Wineshark weekly - 14 Aug 2011

Some may wonder whether I decided not to write this weekly anymore. No, of course not! Only that I have been out of town in the last two weekends so did not have time and energy to properly write something on this blog. What an excuse!! Haha...

I celebrated my birthday in Bangkok last weekend with my wife, and obviously we went out to different places to eat. Throughout the years I think I have been in Bangkok for more than 25 times but it is still a city I like going back. The first stop we revisited the famous seafood restaurant Somboon. Located in Bantadthong near the National Stadium, this is their original one but now there are five in different parts of Bangkok. The fried curry crab and tom yam is still as delicious, and the price very reasonable. Five dishes and drinks only cost Baht 1200.

Many people will go to Chinatown to have shark's fin and bird's nest. I went instead to Scala in Siam Paragon as they offer me a nicer environment and the owner David Lau is a friendly fellow HKer. Their shark's fin soup is not as thick and concentrated as the others, with low sodium and oil, yet still tasty. After the meal we also had the bird's nest in young coconut. Really good and I strongly suggest to try this dessert. Prices are a bit steep, with the meal (3 dishes, 2 bird's nest plus drinks) costing us Baht 5800.

Another Thai restaurant I recommend and go very often is Ban Khun Mae. At the back of Siam Centre and near Novotel, the restaurant is decorated in traditional Thai house style. The food is good and they also have some people playing Thai music. Overall a tourist restaurant yet still a place I frequented often and continue to do so. Mango and sticky rice is my favorite there.

Besides those we also went to different restaurants, like Aoi and Manny in Siam Paragon (a good Japanese and Thai restaurant) and also the wine bar in Pullman hotel. My wife had a good steak and I got some nice mussels. By now I think you can understand why I gained so much weight...

Coming back to HK we had our 8th lesson in cooking yesterday, and I made a wonderful Pork Fillet Mozzarella with Vegetable Potato Kugel. Difficult to deep fried the pork fillet using a small frying pan (yes, deep fried, not just pan fried) to avoid the oil spilling over and caught fire! Only me dare to do this in the class, others just let the teacher do it using a big wok. Even if a bit brown still think it is acceptable! A good job yet again (sorry for my self-congratulatory tone!).

Highlight of the week was obviously the dinner with my friends in Fofo by El Willy. Near Lan Kwai Fong, it has very good Spanish food and wine. Too involved in the party so I did not take pictures of the dishes but definitely a place I will go again. Thanks buddies!!

Not been drinking much recently because of all these traveling. Will catch up and stay tuned for my blog on the coming wine tasting - Santenay and Chassagne-Montrachet next week!