10/27/12 - One Night in Bangkok (Encore - The Deck)

Well we had to eat again :).  We took this trip for some great food, cheap drinks as well as some sightseeing.  This dinner let us combine all three of them.  Thanks to our friends a Tripadvisor again it was back into the heart of Bangkok to eat at "The Deck" a restaurant on the bank of the Chao Phraya River, just across from Wat Arun (temple of the dawn).

Our taxi driver didn't exactly know where he was going so he dropped us off at a pier on the river.  We walked to the end of the pier, past a bunch of trinket shops, looked down at the water, didn't see a restaurant, so turned around and walked back.  At this point we were starting to wonder exactly how we were going to find this place when one of the "Tourist Police" walked up to us and asked where we were going.  Not sure if other cities are doing this as well, I know I saw something similar in Minneapolis, but he sure was helpful.  Turned out we were less than a 2 minute walk away, so feeling confident in the direction we were headed, we were off again.

The Deck had 4 different levels including the bar on top and we ended up with a place on the third deck with only 6 other people.  Solely based on the food the P Kitchen from the night before probably won the weekend battle.  In terms of dinner (more spring rolls, satay, vegetables and pineapple fried rice), dessert (homemade coconut, strawberry and blueberry ice cream) as well as the view.... I could get talked into it calling it a draw.  Pretty easy to get sucked into that view alone.  You felt like you were looking at an Asian Eiffel Tower.

After dinner while searching for another taxi we finally got taken advantage of as tourists (that we know of at least).  The driver wanted 400 baht to take us back to the hotel when we had just paid 100 baht to get to dinner.  The funny part is, both Sarah and I exchanged a look and then said "Fine" at the exact same time.  Maybe it was because we were full of ice cream, maybe it was the second Tom Collins we each ordered with dinner, or maybe it was because it was only about a $9 difference.  I think ultimately we each considered it to be a goodwill gesture to Bangkok at the end of a jam packed, fun filled weekend.  We'll be back again, didn't have time for that 2 hour massage after all, so best to leave the city on good terms.

10/27/12 - One Night in Bangkok (part deux)

Since this was only a weekend trip we couldn't be our usual lazy selves and sleep the day away.  At least Bangkok is an hour behind Singapore and Malaysia so we picked up some time that way.  The Grand Palace was also nice enough not to open until 9:30, so there didn't seem to be much of a point in getting there early.  With another trip to the lounge behind us (yes, we're lounge people..... hotel, airport, doesn't matter) and stomachs full of omelettes with Thai Hot Chilies and croissants that were as big as my hand (with chocolate sauce of course) we felt ready to tackle the city.  A quick stop at the concierge to confirm our itinerary (two thumbs up) and we set off with the camera to behave like tourists.

First stop was the Grand Palace.  This took awhile to get there as there was a "Red Shirt Rally" going on.  By rally I mean hundreds of people in cars, trucks, and motorcycles all wearing red, yelling slogans and streaming down one of the roads.  Unfortunately we needed to cross that specific road to get where we were going.  Our taxi driver actually apologized (super nice guy) but it was pretty interesting to see the political process in action as well as the group that almost derailed our honeymoon to Phuket two years ago.  We were told a "Yellow Shirt Rally" was going to be Sunday, but never did find out if that happened.  At the very least it didn't impede our trip to the airport.

We knew that we were going to have to borrow some clothes as you cannot have bare legs or shoulders in the palace complex.  Even though the monarchy stopped living here in the '30s the rules are still pretty strict as it is still used for official functions and of course is a major cultural/historical site.  Luckily you can put a 200 baht deposit down for each article of clothing you need and you get it back when you leave.  This is how I ended up wearing this sweet pair of pajama pants for a few hours in the 90 degree heat.  If you think they fit.... well c'mon, but beggars can't be choosers. Besides, I wasn't going to walk around in jeans in that heat all day.  I actually didn't realize how much warmer it was with them on until we were leaving and I felt like I had stepped into a refrigerator just by wearing shorts again.

Lots of temples, statues, really intricate art work.  Much better photos than this sitting on the camera at home.  They may make their way into some future posts.

Feeling sufficiently more cultured it was time to do some bargain hunting at the weekend market.  This was on the other side of the city, but we were able to negotiate what seemed like a fair price with a driver for a direct route.  Anytime you got in a taxi that didn't start from your hotel they wanted to take you somewhere on the way (some type of shop) so they could get a bonus for themselves.  It was almost like buying a direct flight vs. having a layover somewhere. It was only a hundred baht or so to avoid the stop, but it helps having a professional negotiator with you.

The Chatuchak Weekend Market is just ridiculous.  Words and photos cannot do it justice.  Stall upon stall of everything under the sun.  Its like they took the Mall of America, made it one floor, outside, and turned the AC off.  Even then, that might not be big enough.  If you can't find it there, it doesn't exist.  Food, furniture, household goods, clothes, pets (if you don't think we dawdled by the multiple puppy stalls you don't know us very well) everything. We wandered aimlessly for about 2 hours trying to find a small souvenir for our apartment and finally settled on a miniature Buddha head.  You wouldn't think that would be hard to find, but for some reason we were struggling with finding a good one.

Hot, dehydrated and getting a little hungry, we needed some internal fuel to get back to the hotel.  One of the many great parts about Thailand is there seems to be a coconut vendor within your field of vision at all times.  We each scored one for ourselves, at 30 baht ($1) why not?  Coconut water is supposed to have more electrolytes than Gatorade and I sure felt better after this.  Besides, you get to watch someone use a machete to hack the top off of it.  Overall, successful shopping trip for multiple reasons.  Back to the hotel (which was turning out to be pretty awesome, great room, great lounge, great pool) to kick back and relax a bit before dinner.

10/26/12 - One Night in Bangkok (part 1)

Ok - it was actually 2 nights in Bangkok, but no one ever wrote a song called "2 Nights in Bangkok."  We hadn't taken a trip in over a month and the travel bug had set in again so off we went to Thailand.  Sarah and I were actually coming from 2 different places so we had to meet in the airport in Bangkok.  Luckily Air Asia recently began landing in Don Mueang International Airport vs. Suvarnabhumi International Airport.  Its kind of like flying into Midway vs. O'hare in Chicago.  Still a hassle, but not nearly as much.  Plus, in this case you don't have to worry about an icy runway being too short and your plane sliding through a barrier fence.  An even bigger plus is upon arrival you have a familiar face to say "Sawatdee" to you.  Ah globalization.

I got there first and after cruising through the non-existent immigration line had about half an hour to kill so I popped open the 3rd Game of Thrones book and opened up a bag of Peanut M&M's.  Two quick sidebars.  One, if you travel regularly like I do, carrying a 900 page book with you at all times is a big help, especially this series.  If nothing else, check out the show on HBO. Two, have you ever stopped to think about how good Peanut M&M's really are?  I mean chocolate, peanuts, in bite size form?  Maybe its being out of the country, but I can see why the US troops practically demanded them back in the '40s. It really is the little things in life.

The immigration line may have been tiny, but the taxi line sure made up for it.  Half an hour later we were in the back of our bright pink taxi (Sarah enjoyed this) with the meter on and heading towards what we hoped was our hotel.  I had printed off the name of the hotel (JW Marriott - I'm a sucker for rewards points) but had forgotten to make sure the name was in Thai as well.  After some gesturing back and forth and both us and the driver repeating the name of the street about 10 times it seemed like we were on the same page and did get there about 30 minutes later.  This was good timing as happy hour in the lounge went until 8:30 (it was 8 PM) and my Gold Status has about a two month shelf life left on it.  So before heading off for dinner we were able to enjoy some cool Singhas on the 16th floor terrace.  Cold beer in 85 degree weather is great, if its free too, well that's like having a cherry on top of your sundae.

Refreshed and rejuvenated it was time for taxi #2 to take us to dinner.  I really don't know what people did before Tripadvisor, but the #27 rated restaurant in Bangkok (out of 1510) was only a few kilometers from our hotel.  Of course with Bangkok traffic that meant 20-30 minutes, but still quite close.  We knew it was supposed to be a bit of a hole in the wall so when we turned down an alley and saw this it wasn't a total shock.  A plate of spring rolls and a large Singha for 150 baht (about $5) and we were sold.  The red curry, vegetables in oyster sauce and pad thai were pretty standard fare, but all well done with great flavor.  All in, food and drinks were less than $15, which may make eating Thai food in Singapore or the US seem a little steep going forward.








Dinner being done we successfully grabbed another taxi and with the hotel business card in hand (in Thai this time) we made it back to the room without a hitch.  Had to turn in early with the next day being a full blown tourist day - Grand Palace, Weekend Market, dinner on the river.

10/20/12 - Holland Village

This blog is rapidly evolving, some may even say devolving, into our adventures of eating in Singapore.  I feel like I have always heard that food is what brings people together and I couldn't agree with it more after having been here for 3 1/2 months.  Restaurants or food stalls seem to be one of the first topics of conversation whenever you meet someone, especially if they are from back home.  All you have to do is mention you found a good BBQ place and you have a new best friend for life.  Next time we go to Smokey's BBQ I'll do a better job of truly capturing it, its just hard when you're enjoying beef brisket and coleslaw 10,000 miles from home.  I digress though.

We are lucky enough to live one MRT (subway) stop from Holland Village.  Its one of the original expat hangouts on the island and when you go there now its a complete mix of people.  If we need something beyond our local hawker food this is usually the first place we head, to the point that I'm probably getting close to being able to write a Top 10 list Letterman style for the restaurants in that area.

Friday night we had a craving for Mexican food..... whats more American than chips and salsa, right?  The two closest Mexican Cantinas to us are of course in Holland Village. The ironic part is they are literally right next to each other to the point they actually share a physical wall.  When you sit on the patio of one you can actually see the other one.  We aren't talking about large restaurants either, they are both about as wide as a large living room and not much deeper.  It almost seems like at one point there was just one restaurant run by two siblings who got in a fight and ended up splitting the restaurant down the middle.  No one has ever been able to confirm my conspiracy theory, but it at least seems plausible.  Its what King Solomon would have done, that's for sure.

Anyway, the winner between El Patio and Cha Cha Cha is El Patio..... and its not even close.  We did try Cha Cha Cha first, tough to turn down a restaurant that is named after a type of dance.  The next time we went to El Patio and the free chips and salsa were honestly almost enough alone to tip the scales in their favor.  It always seems to be a warning flag if a place doesn't have that.  I think what I love best about this place though is the mountain of cheese they put on everything, whether its the enchiladas or nachos.  It easily could be the Wisconsin in me that is suckered in by that, but there really is something satisfying about pulling your fork away from your dish and having an 8 inch string of cheese trail after it.  The fajitas may not have as much cheese, but a sizzling iron skillet full of grilled meat and vegetables has always made me smile.  Finally, although we've never managed to make this, they have $25 pitchers of margaritas from 2-3 everyday and then $35 from 3-6.  Big time steal here on the island.

Back to traveling next weekend.  Tales of our 1 (actually 2) Night in Bangkok are on deck.  Cue this guy....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9mwELXPGbA

10/19/12 - Penang Dessert

I was finishing my lunch of chicken, rice and vegetables the other day when one of my co-workers brought over this package of food.

They appeared to be round pastries, each about the size of a ping pong ball.  I looked up from my computer with a single eye-brow raised and asked the potentially loaded question, "What are these?"  The response of "traditional Penang dessert" wasn't exactly as descriptive as I had hoped for so while she called another person over to describe them to me I turned to my trusty friend Google and found the following website:

http://www.ghee-hiang.com/

Before digging any deeper I figured that any place that had been in business for over a 155 years must be doing something right, so I popped one in my mouth.  The problem with this was it dried your mouth out like a saltine cracker so I had to be careful to not start spraying crumbs everywhere.  There's a big enough ant problem without me contributing to their daily picnic at my desk.  By this time colleague #2 had shown up to try and describe to me what I was eating (half choking on until I found some water).  She said the middle of them were made of a bean paste (pretty common in Southeast Asia at least) and some brown sugar.  That was reasonably accurate, but I was trying to mentally describe it to myself as I still hadn't decided if I like it or not.  For everyone of a certain age the following description should help and if you don't get this I pulled the companies description off their website and included it at the bottom.

There is a Friends episode where Rachel is trying to make a traditional English Trifle for dessert for Thanksgiving.  The problem she runs into is the pages of the cookbook get stuck together and she ends up making a combination English Trifle/Shepherds Pie..... custard, jam, lady fingers, peas, meat, onions etc.  Nobody except Joey (of course) likes it.  Well this kind of a had a sweet/savory taste to it as well and once I realized the Friends connection I nearly sent a shower of crumbs out of my mouth I was laughing so hard.  I ended up eating another one, deciding that my mixed feelings were more on the like vs. dislike side and even brought some back to Singapore.

Pastries' ingredients such as wheat flour, green beans (commonly known as mung beans), molasses, and almonds are wholesome in nature. Wheat flour is naturally low in fat, and provides proteins and a range of vitamins and minerals. Green beans are high in dietary fibre, folate and copper; ideal for weight loss and maintaining an optimum health. Molasses is low in cholesterol, a good source of magnesium and potassium; a healthy sweetener. Almond offers heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, calcium and magnesium, and it is an excellent source of vitamin E which helps protect against cardiovascular disease.

Hey - if nothing else you know they are somewhat "good for you."

10/13/12 - Lazy Singapore Saturday

What to do after a long week of work and some late night conference calls?  Seemed like a perfect day for a lazy Saturday. Unfortunately, the powers that be at the MBA program decided that Saturdays are the logical choice for mid-terms.  This meant that only half of the Court's could partake in some general sitting around.  Feeling the need to do something quasi productive before commencing doing nothing, I wandered over to the Empress Market for some quick grocery shopping.  Stopped at my favorite fruit stall and picked up a pineapple, starfruit, 3 mangoes, 4 apples, grapes and bananas.  Total bill was $21.  I honestly don't know if that was a good price or not, but this guy tries to pick out better fruit for me and gives me recommendations so I trust him.  Plus its fruit from an outdoor market vs. the grocery store, so it has to be better, right?

After that brief stop, I took my reusable Target bag (have to at least pretend we can still shop at Target) and stopped at the Prata Hut in the Hawker portion of the market.  I've been meaning to get something from there for about a month now, but their weekend hours haven't seemed to mesh with my schedule yet, i.e. mid-afternoon. Similar to an SAT question 'as the shopping was making me feel better about the impending lazy afternoon', 'all the fresh fruit made me feel better about buying 2 quite greasy banana pratas' for breakfast.  They cut up a banana for each one and then fold the dough around the fruit.  Sounded healthy so far until it then was fried on an oily griddle like a giant pancake.  You can see the results for yourself.  However, I may have found my new favorite weekend breakfast treat.

It rained for awhile this afternoon, which meant the temperature was perfect for some outdoor porch sitting.  First it was Wall Street Journal and Sports Illustrated, now time to catch up some TV.  The kids in the next unit over are watching Star Wars (sounds like the Death Star just exploded - I half expected part of our wall to come crumbling down too) so my choice of digital distraction may change to Rebels vs. the Empire from the intended Big Bang Theory.  Although in a way that still seems fitting too.

After the midterms tonight we're off to BlooiE's (actual spelling) Roadhouse Bar for a celebration of no more tests for awhile.  Would it be too much to ask for them to have deep-fried pickles?  Personally, if you're going to call yourself a roadhouse bar I think that would be one of the requirements.  Will report back as soon as possible.

10/7/12 - Penang Street Food Treat

Anytime we're in Singapore and I tell people I spend time in Penang for work they always ask me about the food there.  Penang has a reputation for having some of the best food, specifically street food, in Southeast Asia.  Usually my response has always been that it is good, but it reminds me a lot of what we can eat in Singapore.  This past week I finally had an experience eating that was different than here.

The team took me out for dinner in the middle of the week and we went to a hawker stand that is only open for dinner. The middle dish on the left is grilled sting-ray which I can honestly say I've never had or seen on a menu before.  It really was a lot like a normal white fish except for a different kind of bone running throughout it.  What really made it great was the smokey, spicy chili sauces they put on it.

The dish on the right is actually chicken wings that they stuck wooden skewers through so they could grill them.  It actually made them a lot easier to eat, so I was surprised that it hasn't caught on anywhere else in the world.

I did finally eat a noodle dish that I was warned may have some "undesirable pieces" in it.  It was pretty good, but when I finally pulled a chicken foot out of it I had to call it a night from a food standpoint.  Haven't made it to that level yet.

I will fully recommend Chinese pancakes for dessert though.  Kind of like a puffed up, crispy, thin calzone that has peanuts and brown sugar in it.  Fantastic.

For some reason, Octoberfest is a huge deal over here.  The hotel decided to put a guy in lederhosen playing an accordion on their sign that just cracked me up.  I passed it on my daily walk to Starbucks where I have officially become a regular customer.  Kind of nice to have your coffee almost ready before you even get to the register.  Sarah actually had an Octoberfest party at school where they brought in beer and food from Germany.  Sad I missed out on that one, hopefully next year its on the weekend.  We did learn though, if you want to find your own lederhosen to dress the part you can of course find them for sale in Little India.

We closed the weekend out by voting today!  Really was pretty easy to get a ballot sent over, have to say I was impressed with the process.  However, I'm kind of bummed the absentee ballot didn't come with an "I voted sticker" in it.  I might have to make my own.  At least I can keep tabs on the election by watching Meet the Press live on Sunday night vs. having to get up in the morning to watch.  Vote early and vote often everyone :)