Busaba Eathai, London

Back in April when we were in London, the Concierge of our hotel recommended a Thai restaurant nearby. It was within 10 minutes or so on foot from where we stayed. The place is called Busaba Eathai, located off Oxford St and right behind where Selfridges is. Busaba Eathai has similar seating arrangement like Wagamama, more communal dining style, which is acceptable for us. (We tend to avoid the place when it is crowded anyway.)

When it comes to Thai food (or probably other cuisines too!) we never venture far. Call it boring or staying safe. Whatever. We had Pad Thai and Green Curry Chicken with rice again. ( I know, there are way too many other dishes to try, but we continuously sticking to the same old ones!)

I also had their Lemongrass tea, served with a couple of cookies. Nice.

I look forward to going back there when I return to London. Which is likely to be soon. Like in two weeks. Yay.

Ar Roi On Post St.

The concierge at our hotel in San Francisco suggested us a Thai restaurant that is supposed to be the best if not one of the bests in town. Unfortunately, it was closed the day before and on Independence Day. It was a good thing that we were still around on 5th July and we really wanted to try. By we, I meant, DH, naturally. It would be for lunch. As we planned for more Scala's dinner on our last evening in San Francisco.

This place was just a couple of blocks away from Union Square. It was so easy to just walk to the place while the weather continued to be super gorgeous. We arrived at around 11:30, it was early and of course, it was very quiet. We were their first customers of the day. It was mutually decided that we had Spring Rolls as starter. It's a right on choice. They were so good.

DH also attempted to try their Tom Yum Soup, a little deviation from our routine. The soup was great. Interestingly, I found some tomatoes inside. I don't recall having Tom Yum Soup with tomatoes before. The balance of the taste in the soup was excellent. It was another great dish that we loved.

Pad Thai. Sure. DH liked it so much, it was the best he's had so far and I must agree with him. I am drooling just typing this out and looking at the pictures. I want more from them!

We only ordered Green Curry Chicken after all the food that we ordered arrived, upon the recommendation from the waitress. Since everything that we had so far were satisfying, we decided to go ahead and order a bowl of it. We thought we could put more food into our expanding tummies. This one did not disappoint to. We loved, loved, loved it! How I wish I had space for dessert, it's too bad we were so stuffed. Happily stuffed! If only I could take this restaurant to Singapore, it would be so fantastic!

Flying Chillies....

It's getting so close to the end of January, 1/12 of the year is nearly gone. Gone. Just like that.

The school is on the break, which is designed to coincide with Chinese New Year, therefore they all have a full fat week off. We all know that the classes only started three weeks ago, but being an international school set out in a country with Chinese as majority in population, that works fine as well.

Miss K and I tried to shop, we needed to buy a few things and we were glad we found what we were looking for. Unfortunately, when we got home, we found that the lady gave us the wrong size of dress for my dear shopping buddy. What a bummer! That's one more thing to sort out!

We headed for late lunch, as usual, after shopping. That's around 3PM. Just great, most of the restaurants were not packed. Our choices were between Italian and Thai at 313 Somerset. After viewing their menu - as if they were accurate prediction to the greatness of the food - we went for Thai.

It is the place where DH wanted to try but has not got around to, called Flying Chillies. We, being really boring at the time, went for our typical orders. Fish cakes for appetizer, Chicken Pad Thai, Green Curry with Chicken and Sweet Tapioca with coconut milk for dessert. Yes, it was the same old one. Completely super boring.

I personally did not find both their curry and the tapioca appealing. The rests are ordinary. As always, I have to say that I have to try before I know whether a restaurant is worth a return visit. For this one, it is a maybe.

Dinner At Sawaddee

This was in Providence, in the evening upon our arrival in Providence area after a long jammed drive from Princeton. We headed to another Thai restaurant to have our Pad Thai No 7 (Yay!!!!!) in a truly tiny Thai restaurant.

We ordered our usuals again (yes, we are just boring!), Pad Thai, Green Thai Chicken Curry and Vegetables. The food was authentic, the fish cakes were good and the Pad Thai was reasonably great as well. K enjoyed a nice dessert of mango and sticky rice.

Pittsburgh - Another Thai Try

Pittsburgh
Bridges
Tunnels
Quiet streets on weekends
The many times we got misled by our GPS.
And a place where we had another Pad Thai.........



The evening we arrived, we decided to have Thai food again. We wanted something Asian but could not really find decent choices that we liked and we ended up with our Pad Thai number 6 in a restaurant called Thai Cuisine, located along Liberty Avenue. We also ordered our regulars, spring rolls, Chicken Thai Green Curry and Vegetables with Basil. We enjoyed them and thought that the service was very good and the waiter was friendly.

Pad Thai X 5

Five Pad Thai in eight days! A bit too much for me, even though I love those Thai noodles. And I am beginning to wonder if I am going to be able to love them as much after having so much of them in this trip.

For our first meal in Providence, not too long after we landed in the country, we decided to try Thai food recommended by an e-fellow. The restaurant is called Apsara and it's located just minutes away from our hotel. We, however, found the food to be disappointing. The Pad Thai that we had was not authentic enough to our taste.



Subsequently, we went around for many days without mentioning Thai food, until we were on the way to Buffalo and DH declared that he could not go on (this trip) without having rice. He was determined that he had to eat Thai food again. So we had our second Pad Thai within less than a week. We gladly found that the Pad Thai here was much better than the first one we had.



I can't remember why we ended up with Thai food again the next evening. For sure, it was originated by DH. Irregardless who suggested the place, we found a better Pad Thai in Buffalo the the other two. It was a perfect blend of sweetness and saltiness as well tanginess. K loved it more because the bean sprouts were separated from the noodles, obviously, she is not a fan of bean sprouts. I, on the other hand enjoyed having the bean sprouts on the sides and mix them right before I eat them. The crunchiness was there and they help balance the flavor better to my taste. DH simply loved them.



Then we arrived at Ann Arbor. I knew that DH couldn't and wouldn't leave Ann Arbor without having a meal at the Thai restaurant that he frequently visited when we used to live here. We could not remember the exact address of the restaurant and to make things worse, the restaurant has apparently changed its name. With a little struggle, the place was located. but sadly, everything we ordered, including our Pad Thai No. 4, didn't taste good.



With a disappointing Pad Thai, DH needed another Pad Thai to recover from (!) the next evening. We searched high and low for a decent one and found another Thai restaurant in Ann Arbor that looks decent and authentic. Our Pad Thai No. 5 may not be the best, but it was better that the previous one we had.



With more than 22 days to go in this trip, I am quite confident that this would not be our last Pad Thai story of the trip. Unless DH gets sick of it. Help!

From A Church To A Thai Restaurant in Queenstown

It was Christmas Day. Yes, this was two months ago (already?!). We attended Christmas mass at St. Joseph Catholic church in Queenstown, a nice, small church with the most fantastic views and one priest!! Then headed downtown afterwards.



It was quiet, most shops and restaurants were closed. So we all were hungry and had no reservation anywhere, we decided to park our car and walked around to see which place that was inviting to our rumbling tummy and could win a majority vote among the five of us. Somehow, we ended up eating in this small Thai restaurant. It had a very nice ambience and a friendly server, only one for the whole restaurant that had around 10-12 tables or so. We had our usual Spring Rolls, Pad Thai, Thai Green Curry and White Rice, which was cutely served in the teddy bear shape!! And for a change, we ordered Thai Beef Salad and Chili Prawn. Nice foods! We left the restaurant felling happy and full indeed. A different kind of Christmas meal to remember!