The most enjoyable things that we ate get their own pages that are linked to below. Other, less notable foods (!) are all grouped together on this page, down past the links.
| Kan Eang 2, seaside seafood, isn’t that like … kitschy? 🙂 |  |
| Natural Restaurant, good food in spite of the “woo woo” name. |  |
| Chili Paste Tour, street food and more in old Bangkok. |  |
| Thip Samai, where those truths we held self-evident came crashing down on the wok (wrapped in the thinnest omelet ever.) |  |
| Arawy, vegetarian food, in a Buddhist country… Imagine! |  |
Hotel / resort food
The stereotype is that most hotel restaurants don’t have to try very hard because they have a captive audience. Here are a couple of places where the food can stand their ground.
In Bangkok we stayed at Inn A Day near the river. Its restaurant, Jin Chieng Seng, is just 4 tables in the lobby, by the reception counter.
The building used to be a palm sugar factory and retail shop. It is now a boutique hotel. It is a great location for sightseeing in old town, but a little challenging to get to. We took a bus, two trains and two boats to get there from the airport. So the first night we just ate in the hotel. That was a pleasant surprise.
This is Mary’s sea food soup. It has hints of tamarind, a little like Vietnamese canh chua. She asked for noodles in the soup, which freaked the staff out a little, but they came through.
This is my Pad Thai. It is comfort food for me. This one was simple but well executed. By the way, portion sizes are generally very moderate. Jin Chieng Seng’s menu is also very small, which I find admirable. Doing few things well is better than doing many things poorly.
This is Mary’s dessert at Sea Dance Resort in Koh Samui. Custard, ice cream and sorbet in a dragon fruit shell, with a spun sugar hat — pretty ambitious stuff, especially considering the humidity. Sorry we were a little too catatonic from the buffet to remember the ice cream flavors.
This is breakfast in the open air dining room. We had the Western buffet breakfast in this picture. After the first day, we realized that the Thai breakfast is much tastier. But by then I have slipped into island time and couldn’t be bothered to bring my camera.
Pomegranate
The tropical version of this fruit has yellowish skin and is a bit sweeter than the reddish fruits we have in the States. Some street vendors juice them with a meat-grinder-looking thingy.
Bookhemian
This is Mary’s pick for coffee, a shophouse in old Phuket Town. Oodles of atmosphere. Books for sale, though mostly in Thai. A fine collection of antique cameras and a picture book on display from my hero, Robert Doisneau.
The espresso and croissant with honey are quite respectable:
They also had this interesting snack called bunjeankouy, which is a crispy wafer with peanuts inside.
Banana pancakes
In spite of the name, these look more like crêpes with bananas folded inside. Actually the dough is a little thicker and it’s kneaded and tossed by hand, like a Malaysian roti. The people who run this shop are Thai Muslims — the women cover their hair.
The Mother Restaurant
On Koh Samui, on the way back from the Big Buddha.
