Lek Seafood @ Silom, Bangkok

With all our money invested into shopping, shopping and more shopping, we could not afford to splurge lavishly for our dinner so we went for Thai dai chow instead. Ziling had done some researches on where to have dinner and recommended Lek Seafood as a few people have blogged about it.


Thai paku pakis in sambal belacan


Tom Yum Goong


Fried pork ribs


Thai style Oh Jien


Grilled sotong


Stir fried brocollies with prawns


Stir fried pork slices


Happiness comes in 1 litre bottle Coke

While the food is not fantastic, our local Malaysian dai chow fares much much better, I think it's reasonable food at reasonable prices since our whole bill came to only about 1010 Bahts, which is about RM17 per pax. Not forgetting that we had a wonderful drink that is NOT alcoholic and that is none other than the old skool Coke in 1 litre bottle size, loads of ice and it was such a comfort to the heat! This was the only time I had so much Coke since my new year's resolutions.

Lek Seafood is located just below Chong Nonsi station (Silom BTS Line) and you should be able to spot it easily, just a few doors away from a 7-11 store and with a bright red recognizable Coca Cola signboard.

Read their stories too-
Eiling
Ziling


Lek Seafood
156 Soi Phipat,
Narathiwat Ratchanakharin Road,
Silom, Bangkok.
Tel: (02) 6366460, 6366054

Pratunam (Food)

After much shopping, we decided to cross over from Pratunam Market to across the street where we entered into another mall (oh ze wonderful air cond!) and another mall, sorry I have forgotten the name of the mall but Big C Supermarket was the anchor tenant. It was also in Big C that I encountered the "No Alcohol Before 5pm" Rule which IMHO is the most ridiculous rule because that was why I couldn't get my Smirnoff Double Black. Grrrrrr!!!


Grilled beef balls with spicy sauce


Assorted preserved food/pickles/jeruk


Thailand's Ceasar Salad


Fried assorted noodles


Fried Thai fishcakes and sausages


Fried assorted sausages galore


Erm sausages again, long ones ;)


I like Thai fishcakes!


Cooling drinks for a hot sunny day

The thing about streetfood in Bangkok is that the Thais love sausages and anything and everything fried. You can almost spot stalls selling fried food everywhere. The funny thing however is the weather there is atrociously scorching burning sweating hot! But they still like to eat hot and heaty fried food. Hmmm, it's like going to Iceland and having ice cream/ice blended drinks as streetfood.

Pratunam Market

Pratunam Market is a flea/wholesale market similar to that of Chatuchak but without the hype and popularity of the latter. It is situated in Pratunam and somewhat nearby to the Platinum Mall area. We had initially wanted to go to Baiyoke Mall but the taxi driver dropped us here instead.



Pratunam Market stretches from one end of the shops to another end (as pictured above in green canopies by the road) and stalls were set up at the corridor of the shops. Another section of the market would be inside a building which is rather big and felt like a maze.



Pratunam Market is actually not too nice to walk if it's on a really really hot day as you can feel the heat trapped within the building and before you can find anything nice to buy, you'll be screaming to get out and look for the nearest air cond area.



Luckily there is an air conditioned haven that comes in the form of Indra Square, just a 5 minutes walk away from Pratunam Market. Trust me, you wouldn't want to get out of the air conditioned premises after having a taste of what the heat is like in Bangkok.



Back to Pratunam Market, I would recommend only walking the outside part which is the stores next to the roads, to walk inside the building is quite a waste of time as I find the goods there not appealing at all (ie. alot of shops selling clothes for old people/very ugly clothings).



Some interesting sightings would be these obscene t-shirts selling just infront of an eatery shop!



And how did we cool down on a particularly hot day?



A mini coconut juice!!! These are at 20 Bahts each, and yes it's the same coconuts you find in Jogoya or Tenji! The coconuts are also chilled so you can imagine how heavenly it was........

In fact this would be perfect on a hot day in Malaysia like now....... Ahhhhhhhh.

Mango Tree @ Suvarnabhumi Airport

On our last day, we decided to be safe than sorry and took a taxi to the airport about 2 hours earlier. True enough we reached Suvarnabhumi Airport with about 2 hours to spare. The checking in was pretty breezy, and we were in the dutyfree shopping area in no time.


Fresh Orange Juice- 110 Bahts

Knowing how both of us are very much into dutyfree related shopping, we spent a good hour or so browsing through the DF goods- liquor, chocolates, perfumes, tobacco etc. Generally the DF goods in BKK Airport is higher than in KLIA, so we didn't buy any. We had wanted to grab dinner before flying back to Malaysia, our initial plan was to have McDonald's pork burger, but sadly we were told there is no McD in Suvarnabhumi Airport! I was obviously very disappointed as I had been looking forward for it :(

Ultimately, we had to settle for some food and since I had a balance of about 1000 Bahts, we decided to dine lavishly and so we chose Mango Tree.


Young Coconut- 110 Bahts

We had our drinks, Young Coconut for Eiling and Fresh Orange Juice for me :) Well, it was my last chance to have the awesome orange juice so I had to order it even though it is quite expensive now that I think about it :/


Khor Moo Yang- 190 Bahts

We were quite tempted by the pictures in the menu, one of the items that caught our eyes was Khor Moo Yang, which is actually Grilled Pork Neck. Honestly, the picture of the meat in the menu was much leaner but the real dish looks pretty fat. It was rather fat, and of course we didn't eat the fats! Quite a disappointment :(


Tom Yum Goong- 230 Bahts

We ordered a Tom Yum Goong to share and it was pretty good. Not too spicy, just nice...


Ayuthaya Beef Noodles- 190 Bahts

The Ayuthaya Beef Noodles was on promotion and is one of the cheapest mains on the menu. It has been quite some time since I last had beef noodles, so I thought it'll be fantastic to have it here just to see if there's any difference between the Thai version and the Malaysian version. Tastewise, the flavours and what's in the bowl of noodles is no difference than what we have back home. It is rather good and the kitchen was particularly generous with the beef parts (beef balls, tripes, tendon, beef slices) :)


Phad Thai Goong- 200 Bahts

Eiling had the Thai Char Kuey Teow or known as Phad Thai Goong. The flat rice noodle used here is thinner in width, somewhat like fettuccine. Eiling didn't give a good review on this though and didn't really finish it too. Therefore, I would like to praise myself for making a smart choice by ordering the beef noodles :p


Final meal in Bangkok

The whole meal cost us 1102.10 Bahts (about RM110) and I used up every penny of Baht I have left in my wallet for the meal. If not for the fried cricket bugger who conned me, I would have an extra 980 Bahts for another supper on Air Asia or something. Grrrrrr......



Mango Tree
@ Suvarnabhumi Bangkok International Airport

[disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are based on my personal views, tastebuds and preference and may vary for others. please dont sue me, i dont have money. kthxbye.]

Food Along Phetchaburi Road

The initial plan on the first day was to go Chatuchak --> drop our loot back at hotel --> take a taxi to Platinum Mall, and from there have our lunch and more shopping! But on our way to Platinum Mall, we passed by Phetchaburi Road and Eiling recalled her last excursion here, she had really good chicken rice and on impulse while the taxi was stopping for traffic lights, we just jumped out of the taxi.... for CHICKEN RICE!



This was the said good chicken rice stall. I know Bangkok is not famous for chicken rice but since we didn't want to waste time looking for food and based on recommendation, we decided to give it a shot. The shop seemed to be having brisk business and the striking pink uniforms of the waitresses was very noteworthy too. The Thais seem to have a strong liking for all things pink.



Nothing spectacular about the chilli sauce but it was surprisingly not too hot for consumption.



And this is the much raved chicken rice by Eiling. For a start, the soup tastes like pig stomach soup with the black pepper flavours and Greg gave his 2 thumbs up, he had 2 bowls and still wanted more. The rice itself should be taken with some dark soy sauce and I must say it's quite yummy. The chicken is quite good, and it was boneless too. If you notice, Thai Chicken Rice doesn't have gravy or soy sauce. You may think it would be dry but surprisingly it's not. There were also 2 blocks of pig's blood served which we didn't even touch it. Yucks, I'll rather eat fried crickets anytime.

The whole meal is not really cheap though, about 400 Bahts.



Along the same street, there was a shop selling pork satay and other various light snacks and drinks and we decided to pop in for some satay babi feast.



If this sight does not tempt you enough, I don't know what will....



If you really think about it, it's not cheap ok... about 50cents per stick. I think average in Malaysia is about 30-40 cents? Then again, this is probably the 'con-the-tourists' price.



We had 2 servings of 12 sticks. This one is just average, the satay babi at Chatuchak still rocks and cheaper by half too.



Eiling had the ais kacang lookalike which tasted quite bleh though the ice shavings was quite a comfort to the heat.



And me? The awesome orange juice of course!

The whole bill came to about 160 Bahts. With our filled stomachs, it was time to hit the mall to burn off some Bahts on shopping and some calories too!

Shopping at Platinum Fashion Mall

Since Chatuchak Market didn't quite satisfy the shopaholics in us, we headed out to Platinum Mall in the afternoon after dropping our loot back at the hotel. I think we all made a very good traveling team of buddies as all of us love shopping! According to Eiling, her sources told her that Chatuchak Market got their goods from Platinum Mall. Well I guess it's not surprising since Chatuchak banks on tourists business so even if the goods are abit pricey some of them won't mind paying for it.

But not us!



Platinum Mall is really one VERY LARGE mall with about 5 floors, each packed with stalls. There's a segregation of specialities on each floor- accessories, bags, clothes, shoes etc. It is every girl and woman's fantasy land here. The walkways are long and there is just so much to see and buy!



Bags galore in every imaginable shape and size, color and shade.



This is one of my favourite shops selling funny and colorful Tee-Shirts. Would be very awesome to have all these colors in my wardrobe. Wake up, open wardrobe and feel so happy!


Do you want a W.I.F.E.?


Oi! No photos please!

The t-shirts are mostly picking fun at drunkards or aspiring alcohol lovers. Eiling and I bought the same t-shirt in different colors that says, "Drink Triple, See Double, Act Single".

:D


No beer? No problem! Have Beer Goggles will get drunk!

I know I look damn nerd! But there's this shop which sells costumes and these funky glasses it's so cute!

Here are some pretty funky necklaces we bought and is available at Lings & Blings.


Birdcage


Umbrella Ella Ella Eh Eh Eh


Rock DJ!


Cycle into my heart


Hang that RayBan!

The tip to getting the maximum out of the minimum money you have is to slash the prices by at least 50% on the first bargain! Sadly, the art of haggling is not easy...... just remember to slash as much as possible!


Platinum Fashion Mall
542/21-22, Petchaburi Road,
Ratchathewi, Bangkok.
Directions: Exit BTS Chit Lom, walk straight to Zen. Go down to Level 1, walk straight along the building. Turn left at the junction and you'll see Platinum Mall.
www.platinumfashionmall.com