mk trendy, bangkok

Hotpot, steamboat, shabu shabu. Different names, same thing – lazy restaurant that makes you do all the cooking.

MK Trendy is a hotpot chain in Bangkok known especially for their special dipping sauce. Sweet and salty and just a smidge spicy with sesame seed and cilantro for added smiles.

I wasn’t blown away by the food here but I’m sharing because MK Trendy has a few things that you really need to see to believe.

siam paragon = sensory overload

When the homies came to visit two months ago I took them to the basement of Takashimaya which is one of my favorite places in Singapore. While moseying around deciding between more yakitori or an omelette made of yakisoba Jeff said, “Have you been to the basement of Siam Paragon in Bangkok? I think you would like it.”

This my friends is how I ended up asking Muk to take me to Siam Paragon on my last trip to Bangkok. As luck would have it our hotel (the Grand Hyatt Erawan) is conveniently located within walking distance to Paragon so we had no trouble walking the concrete above ground maze that connects a handful of Bangkok’s finest shopping establishments.

Let’s talk about this mall right quick. It has a BMW dealership. It’s not even on the first floor. It’s, like, on the 3rd floor something crazy like that. Now tell me: how do they even get those cars up there? Do they have a special elevators or something? How often do they switch it up? Does not compute. The rest of the mall is equally impressive with international brands and lots of high end things that neither you nor I can afford even on a good day.

Luckily the basement eats do not require a black credit card of any kind.

I did not know what to do with myself once we got there.

koko’s at siam square, bangkok

This meal is a bit of a blur in my head. It was the celebratory meal after my team worked super (super!) hard at our event in Bangkok. Working super hard means that most of us had missed lunch that day leaving us famished and ready to gorge on dinner. Since Siam Square is the funnest place ever and has plenty of eateries (and an iberry, ahem, see above) we trucked on overto find a suitable dinner joint.

Now usually I wouldn’t go to vegeterian people for dinner recs (sorry, herbivores). I mean, I like tofu and all but I also need meat in my life and I’m not gonna go from famished to vegetables. That would be silly and then I would be grouchy. This restaurant is a favorite of Nop and Kwan (the vegetarians) due to its veggie friendly menu. For us meat eaters they have meat versions of most of their dishes. For tourists, the entire menu is in Thai so point and pick or drag along some Thai friends.

Now on to the picture parade.

brought back to life by iberry

I’m spending a lazy weekend at home in ultimate relaxation mode. No appts, no have-to-dos, no must-meets, etc. I have a bunch of those types of things (some of which are fun) on the horizon so I’m spending this weekend loading up on the me-time.

Let it be known that my month long hiatus is not the product of a lack of food adventures. There was lots of eating going on but there was also lots of burnt out-status going on too. That’s all behind us now since my recent trip to Bangkok has gotten me all riled up to share my latest favorite find.

I first learned of iberry via the loveliest of lovely food blogs, Eating Asia. They reran an old post about their love for iberry which coincided with my business trip to Bangkok so I jumped at the chance to try something they had featured. My first trip to iberry was the dessert end of dinner at Central World the pictures of which died an unexpected death due to user error (read: I accidentally deleted them). How amateur of me. Didn’t matter though because after my first visit I KNEW I would be back the next day.

secret garden, bangkok

One thing that’s nice about where I work is that people are from all over Southeast Asia. The major perk of this, of course, is that when you travel to these awesome destinations you get firsthand tips and advice about where to go and what to do and, most importantly for this little piggie, where to eat. If you’re very very lucky you’ll even get to visit these destinations with these local experts in tow.

So it goes that when I was in Bangkok and told Pui and Muk to pick a place to eat, they picked one of their favorites – Secret Garden.

Meatballs are always kinda scary because you’re never quite sure what you’re gonna get when you bite in. Thailand’s version is meaty but with the requisite lemongrass, basil, and chili flavors that are so common in Thai food. These were very nice – lightly browned on the outside (hell yes they are fried) and soft and tender on the inside.

terrace 61, bangkok

Blah. I’m a bit angry at the blog right now. I found out I can’t install Analytics on the darn thing and it has me feeling a bit like I want to give it the cold shoulder.  On the other hand, the food pictures are starting to pile up and the backlog needs some attention. I suppose that wins this time around. Although, this doesn’t mean I forgive you WordPress [insert a picture of me with my lips pursed and looking irritated].

I went to Bangkok last week for a few days for work. (I know, I’m such a jet setter. Not.) Our first meal in Bangkok was lunch at Terrace 61. I have no friggin’ clue where T61 is. It’s pretty far from the city center though as we were on the outskirts of Bangkok for the meeting we had pre-lunch. The Thai ladies did all of the ordering, obviously.

Dish 1 was the requisite tom yum.

It was mighty spicy and mighty red. It was good as tom yums go but I gotta admit that I’m a bit tired of tom yum and would not mind a Thai meal that was tom yum-less.

oodles of noodles

That’s what the noodle bar at the Marriott Cafe is called in Phuket. The party starts at 12:30pm and for THB550 you can stuff yourself silly. Now for the parade of pictures.

The types of noodles change daily but you can expect glass noodles, rice noodles, egg noodles, fat rice noodles, etc. The green ones are flavored with pandan (a very fragrant leaf used in a lot of SEAsian cooking).

On one side of the buffet are raw veggies like cabbage, lettuce cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, etc. The other side has a variety of meats – sliced pork, sliced chicken, fish balls, squid, fish, meat balls, etc. There are also seasoning sections that have everything from white pepper to crushed lemongrass.

To get ’em stir fried head up to the kitchen and pick a sauce. I tried phad kee mao the first day and then soya sauce (pad see ew sauce) the next day. They also throw egg in there for you.

This was my first go round. It has loads of veggies, egg noodles, squid, and chicken. Notice the eggroll in the back – they also have ready made dishes like curry and fried fish.

Day 2 with the fatter noodles, mushrooms, pork, chicken, cilantro, bean sprouts, and other goodies. I also snagged a few fried shrimp to top it off.

You also have the option of turning your noodles into a soup instead. Just mosey up to the broth guy and pick one. This photo is courtesy of Julia. Rice noodles with tom yum broth.

My mouth is watering looking at these pictures. Cantaloupe, dragon fruit (looks gnarly, tastes like kiwi), pineapple, and watermelon for dessert.

More desserts. This one is wrapped up all dainty like. Talk about attention to detail. Inside is a coconut milk and pandan jelly/cake thingy. Tastes kinda like pandan maja blanca (if you know what that is).

Everyone’s favorite mango and sticky rice with little pinipig on top. The mango was so, so, so delicious. At some point we abandoned all other dessert dishes in favor of gorging ourselves on mango. Sweet, not fibrous, ripe, juicy, delicious.

Our first day here we were so full we couldn’t move for a good 2 hours while our bodies struggled to digest the 8lbs of mango we each tried to stuff down. We couldn’t help it – they were so good! We also got too happy piling on all the goodies on top of the noodles. Oodles of noodles indeed!

kabuki, jw marriott phuket

Real ballas stay at the JW Marriott in Phuket. The place is pretty nice and pretty huge and pretty awesome (and pretty expensive).

Our visions of frolicking in the sand were dashed due to the monsoon weather that met us when we arrived in Phuket. Unfortunately for us it continued without disruption for the entire three nights we were there. Luckily, the JW is a full on resort so there’s really no need to ever leave its premises. Plenty of places to eat, a few shops, lots of pools, a spa, even its own night market.

rimping village part 2

Yah, that’s right we ate at the hotel two nights in a row in Chiang Mai. What can I say? We were too lazy and chicken to venture too far from the hotel. We were also beat from all the monkeying around in the jungle and decided that turning in early would be ideal. If it makes you feel better we sorta kinda walked through the Night Market.

Can we take a moment and just give props to the awesomeness of my picture taking skills right now. These were taken on Jlin’s camera as I was too lazy to go upstairs to grab mine. Veggie egg rolls freshly fried served with a sweet and spicy sauce. They look like little nubbins.

flight of the gibbon, chiang mai

We had this meal as part of the Flight of the Gibbon package on our first full day in Chiang Mai. It was served in a small outdoor restaurant in the mountains 45 minutes outside of Chiang Mai in Mae Kompong village.

We each got our own bowl of spicy chicken green curry. Very fragrant from the lemongrass, a light broth of curry and coconut milk, and native chicken with a few veggies. They had a tofu version for Jessica to enjoy.

We also got a dish of steamed veggies – squash, cabbage, bell peppers, and cauliflower that was lightly seasoned and flavored with pork belly.

Watermelon and guava (pass, I do NOT like guava) for dessert.

So what the heck is Flight of the Gibbon you ask? It’s one of those ziplining adventures where you get to hop from tree to tree and pretend to fly through the jungle. There’s a bunch of these all over the world and the one in Chiang Mai is quite new – opened just this past January.

For about USD60 the Gibbon folks (who ps are super nice) will pick you up from the hotel, harness you up, zip you through the trees, feed you lunch, send you to a waterfall, and then take you back to your hotel. Not bad right?

That’s me and my big booty in the back there. There are two of these skybridges during the trek. The entire thing is super safe. There are 2 guides for each group of 6-7 trekkers.

Me on the zipline flapping my arms like a dummy and Mr Nui ready to catch me in the foreground.

There are three or so drops throughout the course which keeps things interesting. The giant tree in the picture is actually two trees intertwined with each other. The last drop is 60+ meters down. For major fun ask to be attached by your back instead of your front. It’s much more exciting that way. 😛

To book your own adventure visit www.treetopasia.com