Video of the Sea Food Market & Restaurant

I am in the process of getting a flip camcorder, which basically means I will be torturing you all with new videos of life in London and elsewhere. In the meantime I will be posting some old ones that have been lingering on youtube for a few years now.
This rather short video is of the Sea Food Market in Bangkok. It's basically a supermarket cum restaurant and a fun and tacky, but expensive place to have a meal. A longer video can be found here at the 7 minute mark, and part two here.
Don't forget to have your speakers turned on and enjoy the music.

Foto Friday # 47

A small shrine laden with goodies for the Gods at the Weekend Market in Bangkok

Bangkok Part 2 - When you are tired of noodles, you should goto the Mandarin Oriental

Sometimes and only sometimes, when you have been on the road for a long time. You just reach a point when you get fed up of the local food and just crave something familiar. After 3 months in Asia we were there. Lina was craving cheese and wine. I was just craving a good steak and potato's. Although the thought of a good bottle of wine wasn't to hard to resist either. 

So where could we go. Obviously for what we were wanting, one of the major hotels fitted the bill. Luckily for us, quite a few were situated alongside the Chao Prad River..... in Bangkok. After a visit to their websites. The Mandarin Oriental looked the best bet, as they had a nightly buffet on the terrace overlooking the river itself. A quick shave and we popped on our glad rags. Thankfully we have one nice set of clothes that we keep, just for this type of occasion. Also thankfully the easiest way to get to the hotel was on the Skytrain. So at least we wouldn't end up arriving like we'd been trampling through the jungle all day. Looking slightly red and dripping with sweat. 

The best thing about the 5 star hotels on the river front. Is that they all have small boats to take you from the landing dock by the Skytrain to your chosen hotel. The boat for the Mandarin Oriental was built of wood and had very comfortable seats. It resembled a small junk. Very atmospheric. After a few minutes of cruising the river, we arrived at the dock for the hotel. With the customary bows of the hotel staff, we were beginning to believe, like them that we were staying there. 

We made our way to the Riverside Terrace Restaurant and admired the buffet. I always believe you can tell a lot about a place that puts on a buffet selection. If it's badly presented or looks a bit thin on the ground, then normally the quality of the food is a bit so so. Nothing to fear with this one. There were 5 stations as they call them. Everything was presented to the level you'd expect from a hotel of this class. We'd made the right choice. So after seating on a table outside under the stars, (we were both praying for no rain) and browsing the wine list. I settled on a nice bottle of crisp Italian White, which came chilled in a wine bucket full of ice. After having a sip, yes we have both missed this. 

So we made our way to the selection that awaited us. The first station, was your salad selection, ranging from your usual leaves right the way through to a good seafood selection with various vinaigrettes and sauces to go with. 

The next section had a nice selection of cold meats and oddly enough a nice sushi and sashimi selection also. Not something I would have put side by side, but we live in an age of fusion. Time to get with the times. 

Next in line was the grill. Now this looked really tempting. I think it had something to do with the large prawns slowly chargrilling away and the lovely looking and tasting tandoori lamb and fish pieces. Also a nice beef madras was on offer, and some lovely selections of grilled steaks.

Finally before we hit the puddings was what I had really been missing. The good old carvery. It really was like Sunday lunch was here and alive in Bangkok, even the Yorkies looked pretty darn good. Nice piece of gammon, beef and poultry. 

Now in my view, the puddings really make or break a buffet selection. There has to be a good varied selection, all have to be presented to lift you to a spiritual high, and without a doubt the ice-cream has to be homemade and it has to be to die for. God I love the Mandarin. It was all fantastic. I did reach a spiritual high, in fact me and God were about on the same level for a while that night, especially after having a chocolate truffle or two. The blackcurrant pannacotta really gave my taste buds a work out.  

We knew it was gonna be expensive, and it was, but as a one off it was really worth it. Not going to be doing it again for a long time. So we justified it to ourselves. The ride back on their boat and the Skytrain was fantastic. One thing about nights like these is a damn shame it has to end.

We both slept very content that night. Very.

Next morning, we were both still very happy and the noodle soup from a small stall on the side of a road for breakfast tasted pretty good.

Bangkok Part 1

Bangkok is renowned for its food, especially its street food. Everyone in Bangkok seems to be eating something every moment of the day, whether it be simple grilled chicken, son tam salad. 

The only thing I hate about Bangkok is that is so hot and humid there. I really am not a hot weather guy. But it does give me an excuse to drink a lot of very cold beer. Always up for that. 

We were only in Bangkok for a few days, as heading more or less straight away to Cambodia.

We ate pretty well, nothing spectacular to note about any place we ate. I think there are too many places now, where they dumb down the heat in the food for us farang's. Which is a shame as I am addicted to spicy food. 

One place that I had heard about was a seafood restaurant and market. So I found the address on the internet and decided to give it a bash. This place is huge, they say it can seat over 1500 people. 

As you walk in, you can stand and watch the chefs cook the food for you. Really a joy to watch. 

You are shown to your seat, where someone explains the whole set up to you. You basically grab a shopping trolley and go shopping. You can have a personal shopper to help you choose the seafood, and help you on ideas for certain fish etc. We decided to shop alone. Their motto is "If it swims, we have it", and they are not joking. Never seen such a line up. Very impressive. 

So in true gutsy fashion, I picked too much. Well I consider 1 squid, handful of scallop meat, 2 of the biggest prawns I have ever seen, and there were bigger, bag of clams, and a few crab claws. Oh and a big bunch of Morning Glory not a lot. I could of carried on picking, but luckily Lina had her sensible cap on that evening and stopped me. 

You then go and pay, and believe me this place is not cheap. In fact its a bit of a tourist trap. You then go back to your table with your ingredients and then you are advised on how you would like them cooked. Either they only cook the fish one way or they think they know best, as I asked if the clams cold be cooked in a lemongrass and chilli broth. I was told no, as they do not do it that way. I let the guy advise us on the dishes from then on. Although, I asked for the prawns to be grilled and the crab claws to be cooked with a black pepper sauce. 

After a while the food started coming and coming and coming. Its at this point we realised how much food we had ordered. Doh !!!

The Morning Glory came fist, cooked with garlic and oyster sauce. Then the scallops and mushrooms again cooked in oyster sauce. Not what was agreed. The Clams were cooked in a sweet bean sauce with an aromatic vegetable. Then the Prawns came, these giants were cut in half and grilled. So so so so very meaty. The Crab Claws turned up nicely decorated on a plate and last but not least the grilled squid came as a finale. 

All were fantastic but the crab was not that good. But the prawns were the star of the show. I would return just to buy 4 of them and let them be grilled. May just do that.

After you have eaten you pay for any drinks and the cooking techniques and any other ingredients they used. So it turned out to be one expensive meal, but very memorable. 

Unfortunately no photos as the batteries ran out as we went to take a picture.