Yummy Adventures

Oh, it’s been three weeks since I’ve been to Bangkok and it is still haunting me. The food was just too delectable to forget, and add the very very low priced apparel there, gosh, who wouldn’t want to go back even for just a day? ( My friends and I even considered booking a one day trip with an empty luggage so that we can come home with them, all full! Hahaha! No, I’m being serious! )

My first unforgettable foodtripping experience at Bangkok was at the foodcourt of Platinum Plaza. Platinum Plaza is the place where you can get clothes at a wholesale price, and you’re very lucky if you have galpals with you on the trip like me, because they give bulk discounts ( up to 50% off ) when you buy three or more. It was impossible to finish checking out the whole mall within a day, and in the middle of checking out the second floor, we declared a halt, and went to the foodcourt for some lunch.

The impressive thing about this foodcourt is that you need to buy credits first, and use the card that you get to be able to buy food. There were sections of Chinese food, Indian food, Malay food, Japanese food, and as I bravely strolled around the food choices around me ( with the risk of getting lost in the mall, haha! ) I truly wanted to eat Thai food because after all, I am in Thailand! I was looking for my Pad Thai ( specialty noodles in Thailand ), and when I found the area selling that, I immediately said, “Pad Thai with Seafood, please!” and the girl started cooking. While waiting, I was observing other people, on what they ordered. My mouth almost watered when someone’s order ( or rather, two of them ordered ) a sizzling plate of oyster cake ( o-wa-chien, in Fookien ). It’s only 70 baht!!!! ( 70 x 1.3 = pesos, around 93 pesos? ). It was sooo affordable, and I wanted to order it right then and there, but I already ordered my Pad Thai!

When my Pad Thai was already cooked, I sprinked it with some chili powder for some spice ( spicy food lover here ). I went back to the place we were sitting, and I started eating and sharing my Pad Thai.

Let me tell you this. In my entire trip, this was the BEST PAD THAI I’ve ever tasted. I’ve ordered Pad Thai from other foodcourts and restaurants in Bangkok, even the more upscale ones, and they don’t measure up to this! I swear! It was very very flavorful, a bit salty, a bit sweet, and I love the blend of fish sauce here that it is not overpowering, but it contributed to the unforgettable flavor, and I can honestly say that this one steps up from the rest, and makes me feel that the local Pad Thai in my country is very different from this one. After all, that’s what we want right? To be able to taste something unique and distinct from another country’s cuisine. This is it. For 70-80 baht ( around 104 pesos ), this was my favorite dish in my entire trip.

The satay barbeque was very flavorful on its own, without the dipping. There were two dippings - one, very peanuty ( which I did not get to appreciate) and one, in a vinegar dipping ( which I prefer, actually! haha ! )

I also got to understand why Thai food is very different amongst others. Just take a look at this vinegar with spices ( sawsawan, in my native tongue ). The usual mix is vinegar, plus chopped garlic, onion, chili, and perhaps pepper. The distinct ingredient in this Thai “sawsawan” is…cucumber! And it was good!

For our dessert, we got sliced green mangoes, and there weren’t shrimp paste in the foodcourt ( bagoong ) to dip this with, but they had their own version of “the dip” - it’s sweet, a bit salty, sour, spicy, and slimey. It’s almost like sweet chili sauce with some fruity flavor in it. It’s very very nice, but in my heart, I wanted bagoong. Make it extra spicy!

After the binge eating we did, we proceeded back to our shopping, and well, went home pretty exhausted…just in time for dinner, to go out again! Haha, stay tuned! I’m hardly done with my yummy adventures in Thailand!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Asian, International Adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.