After the cooler weather of Taipei, it was a bit of a shock to land in the more humid Bangkok. We took a metered taxi from the airport to our accommodation in the central Chidlom area. After dropping off our luggage, we walked down the road to Central Food Hall which we had passed by in the taxi for a late dinner. We were hoping it was still open as it was about 9pm and I didn’t do much other research about food in the area. Central Food Hall is fairly new having only been renovated in mid-2017. There was a large supermarket attached to it where we purchased some breakfast items. The food hall itself was quite swanky looking with comfortable high chairs along sleek marble-like benches. There was a lot of variety available with six different sections – The Grill, Tapas Bar, Ocean Bar, Deli, Streetfood Bar and a patisserie/bakery. We decided to sit at The Grill which made pastas to order, steaks and more. After eating purely Asian food for the last couple of weeks, I had a craving for some Italian. My fettucine bolognese was a tad too salty but I remember thinking it was so nice to have pasta again. I was too tired to take a photo of Mr FPJ’s meal.
We woke up late the next morning, had some Weetbix and juice, and stayed in to recuperate. Our many days of travelling had taken its toll and we were just happy to stay in the one spot. I had booked our accomodation based on its proximity to the major shopping centres. With no real plans in Bangkok, we finally walked outside and decided to just stroll through one of the shopping centres. This was a good idea too as it was close to midday and the humidity was high. We found air-conditioned sanctuary at CentralWorld. Bangkok’s shopping centres are huge! CentralWorld consisted of 7 floors and each floor covered so much distance. Over 500 shops and over 100 restaurants and cafes as well as a cinema complex. I loved the fact that there was an information desk specifically for food!
I really wanted pad thai for lunch and did not want to venture outside in the heat, so we chose one of the several eateries within Groove at CentralWorld. We thought we’d try to find somewhere packed with locals but it was about 2.00pm, after the lunch hour rush, and I was too hungry to hunt around for anything else, so we dined at EAT (which stands for Eat All Thai). EAT seemed like a more upmarket Thai restaurant with the pricing to match.
I ordered chicken satay skewers with sticky rice as an entrée. Mr FPJ thought it was too salty but I really enjoyed them and the delicious satay sauce. The small portions of sticky rice had been fried giving them a nice crunchy exterior.
I ordered the pad thai crab meat and crab roe (170 baht or AUD $7) which had the right balance of sour, salty, and sweet, with a hint of chilli. But there was hardly any crab meat in it.
Mr FPJ chose the pad see ew with prawns and vegetables. He thought it was pretty average, what you could normally get in a good Thai restaurant in Australia. I agree that it wasn’t anything outstanding but it was well balanced, tasty with good portions.
After a bit more window shopping, we stopped in at the very popular After You Dessert Cafe as I had read that it made delicious kakigori – a Japanese version of shaved ice. There was a crowd of people waiting outside. We asked for a table for 2, were given a ticket with a number on it and approximate wait time, walked around a bit more, and after about 30 minutes our number was called and we were seated at a table.
I knew I wanted kakigori but what flavour? As we were in Thailand, I thought it was best to order the Thai milk tea kakigori. I loved the fragrant Thai milk tea flavour which had been topped with a thick cream. Mr FPJ didn’t know what to expect and even he enjoyed it. Very refreshing and such a good dessert option in that humidity.
I also really wanted to try honey toast which I missed out on in during my travels in Japan. We ordered the Ferrero rocher honey toast which came with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, some fragments of the ferrero rocher chocolate and drizzled with milk chocolate. The ‘toast’ is a hollowed out half-loaf of brioche. I wasn’t too impressed with this dessert and felt like it needed a lot more chocolate, perhaps Ferrero rocher chocolate ice cream rather than vanilla ice cream, to make it work. The brioche itself was plain and the overall dish relies on the accompanying ingredients. We left most of it on the plate after finishing up our ice cream.
After some sightseeing and cheap foot massages, we walked through Siam Paragon shopping centre and passed by a Pablo Mini store. I actually wasn’t hungry at all but made myself grab an original mini Pablo tart as I loved them while in Japan.
That night, we headed to the Neon night markets to buy souvenirs and find some dinner. There were so many stalls selling clothing, belts, bags, soaps, toys and more. We weren’t too hungry and happily walked down all the rows of stalls first.
The food stalls were all grouped together with some communal seating in between. One stall sold fried grasshoppers and other fried insects for 30 baht each. I wasn’t keen on trying it.
There was a juice stall that also sold taiyaki with various fillings such as pandan custard, vanilla custard. red bean, thai milk tea, durian, cheese and chocolate. I was tempted by the taiyaki but decided to just order a coconut juice instead to re-hydrate.
I discovered that ‘juice’ is really more of a smoothie but I was happy with anything icy cold.
We walked up and down looking at menus to find something tempting to eat. Each stall had a dedicated person standing by the side ready to provide menus and usher people to a table.
Nothing really stood out so we just sat down at a stall that seemed to have the most people – Bangkok Street Seafood. The menu had photos of each dish written in both Thai and English which we really appreciated. It was also an extensive menu.
I stuck with the traditional Pad Thai with chicken, prawns and tofu.
Mr FPJ ordered a dish similar to a vegetable chow mein. We were both disappointed with our dishes which were quite plain and lacked flavour. At least they were cheap!
Another stall sold ‘bloody drinks’, a gimmick where drinks are poured into a blood bag and sucked out of a tube. There were only two flavours – red fruit punch (advertised as Devil Blood) and blue Hawaii (Angel blood).
Mr FPJ chose the red fruit punch (79 baht) purely because it looked more like blood. It did attract attention and I wonder how well they do. It was far too sweet for him so he ended up tipping most of it out.
We were in Bangkok over Christmas and actually spent Christmas day on a tour of the Damnoen Floating markets (more about that in the next blog post). We decided that Christmas dinner should be at Din Tai Fung with xiao long bao and noodles (no photos this time). One of the best and most convenient things we found in Bangkok (and Thailand overall) is that the shops and restaurants are open until late, even on Christmas day as it’s not recognised as a public holiday.
On another morning, we went to Crepes & Co for some crepes for breakfast. There was so much to choose from but we decided on a sweet and a savoury crepe to share. I ordered the orange mascarpone – a coconut crepe with whipped mascarpone and orange compote (285 baht). This was just beautiful, light and wonderfully balanced. Even Mr FPJ liked it as it wasn’t too sweet.
The savoury crepe was the supreme (325 baht) with egg, ham, mushrooms, cheddar cheese and béchamel. Tasty with minimal toppings. Thinking the crepes would be thin small portions, I didn’t hesitate to order a third dish.
This was the cookie skillet of chocolate chip cookie with chocolate ice cream, home made salted caramel sauce (215 baht). It was basically a choc chip cookie hotcake that had come straight out of the oven. Warm, fluffy and full of sugar. Very bad for me but oh-so good! They also had this in sticky toffee pudding which sounded equally good but I made the hard decision to order the cookie skillet instead.
We shared a small lunch at Kalpapruek at CentralWorld – a Thai fusion restaurant. We ordered an entree of chicken satay skewers to begin with – juicy and I loved the peanut satay sauce.
Plus we got a lunch special of red curry with steamed rice. The regular items on the menu were a bit expensive but the lunch special was good value and tasty.
After more exploring, we had dinner at the popular Nara Thai Cuisine in CentralWorld. We started off with some cold drinks (I’ve forgotten exactly what we ordered).
I picked a mixed entree plate of chicken satay skewers, Thai fish cakes, fried prawn spring roll sticks, fried pork wontons and a pomelo prawn salad. This came with four different dipping sauces – and it was a wonderful way to start the meal.
I picked the stir fried prawns in yellow curry goong phad pong karee which came topped with fresh coriander (to MR FPJ’s disdain) and some chilli. The large prawns were succulent and the thick curry had been mixed with egg. The curry was delicious especially when soaked into rice.
We also chose stir fried pork and vegetables for something healthy. It was a lovely dinner and the food arrived pretty quickly considering it was a full house.
I regretted not being able to check out the food options at Siam Paragon but we simply didn’t have enough time to even get through all of CentralWorld let alone other giant shopping centres.
Next – our visit to the Damnoen Floating Markets.
Eateries visited in Bangkok:
- Central Food Hall – 29 Chit Lom Alley, Khwaeng Lumphini, Khet Pathum Wan, Bangkok, Thailand
- Eat All Thai – 2/F, Groove at CentralWorld, Rama 1, Bangkok, Thailand
- After You Dessert Cafe – 7th floor Central World Plaza Pathum Wan, Bangkok, Thailand
- Neon Night Markets – 1087, Phetchaburi Road | Makkasan, Ratchathewi, Bangkok, Thailand
- Crepes & Co – 59/4 Lang Suan 1 Alley, Khwaeng Lumphini, Khet Pathum Wan, Krung Thep Maha Nakhon
- Central World 7F, Rama I Rd, Khwaeng Pathum Wan, Bangkok, Thailand
- Nara Thai Cuisine – 7th Floor CentralWorld Ratchadamri Rd, Pathum Wan, Bangkok, Thailand
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