Lunch at Doi Saket Hot Springs

Eggs freshly boiled (self service!) in the hot spring water, crunchy fried chicken in herbal batter, sticky rice and papaya salad....this is today's menu at a little eatery next to the rice fields at Doi Saket Hot Springs.

Doi Saket Hot Springs is one of those lovely little places waiting to be developed into a tourist attraction. Most people who come here are locals, there are no entry fees to use the "park", and the scenery is quite picturesque - rice fields and mountains in the background, a small stream meandering through. A perfect place for a picnic and enjoy food at the eateries / food stalls.

There are more or less 3 stalls (and a rather cute looking coffee shop next door - somewhere to try next time!). For now, the fried chicken is what we're here for. We also order some papaya salad (a tasty salad full of Thai flavours - sour, sweet, salty, and spicy) and sticky rice....and fresh eggs to boil in the "egg boiling well".

It's a rather busy day, and the fried chicken came out rather slowly - but it's worth the wait. Crunchy and herby (possibly from coriander seeds), may be a bit too oily, but the chicken is delicious anyway, and goes down really well with the papaya salad & sticky rice. Mmm finger lickin' good!

The price is even better! It works out only about 150 baht for 4 people - about 35 baht each! Not bad for such a great meal. : D

Doi Saket Hot Springs (about 40 minutes north of Chiang Mai, on the way to Chiang Rai)

Doi Saket

Chaing Mai

Wasana Gaeng Pak Tai (Wasana's Southern Curry)

As lunchtime approaches, I catch a whiff of Southern Fried Chicken (Thai style!) from the Southern Thai food restaurant behind the office. The smell of deep fried garlic and herbs used to marinate the chicken is too much, and our salivary glands instantly go into overdrive! Next thing we know, we're on our way to this simple (and a little grubby) restaurant.

Several pots are already set up in the front table. This is today's menu - various types of curries, including Escargot Curry, which I wasn't too game to try out!

Ah, and here is what we come for - one of the yummiest fried chicken...ever. The chicken is marinated with a secret recipe of herbs and spices, as well as heaps of garlic. Actually, my favourite is the crunchy and quite salty deep fried garlic pieces. We often do take away, and go over to the market and buy some sticky rice to go with the chicken (and garlic!). Delicious!

This time, we opt to eat in. We also try this excellent and extremely spicy pork ribs curry. Warning! The food here is great, but almost every dish in this restaurant is extremely spicy!

For some great very spicy southern curry (and fried chicken), Wasana Gaeng Pak Tai is a good place to check out!

Please note: This restaurant isn't the cleanest! Eat there at your own risk!

Wasana Gaeng Pak Tai

Ruamchoke Market

Mae Jo Road

Coco Salad

Sometimes it's nice just to have a simple salad for dinner, so off we went to Coco Salad, a relatively new salad joint at Meechok Plaza, Chiang Mai. I've heard lots of good things about this place, and in fact, I've been there before and enjoyed one of their Grilled Pork Salads - very delicious and tasty dressing, from what I remember.

Today, it's going to be a made to order salad. For the base salad, you can choose 8 ingredients from a variety of lettuce, and other components such as carrots, beetroot, pumpkin, almonds, etc. This will set you back 70 baht. Additional ingredients can be added at an extra charge. As you can see, the vegies are very fresh - lovely and crunchy.

There are also a variety of dressings to choose from. Being unable to decide, the friendly staff let us taste some of the dressings. I settled for the rather tasty Creamy balsamic dressing, I couldn't taste much of the balsamic vinegar though. I think they must have put a lot of salt - I'm still thirsty now (several hours later)!

For those who doesn't like vegetables, Coco Salad also has a variety of pasta and Thai dishes, so you can still come! : )

The verdict:

A good place if you love salads or need a vegie fix! Very clean restaurant, nice fresh vegies. May try a different dressing next time. My friend says the Japanese soy dressing is really good. Lovely friendly staff.

The Rating:

The food: 7/10

The ambience: 6/10

Value for money: 7/10

Coco Salad

Meechok Plaza (2nd floor of new building - above Wine Connections / Watson's)

Chiang Mai

Street Food - Pa Tong Go!

"Pa Tong Go" are kind of deep fried doughs that are shaped like an X - please refer to photo! You can find these sold in food carts all around Thailand in the early mornings and evenings (until sold out). Generally, your typical "Pa Tong Go" stalls also sell soy milk, and kaya (pandan leaf flavoured coconut jam - the green stuff! - see 2nd photo).

Best eaten hot! Freshly cooked, the Pa Tong Gos are crunchy on the outside & soft and steamy on the inside. You can dip them in soy milk, or have them with your pandan leaf kaya. Alternatively, have them with a cup of coffee, or dipped in sweeten condensed milk. Sometimes we take them home to put in our congee - like crutons.

I found this particular stall very interesting. They are located in a little lane near Wororot Market. In addition to your regular "X" shaped Pa Tong Go, they also have Dinosaur Pa Ton Go, Elephant Pa Tong Go and various other animal shaped ones as well!

Take them home to have with your breakfast, or enjoy them on the footpath!

2 bahts for the regular "X" Pa Tong Go, 20 baht for the Dinosaur. : D

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Saigon Oi! (originally Pho Saigon)

Saigon Oi! is my current favourite restaurant to go for lunch. In fact, I eat there at least 2-3 times per week. It's not just that this homey Vietnamese restaurant is only 2 doors down from my office (lazy me!), and air-conditioned, the main reason I go there is for their great clean, tasty and reasonably priced food. It's the sort of food you can enjoy everyday without feeling guilty!

Here are some of my favourites from Saigon Oi!

Sugar cane prawns with "Kanom Jean" (a kind of rice noodles). You can see the chilli, peanuts, etc on top. There is also the Vietnamese dipping sauce underneath. Mix it all up with your chopsticks and eat! A very light and refreshing dish. Some might find the sauce too sweet though. You can also have your "kanom jean" with other toppings eg. grilled pork marinated with lemongrass, beef, spring rolls, etc.

Vegetarian Fresh Spring Rolls - this is also rather gorgeous, and surprisingly filling due to the omelette and tofu. The sauce is thick and very yummy! I can just eat the sauce alone! They also have very good Fresh Spring Rolls with Prawns.

Deep fried Spring Rolls - This might be the only deep fried dish on the menu, and one of my favourite spring rolls in Chiang Mai! Very tasty, and deep fried so nicely - very crispy on the outside, and the pork filling so soft. Goes very well with the Vietnamese dipping sauce.

"Lad Na" - Rice noodles with eggs and Maggi sauce gravy, well, I think they use Maggi! Quite different from Thai style Lad Nas & very tasty and fragrant.

The Verdict:

A great place to go for simple, tasty and healthy Vietnamese food. The staff is lovely too, but they suffer a bit from staff shortage, so service can sometimes be a quite slow if there are a few customers.

The Rating:

The food: 7/10

The ambience: 6/10 (Nice clean restaurant, nothing fancy. You go there to eat.)

Value for money: 7/10 (Dishes are from 45 baht-around 75 baht for beef / prawn dishes)

Saigon Oi!

Shop 206/27 Meechok Plaza

Chiang Mai

Tel: 0815308224

Website

Baan Khun Mor (Vegetarian Cafe)

Have I mentioned that Chiang Mai must be the Vegetarian food capital of Thailand? I have no figures to substantiate this, but there are really a lot vegetarian restaurants here. Most of them are cheap, local cafe style restaurants.

We literally came across Baan Khun Mor by accident. I was taking a couple of friends to Wat Suan Dok, an interesting temple on Suthep Road (behind Chiang Mai University). There is a strip of vegetarian restaurants near the temple...and well, we happened to find parking in front of Baan Khun Mor.

What attracted us to the cafe is that it looks quite modern and clean. The waitress is ready to welcome us in front with a big smile. As we approach the shop, we realise that the waitress might be blind in one eye (we didn't ask her!). This is quite surprising, since most blind people I've seen tend to end up busking at markets. Kudos to the cafe owner for giving the lady an opportunity.

Anyway, let's talk about food! The menu is quite large, and contains a lot of yummy sounding dishes, and the usual Thai dishes including Kho Soi, Pad Thai, etc. The waitress wholeheartedly recommends the Pad Thai, so how can we resist? And yes, the Pad Thai is good.

Other choices are: Golden Needle Mushroom Omelette (very tasty); Yum Moo Yor ("Moo Yor" salad) . Moo Yor is a kind of Thai pork loaf. Vegetarian Moo Yor is quite pleasant, and actually tastes remarkably like the real thing, except for a more rubbery texture. The salad itself is quite lovely, and the flavours quite mild (for a Thai salad), and quite gentle on our tongues and stomach! (Note: We asked for "mai ped" - not spicy)

The Verdict:

Overall, a nice and satisfying meal. Nice clean restaurant / cafe. Friendly service. Good place to go if you're in the area.

The Rating:

The food: 7/10

The ambience: 7/10

Value for money: 7/10

Sorry, I forgot to get their details! ..But as I mentioned before, it's located on Suthep Rd in a strip of shops just up (going away from the old town) from Wat Suan Dok, opposite Chiang Mai University.

"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