicier than the chicken makhani (butter chicken) I was going to order. The masala curry turned out very flavourful with a hint of chilli to flavour things up. The chicken was very tender – all meat, no bones or skin. 7.5/10

We ordered the naan to mop of the curry. Good, but nothing to write home about. 7/10

The fish tikka was, I think, mackerel (should’ve asked to make sure =P). It was actually quite spicy despite it being a dry tandoor-grilled dish – I guess the fish was marinated in some strong chilli powder / spicy marinade first. Mackerel flesh when cooked resembles tuna a lot, and if over-cooked it is tough and not pleasant to eat at all. I asked for them not to overcook the fish before-hand, and they really didn’t! Great job, but it’s still a long way behind their signature black cod tikka, which I had on a previous visit. 7/10

The pad thai was pretty good as well. I've tried pad thai here before, and loved it so I ordered it again this time. What was disappointing was that it only had a couple pieces of shrimp and dried hard tofu. There were some condiments such as ground peanut, chilli and sugar on the side for you, but these were really not needed since the noodles are well-seasoned. However, the egg net on the outside was more for show rather than to be eaten…7/10

All in all this restaurant churns out pretty good Indian and Thai food. The portions could easily have been more generous for the prices they charge, but then again, this is Knutsford Terrace (the “soho” part of TST)! Our bill came to  $483 for three drinks, the food above, and service charge.

Food:  ♥♥♥♥

Service:  ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Spice Restaurant

2/F, No.1 Knutsford Terrace,
TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2191 9880

next stop...

Roll @ Granville Road, TST

After dinner we went to Roll for something sweet. A lot of their swiss roll cakes had run out, so we turned to frozen yogurt. Between us three we had a large ($32) and a regular ($26), plus an earl grey tea flavoured macaroon for me!

For the large, I asked for strawberries + green tea mochi, and for the regular, my aunt asked for mangoes. The girl mixed up our orders and put the mangoes on the large and the strawberries on the regular. Also as they had ran out of diced mangoes, she wasn’t able to rectify her mistake and was very apologetic so we told her to forget it. Roll’s frozen yogurt base was really disappointing. It was extremely light, melted really quickly and I felt a bit like I was eating air. The base could’ve been tarter and sweeter in my opinion as well – it was just plain milky…. The toppings didn’t fare much better. Whilst the fruits were fresh, she could’ve been more generous. The green tea mochi didn’t taste like green tea at all, just your standard plain mochi – not that it was bad, but why not just label it green mochi? [p.s. my brother observed quickly after she handed us our yogurts that the serving size of the yogurt in the large and regular was really similar - I looked and noticed the same!] 3/10

Macaroons are truly for people with a sweet tooth. Whilst macaroons are meant to be sweet (I’ve never heard of such thing as a low-sugar meringue), they shouldn’t be sickly sweet (as a whole) either. My earl grey macaroon was quite nice. Better than LGB’s sickly sweet version, as the dark chocolate ganache centre was bitter-sweet enough to counter the sweet and crispy macaroon shell. It also had a strong aroma of earl grey… yumm =). 7/10

Whilst I won’t be back for frozen yogurt, I may well give their ever-popular swiss rolls and other macaroons a try.

Food:  ♥♥

Service:  ♥♥♥

Price: $

Roll

G/F, Granville Mansion, 41C-D Granville Road, 

Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2191 9212

Singapore, Day 3

Date of visit: 20th July 2010

We woke up to a reasonably nice weather, so we made plans for a trip to Sentosa Island’s new Universal Studios. After breakfast we went on the MRT and off to Sentosa we were…

We had been looking forward to Universal Studios since we decided to go to Singapore, and were glad that it had stopped raining. We arrived and bought our tickets, only to find out two main attractions were closed – the only large rollercoaster and ‘madagascar’. They could have told us earlier but this is their sneaky ways of getting people in… especially on a quiet weekday.

So in we went and after some attractions / rides we went looking for lunch. Wanting to stick to the Asian theme of things, we went to a local / Thai café in Universal Studios. Here we ordered a chicken satay set (4 pcs satay with nasi goreng rice and a coconut layered cake), and a separate chicken satay (6 pcs) and a Tom Yum Soup. Total  for lunch was about S$20, definitely not cheap for fast food of this quality!

After lunch it started to shower...and then proceeded to pour, to the point where we considered leaving....but that would've been really wasteful.! We found out there was a show at the waterworld and so we went and watched it. Turned out it was pretty good, nothing we expected. The weather got better and we went for some snacks before going on the several rides left in the park. 

My swirled soft-serve vanilla and chocolate (S$2 - melts way too quickly and has a gummy texture (too much carageenan??), waffle fries (S$3.50)

At around 5pm we left and walked to the Resorts World nearby, where there were several  of celebrity chefs' restaurants, such as Susur Lee's new Chinois and Joel Robuchon's L'Atelier and The Pastry Shop & Lounge (to open later this year!). But seeing as it was quite early and the only restaurant I really do want to try (Chinois) serves Chinese in an up-scale -i.e. more than two diners needed! - I made a mental note to return to Singapore to try them! Instead, we proceeded to check out the mall further along, which the casino was also located in, in which all shops were basically luxury brands one would find in HK, but also a Victoria Secret shop which didn't stock bras and swimwear (apparently, USA won't allow them... what is the point then???)

Disappointed, we headed back for the Sentosa express back to Harbourfront.

We walked around the Robertson Walk area and went into Canele Patisserie to satisfy our sweet tooth. We picked two pastries, St Marc and Caraibe.

St. Marc was S's choice, a 'biscuit joconde with kirsch vanilla creme chantilly, dark chocolate cream, creme brulee'

This was utter disappointment. Whilst it wasn't bad per se, it was nothing like the description claimed it to be. Creme brulee? Nadah...the topping was a glaze of something close to honey, the vanilla creme was virtually masked by the weird taste of the biscuit base and dark chocolate cream... Every layer was so thin you could hardly distinguish it! At S$8++ a piece this was certainly over-priced. 

This caraibe was the staff's (looked like she would kill to be elsewhere) recommendation. It sounded good enough - "dark chocolate cream 66%, dark chocolate cake 66%, hazelnut nougatine, almond chocolate glaze" so I said "yes", only to find that I should have gone with my instincts and went with the strawberry tart or macha or even a simple gateaux chocolat.... This dessert was so sweet it was impossible. Water wasn't provided, so what we were left with was fork-full of sweetened chocolate nothings. The outside almond chocolate glaze was the only thing I liked - crisp chocolate with bits of crunchy almonds. The inside was layers of hard and dry dark chocolate cake - sponge would've made a huge needed difference, and the dark chocolate cream was mixed with the hazelnut nougatine to the point that it tasted like cocoa and sugar rather than real dark chocolate....arghhhhhh. And at S$8.50++ it was a total rip-off.

so this was what we left behind: 

unsightly, i know!

Still starving at this point, we walked around to find dinner. It was at a Thai restaurant called Cafe Sapunsa which was recommended on one of the (many) blogs I read prior to this trip. It looked nondescript, dull even. Interiors were decorated quite randomly, but I made a mental note that we are here for the food, and not the décor! 

The menu was actually worse, quite badly laid out with menu items in Thai and English (not translated well enough) so we struggled to decide and eventually settled on a Vegetable Red Curry (mild) for S and a Seafood Tom Yum Soup, Fried Morning Glory with Chilli and Garlic for me. 

The lady taking our order didn't speak very good English and it was even more apparent when she got my orders slightly wrong (she gave me a non-spicy Prawn Tom Yum Soup rather than regular Seafood Tom Yum), but because the soup was so good without the spice any way, I wasn't complaining! Sour and full of prawn taste, salty but not full of msg...yumm.

Morning Glory with chilli was oily but well-cooked and good nonetheless. I do like spicy food so I was happy to see some chillies in this dish!

S's red curry vegetable was very mild, full of coconut flavour and had a very good assortment of vegetables - carrots, green beans, broccoli, thai eggplants, you name it! We both liked the taste very much, but thought they could've thickened it up a bit as this version was really watery to be called a 'curry'.

Our dinner at Cafe Sapunsa came to a total of about  S$30 - not cheap but definitely not expensive either for the quality of food =). Would recommend this place for hungry people in the area!

Tuesday on the Island

Date of visit: 29th June '10

The weather was getting better and I was eager to be out. Met up with S to watch A-Team, which turned out to be funny, yes, but the circumstances sort of ruined the movie for us... 

Dinner reservations was made for 8pm tonight...and we had a couple hours to kill at IFC, so we headed to Yo Mama where I had a sample of their Green Tea Frozen Yogurt, before S decided on an original with oreo bits. The green tea frozen yogurt looked a lot greener than I last tried it about a year ago, but the taste was still not there =( Nevermind, I think I had enough frozen yogurt in June anyway. 

Fast forward to....

Lian @ IFC

We arrived 8 on the dot, and were seated to our cart table (a comfy U-shape, with sofa seats). Tonight was a full house at Lian, signs of a good restaurant (and reservations here are a must!). There were five of us, and I made recommendations based on my previous visits. 

First to arrive was the Tiger Prawn and Lotus Root in Yellow Curry ($178) which came with a side of sliced baguette. 

These pictures don't really do this dish justice, the yellow curry was excellent, and the tiger prawns were very large and fresh. However, this dish is quite spicy, despite being a yellow curry. My only complaint would be that the lotus root could have used a little more time in the heat as they were rather crunchy for my liking. We also ordered an extra side of rice ($20) (which took a ridiculously long time to arrive, probably because they were so busy and quite short of waiters) for my brother to mop up the sauce. 

After a while, the Seafood and Abalone Rice in Lotus Leaf ($128) arrived. The rice inside is actually fried first, with plenty of turmeric (explains the yellowness). The rice was so good, nothing like I've had before...I just wish the portion was slightly bigger! 

Yes this photo of the Whole Lobster with Garlic Butter ($250) is quite bad, but I was in such a hurry to dig in....

Size first - it was one lobster split in half, with its claws shelled and the claw meat on top of the body. I would estimate there was about 7 or 8oz of pure lobster meat? (Yummy!) The sauce in the middle is a tangy (lime), salty (fish sauce) and spicy dipping sauce which was rather tasty, but only if you wish to wrap the lobster meat in the lettuce. The lobster itself was already rather tasty - fresh and juicy with the fried onion, garlic and breadcrumbs on top. Also, there was at least two tablespoons of red lobster roe in the head/neck parts of the body =P. 

This was actually S's choice - a red curry salmon ($160) which also came with a side of baguette. I've had this on a previous visit and remembered it to be a very mild curry - very suitable for people who cannot take spicy foods and so this was my recommendation for her....  She was a happy customer I believe!

Last to arrive was a White Miso Marinated Sea Bass Wrapped In Cucumber Ribbon ($195) and the purple dices are japanese pickles (plums?). The cod was lightly pan fried, although not as smooth and silky as the cod fillets I am used to (my last was at Ippei-An, and this could not compare to the cod there). Flavours for this dish seemed much more Japanese than Thai or Vietnamese.  The sauce is a slightly sweetened miso sauce, and I suspect the use of honey. The cucumbers were so thinly sliced and paired with the fish quite well - a pretty healthy dish altogether. Nonetheless I am confused as to why this dish was available at Lian, a supposedly Thai and Viet (fusion) restaurant. It simply didn't fit in with the other dishes on the menu which were all very Thai / Vietnamese-influenced! 

We also ordered a lime soda ($35) which was slightly sweet, sour and very refreshing!

Lian offers quite a long list of desserts, mostly paired with home-made ice cream such as honeycomb etc, from $70-80 per each, but none of us really had room for them, as most of the desserts (save for ice cream) sounded very rich.... next time perhaps! 

[p.s. this restaurant by M.A.X. concepts offered 25% off with A.E. Platinum card.]

Food: ♥♥♥♥
Service
Price: $$$


Lian 
Shop 2004, 2/F, IFC Mall, No. 1 Harbour View St., 
Central, HK
Tel: +852 2521 1117


UPDATE (Sep '10): Lian is now closed in IFC. 

A couple of hours later however, S and I headed to Midlevels' Sweeties Dessert for some sweets. Not wanting to wait for the freshly assembled western desserts, we opted for a Mango Lover ($30) (fresh mango, mango ice cream, black tapioca pearls, nata de coco, mango puree, and 'popping sago') and a Chinese sweet Beansheet soup (fu jook tong shui) ($20)which had egg white, barley (lots) and ginko nuts. 

Both of these desserts are 'Chinese' style desserts. They were quite large in portion and we couldn't finish either of them. My fu jook tong shui was plentiful in egg white and barley and thus very filling, but too sweet. It became sickly sweet half way through.... S's mango lover on the other hand was pretty good. There was these innocent looking sago, but when you bit into them, they 'popped' and made a cracking noise in your mouth which we thought were swell =) I did ask what they were called but the waiter told me it was nata de coco, something I am sure these were not. Would recommend to order this just for the (newly named by me) 'popping sago'. 

Other patrons around us also ordered the fu jook tong shui and the many other western desserts available here. We vowed to return for the deep fried ice cream  and apple crumble! 

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $

Sweeties Dessert

Shop M4B, No.1 Babington Path, 

Mid-Levels, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2127 7388