Magical Garden Cafe (now closed)

It was a nice breezy night as we entered an lovely cafe with several bamboo salas scattered around the leafy garden. Each sala has a name on it - these are gifts from generous donors from Singapore who supported the Magical Light Foundation, a non-religious, non-profit organisation that is dedicated to building schools for underprivileged children in Northern Thailand and Myanmar. The proceeds from Magical Garden Cafe is used to support Magical Light Foundation's projects to help educate local and hill-tribe children.

Within 6 months of opening, Magical Garden Cafe has shot up to rank no 6 of listed restaurants in Chiang Mai on TripAdvisor. I was curious if the cafe lived up to its fame when my trusty foodie friends took me to have dinner there.

The ambience was certainly very nice and relaxed. Peter and Shii Hua, the people behind the foundation and the cafe, were very friendly. The food by Chef Noi, a local Thai chef, was great. The food did come out quite slowly, but was worth the wait.

First up to quench our thirst - Strawberry Fruit Shake. 55 baht. Nice and refreshing blend of strawberries and ice, very thick, almost like a thick shake! Didn't have to ask for "mai wan" ("not sweet"). I wouldn't mind some now, actually.. since it's been SO hot!

The spicy fries (45 baht). Very nicely done, dusted with paprika to give a slight punch (very slight!). The Seasonal Greens salad (85 baht) - very fresh and lovely with the honey mustard dressing. There are also two other choices of dressings - Thai and Oriental Soy Sauce. 

The Bruschetta (75 baht)  - Tomato and Basil & Mashed Eggplant with hard boiled egg served on Toasted Baguette. The tomato and basil bruschetta was very good, but I loved the mashed eggplant with hard boiled egg.. that was WOW!  I was quite amazed that eggplants and eggs go so well together!

The Hummus was lovely too. (75 baht). You have a choice of chickpeas, broccoli, or roasted tomatoes hummus, served with cucumber and carrot sticks. We opted for the chickpea hummus, which was really great.

Magical Garden Cafe also has some Thai dishes. We had the Crispy Morning Glory Salad. (65 baht) which consisted of deep fried morning glory leaves in a Thai dressing - tangy, slightly spicy, salty, all in one. Very nice and loved the crunch!

The verdict:

I really like Magical Garden Cafe. The ambience is lovely, and the food is great too! The servings are on the small size (more like snack sizes), but that also means we can try many dishes. The food did come out quite slowly, so please be patient. Very nice, dedicated, friendly staff.

The proceeds, as mentioned earlier, does go to a great cause to help underprivileged children get an education, and Peter and Shii Hua are doing an excellent job keeping everything running.

If you would like to volunteer or help in anyway, please talk to Peter and Shii Hua. They would really appreciate it, so will the children!

Magical Garden Cafe
24 Sriwichai Rd,
Suthep, Chiang Mai 50220
(Behind Wat Suan Dok)
Tel: 093 135 3288
Opens daily (Except Wednesdays) 5pm-10pm
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/magicalgardencafe/

Note: Magical Garden Cafe will be close during Songkran 2014 for renovations. Please check their Facebook page for details!



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Mixology Bar and Grill

I first "saw" about Mixology from..Instagram! I would never thought of Instagram is a place where we can find new restaurants to try, but there was Mixology, featured in a few of fellow Chiang Mai foodies' photos. It's definitely a photogenic place!

May be it was the warm, quirky look of the bar/restaurant, the creative presentation of the food, or may be it was Junior, the bar's resident dog at attracted me to look into it further, and I found a very enthusiastic review, so of course I had to visit!

I wasn't disappointed at the first look. It's a very cosy looking place, and certainly very unique. The bar / restaurant itself is quite small with only a few tables. A I received a very warm welcome from a friendly waitress.

The waitress recommended their signature dish, the Mixology Chiang Mai Burger. A patty of minced pork spiced with various "Chiang Mai herbs" in a pandan sticky rice "bun"! The dish came out very nicely presented, with some greens and "kab moo" (deep fried pork rinds - a very popular local snack). As for the flavour, I can only say it's unusual. Perhaps it wasn't the taste that I expected. The ingredients were obviously very fresh and of good quality, and the vegies very lovely! The serving was slightly small, but that wasn't a problem. 160 baht.

For a starter / snack, we ordered Buffalo Wings, served with sweet chilli sauce. I rather enjoyed this dish. The wings were nicely made and tasty. I didn't need the sauce. If you're expecting an American style buffalo wings, you may be disappointed because this one is definitely Thai style!

And last but not least, I had to try some of their signature cocktails, after all, this is what Mixology is famous for. I decided to go for the sinful sounding Sin Angle - a very mellow and refreshing mix of peach schnapps, apple schnapps, fresh apple, lime & syrup. It wasn't overly strong, and I really enjoyed it. 220 baht/glass.

There are also other dishes on the menu I'd love to go back to try, like the Mixology Potato Skin with a Northern Thailand twist  - you can choose from toppings of Northern Sausages, Grilled Pork, Sour Cream and Sweet Chilli (which is now sounding quite traditional!) and Nam Prik Ong (a local chilli dip). The Nam Prik Ong one sounds great, actually.

Mixology Bar and Grill is definitely a place I'd like to go back to and hang around with friends and sip cocktails!

Junior! 

Mixology Bar and Grill
61/6 Arak Rd, Phra Singh, Chiang Mai  (Old City)
Tel: 0882613057, 0830706190
Tue-Thurs: 3pm-12am
Fri-Sun: 11am-12am

Map: coming soon! Sorry, Google Maps isn't co-operating today!

Mao Dok Mai / The Drunken Flower

Happy New Year! Wishing all of you dear readers a wonderful 2013 with lots of happiness, joy, and lots of great food! 

After the Christmas and New Year excess and parties, what's a more appropriate way to start the year by reviewing Mao Dok Mai aka The Drunken Flower - Nice and cosy pub / bar with a good selection of drinks and beer, groovy music and interesting and yummy snacks. 

I went on a Sunday night - by far not their busiest nights, with only a few patrons when I was there. A lovely black labrador came to greet me as I sat down to wait for my friend.

Looking through the drinks menu, I spied a drink called "The Drunken Tom-Yum"- Sangsom, lime, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, soda. I just had to try it! It turned out to be very pleasant, refreshing and easy to drink drink, tangy and slightly spicy, but not "strong" at all - which is fine with me.  95 baht.

What to order is the next big question. Luckily, they had some recommendations which included:

Mao Dok Mai - smoked pork loin with wasabi, shoyu sauce, carrots and celery. 85 baht. Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? The dish turned out to be quite a bit bit smaller than expected, and not exactly what I imagined. It was quite interesting though, but the wasabi smeared around the pork cubes was quite overpowering. The whole thing was a bit like chewy salmon sashimi with lots of wasabi.

Beef Burger With Drunken Sauce. 85 baht. Also quite small. I suppose smaller dishes meant we could try more things! The curious thing about this burger was that there was no bread. The waitress explained..."Yes, it's a breadless burger!" LOL.

This little burger patty was topped with "drunken sauce" which turned out to be a tomato salsa with thai flavorings (lime, etc). This "burger" was actually very nice - very tender and moist patty - very well cooked, and tasted great too. Served with a very nice and fresh side salad.

Still felt quite hungry, we asked for a recommendation from the waitress - something that patrons like to order. She said unhesitatingly, "Grilled Beef with Drunken Sauce", 95 baht. She also told us that this was going to be a more substantial portion.

This was our favourite dish for the night. Sliced grilled beef, very nicely flavoured, topped with the same tomato salsa drunken sauce. This time we could taste a lot more of the tanginess of the sauce, or rather, dressing. It would be a really nice snack to have with beer.

Other regular Thai dishes are also available, as are Mexican dishes. Vegetarian (as in tofu) versions of some dishes are available too. I haven't tried their Mexican food, but if you have, please tell us what you think in the comment section below. :-)

For music lovers, there is live music at The Drunken Flower on Wed-Sat nights from 9pm. Other nights - music is played from their vinyl collection.

Mao Dok Mai / The Drunken Flower
28/3 Soi 17 Nimmanhaemin Rd
T. Suthep, A. Muang, Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 894210, 081 716 6036
Opens: 5pm till midnight



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Kuay Tod Yod Heng (กล้วยทอดยอดเฮง​) - Fried Banana Shop

Crunchy coconut and sesame batter on the outside, sweet and soft semi-ripe banana on the inside. This oh-so-good snack is another typical street food in Thailand. It's not something I have everyday - deep fried banana fritters are not exactly great for the waistline (even if you're eating fruit!). Once you start, its quite hard to stop!

Kuay Tod Yod Heng (roughly translated as "Very lucky deep fried banana fritters" - I just love the way Thai people name their shops) was first discovered by my father. He was having lunch at his favourite beef noodle shop when he saw a big queue next door. Just like any good foodies, he decided to investigate, and voila, there was Kuay Tod Yod Heng.

From the menu board, it seems they also sell noodles (haven't tried it), but bananas are definitely their specialty. They do grilled bananas as well that also look pretty good (and healthy!). 

...But I was there for the Kuay Tod (fried bananas). Asking the lady owner for her "secret", she mentioned using cake flour. The Kuay Tods were definitely great, with the mild aroma of coconut and sesame in every crunchy bite. The bananas had a firm texture, but still soft and sweet, and not squishy (as you would get in very ripe bananas). She also gave us some deep fried sweet potatoes, but I like the bananas better; and also lots of bits of deep fried batter at the bottom of the bag (yum! - I think this might be the best bit! ). 20 baht/bag.

Definitely very good Kuay Tod, and I'm craving for some right now!

Kuay Tod Yod Heng
Chiang Mai-Doi Saket Road (118) between the Middle Ring and Outer Ring (121) Road, just before PTT Station.
For location on Google Maps, click on the "Location" link below.
Tel: 089 4334571, 081 724 3885