Christmas Day!

Christmas in Bangkok for 2009! So, here is a picture of the nice Christmas advent calendar which my mum so kindly sent me! It was my one and only Christmas decoration for my room!



This is also a picture of the best cashew nuts I have seen...why....not only were they delicious but the salt came seperate for those who don't like salt!!! Hooray!!!



This is the fruit mince pie I bought in Central World Plaza....I smelt them as I walked by and had to stop and buy one....so sooo good!




On Christmas eve I went to a midnight mass at an Anglican church in Saladaeng with some friends. Was in English and was a nice service. Then, on Christmas Day, I went to Centara Grand for a Christmas Day buffet lunch! Was soooo good! I had a plan of attack to avoid overeating....I stuck to the plan, but I may have eaten too much on eat plate! First was seafood




Second was bread and pates and the frois gras and the smoked pork thing which I'm not so sure exactly how to call it

Thrid was stews, casseroles, and other pot-cooked things....including a rabbit!

Forth was roast vegetables and meat...which was a turduken! And the bread I ate with it was amazing!

Last was dessert....this is a picture of the dessert centrepiece.....

And the cake stand

So I started with plum pudding, carrot cake, chocolate tart and something sweet like jelly

This is my friend's plate who sampled some of the other cakes...they just tasted like sweet he said.

Next I had fruit....artfully arranged by myself, with a fruit tarlet for good measure coz they looked good and tasted good too!

Finished with rasberry mousse

Here's a few pictures of the buffet....the cavery

The pig's head plate

And the bread and cheese...Freshfield's could definately have held their Christmas party here....cheeselovers eat your heart out at Freshfield's and this buffet!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!

And for those of you who need to stop at the 8 1/2 floor....please press this button and life will stop accordingly

After having a chat to Mum and had already spoken with Dad before I went to lunch, looked around the shops for a while....busy with everyone on dates and shopping etc etc....went to dinner at Zence, the bar on the 17th floor of Central World.....theme for Christmas night dinner....squid ink!

What's in here....bread! The black one is squid ink bread!

Caesar Salad to start

And suid ink ravioli filled with lobster and saffron cream sauce, and squid ink pasta with seafood and chilli....a mere $15 per person for this meal!

Wishing everyone the Happiest of Christmases. Hope you all had a wonderful day where ever you were:D

Ubon Rachatani

So my next adventure really was a random adventure. My friend's maid's sister was getting married and invited my friend and told her to bring a friend. I rang at exactly the right time and was invited and the next minute I found myself in the back seat of a hilux with no room at all for a 9 hour night time drive up to Ubon Rachatani in the NE of Thailand! Worst trip of my life in that ute!! Anyways, at 4:30am we arrived and finally sleep. Somewhere along this trip I managed to eat something bad, and got my first dose of food poisoning since arriving in Thailand....great timing....throwing up in a really complete stranger's bathroom! So, got to experience a Thai rural medical clinic....interesting.....anyways, I recovered enough to keep going with the trip. But, Isaan is not the best place to recover from food poisoning, because everything is either chilli or sticky rice....two things I did not want to eat the day after being violently ill! So, if you are not eating chilli, what is the next best thing to do after being sick? Yes, exactly....GO FISHING! Luckily, I didnt have to participate, as this involved stripping down to your undies and swimming in a dirty dam and getting the fish out of the net with your hand. But lucky me, I did get to look at hte fish and smell them....



Then they cooked some fish for us to try. Actually tasted ok!




We went to see the fishing at someone's house. So we went back to the main house area for lunch....pots hanging out to dry




And chickens around the house....they kept coming hear us which was horrible because the mother was VERY protective and felt the need to attack....well you should control your children if you're afraid of us hurting them....because THEY are the one's who VOLUNTARILY came near US....some parents just don't know they're children at all and are completely dilluded....humans and chickens alike.....




Isaan lifestyle is so relaxed....for example

And lunch....I didn't eat with quite so much enthusiasm today which is a shame because it all looked so good.....fish soup, the smallest bottle of fish sauce I have ever seen, and sticky rice

And homemade fish larb

And homemade som tam....yuuuum!

Later in the day we took the ute to town...on the way we stopped for icecream because the icecream guy happened to be riding down the road....here is my coconut icecream in bread!

And here is town....not sure what this town was called....but it's not far from Ubon Rachatani

So, in the end, I missed the wedding because it was Tuesday night and I had to leave Tuesday morning for a Tuesday night engagement in Bangkok.....would you believe it!! Anyways, it was still worth going because the people were so nice, especially as I met most of them whilst throwing up in their bathroom....great introduction! Here's a family shot!!

Miwako and Marika come to visit

Marika and Miwako came to visit for a couple of days so I showed them around. We did the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and all the usual tourist places, so Im not going to go into that, but rather focus on what we ate instead. The first night we went to a street restaurant for Isaan style food which proved a nice introduction to chilli for them!



The next day in between tourist sites, we had the world's best chocolate frappe and some snacks from Tha Chang from a really nice fruit seller who I will definately go back to, and also from Tha Prachan. Here's the world's best chocolate frappe



While Im talking about random good chocolate things, here is a picture of the hot chocolate and chocolate cheesecake I had from Coffee Bean by Dao which is on the 100 food secrets list and is also really famous for cheesecake in Bangkok. The hot chocoalte actually tasted like chocolate, and the cheesecake did too....so plus plus for them!



Um, and random side-thought.....but I had the best duck noodles near AAA Thai school too this week. 30 Baht...bargain and so goodl. And the man selling them was really nice too...return business guaranteed from me!



After they got back from Ayutthaya on friday, we went to T&K seafood and sat on the 1st and a half floor a kind of half floor in between the 2 floors with a very low ceiling.



Once again, this seafood was amazing!



After, we went to LeNotre to try the famous green-tea brulee covered in chocolate. Amazing amazing amazing. See how happy Miwako is!



After that class, we transcended a bit and went to 24 hours Sunrise Tacos in Sukhumvit!



Wow, here you can create your own supersize 1/2 kilo burrito! Here's how you do it.

Step 1: First take an orange form and select "supersize me" and then tell them what you want in your burrito



Step two: hand it to the waiter and tell him that you definately did tick supersize my burrito by choice and not by accident....and yes, you can eat the whole thing even your size may suggest otherwise, and no you would not like a side of chips and salsa with your supersize burrito, please just hurry up and start making my supersie burrito and stop talking to me......uuurggghhhhh

Step 3:reconsider the option to eat chips and salsa when you realise your friends actually ordered that.....sample to see if you made the right decision not to order.....



.....No, probably this was a mistake, you should have orded the chips and guachomole....the chips and random brown dip was probably a wise decision not to order though.....

Step 4: Look in amazement at the size of 1/2 a kilo of burrito sitting infront of you



Step 5: Look again and then enjoy




Step 6: Reconsider again why you ate chips and salsa before attempting 1/2 a kilo of burrito AND reconsider why you even ordered 1/2 a kilo of burrito to begin with.....uuurrrrrrrgghhhhhh....fulllllllll