Great Vegetarian Find in MBK (Bangkok, Thailand)

While I'm not a vegetarian at home, I tend to try and be as vegetarian as I can when traveling. I found a great vegetarian stall at the MBK food court that serves up some great veggie dishes at a great price. Loved it so much I had to go back the next day for lunch. 

Green curry with bamboo shoots and mushrooms and green bean
and soy curry over red rice

Some leafy greens (not a favorite), eggplant green curry, and winter melon
and mushroom curry over rice

Fish and soy sauce with diced chilies

Food Galore (Bangkok, Thailand)

Compilation of the yummy meals I had this time in BKK.

Chili and crab meat stir fry (Platinum Food Court)
Too mushy for me. Blah. 

Pork and wonton soup (MBK Food Hall)

Favorite street food breakfast: fresh squeezed
orange juice with sticky rice and  deep fried
chicken strips. So cheap and so good. 

Fried fish patty things at Chatuchak. One of
my all time favorite snacks.

Morning glory with chilies at Chatuchak Market

Not mine, but Christina's basil and pork over rice

Noodle soup with wontons by the On Nut BTS station

Delicious pad sew from Chatuchak

More pad sew from a restaurant by the Grand Palace

Hello from Thailand

I have a slight love affair with Bangkok. Just months after being here for Christmas, I am back. Food, shopping, markets, and malls, what more could I ask for. Dessert perhaps?

Tempting treats

Matcha cake

No clue what this was but it was from a restaurant at
a Japanese mall in BKK

Japanese desserts. Thai's love Japanese goodies.

Red bean and green tea frapps?
Why don't they have these back home?

Enough drooling: what I actually got to eat

Shaved ice dessert with coconut milk and jellies

White chocolate and macadamia nut cake from
Bake a Wish in Siam Paragon. Unfortunately it
looked better than it tasted.

Milk cake. Basically whipped cream on white cake. Blah. 

Nom Nom. Delima with coconut rice cakes.

My green tea and milk ice cream from a little
stall in Siam. Always a must during my visits. 

Little panda cakes from Siam

NaanOlicious (Edmonton)

To celebrate my birthday my friends treated me to a great dinner at NaanOlicious here in Edmonton. I've been to the restaurant before with Coel and enjoyed it so I thought it would be a nice and fun place to go to with the girls.

Mango lassi, Indian iced tea, rose syrup drink

For drinks we ordered the mango lassi, Indian iced tea, and a rose water soda drink for me (forgot the name). The drinks were served up in large glasses and were very refreshing and tasty. The Indian iced tea was an interesting mixture of tea, pineapple juice, and coconut and tasted almost like pina colada. My drink, the rose water one, was really different and had mixed reactions. My friends didn't like it but I thought it tasted really unique.

Veggie samosas drowned in sauces and toppings

Coconut curry mussels

In all we ordered the coconut curry mussels, shrimp with mango chutney shooters, fish pakora, veggie samosas, butterchicken poutine, keema naan (ground beef filled naan), butter naan, and garlic naan. The coconut curry mussles were amazing! While I don't care much for mussels, the curry sauce was flavorful and made a great dip for the naan. It tasted almost like a Thai curry and was topped with coconut flakes.The veggie samosas were also good but slightly overdone with all the different sauces and toppings.

Nom nom nom

Butterchicken poutine

The naan breads were soft and chewy which I love so I was a very happy eater. My favorite by far was the keema naan with the ground beef as it was soft and buttery. The butterchicken poutine which was also one of our favorites was topped with tons of flavorful butterchicken sauce. There was pretty much more curry and chicken chunks then there were fries but thats okay because the sauce made a good dip for the naan. The only thing that was a letdown were the shrimp shooters. They were nothing special and a little bit dry, but they were still good. I just wouldn't bother ordering them again. 

Fish pakora

Shrimp shooters with chutney

Overall we had a great meal and left happily stuffed. I like the creativity they put into each dish to make it fun and visually appealing. They also offer great value for your money with large portions so you can't go wrong with that. While I wouldn't consider their menu to be traditional Indian fare my any means, I enjoy the creativity and look forward to going there again.

And thanks again to Donna and Diana for dinner!

Fluffy clouds of joy

Pavlova

 

My friend Diana brought her KitchenAid over on the weekend so we could make mini pavlova!

We filled them with vanilla whip cream and topped with strawberries, kiwi, blueberry puree, and shredded coconut. The meringues were a little too sweet (recipe called for a cup of sugar) so we weren't able to eat them all up right away like we planned. Nevertheless they were good.

 



Homemade Yums

My attempt at the chocolate torta topped with hazelnut from Corso 32

 

 

I used the Corso 32 recipe posted in the local paper and am surprised it turned out pretty good. It wasn't as cakey as the original but I enjoyed the mousse texture. I will certainly be making this again.

The Burger Joint (Edmonton)

Location: near the intersection of 23 rd Ave 91st street on the south side (near Costco)

 

My friend and I visited The Burger Joint for the first time today and were happy and satisfied with our meal. The restaurant itself is located in a quiet business strip mall which is a bit unfortunate because it's a decent place that I would suspect would be very popular if it was located in a more visible and busier area. The restaurant itself is very casual with several tables where you can seat yourself and is brightly lit with simple modern decor.

 

I forgot to take a picture of it but there are check sheets on table where you check off what type of burger you want and pick the toppings and sauces. There are several burgers to choose from (beef, grilled chicken, buffalo chicken, breaded chicken, lamb, donair, double beef, veggie) along with at least 14 different sauces and at least 20 burger toppings (cucumber, roasted corn, grilled mushrooms, veggies, etc). There is also a list of premium burger toppings for around a dollar which included different cheeses, calamari rings, portabello mushrooms etc. The burgers without the addition of premium topping range from 6.99 to about 8$, very reasonable. I liked it because there was a large range of complementary burger toppings which included more than the typical lettuce and tomatoes.

We had a coupon for free fries which the purchase of a burger so that was a nice bonus. The fries came with a side of ketchup and this really good mayo/onion/pepper dip. They also had several shakers up at the counter where you could season your fries (cheese power stuff, vinegar, Cajun spice, hamburger spice, onion power, etc).

My friend order the grilled chicken burger with cheese, mushrooms, lettuce, and spicy bbq sauce. She said it was really good and very filling.

My burger (8$) consisted of a homemade beef patty, lettuce, tomatoes, feta, mushrooms, black and green olives, roasted corn, and cucumber. I really enjoyed it and it wasn't greasy and didn't leave me feeling gross afterwards.

For the love of....

Amazing treats from Elm Cafe in Edmonton before the Raj Patel talk at
UofA International Week. Creme brulee, AB beef crostini, duck and
cranberry, and sweet pear crisps with goat cheese, beet, and dill.

Green tea and red bean mochi from T&T brand

Green tea mochi with red bean and whipped cream filling

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

No week is complete without a stop at Duchess. Banana pie with vanilla
bean whipped cream

What a beauty. Raspberry macron with fresh raspberries and rose ganache

Co Co Ichibanya (Siam Paragon, Bangkok, Thailand)

I ate at Co Co Ichibanya in Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok last time I was here and was looking forward to finally taking Coel during our Christmas vacation. Co Co mixes some of my favorite foods (egg, rice, and curry) into one yummy, satisfying dish.

 

Thai's love Japanese things so it's kind of fun being in Bangkok and trying a range of Japanese inspired food without having to be in Japan (eg the Japanese desserts I blogged about and Co Co)

I love plastic food menu things

Omelet with fried chicken, rice, and Japanese curry. Sorry about Coel's hand,
he gets a kick out of trying to ruin my photos.

Pork cutlet with cheese and Japanese curry over rice