BKK TRIPPING: PART 3 / MAY 21-23,2008 =D

Can't leave Bangkok without a sampling of authentic Thai Food. Managed to sneak in a trip to two well-recommended restaurants while I was there.

The first was Somboon Seafood. They apparently have many branches and any decent concierge would be able to point you to one. From the Thaifex, Arch, Mom-C and I trooped to Somboon on our way to Suan Lum (the night market). The branch we went to was practically on a desserted street with the only illumination coming from the big restaurant sign. Outside the restaurant, one can see gigantic aquariums, each teeming with different types of fish, crustaceans and other sea creatures. Everything is alive right before they get scooped up, prepared and cooked. =)

Now, I'm so bad with foreign sounding dish names (*Sheepish Grin*) so I'll just let the pics and descriptions do the trick.

This one is fish (quite obvious, haha), but it was coated with a light, crisp breading that provided a pretty good texture. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. Parang Chicken Joy. Haha. Loko lang. =D

The other thing that's pretty special about it is that it came with some sort of salad-cum-dip. A sweet-tangy-spicy combination of chilis, onions, peanuts and coriander. There was a hint of fish sauce in the dressing, but years of experience commenting on how a dish tastes (for work mostly, this needs more salt....too much rosemary....not enough cayenne....) has left me ill-equipped to decipher all the other ingredients that they used and how they managed to put all of them together in this deceptively simple dish.


Since Mom-C and I were present for dinner, we just had to order the Chili Crabs! Chili, garlic, butter (?). Enough said. One can never go wrong with Chili Crabs. =D

Because we have not ordered enough (haha), we also decided to go for the oyster cake. Yum! It's a misnomer as the oyster cake arrived in a sizzling plate. Hahaha! Still, being a true-blue oyster monster, I must have eaten more than my fair share of this dish. Haha! I had to make sure though that my tummy was full before I dug in. =)

We also ordered Tom Yum which, I've been told, was worth all the superlatives that Arch and Mom-C spewed out as soon as they took their first sip. I had passed because it was full of fish and shrimps (which I was allergic to, the shrimps I mean).

With all the dishes we ordered laiden with chili, it wasn't any wonder that by the time we finished dinner, Arch was already beet red and sweating profusely, even as Mom-C developed a strange, from-out-of-nowhere runny nose. HAHAHAHAHA!!! 'D I was spared from this hilarious turn of events, quite possibly only because I did not have Tom Yum chili soup running through my veins. =)

Now we ordered enough for four, expecting Rus (one of our other officemates who was coming from a meeting) to catch up. He finished his meeting too late though so he decided to just go straight to the hotel and have his dinner there. It is therefore a testament to the superb food that the only thing left on the serving plates by the time we were through with dinner were tiny bits of chili, garlic and coriander. Ubos. Simot. (Now I will choose to think it's because the food was sooooooooo good, as the alternative would have been out-and-out gluttony. Hahaha! 'D)

Bill came out to about 1,500 Baht (approximately P2,000.00).

Not bad. Not bad at all. =D