Feeling American?

Both Ee Von and Chong has been telling about this NY cafe that came to Bangkok called....

They said the coffee was pretty good and they also served pretty good food. Lucky for us is that we were staying relatively close to Dean & Deluca. It was within walking distance and we decided to head there for brunch. The restaurant is set in a nice very modern chic 2 storey building all by itself. I was told they were going to demolish this building to make way for the tallest tower in Thailand soon. So unfortunate since the interior is so nicely decorated.

Dean & Deluca not only sells coffee and food, they also have like a small "grocery" area and they also sell some souvenirs.

Can someone tell me what a pumpernickel is? I heard of the word but never ever know what it was and they sold it there and Dean & Deluca. What caught my eye were also these very colourful canisters of stuff...

On closer inspection they were...

They are actually colored sugar and with so many colors as well. 

We decided what we wanted to eat that morning and lined up to order and pay for the food. I tell you this people who design restaurants are really smart people. Why you ask? Well, while lining up to order you line up along....

How can you resist not to order everything you see there? Lucky for us budget and common sense ruled and we order sensibly. Dean & Deluca by the way is not cheap. Each cake was about RM15-RM17 each slice. Far much more expensive compared to what we have in Malaysia. Anyway we ordered...

We ordered the New York Cheese cake (which suppose to be super famous) and also the Strawberry Millie Crepe. To top it off we also had....

A waffle stack and...

Ee Von couldn't resist it after seeing on the counter (see what I tell you about smart designers of the restaurant) almond croissant. Everything that was ordered was super delicious. You can tell they were made with the good ingredients and it showed in the taste. The cheese cake was very cheesy, the Millie Crepe was nice soft and fluffy, the waffle was absolutely perfectly toasted and the almond croissant even after sitting in EV's bag the whole day (we were too full to have it at Dean & Deluca so we had it later in the evening) was nice and crispy and very buttery.

We also washed everything buttery bit with some good old...

You know the food is good when you have the girls smiling from ear to ear...

I would say that Dean & Deluca is a must go when you are in Bangkok but be prepared to pay for the price it demands. It is quite expensive but since we spent a good 2-3 hours there chit chatting and talking cock while enjoying delicious sweets with good brew of coffee. I think it was priceless....

Next come is lunch and dinner for Day 1.

Bangkok Day 1

I have "never" actually been to Bangkok before. The last time I was in Bangkok, I arrived at 10pm the night before and left at 4pm the next day after a full day of meeting and training. So I still consider myself a Bangkok virgin. After we got ourselves checked into Banyan Tree, we were thinking of using the Hi-Tea vouchers we got for free. Usually in Malaysia when you say Hi-Tea means it is like a buffet but in Bangkok it is really high tea. They serve you like little cakes and cookies with coffee and tea.

Since we haven't had lunch yet, we wanted something more substantial and decided to head back up to the club lounge. They serve food there for light eating like cupcakes, sausage rolls and sandwich or something heavier like pad thai, fried rice, tom yum soup, etc. We order the pad thai, tom yum noodles and some thai style fried chicken. The pad thai was quite disappointing and the tom yum noodles taste like instant noodles. The fried chicken was good and I was stuffing myself with the PORK sausage roll and also the smoked salmon sandwich.

After we had our tummies filled, we walked around the area to familiarise ourselves with the area. It was super stinking hot and even hotter then KL city. The sun was blazing and even with my sunnies on it wasn't enough. The last time I felt that my sunnies were not adequate enough was when I was in Abu Dhabi.

We waited till after working hours and we were joined by our dear friend Miss Ee Von. She has been loan to her Bangkok office for 3 months and boy it was great to meet someone familiar overseas. I always enjoy it more then someone who knows the place brings us around. First we had a bit of a chit chat session in the room and then moved our arses to well you guessed it the club lounge.

They started serving some light finger food and we accompanied it all with some wine, champagne and none other then Singha beer.

After our tummies were filled again with food and alcohol, I couldn't stand the hotel anymore and decided to head out of the hotel to walk around. We didn't have any place to go so we ended up going to Siam Paragon. Siam Paragon was a bit too up market for us and the prices aren't exactly cheaper then Malaysia. So Ee Von suggest we head over to Siam Central where they sell more local stuff. We walked for a couple of hours and our feet aching and tummies felling a bit empty. 

We just so happen to pass by....

What caught our attention about this place was the amount of people standing outside to get in...

We thought hey it must be pretty good and decided to give it a try.

Basically som tam is a thai specialty dish which is spicy salad made with unripened papaya. This place apparently is famous for it and I allowed the ladies to order.

The roast pork slides was especially good with the sauces that were provided but disappointingly small portion. In the picture it looks a whole load bigger. We also ordered a Tom Yum soup, Som Tam and a spicy glass noodle salad. The Tom Yum soup and Som Tam were pretty ok but what is different with this Som Tam is that it comes with fried pork skin. The spicy glass noodle salad was out of this world. We all expected it to be a cold dish since it was a salad but it came warm and that was a surprise to all of us. It was absolutely delicious not to mention spicy. Basically everything we ordered on the menu was spicy and we had to order an extra bottle of water to cool off.

After the spicy meal we had, we had to have something to cool down and we walked no more then 10 steps away and we arrived at....

As you would have guessed by now it is a shop that sells nothing but mango. After all Thailand is famous for its Mango Sticky rice dessert, so we decided to give it a try.

We ordered the Mango Tango + Extra Stick Rice, Mango Iceberg and Chinese Swing. The Mango Tango came with Sweet Mango, Mango Ice Cream and Sticky Rice. The thing that made this really good is the little crispy I don't know what on top of the sticky rice. Normally they would put sesame seeds but this was slightly different. The mango iceberg is basically fruits with mango ice cream and the Chinese Swing is Ice Plum Juice & Ice Plum Shake.

After dessert we were super fully and waddled ourselves back to the BTS station and head back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will be joined up with Chong and it is gonna be another crazy day out of food, meeting up with friends and shopping. Keep coming back!

Banyan Tree Bangkok

About a year ago, a friend brought my attention to this voucher which we could buy for a 4D/3N holiday at Banyan Tree Bangkok. At the time I thought it wasn't that expensive at SGD600. We were to get 3 nights in the Banyan Tree Suite and everyday breakfast, unlimited use of the club lounge and hi-tea vouchers. I end up buying it and planned to go after our wedding as a short get away. Our wedding came and gone and before we had enough funds to go for it, Thailand had a major flood. So we delayed the trip until early this month we finally booked the tickets and hopped on a plane to Bangkok...

We took an Airasia flight and skimmed on the on-board food. Instead of buying RM10 Pak Nasir Nasi Lemak, we went for RM6 something loaf of butterscotch and raisin bread. It tasted pretty good. Never stayed at any of the Banyan Tree hotels and never know much about them other then they are one of the bigger chain in the world

It took us about an hour to get from the airport to the hotel and this time I was super chill when going to Bangkok. Normally before heading to a foreign land which I do not frequent often, I would research on the best way to get from airport to hotel and plan what to do and all that. This time around, we didn't plan anything other then meeting up with Ee Von on the first night and plan what to do. As we got to the hotel, we were greeted by a member of the hotel which asked us for our reservation. I showed it to him and he said "Ok lets go to the 19th floor". It didn't strike me odd at the time, I just thought hey the lobby is on the 19th floor some hotels such as Traders hotel in KL the lobby is also not on the ground floor. They also gave us a welcome gift...

When we reached the 19th floor, we were actually on the Club lounge floor and they checked us in at that floor itself. While they checked us in we got to enjoy some light refreshments of lemongrass juice and some delicious cookies.

After we got checked in, we were escorted to our room on the 24th floor and man I was shocked at the room. The room WAS HUGE!!!! I never stayed in such a huge hotel room before. The room was divided into 3 parts. First was the living room...

They have a nice work table, big lounging area (which we used to do yoga by our yoga master Chong) and even a nice TV. On top of that we also got some Thailand style desserts, fruits which they refill on a daily basis, a bottle of wine and a gift from the Banyan Tree gift shop. The room next to the living area is the bedroom...

Plenty big with a king sized bed, TV and big area to site beside the window and just read. The bed was super cosy and they even give you like 5 choices of pillows. The one that came with the room was good enough and I had 3 absolutely good night sleep on it. Every night they would actually come to the room and do turn down service and leave a gift for you. First night we got a paper weight turtle, second night we got some fragrance sticks and on the last night we got some cup coaster.

Last but not least is the amazingly huge bath room and toilet....

It has a double sink, separate room for the toilet, and bath room which has a huge shower head and rain shower and also a huge bath tub which is able to fit 2 people comfortably. I think the entire bathroom and toilet is bigger then 2 of my rooms combined. Amy also told them that we were on our honeymoon which is not too far from the truth and we also got a small bouquet of flowers.

The hotel is also very nicely decorated and they have lotus flowers placed throughout the entire hotel.

The other great thing about having access to the club lounge is that we get to eat breakfast at the club lounge instead of the coffee terrace. We actually never went down to the coffee terrace to have breakfast because at the club lounge there is less people and they have...

Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine on order on top of the normal scrambled eggs, poached eggs, friend eggs, etc. However I think even at the coffee terrace they have this but we are not sure. They also have...

What is that you ask? Well it is porridge with pork floss and man it tasted good. So good we had it every day and usually I never eat porridge at hotel breakfast. That is not the end they also have...

That is what they call Iberico Ham which after some research is made from black Iberican pigs from the south and west of Spain. Initially it tasted very salty to me but accompanied with some toast or bread it was absolutely good. They actually display the whole leg of lamb there and they cut a few slices on put on the plate on the left. Last but not least is...

They have 4 different types of honey and one of them you take directly from the honeycomb itself. I tell you this is pampering beyond pampering. Like I told Amy "So this is how rich people leave, but do not get used to it. We are just pretenders and not actually rich". Haha.

Next stop on our journey is food food food and more food. Stay tuned.