Papa's Meal @ The Chill Park

At first I thought this rather cute and comfy family-runned cafe is an Italian restaurant... and I guess it's sort of is, to the extent of the use of pasta...but with a definite Thai twist. The result is dishes like Grilled Pork Carbonara, Baked Spaghetti Chicken Mussaman Curry with Cheese, Organic Greenshell Mussels Pesto Sauce with Cheese...as well as a large selection of more traditional Thai dishes. The dessert menu is also quite large, which would satisfy diners with a sweet tooth.

I couldn't go pass the Baked Spaghetti Chicken Mussaman Curry with Cheese - It just sounded so interesting. I certainly haven't had any curries with cheese before. I think the name explains it all.  I thought the mussaman curry could be a bit tastier, and I couldn't really taste the cheese. On the whole though, the dish was quite nice, and the curry very smooth. 90 baht.

Spaghetti Ki Mao - "Drunken" Spaghetti - The "Italian" version of the famous Drunken Noodles. This one has Thai taste all the way. Pasta with basil, chilli, garlic, fish sauce, and in this case, chicken. Very nice, full of flavour, and nice and spicy too!

My favourite, though, is the Seafood Tom Yum Black Fettucini - talk about awesome flavours - very delicious with smooth tom yum sauce, almost creamy. Mmmm. I'll definitely have it again when I go back next time. 95 baht.

With these two tasty dishes, no wonder I thought the mussaman curry was a little bland.

We did order a more traditional Thai dish - Gaeng Som Cha-Om Kai Goong - Acacia Omelette & Prawns in Sour (Tamarind) Soup. Normally, this is one of my favourite Thai dishes, but it was quite sweet here at Papa's Meal. 75 baht.

After a big meal, dessert was in order! The menu has quite a lot of scrumptious looking desserts. We opt for what seems to be a very popular dessert in Chiang mai recently, Honey Toast. Each cafe has their own version of the Honey Toast, which is basically a couple of very thick toast with honey, and topped with something. Papa's Meal has a healthyish version of this dessert - topped with fruits, and served with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice-cream. Quite nice, and you don't have to feel too guilty after this one! 95 baht.

The Verdict
A nice quiet little cafe with a big menu, and good food. Nice and friendly service, and reasonable prices. The food does take some time to arrive, so please be patient! : )

Papa's Meal
@ The Chill Park - on the 1st (Middle) Ring Road, opposite Big C Hangdong
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Papas-Meals-Chiangmai-Thailand/126670750842047
Tel: 081-950-9552, 081-530-8537
Opens: 10am-10pm
GPS: 18.742588,98.959984


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Khaomao-Khaofang Restaurant

"Imaginary Jungle" at Khaomao-Khaofang

One of my great pleasures is to spend a leisurely Sunday lunch with the family. Today, we head to Khaomao-Khaofang, quite a famous restaurant set in an "imaginary jungle", complete with waterfalls. It's one of those restaurants people like to bring their out of town guests to.

The setting is absolutely lovely. Beautiful large trees, gorgeous tropical garden, waterfalls. It's a man made jungle close to the city. The food is pretty good too - you can choose from a large selection of Thai food, often not seen elsewhere,  and also a nice selection of Thai desserts (and pretty good looking cakes too).

Quite a large variety of appetizers are on offer. We opt for:

"Pla Keun Tod Korb Samun Prai" - Deep fried naked cat fish (don't ask me what that is!) with crispy herbs. It must be one of the specialty dishes as this dish is featured on the cover of the menu. The fish came out looking great, served with chilli sauce, and topped with crispy noodles and various herbs. I find the fish nice and crispy, but quite dry. 190 baht.

"Mieng Gai Krob" - Crispy chicken with herbs wrapped in fragrant leaves. "Mieng" is referred to as bite sized snacks of various chopped up herbs, lime, chilli, ginger, etc wrapped up in Chaplu (Piper sarmentosum) leaves. What we do here is make little cones out of the leaves, then fill the leaves with the chicken / herbs mix. A lot of fun to eat. The sauce is very sweet so it would have been better if it is served separately so we can just add a little bit if we need to. 100 baht.

Other dishes we had: 

"Choo-chee prik pao goong sod" - Deep fried shrimps with roasted chilli paste. This is quite an interesting dish that I never had before. Shrimps stir-fried with crunchy beans, kaffir lime leaves, crispy pork skin and a LOT of "prik pao" chilli paste (as you can see from the photo!). It's a sweetish, spicy kind of dish which I quite enjoyed (mainly because I love "prik pao" anyway!). The beans and crispy pork skin gives a nice crunchy contrast to the prawns. 180 baht. 

"Yum Hed Ruam" - Mixed mushroom spicy salad - quite good. Nice mix of mushrooms and textures, and has all the right flavours. 100 baht

For those who has a sweet tooth, Kaomao-Kaofang has a nice selection of desserts to choose from. We decided to order the Banana fritters with sesame glaze - basically beautifully deep fried bananas served with syrup and sesame. Very nice, and the syrup isn't really needed. Yum! 130 baht. 

In the end, it was a very pleasant lunch. Beautiful, relaxing setting & good food. The service is nice and efficient. The price is slightly highish, but still quite affordable.

Kaomao-Kaofang Restaurant
181 Moo 7, Ratchaphreuk Rd, Nongkwai
Hangdong, Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 838444, 053 441908
Website: www.khaomaokhaofang.com
Opens daily: 11am-10pm

Khaomao-Khaofang has the most interesting toilet! 

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"Windmill Restaurant" or in Thai, "Ban Gunghun"

Am I in Holland? No…still in Chiang Mai. Welcome to one of the latest addition to the zillions restaurants in Chiang Mai - Ban Gung Hun (Ban = house; Gung Hun = Windmill). What a great concept - a variation to the ever popular outdoor restaurants by the lake so prevalent in Chiang Mai.

The food is good - just what you would expect from good Thai restaurants. People go there not to only enjoy the food, and also to see the Dutch style windmill - the trademark of the restaurant, and cute buildings.

"Windmill" Restaurant also have some interesting things on their menu. Incidentally, they serve both Western food (various sandwiches, pastas, etc) & Thai food (regular Thai favorites plus a few other "different" dishes. Generally, I wouldn't try Western food at these kind of restaurants (and I wouldn't recommend it either!) - not that I think they will be bad, but I have often been disappointed with "Thai style" Western food. Stick to Thai food, I'd say.

We order the specials of the day and take some recommendations from our lovely & friendly young waitress. (Not sure how the other waiters are though, but ours is very good & ready to help).

"Sai Bua Tom Krathi" - Lotus stem soup/curry with coconut milk. Apparently this is quite a famous and rather hard to find dish - so we have to try it! It turns out to be quite…interesting, but not unpleasant. I wouldn't recommend it to "farangs"/westerners though - unless you've been in Thailand for a while and you are a bit adventurous. It contains lotus stem & coconut milk, plus mackerel fish ("Pla Too"). The taste of the soup is kind of like a coconut milk + "Nam Prick Pla Too" (mackerel with shrimp paste chilli dip). LOL..hope this makes sense!

"Phra San Plang Chom"…er…what? First let me explain the name as it was explained to me. "Phra San Plang Chom" is apparently a figure in Thai legend. He is a person made from gold, but he goes into disguise and put on a mask that makes him look ugly. Fascinating, isn't it? So what is this dish? It's a sausage wrapped in patty made from prawns and the whole thing is deep fried. Served with plum sauce. It wasn't bad, actually. Just like deep fried prawn cakes + sausage. : D

"Yum" apple with prawns. "Yum" is the Thai style salad. This apple salad was really very good. Green apples are used, along with cashew nuts, capsicum, shallots, and topped with fresh mint. Very refreshing and flavourful - a perfect balance of the Thai flavors - sweet, sour, salty & spicy.

Last but not least, "Hor Mok Talay" , or seafood "hor mock" - a kind of dry seafood curry served in a coconut. Quite a common Thai dish, but not everyone does it well. "Windmill" Restaurant's "Hor mok" is very good, and the coconut was full of seafood - prawns, calimari, etc. They certainly didn't skimp on the ingredients. Good texture and tastes great.

The Verdict:

Lovely restaurant, good Thai food, pretty good service, a bit of a "different" ambience. Ladies should be aware that the restaurant is not stilettos or high heels friendly. It's quite hard to walk through the rocks in the car park in heels, and one of my heels got caught between the planks of wood on the bridge (in the 2nd photo)!

There are also lots of mosquitos outside in the early evening.

The bill came to 660 baht / 3 people, including a jug of beer.

The Rating:

The food: 6.5-7/10

The ambience: 6.5-7/10

Value for money: 7/10

Ban Gung Hun

433 M 4, T. Mae Hia, A. Muang, Chiang Mai

(On the 1st / Middle Ring Road, opposite Land & House Siwalee, between the Big C intersection & Canal Road)

Look out for the windmill! (1st photo)

Tel: 053 274800

Khao Soi Farham (Hang Dong Branch)

This branch of Khao Soi Farham is conveniently situated near a market just before the road that leads to Baan Tawai Woodcarving & handicraft village. The open air restaurant is quite nice and spacious, and importantly, clean!

The Khao Soi itself is not too bad - not as tasty as Lumduan and Samoer Jai. I found the soup spicy, but not very tasty. The good thing is this place offers self-serving condiments and veggies - so you can get as much as you want of these buffet style. 

We also tried Kanom Jean Nam Ngiew ( Kanom Jean or Somen noodles topped with a fishy curry with pork ribs). Normally, I don't really enjoy this dish, but this restaurant does it quite well and it was delicious! We initially ordered one dish to share/try and ended up ordering another one! Just a word of warning though, this is a rather acquired taste, but a more adventurous foodie may want to give it a try, or you may want to order one to try with the others on your table to see if you like it. : )

Dishes were from 30 baht, so pretty good value!