Tom Yam Soup @ Vivocity

I just came back from Bangkok, but hardly had much Thai food there.

So.....

no more lor mee!

I am now hooked on tom yam!



Thai Express @ #B2-30



I was a little disappointed when the tom yam noodle soup (SGD9.90) arrived - it was so colourless and plain! It could have passed off for seafood soup from the foodcourt!


But, it sure packed a fiery spicy punch! It was seriously way too spicy for even my hardened taste buds. In fact, the spiciness overwhelmed all the other flavours, so it sure didn't taste like the tom yam that I was looking forward to. I like my tom yam soup with subtlety of flavours with a hint of fish sauce, hint of lemongrass, hint of spice, hint of sourness.



The mango sticky rice dessert (SGD5.90) was generous, with a whole mango placed on top. Pity they did not remove the skin of the mango before serving it, so it was a bit fiddly having to scoop the mango flesh out. Also, the mango was not sweet at all. It was not fibrous, and was in fact quite smooth, but too bland.

Thai Accent @ #02-145

This place had a much nicer ambience, with a view of the shorefront, facing Sentosa, nice wooden furniture, and soothing music from the CD which features songs by the Thai king.

Their Tom Yam Noodle Soup (SGD12.90) was much better. It came in the typical lovely reddish hue, and it contained various herbs which added fragrance to the dish. I could taste the variety of complementary flavours, including my beloved fish sauce (to which I admit I am very partial). It was also quite spicy, seeing that they add fresh and dried chilli peppers to it.

However you can scoop them out before they add too much spiciness to the soup. I find that the dish is much spicier at the end than at the beginning because the chilli peppers would have somehow added a lot more spice through osmosis.

The mango sticky rice (SGD5.90) was great. The mango was sweet, and there was the addition of some crunchy coconut or rice husks or something, which added an interesting texture to this dessert. Loved it.

VERDICT: since the prices are not that much different, I'd go for Thai Accent. Both places have a promotion for credit cards from Standard Chartered bank, but at Thai Accent, it is an outright discount but at Thai Express, they give you a complimentary dish.