Bites: Casual Thai Dining @ Piyawat The Sweetery, Victoria Park.

Piyawat the Sweetery first came under my radar a couple months back while I drove through the Vic Park strip. With its bright orange sign board saying “the Sweetery” I initially thought off it as a dessert only place.  I soon found out that they did proper meals too and decided to come in for lunch on a Thursday.

Piyawat the Sweetery has the usual one dish suspects with a few interesting additions.  For lunch, I enjoyed Crispy Prawn Tom Yam.  A dish that truely has its own bragging rights with its super creamy tom yum sauce being the highlight.  It was simply awesome when paired with fluffy steamed rice.  What more can you ask for?  Crispy prawns, and fragrant tom yam! Flavour bomb, Definitely not your traditional Thai dish but super potent and delicious!

We also ordered the Pad Thai Gai which is Pad Thai with Chicken.   While it did not blow me of my socks or anything, it was definitely cooked well. Which means it is one of the more decent ones out there.  I will go back and try their stir fry flat noodles the next time! My sis said it was pretty good when she went there.

Alas, Piyawat the Sweetery is known for their famous desserts.  Whether its the Mango Sticky Rice or their Dessert Toasts, the ending is always sweet here.  

Piyawat’s Thai Milk Tea Toast was the highlight of my meal. Probably the best I have had since my first encounter with the amazing buttery bread in Taiwan. Fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside with generous amount of butter. Then you have the silky Thai milk tea which was silky smooth and fragrant without an overpowering sweetness courtesy of the tea. Lastly, the coconut ice cream was generous bits of coconuts making it absolutely brilliant! So much to like on that dessert plate.  Very well executed and not just your boring toast with “vanilla” ice cream though sometimes that might be all you are craving for.

If you are looking for something new, fun and different to eat in town the definitely to the Victoria Park to try Piyawat the Sweetery.  Also note that Piyawat the Sweetery closes at 6pm every day folks, so definitely do not plan a dinner here unless they change their timing which you can always check on Zomato!

WenY

Bali 2016: Modern Asian @ Mama San, Seminyak

For Sunday night’s dinner in Bali we set foot into modern Thai restaurant Mama San.  This cool joint is the brain child of Chef Will Meyrick who has already made his mark in the Asia Best 50 list with his other high profile diner Sarong.  But instead of donning his waitstaff with the formality of Sarong, Mama San is his popular venture which sports a more casual appeal serving the masses with its modern Asian food.  While I have not tried Sarong, I was definitely super keen to see what was in store for us at Mama San in Seminyak.  (Just so you know, Chef Will Meyrick has opened two other Mama Sans in Hong Kong and Malaysia too!

Roasted Peking duck with steamed choy sum & red bean sauce.

Most of the time when you get Peking Duck its only the skin that is served because the rest of the duck is rarely marinated hence the other courses like the Sang Choy Bow comes to play.  At Mama San, it was served like a Roasted Duck along side the Chinese staple of steamed choy sum and some “tim cheong”.  The crisp duck skin really made an impression along with its juicy flesh.  However, what I questioned was whether Mama San has overdone the sauce because it was hard to appreciate the duck when it was drowned in all that sauce.  After all if one was eating Peking Duck, you would only have a small dash of sauce although some might say its a matter of personal preference.

Vietnamese Grilled Prawn on Sugar Cane with rice paper roll and nuoc cham.

Next we had these amazing grilled prawns.  It has been a long time since I last had these and I really loved it.  These garlicky prawn skewers are slightly sweet and almost like fish cakes but made out of prawns.  This was a DIY session as we used these skewers to make Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls! Summers!

Chatuchak crispy pork ribs with green mango peanuts & Nam Yam dressing.

Named after the largest market in Thailand, these finger licking good dish reminds me of the food I have had in Thailand.  Crispy pork ribs were seasoned so well it reminded me of Som Tam Nua’s Fried Chicken.  This dish was extremely palatable.  The pork ribs for were fried well and flesh was tender!  Then you have the sweet/sour Mango Salad which helped de-grease all that porky action that just happened.  Its that sort of balance that makes Thai cuisine so popular all over the world.  Two extremes on a plate that balances out one another to create a whole lot of roller coaster in your mouth.

Roasted Duck Red Curry.

Red curry and rice is one of the best Thai dishes to go with rice.  This was no exception with its deep red curry sauce ever creamy and rich in spices.  Unlike the overly sweet Peking Duck, the level of sweetness in the curry was spot on.  I also felt like the sweetness had sense of fruitiness and acidity which really complements the creamy sauce. But be careful of the baby eggplants!  They are like little land minuses they are really bitter when you bite into them.

Crispy whole fish with three-flavor sauce wild ginger turmeric pineapple chilli & tamarind.

Last but not least was the three flavoured fish. Thai cuisine’s habit of putting the three flavours of sweet, sour and salty consistently across its dishes makes Thai cuisine some of the most appealing cuisines in the world.  This was no different.  The fish was perfect with its mild chilli jam sauce having a nice bite of acidity from the tamarind and also the sweetness of the pineapples.  What makes fish like this enjoyable is when you get a small part of the fish that is really fried and crispy despite getting soaked with all the sauce!

My highlight of Mama San would definitely be the Prawn Skewers and Chatuchak Pork Ribs!  Interesting and interactive dishes thats jam packed with flavour! Not to forget it is amazing textures too. There has never been a shortage of love affair between Asian Cuisine and the rest of the world. Mama San Bali’s take on the Asian cuisine (predominantly Thai) is a decent attempt.  While trying to stay as authentic as possible, I could not help but feel that the dishes served at Mama San had a notch of sugar more than I am used too.  Even then, the meal was really enjoyable.   Add its amazing interior with a matching cocktail list and Mama San easily makes for a great night out.

WenY

Copenhagen: Modern Thai Dining @ Khun Juk Oriental, Kobenhavn K - Copenhagen.

I took my first step out of the Netherlands this month.  And it’s to the home of the new Nordic movement, Copenhagen.  The old city is home to several restaurants which are considered to be among the worlds finest.  Over my 3 days of stay, I visited several interesting eateries.  From the morning staple of Danish Pastries to a trendy Thai eatery before finishing on a Michelin starred ecstasy, it was safe to say I ate a lot. :)!

First night out and I am venturing out to a surprise candidate for my late night fuel.  Khun Juk Oriental is a modern Thai eatery Located not too far away from the touristy Kobenhavn area in Copenhagen.  If you fly in late Friday like me, its almost a blessing that most would have already finished their dinner, so I walked in to Khun Juk Oriental without a reservation at 8.30pm with no difficulties!  The sitting area was beautifully oriental and the service was welcoming. A rare combination coming from so many thousands of miles away.  Knowing it was going to be a modern Thai dinner, I did not quite know what to expect.

A hot towel sat waiting and tap water was served.  After refreshing myself, a prawn toast topped with sticky sweet chilli sauce was served complementary of Khun Juk Oriental.   This followed by my order of Tom Kha (98 DKK), a creamy - coconut almost Tom-Yam like chicken soup.  

Slurps!  Nothing complements a hot bowl of soup than a drizzly cold weather.  The fragrance of the galangal root, citrusy lemon grass and coriander just made melodies in my mouth.  It has probably been too damn long since I have had a decent soup from Thailand and this was sensational.  Tender chicken pieces and a creamy consistency could have easily made this a meal with steamed rice!

My main for the night was a very simple Lamb Massaman curry (238 DKK), only if you believe my very definition of “very simple”!  

If you are the type who always feel like their is nothing but sauce in a curry, then this dish is for you my friend.  A perfectly cooked rack of 6 lamb chops.  They were tender and pink in the middle with a lovely charr on the outside.  Served with celeriac chips, a vegetable stir fry, rice and a generous serve of Massaman sauce, it was top notch.  The slightly nutty, spicy and aromatic Massaman sauce is the perfect start for anything.  Use it as a a celeriac chip dip, sauce for the meaty rack of lamb or simply to put on your steamed rice.  It could go with anything!   I really liked how the racks were served like that.  It adds a sense of dimension where you really get your meat worth from the meal! Not just little pieces of piece which hardly adds up to much.  They also serve a similar thing with duck breast, and sirloin steak if lamb is not your kind of meat.

Despite being full, I found it hard to walk away without dessert.  I have had some amazing Thai dessert since I was a kid and I knew that I wanted something.  The menu came and there was only 1 dessert.  No choice dilemma here for sure haha.

Thai coconut pancake with caramel sauce with coconut ice cream and fresh tropical fruits from Thailand (85 DKK).

Piping hot pancakes with a silky caramel sauce and coconut ice cream is like playing with ice and fire together.  Its hot, its cold, and it stupendously delicious.  In fact, the caramel was the tastiest palm sugar I have had in awhile.  Yummy!!  This brings me recent memories of my mom’s sago pudding with palm sugar.

Khun Juk Oriental served me a meal worthy of calling my best first meal on a trip.  The service was courteous, and the food - amazing.  But the delicious food at Khun Juk Oriental does not come as a surprise considering the effort, the taste and the presentation poured into something one normally takes for granted.  My meal at Khun Juk Oriental is not cheap though, so I will not kid myself and claim that this was a simple take away.  I called for the bill and paid 420 DKK that night.  But for what I got, I still thought it was decently priced.  In comparison, a stall side hot dog costs 30-60 DKK and a meal at McDonalds is approximately 100 DKK.  

WenY