Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Thai Food. Show all posts

Before I went to Sydney for my birthday trip, a lot of my friends suggested to eat Thai and Vietnamese food in Australia because (a) they are pretty authentic and (b) they taste so good. When I did my google search for "best Thai food in Sydney", the name Chat Thai popped up quite a number of times in both Zomato and Tripadvisor. It receives a lot of good reviews from the netizens and hence, we decided to just eat Thai food there.

13D Australia Summer Trip: Chat Thai, Sydney

Chat Thai is located pretty near to Chinatown area in Haymarket in Sydney. The first thing that you have to do when you reach Chat Thai is to write your name in the waiting list. The next thing that you have to do is waiting for your number to be called. Since there are only two of us, my number got called pretty fast. We probably only waited for less than 10 minutes.

Waiting for table at Chat Thai Sydney Australia

Chat Thai is bustling with diners on a Thursday evening. Not a lot of restaurants can achieve "full-house" on a weekday night but Chat Thai does not seem to have problem achieving that. The restaurant was created almost 25 years ago as a meeting place for diners to socialise and chat about thai food, and food in general. I suppose that's how the restaurant got its name, Chat Thai.

Chat Thai offers a variety of honest and authentic Thai fare to Sydney diners. It splits it menu by starters such as Mhu Bing: Grilled Pork Skewers (AUD 6 for 2) and Todt Mun Bpla: Fried Fish Cakes (AUD 11), grilled and fried dishes such as Gai Yaang: chargrilled turmeric and lemongrass marinated chicken (AUD 12) and Kai Jiew Bpu: golden and puffy crab meat omelette (AUD 22), and noodles such as Padt Thai: stir-fried thin rice noodles and Padt Si Ew: stir-fried wide rice noodles (both AUD 9.90). A wide selection of curries, soup, desserts and drinks are available too at reasonable price. Since Sydney was so hot in late February, we started our dinner by drinking the iced Thai tea. The tea tastes super good. I think it's really the same type of tea that you can find on a street in Bangkok.

Iced Thai Tea from Chat Thai Sydney Australia

My friend immediately screamed in excitement when she saw the dish named "Crying Tiger". For a moment, I wonder if this restaurant really cooks tiger meat but thankfully, the meat is beef. Crying Tiger (AUD 12) is actually char-grilled beef tenderloin with smoked chilli and tamarind relish. The chilli sauce and the beef goes well together.

Crying Tiger from Chat Thai Sydney Chinatown

When you are eating Thai food, Padt Thai (AUD 9.90) is a must-order. The portion served at Chat Thai is huge and the Padt Thai is filled with a lot of hearty seafood ingredients like squid and mussels. I love the Padt Thai but I give those bean sprouts a miss. Chat Thai totally does not skimp on the seafood ingredients for its Padt Thai.

Phad Thai from Chat Thai Sydney Chinatown

The chargrilled scallops that we ate back then in February seems to have been taken out from the menu. Chat Thai ensures that it keeps evolving and rotating its menu to spice up its offer to the customers so some dishes may have been taken out here and there occasionally. The chargrilled scallops taste so nicely seasoned and both Lee and myself managed to polish the whole plate clean. Hope Chat Thai will bring this dish back on the menu sometimes in the future.

Chargrilled scallops from Chat Thai Sydney Chinatown

Chat Thai is located at:

20 Campbell Street,

Chinatown, Sydney

Chat Thai's Opening hours:

lunch: 10AM - 5PM

dinner: 5PM - 10PM

supper: 9.30PM - 2AM

"These are crazy days but they make me shine.

Time keeps rolling by."

Yup, these are crazy days. You can't even put your security on anything that's natural including your career, money, or even loved ones. Because all these things that are natural are well...temporary. I don't mean to sound religious but nowadays I am at the most desperate moment of my life when I totally have no solution whatsoever so I can only do one thing, look upon Jesus and let Him do the wonderful works in my life. Amen~~~

Right let's go back to where we left off shall we? After getting amazed at the wonderful glasswork of Dome of Light at Formosa Boulevard MRT Station, we proceeded to our next destination in Kaohsiung, Sanduo Shopping District.

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Very Thai Noodle, Kaohsiung

Despite the name contains the word "Shopping", Sanduo Shopping District seems to be Central Business District area as well. I saw a certain bank which I...uhh, did not really want to see on a holiday, to be honest with you. LOL.

We went to the nearest shopping mall which we saw after we exited from Sanduo Shopping District MRT station, Shinkong Mitsukoshi. This shopping mall from Japan seems to be very popular in Taiwan because I think there are several branches of the same department store in Taipei. There should be at least one store for sure in Taichung and there are a few branches of Shinkong Mitsukoshi in Kaohsiung as well. We checked out the food directory but could not find something that we really wanted to try so we ended up resting our legs and filling our tummy at Very Thai Noodle.

We tried to use our barely-there Mandarin to make an order but thankfully the young waiter is able to speak basic English. So happy! The Thai noodle looks so good especially when you are starving.

Food menu from Very Thai Noodle at Kaohsiung

I feel like drinking bubble tea but was already so thirsty when chilling at Very Thai Noodle so I decide to just order a glass of Iced Thai Milk Tea. Do you often hear comments from your friends who have just visited Taiwan saying stuff like "every food in Taiwan taste so good"? While I think this is the case for Japanese food due to the close historical ties that the two countries are sharing, I kinda have my skepticism on other type of food. But the Thai Milk Tea taste so damn good, my skepticism is kind wavering now.

Iced Thai Milk Tea from Very Thai Noodle in Kaohsiung

My friend's order of Beef Thai Pho comes first. I could not immediately pinpoint if this dish is Vietnamese or Thai or fusion. And there is a touch of fried green veggie too but the whole noodle soup taste so comforting and yummy.

Beef Tom Yum Pho from Very Thai Noodle in Kaohsiung

But I think my order is definitely more exciting than my travel buddy's order. The Seafood Tom Yum Goong Noodle is so filled with so many generous seafood ingredients like prawns and fish balls. There is a touch of fried enoki mushroom too which creates a whole different dimension to this seafood tom yum goong. I love this dish so much and my skepticism on Thai food served in Taiwan has totally disappeared.

Tom Yum Goong Seafood and Pork from Very Thai Noodle in Kaohsiung

Wanna take a bite?

Yummy Tom Yum Goong Seafood and Pork from Very Thai Noodle

Very Thai Noodle is located at:

213 Sanduo 3rd Road, Qianzhen District

Kaohsiung City

Opening hours:

Daily 11AM - 10PM

Hello! Happy Chinese New Year! Wishing everyone a prosperous and abundant joy in the year of Rooster. I just came back from a short home-bound trip to Jakarta today and along the way, I realised that it has been a while since the last time I update my blog. Since I am in a pretty much happy mood (Tuesday blues has not kicked in yet for another hour I think), I feel like sharing my new-founding joy in eating Thai cuisine at Nakhon Kitchen in Holland Village.

If you come to visit Nakhon Kitchen during busy dining hours, chances are you have to queue up for a table. Yikes I know. If you hate queuing up like me, you may want to consider coming to Nakhon earlier like around 5.30PM-ish. We immediately got for ourselves a table of 2.

Singapore Eats: Nakhon Kitchen, Holland Village

Since it was pretty humid back then, we were totally in the mood to enjoy iced Thai milk tea. The Thai milk tea served at Nakhon Kitchen is pretty good (if you find them to be too sweet, wait until the ice cubes melted and the drink will be just nice).

Red Thai Milk Tea from Nakhon Kitchen Holland Village

We ordered three dishes to share amongst the two of us. From left to right, a bowl of green curry chicken, stir friend kang kong belachan and deep fried squid served with Thai sauce.

Thai food feast at Nakhon Kitchen Holland Village

I always wonder how to say kang kong in English. Some google reference mentions them as water spinach or whatever but there does not seem to be any on-point English word for this veggie. The dish, kang kong belachan (SGD 6) is a popular Asian veggie dish which rely heavily on the spices used to stir fry the kang kong with. Nakhon Kitchen serves a pretty fresh and yummy rendition of kangkong belachan. Yum!

Kangkong belachan from Nakhon Kitchen Holland Village

The next dish, the green curry chicken (SGD 8) is actually nothing new in the Thai cuisine-world. If you don't like chicken, you can enjoy the green curry with either beef or prawn. The green curry is leaning toward the tangy and spicy taste but it is still considered mild enough for our tastebud, thankfully. Best to be eaten with hot white rice.

The last dish that we ordered is the deep fried squid with Thai chili sauce (SGD 10). Thai chili sauce is actually not spicy at all. In fact, it tastes kinda sweet. Like the sweet in the sweet and sour sauce. Haha. The deep fried squid is served with a lot of lettuces as garnish. Overall, this dish taste okay. Nothing can go wrong with anything deep-fried, I suppose.

Deep fried squid in Thai sauce from Nakhon Kitchen

Will definitely go back to Nakhon Kitchen to try out their other dishes like phad thai. Yum.

Nakhon Kitchen is located at:

27A Lorong Liput

Holland Village

Nearest MRT: Holland Village MRT (Circle Line)

Opening hours:

Daily 12PM - 3PM, 5.30PM - 10PM

I seriously envy those people who keep going for staycation but at the same, don't feel like spending money on staycation in Singapore. Hahaha. Oh for you who don't know the concept of staycation, it's basically spending the night in the hotel which is located in the city where you are residing. A lot of people in Singapore loves this activity (especially those with small kids who are too small for travelling). This include my friend from high school who now has a one-year-old son. It happens that this week she's staycationing at the newest hip hotel on top of Orchard Gateway, Hotel Jen. No wonder, she can easily ask me out to meet her at Som Tam, which is located a stone away at the next-door Orchard Central (fyi, she seldom asks me out since giving birth, like ever!).

Som Tam, a Hidden Thai Restaurant at Orchard Central

As a good friend who is happened to be hungry, I met her demand to meet at Som Tam, which is located pretty hidden actually right at the corner where Kiseki is located. Som Tam is like the Thai version of Xin Wang HK Cafe. It sells a variety of food from burger to pasta to traditional Thai food. The taste of the food is dominated by favorite Thai flavor like tom yam and basil though.

When you are eating in a Thai restaurant, an order of Thai Milk Tea is deemed necessary. Even though I know this drink is gonna be so sweet.

Both of us are a fan of green curry and this shows up in our food order that night. I ordered Green Curry Pasta which looks like Green Curry Noodle but you substitute the noodle with spaghetti instead. The pasta comes with a lot of vegetables and chicken (thankfully).

While my friend ordered Green Curry Chicken which is served with a bowl of white rice. The portion of the green curry chicken is pretty big. The green curry taste is quite nice and we enjoyed Som Tam's rendition of the green curry in both the soup form and the pasta form.

Green Curry Chicken at Som Tam Orchard Central

Whenever two girls are meeting for dinner, a dessert is bound to happen. From the review that I read online about Som Tam, it seems that a lot of diners are raving about the dessert item called the "After You" toast. Apparently "After You" toast is very famous in Bangkok. I've never taste the real one in Bangkok but once the toast arrived at our table...err, to be honest with you, the dessert does not look pretty, presentation-wise. The interesting part about this dessert is that you can select the gelato with those fancy flavour such as green curry, Thai tea, sticky rice or Thai basil with choco chip. We were pretty adventurous and ordered Thai basil with choco chip. I don't know how to explain but the whole combination is just well...either you like it or you hate it or you are just confused. I am confused indeed. Hahaha.