Meals at Rayong @ Thailand

From Bangkok, we drove to Rayong, the journey took about 3 hours. Our host couldn’t find a place to stop for lunch ( more accurately – they couldn’t find a parking space) and so decide not to waste too much time  and headed off to Tesco Lotus. We surveyed the stalls at the food court but ended up at a Ramen store.. Japanese food in Thailand ..hmmmm…

I ordered duck ramen, the thin slices of duck meat had a bit of fat and skin on it and oh so tender and tasty, the ramen were springy too,  not a bad choice

We also had some gyoza ( dumplings) – filled with minced meat and taste wise not too much different from the gyoza in KL ..

 After lunch, it was work and work…

We checked into Rayong City Hotel http://en.rayongcityhotel.com/ and it was a good deal – 900Baht, inclusive of dinner and breakfast. The hotel tagline – The hotel that dare to be different > this sound a bit dangerous? One thing I find different was the housekeeping/ do not disturb sign

 The next day, work work work, then it was lunch time…Yayy.

 Deep fried fish paste- the fish paste patties were coated with cereal and then deep fried. The cereal coating gave a crunchy texture to the fish paste. the fish paste was firm and springy. Nice…

 Stir fried vegetable- I am not sure what was the name of the vegetable and my host keep on saying that this is a kind of grass. Huh ? grass ah ? the vegetable had a bit of ‘roughness’ to it and was rather fibrous..

 While we were digging into the meal, the hosts asked me to name my favourite Thai dish and I said ‘mango salad’ and they immediately summon the waitress to place an order.

When you are in Thailand, it was expected that tomyam should be on the table, so in order not to appear disrespectful of this national dish, we agreed to the order of tomyam, they choose to have the clear soup version- and told the cook – ‘mai phed’ = not spicy. The tomyam looked kinda harmless in its pale clear soup but after fishing out a few chili padi from my bowl, I was cautious when I took the first sip. It was bearably spicy, it was an instant wake me up stimulant . This was my mat salleh colleague’s  first trip to Thailand and  the Thais were laughing at the sweating and nose-watery  ‘farang’ ( foreigner) who was taking big gulps of beer.

 Laotian style Seabass – the seabass was deboned and the fish cubes deep fried, I couldn’t place the flavour of the gravy, it looked spicy but it was not, it was not sourish or sweet but an interesting in between flavour

Fried fish – just plainly pan fried plus a dash of soy sauce and yummy..so tasty lah. The hosts said that as Rayong is coastal, getting fresh fish is not a problem. The fish came with mango salad as a side dish.

Crabmeat omelet –there were chunks of crabmeat in this omelet plus a handful of bean sprouts which was an interesting combination, this came with a bowl of chili sauce. The omelet was rather plain tasting except when you are lucky enough to get the portion with some crabmeat in it. I would say the taugeh did nothing but diluted the egg-ish taste and make the omelet a bit soggy lah.

Thai mango salad- the balance of the sweet/sour/spiciness was almost perfect. Albeit a bit too hot even with my best attempt to remove the bits of chili padi before chewing on them. This dish was beautiful. Farang continue with gulping mouthful of beer, and trying to put a stop to his watery nose

And the best dish of the day – deep fried catfish. Look closely at the picture below, peeping shyly underneath the brown mass is the head of the catfish, the brown mess is minced and deep fried fish meat. The meat had a mesh-liked and fluffy texture with a  heavy fishy taste. And the skin/ fins portion were deep fried and so crunchy.I thought catfish was only good for curry, I was wrong !  I likeyyy..

Overall, an enjoyable meal. Ah harn aloy ching ching. Khop khun marg marg.

Island hopping @ Phuket

Wouldn’t it be fun

Just you and me (and a few hundreds of tourists) out in the sun

Going on a bumpy boat ride,

Breakfast in our stomach wanting to come outside.. 

We will make a stop at Ma Ya Bay..

Where The Beach was filmed the other day,

At this exact spot Di Caprio might have stood,

That’s probably the closest i get to be linked to Hollywood

Signs like this kinda reminded us of  that fateful day

Where the huge waves swept everything that was in it’s way,

Gosh..that’s enough of bad rhyming. And my brain hurts

From the beach , we ( everyone on the island  or so it seemed) walked towards the inland , I am not sure where we were heading, but  must be a good place , since everyone was going too, maybe this was how the Pipe Pipper worked huh ?

After maybe 20 minutes walk , we reached a rocky area / cliffs , where everyone instinctively form a line and made our way onto the wooden platform. The final destination ……

After Ma Ya Bay, we made a few more stops, did some snorkeling – didn’t see that many  fishes and for that matter, the corals weren’t too impressive also worrr ( actually they look kinda dead ? )

My favourite stop was at Khai Nok…

 Where we get to feed the fishes It must be a human nature thing, 10 out of 10 people will try their luck on catching the fishes…..and mostly with this cupped hand technique… ( I can say almost 100%) came back empty handed…Unless you know the technique…..We caught 2 fishes the first time and 8 on the second try ! Of course we didn’t hurt them, we let the pretty fishes  go after everyone at the beach came by and congratulate my colleague for his ingenuity.

One, two, three, four, five,

Once I caught a fish alive,

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

Then I let it go again.

Why did you let it go?

Because it bit my finger so.

Which finger did it bite?

This little finger on my right.

 

Gypsies, Sunset and dinner at Kan Eang@ Pier @ Chalong Bay, Phuket, Thailand

Ok, it’s back to where we left off- before the postings were ‘disrupted’ by Chinese New Year dinners and outings. It’s back to Phuket, guys.

We  had a short stop at  the Sea Gypsy Village / Rawai Beach. There were a few stalls by the road side selling wind chimes made from seashells, I don’t know la..i have this thing about wind chimes…a moderate wind chime fetish.  There were also stalls selling fresh catch of the day- fish, lobsters, sotong, crabs etcThe stop at Rawai Beach was brief and rushed , as we have to make it in time to the next destination to view the sunset  - Laem Phromthep. This is the southern most tip of Phuket and one can get a beautiful view of the Andaman Sea. This seemed to be a popular tourist spot and is included as one of the ‘must-do’ sight when one visit Phuket There is a lighthouse (still functioning) that one can climb up to get a better view of the Andaman Sea.Phromthep is one of the more reasonably priced place to do some souvenir shopping . If you would like to buy those touristy T-shirts and stuff, suggest you buy them here- there is  a larger variety and the prices are cheaper that what you can find near the city.All this sunset thingy..kinda made me  hungry lah..hiew khau ( = hungry for rice )

That night we had dinner al fresco , at  Kan Eang @ Pier restaurant, Kan Eang means feel at ease. The setting was lovely, we have a good view of the pier- lighted with colourful lights, warm breeze, the occasional leaves ( from the branches over us) dropping on our heads, the clatter of wine glasses and happy laughters…

Som Tam ( raw papaya salad) – sweet-sour-spicy..Oh Ah…like a wake up call. I was very careful with this dish, careful to remove the chili padi bits before every bite. This was nice Sotong salad – not sure is this the correct name or not lah, just that- there were sotong and the dish came with vegetables- maybe more accurately black fungus and vermicelli . Sotong was fresh and springy. Another hit !Fish cakes – the fish cakes weren’t that thick, so at the sides they were rather crispy, which was nice. There were some light dosage of chili padi in these but not too spicy to overwhelm and make the tears come, aloy ! ( delicious)Vegetable with egg- kinda a weird thing to order . but due to the fact that as we had some muslims dining with us, we tried to limit the amount of meat that we order. This was not bad.Steamed fish – I think this was done the ‘kheng som’ style. Fish was fresh and the gravy was very good and it was a bit too late to find out that the gravy can be rather spicy especially when one accidentally scooped bits of chili padi into one’s mouth. Ouchhh but Nice.Green chicken curry- the gravy wasn’t rich enough and it just didn’t hit the scales..a bit like flat coke- if you get what I mean. This missed the mark.And last but not least…the highlight of the day We let out an applause when the lobsters arrived…we had 2 lobster and those lobsters alone cost RM1,000. The meat was fresh,  thick , aromatic  and succulent. This was truly enjoyable. We later found out how the lobsters were cooked- grilled over coconut husks ( as opposed to charcoal) Who did you think lost at the game of ‘who blinked first’ ?

The total bill ( for 16 pax – we had 4 sets of all the dishes) ) plus rice, and drinks ( beer, wine and juices) came to Thai Baht 21,000 , which is ~ RM2,100 with the lobster making up 50% of the total bill.

Overall , an aloy ching ching ( very delicious ) meal

 Ken Eang @ Pier is located by the pier of Chalong bay , East Coast of Phuket

website  http://www.kaneang-pier.com/