Chinatown, Bangkok.

We love Chinatowns everywhere we go there's a Chinese community and a new Chinatown to explore. It also gives us a chance to catch up on some foods we have missed if we've been somewhere without a Chinatown.



When we're in Bangkok there's always a trip or two to Chinatown planned, the food and markets always please. This time there was no time for a night visit to the markets that appear and sprawl out over the pavement and onto the roads. With time short we decided to return to a few favourites first being Hong Kong noodles, located up a super crazy cool alley lined with all sorts of animal parts and assorted food stuffs the noodle shop is easily found on the Nancy Chandler map and worth the visit.





Two orders of roast duck noodles with wontons are whipped up quick as a flash. As good as always the noodles are quick to vanish along with a side of dim sim from the dumpling shop next door.











After the soup we have a hankering for a little something sweet and decide to wander over to the old Siam center where inside unknown to most there is the most fantastic traditional Thai food court. If you haven't been there before head over with and empty stomach and enjoy.



In this case we were just after the tasty sweets from the tasty Thai sweets stand. Lining the stand huge brass woks are full of the different sweets as well as a pyramid of steamed sweets on one corner. Just rock up and point at what you like the look of and you'll be given a plastic bowl with your treat of choice. Step to the side and enjoy with the dozens of other people doing the same. Each time we have been many friendly interested Thais offer help and advice, and are often surprised when they are answered in Thai........limited broken Thai but Thai all the same. This time we both go for the tapioca cooked with pandanus and sweet corn. I love the gooey tapioca sweetened by the corn and given an almost savoury finish with salted coconut cream.



After we share a sankaya; a steamed coconut cream dessert with a finish like a set custard.



More photos here and here also here and here .

Well fed and ready for a sneaky afternoon nap we bid Bangkok's Chinatown farewell till next time

Yong lee, Bangkok

So within minutes of dropping our bags at Suk 11 we were off into the sights and smells of Bangkok's jumping streets in search of our first meal. We had never stayed over this side of the city usually preferring to stay near Bunglumpoo and taxi across for the occasional foray.

Now with time to properly explore and none of our usual favourite haunts to distract us we wandered, and it wasn't to long before we had found a place interesting looking enough to drag us in. With rows of BBQ ducks hanging in the window there was definitely more of a Chinese feel to the place and the menu confirmed.



As we read the menu item after item jumped out at us we were so excited to see such an array of dishes that we were undecided even as we were asked for our selection. Then as we started to order our decisions were made for us.

"We'll have the wild boar", "ahh sorry sold out" "ok we'll have the deer" "ahh sold out" and so on till we were left none but the stir fried beef tongue with peppers, we added a plate of the delicious hanging duck along with some rice.

Quickly enough we we given two condiments a sweet soy and chilli and vinegar



followed by the duck nicely roasted, all crispy skin and tender meat.



.. but the real star of the show was the tongue and peppers.



Wow. the meat so tender and flavorsome, braised to perfection, with the flash fried peppers it had us wishing there were more of the interesting dishes on the menu.

Sitting on the street corner enjoying this fine food we relised it's no mystery why we keep coming back to Bangkok



Yong lee
Sukhumvit

Che Che's Chinese Restaurant, Kutchan

Che Che's, Shei Shei's ... I don't really know it's romanji equivalent but when you're off to Che Che's in Kutchan there's only one place you're headed. At the traffic lights past homac heading towards Niseko-cho sits this little un-assuming suburban Chinese restaurant.



Inside there’s lots of red and gold and screens partitioning parts areas of the room apart.



Kim orders a Kirin, the Gold. It’s a longneck of beer that comes with the smallest beer glass I’ve ever seen …



We start the evening off with thinly sliced pork with chilli and cucumber. Paper-thin slices of steamed pork belly are topped with a cucumber ribbon salad. It’s all drizzled with a soy dressing and chilli oil and is just delicious. The bright red chopsticks that are sitting to the side of the big white bowl are the perfect tools to attacking this delicious combo.



The chilli prawns are cooked to perfection. Plump little morsels sitting in a velvet-corn-starch chilli sauce full of ginger and spring onion. There were exactly 5 little green peas sitting on top.



But the crab omlette had exactly 6 little green peas sitting on top. The omlette itself was paper thin, encasing a mountain of sweet crabmeat. It was all swimming in a pool of some silky brown sauce that all seemed to work really well together.



Oh, the egg soup! I do love a good soup … This one a peppery broth laced with ribbons of egg and black fungus. It’s a big bowl, but we have no problem finding the bottom.



I always manage to save just a little room for dessert. The specialty here is apricot kernel sweet tofu. A generous spoon of the sweet curd is sitting in a little syrup. There is a nice marzipan taste that lingers in the mouth and it’s topped with a few slices of rockmelon, 3 tiny little ju-jubes a few red beans and a sprig of mint.



It’s kinda cool to still have a pretty decent Suburban Chinese Restaurant just down the road, even though we’re now living on the little island that is Hokkaido, way up north of Japan.