Adventure #241: Gaucho Steak Restaurant

Went with a couple of friends to try out this new joint from the UK. Gaucho serves mainly Argentinian steaks.

The décor is dark with leather - cow skin but I didn't really captured in in these photos.  Loved the lights though.

Waitress came over with the raw meat selection.......looks all the same to me!

Loved the bread. The round ones are cheese bread, so rich but so good.

A selection of starters to share. Not a salad fan, I much preferred the melted cheese thingy (forgot the name of this dish). Not thinking about the waistline tonight......

The ladies (2 of us) shared the Gaucho Tasting Plate, so we could have a taste of the 3 most popular cuts chorizo, ancho and caudril.  They are all good but I think I like ancho better........

The guys were more adventurous (also a much bigger stomach) had the Tira de Ancho - spiral cut, slow grilled with chimichurri. 500g of pure beef!!! This is really good but I think a bit too much for 1 person.

Hand cut chips with truffle oil and chives. They initially gave us the wrong one which we complained of not smelling of truffle at all. Then they replaced it.  Strong truffle aroma, delicious.

A early birthday surprise!

Good food, good service.  Heard the set lunch portions are smaller.  Will return to try that.

Gaucho Steak Restaurant
5/F, LHT Tower
31 Queens Road
Central
Hong Kong
Tel: 2386 8090

Adventure #240: Prajak 新記 (Bangkok)

We usually have our crab meat wanton noodle at Soi 38 but this time we were told about this one on Charoen Krung Road.  A very interesting road full of old and interesting shops.  A bit off the usual tourist spots but an interesting detour.

The grilled duck is very tender and juicy.  We had seconds!

The wonton noodle on the other hand is a bit dry. We still prefer the one on Soi 38.

Prajak
1415 Charoen Krung Road
(near Robinson Bangrak on the opposite side of the road)
Bangkok
Thailand

Adventure #239: Som Tam Nua (Bangkok)

When we first started to visit Bangkok, we used to hang around Siam Square. Siam Square these days is a lot different but one thing remained - Som Tam Nua.

Always a queue

A must - traditional sticky rice in bamboo basket

North East Style Spicy Soup with Pork Bone - amazingly good

Northern Thai sausages. Sausages itself is tasty, don't know how to eat with the rest.....

Grilled pork neck - pork was moist and tender. Great with the dipping sauces.

Fried chicken - very tasty

And another must have - Som Tam. Personally not a fan of Som Tam but it is refreshing and good as a starter

Som Tam Nua
392/14 Soi Siam Square 5
Rama 1 Road
Bangkok
Thailand

Adventure #238: Le Du (Bangkok)

Wanted to take the kids to try Gaggan but since it moved up (to No. 3) Asia's Best 50 restaurants lists we were unable to get a table for when we were in Bangkok. Neither could we get Nahm which is No. 1 on the 2014 list. 

Looking through some local guides, we found Le Du and this one appears to be a rising star. Guess we had better try this before it made the list!

Set in a low rise apartment in a residential area away from the main street.

Nice and cozy décor inside.

A separate seating area for drinks or to wait.  The restaurants itself is not big either with maybe 6-8 tables of 4s.

The menu is not extensive.  So we ordered 3 tasting menu which all cover almost all of the dishes on the menu.

These were the 3 starters:

Thai Andaman tuna with lemon oil, tomato confit, lemongrass and basil. Different and refreshing.

"Phu Lae" Pineapple with radish, nuts, shrimp and pork powder, mint and smoked coconut milk. Pineapple is extremely sweet. With the shrimp and pork powder, this dish has a very Asian flavor to it.

Thai style pate with rice paper, Chinese plum, galangal, white ginger and Sriracha.  Beautifully presented. Can't remember what we ate!

The 3+3 mains:

Wild mushroom with free-range egg confit, acacia pennata, pickled oyster mushroom, bottle gourd, chilli, Thai fermented fish and bacon. Anything with egg is always loved by G. Delicious, lots of flavours.

Seabass with celery puree, sunchoke, pickled lemon zest, Siam tulip and extra old fermented soybean.

Blue swimming crab and black truffle wonton with fried garlic, bok choy and scallion. Everyone loved this dish. Pity it is so small!

 

Local Ostrich with tamarind, winged bean, sticky rice, chili paste and roasted rice. Not a big fan of ostrich but it turned out OK.

Dark soy chicken with pandan, roasted sesame, cucumber and smoked goat chili gel. Chicken looked dry but was actually ok.

Local Kurobuta pork 180 days pineapple wine fed with corn custurd, sweet corn salsa, baby corn, cashew nut and blackcurrent jus. Interesting dish.

The 3 desserts:

Coconut charcoal cheesecake with lemon tart gel and spiced coconut ice cream

Roselle sorbet with banana and honey gel, sponge cake, short bread and caramel

Mooncake with custurd ice cream, nut, salted egg gel and flower tea

We think their starters and mains were much better than the desserts.  Nevertheless, very good food for a reasonable price. Good service and nice atmosphere.

Le Du
339/3 Silom Soi 7, Bank Rak
Bangkok 10500
Thailand
Tel: +66 92 919 9969

Adventure #237: Pork Noodle (Bangkok)

Someone told us about this pork noodle place and so we decided to seek it out for lunch. It is just a few doors away from the new Double Tree Hotel by Hilton. Not difficult to find.

Long gan drink (left) and chrysanthemum tea drink (right). The drinks were kept extremely cold by keeping the whole glass in the fridge! Ingenious idea and perfect for the hot weather in Bangkok.

Pork noodles with all the accompaniments. The fish balls were not bouncy but very soft, like the ones we had in Penang.

Delicious! Love the drinks!

Adventure #236: Eat Me (Bangkok)

I have been very busy the last few months and as such I am once again behind (extremely behind!) in my posting.  Back in September, G said he really needed a break and luckily our super travel agent came through for us yet again by getting us tickets to Bangkok over the October National day holiday.

Bangkok only means 3 things for us: Food, Art and Shopping (in that order!).  So, before we even left home, G started to make restaurant bookings.  Unfortunately some of our favourite restaurants were already fully booked but we did managed to book a few.

We went to Eat Me for the first night in Bangkok for an early celebration of the little one's upcoming birthday. It took us a little while to find it as it was a short walk away from the main street.

It's a whole different world inside!

 

We weren't going to order starters, preferring instead to have desserts. But the waiter said we must try this black chicken salad with red papaya, toasted coconut, chilli, lime and betel leaf.  And he was right! It was delicious! A burst of wonderful flavours.

Australian wagyu beef tenderloin with gorgonzola cheese and red wine onion for G. He loved this. Beef cooked to perfection - after G insisted the chef be told that he wanted medium rare European style! Hahaha

Line caught Japanese black cod with spicy coconut cream for me. Cod is sweet and tender.

Australian salt bush lamb rack with roasted sunchoke, chevre cendree and hazelnut for the older one. It was so good, she didn't want to share!

The little one had crispy skin duck confit with yellow beetroot, fennel and banyuls gastrique. Said it reminded her of our summer in France! The duck was literally crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Yum!

The duck together with her favourite side dishes - the little one had her birthday wish come true!

Sticky date pudding -  soooo good!

Creme burlee for the older one. nice but so rich.

And a thick chocolate cake on the house for the little one! Happy birthday again!

And a nice espresso to end a wonderful meal!

Great food and great service. We will be back!

Eat Me

Alley, Silom, Bang Rak

Bangkok 10500

Thailand

Tel: +66 2 238 0931