Makan Trip to the City of Angels

No... not the movie... its Bangkok... hehe... that's what it means in Thai, see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok

Bangkok, where else better to go on a makan trip but here, being the most experienced person in Bangkok and the only light bulb among the 3 couples (the shopping toursts, the lost tourists and the objective shoppers), I am their natural guide here ;). Basically this is a shop, eat, shop, eat trip in this crowded city which have like almost half the population of Malaysia.

If you ask me, I think the best food are street, as we are on the way on Day 1 for our lunch after our check in, I was already checking out the street food on the way to the sky train station. My favourite would simply be deep fried pork with basil leaves (moo pad krapow). Its simply marinated pork deep fried with basil, simply tasting and tender, a pack is 20 baht. Also got some deep fried chicken skin to share with shopping tourists.

Strangely our first stop for lunch is Tony Romas, which is a western restaurant supposed to serve the best pork ribs (the one in Malaysia don't serve pork). Highlights here are the onion loaf which is huge, just think of it a big onion ring... hehee... and of course the baby back ribs. The ribs are worth trying but the rest are ok. Then its time to shop, walk, shop, walk, shop... just keeps going. Break for tea at MBK's foodcourt, seems to have everything here but couldn't compare with the foodcourt in Paragon, that one is something else ;).

Not to be long winded next up is dinner at Chinatown at Yao Wa Raj, here we have curry crab meat, fried squids, tomyam gong, mussels, fried rice (you have to eat fried rice in Bangkok, they are really good everywhere), vege, etc. This place is in the middle of Yao Wa Raj, open air, food is quite good but not exactly cheap. As there is nothing much to see here, we head to Suan Lum Night Bazaar for... more SHOPPING!

Hotel breakfast is surprisingly so so the next day, so after sweating like a pig in Grand Palace we head for aircond lunch at MK, my favourite steamboat place. Its like coca but prices are much cheaper and the suki sauce is good, which in any case I brought 2 bottles from the Carrefour next to the hotel back... muahahaha... that explains why I went there with 1 luggage and came back with 2 :P

In MK, you order plates of meat, vege and anything you want to steamboat. Its clean, air condition and tasty. There also serve very good roast duck in MK which objective shopper have reminded me like more than 10 times since we reached Bangkok to eat that. So we had the duck and a whole bunch of stuff... see pix... lazy to explain (this is what happens when you wait to long to blog... haiya... busy with work mah... sob... )

After the good lunch and aching feet from shopping, me and the lost tourists (since I am their GPS, they have no choice but to follow me, muahahaha) went for some massage in Ratchadapisek. Went to the one in Jusco, cost 200 baht for 1 hour Thai massage, which I regret taking because that guy like trying to twist and break every bone in my body *sweat*. Foot massage here is 130 baht for 1 hour. After the "relaxing" and cracking, we tar pau the loads of street food outside Jusco back to the hotel. On the list includes bbq chicken and pork, these are good comes with slices of cucumber, ginger (what?) and whole chili padi (crazy!), a whole bunch of other bbq stuff and most important of all, some juicy crispy bugs! Yeap, bugs, I ATE bugs in Bangkok... and you know what, they taste nothing like chicken. A palm full of grasshoppers cost 20 baht and I top that with another 20 baht of worms. The hawker top it with lots of pepper and spray these orange looking liquor which I think are oil? onto the bugs. Worms are ok, no juice inside, just dry skin. Grasshopper on the other hand, is ok if you have a strong control over your mind. I had 2 worms and 1 grasshopper and that was my limit. The mind is still more powerful... hahahaha... couldn't help but remind myself, you eating a bug, its a bug, its a bug... hahaha

After the buggy-licious experience, we need some alcohol to kill the germs in the bugs in case there is any. So we head to the best watering hole in Bangkok, Tawandang http://www.tawandang1999.com/. You get dinner, in house brewed beer and loads of entertainment. Reservation is a must at this place, otherwise expect to sit outside and wait for quite a while. The pork knuckle here is excellent, not forgetting the german sausages and a bunch of usual thai dishes. The beer here, sure best la, reasonable price too, about 750 baht for 3 litres of freshly brewed beer? Mana mau cari... in fact, comparing dining here and at Tony or Yao Wa Raj, this place is definitely worth it!

Next day is Chatuchak day, lots of snacking, walking, sweating and emptying the wallet here. With loads of big plastic bags on our hands, we head to Robinson in Ratchadapisek for lunch at the food court. I love the crispy pork fried with kale here and the other yummy dishes here is their tomyam. After a quick lunch, we decided to walk around and don't know what curse Thailand put on tourists, few of us started to shop again, hehe... I also mou tin tin bought a pair of shoes :P.

Wanted to makan at Sukhumit near the Westin hotel, which have a local Thai stall selling northern Thai food, but seems to be closed on Sunday, so we just makan at a nearby Thai restaurant, not too costly for a tourist spot and not bad either the food there. Its somewhere back lane near the Asok station. After dinner, I need to show the tourists the infamous Pat Phong. At Silom, we whack more street food before calling the night.

The last day we shoot out to MBK again for last minute shopping, kiasu betul, but for the shopping tourist, they need to finish up their bahts... hehehe. Before coming back, we stopped by for Thai street food at Paragon's mall. The price difference is ok here, only 2 baht more per street food than those on the street. They have this funny thing where they fried the whole century egg, then the bananas fritters here have lots of sesame seeds and taste different and more.

Before checking out and heading back, we stopped at Swensen, to our surprise, a cup of 3 scoops of ice cream, with cream, with 4 pieces of brownies, bananas top with 1 piece of choc is only 59 baht!!! Why must Swensen here charge like RM25 for the same thing? Don't make sense!

I may not have mention above, but I think everyday we are at the Carrefour next to our hotel buying stuff, beer, shampoo, tooth paste, instants noodles, batteries, etc. They are still cheaper than Malaysia despite the 7% VAT. So, think... good place to retire? hmm.... :)

Oh ya, late night from work today, all tired, so too lazy to upload the pix, a bit slow... please view the pix are my online album here http://picasaweb.google.com/chinseong/BangkokFood