The REAL Pad Thai

Pad Thai, thai version of stir-fried flat rice noodles, is a common dish in Thailand, so I have tried it many times in different cities of Thailand. Unfortunately I still prefer Char Kway Teow, a Malaysian and Singapore version of stir-fried flat noodles. But the recent visit to Thip Sa Mai Restaurant had changed my perception towards Pad Thai. Pad Thai never tasted so good!

Thip Sa Mai since 1966

Before going to Pai Spa, we had decided to go for Pad Thai supper. It was drizzling when we came out from the massage shop. But I am a foodie, a serious foodie. So we got into a taxi. This restaurant is very near to Khao San Road, I remember the taxi fare was like 40B and the traveling time was no more than 10 minutes. The restaurant was not as packed as I had seen in the web pictures, perhaps due to the rain.

Chili flakes,  crushed peanuts and etc

I would advise you not to order this bottled orange juice. It was over-priced at 150B and nothing special. It was also too sweet to my liking!

We were given a separate plate of fresh and crunchy spring onion and bean sprout. I like to add extra bean sprout and spring onion to my noodles.

Thai-sytle fried vermicelli with shrimp edible oil, shrimp and egg, 60B

At first, we thought of sharing a plate as it was meant to be supper. Therefore we ordered the luxury version with big shrimp. But soon, we figured out that it was not enough because it was too good. The combination was great, with eggs, tofu, big shrimp, cooked bean sprout and cooked spring onion, garnished with crushed peanuts and coriander. We also tried to add chili flakes, lime juice, raw bean sprout and raw spring onion, it tasted good too! Every bite was a joy!

We ordered another plate of Thai style fried vermicelli with eggs, 30B. Gosh! It was as good too! All the ingredients was perfect match, giving a nice balance in each bite.

If you would like to try Thip Sa Mai, go to
313, Mahachai Road, Samranrat, Pranakorn, Bangkok 10200.
(662) 221 6280
Opens from 18:00-24:00

Zanotti Italy Restaurant Bangkok

Besides Thai cuisine, Bangkok is also very famous for its International cuisine. Therefore, I had decided to pick one out of so many famous restaurants. After doing some research, my target was out - Zanotti Italy, a restaurant that won the award of Bangkok top 3 restaurant for many consecutive years! I was told that most of the fresh ingredients used are flown in from Italy twice a week to ensure that the dishes are authentic!

We called earlier to make a lunch booking. If you were budget traveler like us who wish to save the pocket but at the same time wanted to try good food, always go for lunch as it is normally cheaper. And for Zanotti, they offer 3-course weekday set lunch for 330Baht.

The complimentary plate of breads arrived when we were still browsing our menu. The breads were so good with the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or even on its own.

After we made our order, amuse bouche arrived, in this case bruschettas with tomatoes. There were actually two, but one was stolen. ;)
In case you want to know, amuse bouche is bited-sized food served in fine-dining restaurant at the beginning of a meal. It is not appetizer, amuse bouche is free and can not be selected from menu.

Appetizer - I forgot the actual name, but it was baked eggplant with cheese.

Entree - Fresh Baked Sea Bass with fresh tomato, olives and Italian basil

This was from the ala-carte menu, Pizza Al Prosciutto Crudo Di Parma. Many had raved about this simple thin crust pizza dish with just tomota puree, parma ham and mozzarella cheese, and now I had to agree with them. This pizza would surprise and satisfy even the most persnickety pizza fan. Priced at 650Baht, this pizza worth every single penny paid. If you do not plan to dine in, you can call and check if you can take away this pizza. Definitely worth the effort.

dessert - forgot the name again, pastry with chocolates. Sorry for the blurr photo and no menu, as I found out that I was not supposed to take pictures in the restaurant later. :p

The total bill for two include drink was about 1300Baht. We left the restaurant happily. Oh yes, casual smart dress code required for Zanotti.

Zanotti
Visit website

Log Terrace Hat Yai

K's family and relatives travel to Hat Yai as often as JB people travel to Singapore. When comes to temples, massage, shopping and food in Hat Yai, they have lots to recommend and this restaurant was one of it. With the company of our tour guide from Alor Setar(who married a Thai) and his Hat Yai's friend, we arrived at Log Terrace Restaurant.

the entrance of Log Terrace

corner of Log Terrace

walk path to the dining place

It was a restaurant that built along a river and inside a cave. In daytime, you could opt to dine with river view.

But since we were there for dinner, we opted to stay inside the cave.

the menu

thai green chili dipping sauce, thai soy sauce and thai chili sauce

pineapple fried rice with chicken floss topping

stir fry asparagus

famous thai pork knuckles

duck egg kerabu with separated sauce

deep fried fish

seafood otak-otak

lemon steamed fish

prawn tom yam

thai coconut drink

The dim light condition had made taking food picture a challenge. Honestly, the pictures taken could not tell how tasty the food was. But I could tell you that this restaurant had made all other thai meals in the trip pale in comparison. Yes, many thai restaurants serve authentic and tasty thai food. But the cooks in this restaurant were so thoughtful in choosing the food ingredients and spices that the dishes gave a different initial taste, middle taste and aftertaste. The pineapple fried rice was outstanding, the kerabu was something new and creative and other dishes were equally good. The only two warnings that I heard were the long wait time and the mosquitoes, but I had not encountered these two problems during my visit. Just be prepared!

Log Terrace Restaurant
405/1 Soi 15 Satmongkhon Amphoe Hat Yai Songkhla 90110

Pai Spa, Bangkok

I revisited Bangkok last August and Hat Yai last November. Since Thailand is our neighbour country and Malaysian visits it so often, I will not blog about the whole trip, but just do a few posts on things that I found worth recommending.


Bangkok, the land of smile is the top destination for many. To me, the biggest charm of Bangkok is their thai massage, cheap and good. I would allocate 1-2hours per day for massage whenever I visit Thailand. This trip, we discovered a good massage place, Pai Spa where we then went back again and again.


That night, we were searching for the cheapest Thai massage near Khao San Road until we bumped into Pai Spa at Rambuttri Road. Honestly it was not the cheapest, but it looked attractive. Therefore, we decided to pay a little bit more and we were glad that we tried. We paid 50THB for 2 hours thai massage, but do check their website(link below) for the latest price list and promotion.

The moment we stepped into the Pai Spa, we felt calm and relax with the interior. The whole interior was in wood and the wood color created a peaceful atmosphere.

The photo org chart of the masseuses and the stick-on good reviews from the customers gave me more confident that I had come to the right place.

While waiting, we were served tea and cold towel.

Then, the masseuse scrubbed and cleaned our feet.

We were asked to change this loose blouse and trouser.

I took a picture of the massage beds. Then it was time for thai massage. I go massage on regular basis, and I would think that this was one of the best thai massage that I had. Therefore, if you are going to Bangkok, search no more! I can assure you that this is a good one!

Hot herbal tea was served after the massage.

You could also bring home Pai Spa's products.

Pai Spa
View website

Phuket Day 5: Bid bye-bye to Phuket

On day 4 we spent most of the time at Phuket town or near Phuket town. We explored Phuket town in the morning, had wonderful lunch at Tun-Ka Café and then visited Wat Chalong. In the afternoon, we covered two shopping malls, Central Festival and Big C. At the end of the day, we went all the way to Laem Hin Pier for seafood. It was a great day but we did not cover the south of Phuket island, where there were nice beaches, much better than Pa Tong beach and Promthep Cape, a stunning panoramic vista and ideal sunset viewpoint. One of the reasons we did not go south was due to the weather. We were pretty sure that there would not be any sunset on that day.

It was the last day of our trip and our flight was at 12 noon. We were supposed to do nothing but check out in the morning and get a teksi to the airport. But we did something very crazy in our life. We had light breakfast in the hotel and started our motorbike journey to the south. It was 7.30 in the morning, and we had to be back by 9.30, which gave us a mere two hours. As expected, most of the time was spent on the motorbike and we could only have a glaze of the beautiful beaches, Karon beach and Kata beach. There were restaurants, cafes, shops and resorts along these two beaches. Next time, I want to stay at one of the resort here.

Honestly, we were a bit nervous. If there was any delay, then we would miss our flight. We headed straight to Promthep Cape with me sitting at the back seat, snapping photos with my right hand and at the same time navigating with a gps phone on my left hand. At Prompthep Cape, we took a few photos and it was time to leave. The scenery was nice and definitely worth spending more time here. Note to myself and others who are going to travel to Phuket.

Once we reached PopPa Palace hotel, we returned the motorbike, checked out the room, and took a teksi to the airport. In the airport, we managed to have thai lunch before we boarded the plane. Food was so so and the total bill was 600B.


The journey to Prompthep Cape


Prompthep Cape


Tom Kaa Gai


Beef Masaman


Iced coffee and milk shake


Mango with glutinous rice

Phuket Day 4: Wat Chalong, Shopping & Kru Suwit Seafood

The weather was mostly cloudy and even drizzled a few times. It was definitely not favorable to my camera. However, our moods were not affected by the weather at all. After lunch, we continued our journey to Wat Chalong(N 07 50.773' E098 20.256'), which was about 9km away from Phuket Town, shown by my N5800 garmin. Wat Chalong was the biggest and the most beautifully ornamented of Phuket's 29 Buddhist monasteries. Therefore if there was only one temple in your Phuket itinerary, then it had to be Wat Chalong.






On the way from Pa Tong to Phuket Town, Phuket Town to Wat Chalong or Wat Chalong to Pa Tong, we passed by these two shopping complex, Central Festival(N 07 53.567' E 098 22.086') and Big C(N 07 53.773' E 098 22.063'). They were at Phuket main highway, highway 402. So after Wat Chalong, we decided to pay them a short visit. For Naraya fans, there was a Naraya outlet in Central Festival.



Soon, it was dinner time again. Since we had motorbike, of course we would not want to eat in Pa Tong. The plan was to have seafood at Kru Suwit Seafood Restaurant, Laem Hin Pier(N 07 56.147' E 098 24.481'). We set our GPS and was lead to Laem Hin Pier. There was a few branches to different piers, therefore we spent some time before figuring out the correct one with the free boat transfer to Kru Suwit Seafood Restaurant.


There were many restaurant signboards at Laem Hin Pier. Kru Suwit was one of them.


We took the path on the right....


...and turned in here.


This was the pier with Kru Suwit long tail boat.


Within 5 minutes of boat ride, we had reached the floating restaurant.



Compare to frozen seafood in Pa Tong, over here we were able to pick the swimming seafood directly from the nets in the sea. The waiter was very helpful in explaining the seafood and the cooking styles available. He even told us the seafood price so that we could have a better control of our dinner budget.

I was so delighted when I tried out their dishes. All the dishes were so delicious. This fabulous floating restaurant provided us a comfortable environment to unwind and enjoy the cool sea breeze. Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience.


menu 1


menu 2


menu 3


BBQ cockles with chili dipping sauce. The cockles were bigger than the normal size.


Mantis prawn in Salt and Pepper. One mantis prawn was about 350B, but it was huge.


Seafood fried rice


Fresh oyster in thai style, where fried shallots, fresh garlic, herbs and lemon juice were served.


Coconut juice. I had lost the receipt, but the meal was ~600B for two.


Before we left the restaurant, I took a picture of the cutest waiter in the restaurant. :)

After dinner, we went to Phuket town again as we had forgotten to buy some cashew nuts this morning. With the help of gps, we managed to locate a Nong Kaeo cashew nut (N 07 53.160' E 098 23.850'). Actually it was closed when we reached there. But there was an old lady in the shop. We told her that we wanted to buy some cashew nuts. Even tough she did not understand English or our Thai, but she still opened the door for us. So, finally we managed to buy some cashew nuts back for our families. Mission completed and we went back to Pa Tong.



Nong Kaeo Cashew Nut
Add: Luang Pho Rd,
Talat Yai Mueng Phuket
GPS Coordinates: N 07 53.160' E 098 23.850'

Methee Cashew Nut Factory
Add: Tilok Uthit 2 Rd,
Talat Yai Mueang Phuket
GPS Coordinates: N 07 52.884' E 098 23.737'
Remark: Methee was another cashew nut shop that I found in GPS. It was closed at night too. From outside, Methee was a bigger shop.