International Edition of Tasty Travels: Thailand--Part 1 Bangkok

8.30.10

Restaurant: Pola Pola

You're not reading or seeing it wrong--it's definitely an Italian Thai style restaurant. We had pizza and angel hair pasta. But it was like we never like we had before. The pizza was good--but in no way comparable to say authentic Italian North Beach pizza (native San Franciscan--holla!). I mean, it was thin crust and we just ordered a cheese pizza--it was really nothing fancy. The sauce on the pizza was a little bit sweeter and they went light on the sauce. MMM... I do remember how instead of the usual parmasean and red pepper chili flakes to season your pizza, this restaurant puts a rosemary and italian seasonings shaker on the table. A good authentic touch for this restaurant was that they used a brick oven. You will see it as you're walking in to the restaurant!

They're take on a linguini dish was what I would like to describe as chow fun with seafood. They modernized this dish by making crispy cubes of chow fun, threw in some shrimp and calamari, and used a sweetened sauce with soy sauce.

And what's italian thai food without... young coconut juice?! It was my first time having it. And after you've drained it of its juice, you're supposed to open it up and scoop out the coconut meat with a spoon. That was the fun part! I enjoyed it very much--but I was expecting it to be sweeter.

9.2.10
Restaurant: Somboon Seafood
Website: http://www.somboonseafood.com/ourmenu.html

This seafood restaurant was amazing!! The specific branch we went to in Bangkok was six levels of about 10 tables, and as we're walking up the stairs to the 4th Floor where our table was, you see those tables also filled with people and good food and drink. They have chalkboard on each floor identifying the parties/reservations on each floor.

And what's even more amazing is that we didn't even order their specialty--the curry crab. We did however, have some thai-styled crab. (You'll hear more about this later.) It was really more about the fish--we ordered four fish cooked about four different ways. My favorite--and if you've heard this story already, I apologize--was the lemongrass fish. If you've never had steamed fish before, you're missing out. If for the rest of my life I have to eat steamed fish, I would only hope to eat it this way. It was a fish stuffed in the inside with slivers of lemongrass. It was rubbed on the outside with rock salt. And I cannot describe to you what it tasted like... but the taste the lemongrass infused in the fish is so refreshing and tasty.

9.3.10
Tawandang German Brewery

I was really excited and curious about going to the "German brewery" in Bangkok. I had the Dunkel Beer, "Black Bear", the description read "roasted malt (scent), Fermentation: 28 days, 4.5% alcohol." It was sweeter than I expected and I was told it did not have a rice barley origin.

















One of the dishes that I was surprised about was the Pork knuckle. My first instinct would have been, "No thank you." But I think it may have been on my plate before I had a say in it. After I tried it, I really liked it. It was cooked really tender and went well with a little crab fried rice.

Next there were the Southern Thai oysters. Word to the wise to those first time international travelers, when the nurse/doctor tells you to "stay away" from the raw food, they mean "Stay away from the raw food!"

They mean look out for delicious sounding dishes such as this. This was the presentation of the raw oysters.











And here's how I dressed it up, with yummy tasting chili sauces.












The ending was not so good. In the end, it was these oysters that got half the group sick:o/

I can't end this entry on a bad note. So lastly, I'll talk about the "black noodles" with prawns. I think it's what asian people call "glass noodles" because it's the skinny clear kind. And it's not really black, just dark. The sauce wasn't really salty like a soy sauce, but really flavorful.