Kha @ Hort Park

Kha Modern Thai Cuisine @ Hort Park, 33 Hydrabad Road #02-02 is a newly opened restaurant.

PL gave us girls a treat! Thanks!

This is the fried banana flowers (SGD10) - a recommended dish by PL and was seen on almost every table. It was very good, very light and crisp - like eating air.

This is the grilled chicken skewer salad (SGD16) It was good but expensive for the small portion.

Tom Yum Soup (SGD16) - again, nice and tasty, 1 big prawn but for that price, I thought it would have been a bigger portion. This portion could only feed 1.

This is duck curry with fruit like tomatoes (SGD28) - tasty and rich.

Black glutinous rice pudding with ice cream (SGD12) - it tasted more like a brownie to me. I thought there would be a pulot hitam type dessert. There were some hard bits in the brownie, which is probably the black glutinous rice.

Mango with glutinous rice - SGD14 - ordinary.

Coconut Creme Brulee with pumpkin - SGD12 - best dessert of the lot, the creme brulee was smooth and fragrant.

Generally, I think the food is good, but very expensive for the portions served. Particularly since the place is pretty out of the way, I would have expected it to be cheaper.

Thai Accent @ Vivocity

I quite like the food here - Thai Accent, #02-145. I had the tom yum last time and liked it.

It's quite affordable and it's usually not crowded or noisy so it's quite a nice respite.



I started with their spicy and tangy tom yum soup (SGD9.90). Very spicy, my tastebuds are still tingling!

I ordered green chicken curry (SGD12.90), and then decided to eat it with thin kway teow instead of rice.

See, I made my own Khanom Jin (which is type of traditional thai rice noodle dish eaten with one's choice of curry).

It was really quite a spicy meal, so although I was already quite stuffed, I decided to have a red rubies dessert (SGD4.90). It was creamy, sweet, and cold, just the thing to soothe my palate. The ingredients were very generous, with slices of jackfruit and lots of water chestnuts in green and red tapioca jelly.

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.

Drinks and Dinner @ Raffles Place

(Author's Note: Mr L, who is really a simple unassuming person, has emailed to say that he is worried that the words italicised below would cause readers to think that he was boasting. I would like to assure everyone that Mr L was not boasting in any way. The fact that he is concerned about this speaks volumes about his modesty.)

Met up with an ex-colleague for celebratory drinks and dinner (Congrats on the big CA win, Mr L!). He was understandably still chuffed from his victory and as he described each clever strategy and manouvre, I felt a little bereft at having foregone this past life. A slight sense of nostalgia had already crept up on me as I walked the streets of Raffles Place. And now, as Mr L relived his moment of glory, I couldn't help but recall those days when I was on a perpetual treadmill of papers and submissions and research. Each appearance in Court was exciting and ever so satisfying (Now, I get my kicks from Godiva chocolate, haha).

We went to Superfamous, a cafe and bar outside OCBC building, my choice. Happy Hour prices from 5 pm to 9 pm where martinis and champagne cocktails were going for SGD1o instead of the usual SGD15-SGD18.

I started with a lychee martini and Mr L had a starfruit martini (made with blended starfruit). Later we each had a champagne cocktail.

If you get here early enough (between 5-7 pm), they serve complimentary mini wagyu burgers (usually SGD5 each) with each drink that you order. We arrived slightly past 7 pm and were too late to take advantage of this promotion.

I tried to charm my way into getting a free burger. The first waiter said he couldn't because they've already refused other tables. POUT. This waiter is an idiot. I will try again. And this time, the waiter checked with the manager and... SUCCESS! Free burgers! Ooh, they were piping hot, toasty buns with tender and fatty patties with onions too. Delicious. More so cos they were FREE. Even more so cos I managed to get something despite the difficult circumstances.

DINNER AT BOAT QUAY

This new Thai place was not too bad, and very cheap. It's on Circular Road, which is just behind Boat Quay.

Pad Thai for SGD5.90. It was quite a generous portion, and quite spicy. Not a bad choice for a post drinking binge.

Seafood Tom Yum soup (SGD4.90). Enough for 2 full bowls, I recommend that you share this. Spicy and tangy.

Pandan chicken (SGD3.90). 4 pieces of crispy greasy chicken. Not fantastic, but pretty good value for money.

We didn't have room for dessert.

UNSCRUPULOUS TAXI MAN

At 930 pm, there were many taxis trawling Circular Road, but all refused to stop as they were clearly cruising for on-call fees (if you call to book, it earns them an extra 3 dollars).

Fine. So I stop this silver premier cabby and say, I will pay you the on-call fee if you take me. I thought, saves me the time to call, and he gets the full fee rather than to share it with the taxi company.

BUT, this unscrupulous cabby insisted on being paid an extra SGD5.20, being the fee for advance booking of more than 30 mins. His greed knows no boundaries! I am appalled at his audacity.

I didn't want to argue. I asked for a receipt.

He wrote one out... and left out his taxi licence plate number.

Argh.

Patara Fine Thai Cuisine @ Tanglin Mall

I enjoy Thai food a lot. I think it makes good use of spices in its cooking, and one can usually taste a burst of flavours on one's palate when eating Thai food - hot, sour, spicy, sweet.



Patara Fine Thai Cuisine (Tanglin Mall, 3rd Floor) has a good selection of very good Thai desserts - dessert buffet for SGD7, and also serves very good authentic Thai dishes.



DH and I used to frequent the branch at Raffles City, but since a very embarrassing incident which occurred sometime back, DH and I have never returned to that place.



I happened to be at Tanglin Mall during lunch, and found that Patara Fine Thai Cuisine wasn't at all crowded, and was a good place to have a tranquil quiet lunch for one.



I ordered the tom yam kung (SGD12), which was very good. Tart, spicy and chockful of fresh seafood. There was squid, cod, prawns, all very tasty. It wasn't too sour, wasn't too spicy. There was a slight hint of lemongrass, which was delicious. I drank up every drop.



Then I had the pad thai woon sen (SGD18), thai fried noodles with transluscent mung bean noodles (known locally as tung hoon). One can also choose to have traditional pad thai with thin rice noodles. It was a large portion, which can be shared between 2 or 3. It was very well fried with a wok-fragrance that comes with good control of the fire.



The dessert buffet (SGD7) was extensive. I chose my favourites - the mango sticky rice, steamed sweet tapioca drizzled with coconut milk, and pandan pudding. All were very good. I later also had a serving of Thai red rubies, made of waterchestnuts in coconut milk.



I was almost too full to walk out.



Now that I have found a nice quiet respite in Orchard Road, I think I will be going back quite often.