Porn’s Thai Cafe @ Mt Faber SAFRA

Not sure why, but I have been to Porn’s Thai cafe at Mt Faber 3 times. Perhaps, I really want to try a dish that blows me out since the cafe in town is known to be very popular. Honestly speaking despite going there 3 times, I could not find any “whoa!” moments. Dishes were palatable but really nothing exciting. But I still wonder if the dishes are indeed better in town.

One of the worst thing about the cafe is the service. I am not here to critic about all Filipinos waiters and waitress but to me they are really bad at what they do here. Actually even the main person in charge was not as good as I thought he/she should. My main grip is that nobody seem to know how the dishes sounds like in Thai. Even worst the most common Thai dishes like Som Tum (Papaya salad) or Nam Takai (lemon grass drink), they know what the order is, but still need to refer to the menu to see what number they are and this is one of the guy captain running the cafe!

Still on service, while I was eating, they were chatting away in Tagalog… across the cafe! I have not problems with service persons talking amongst themselves, but they should do it quietly and away from customers. No, the 3 of them were almost shouting across the cafe to chatting and giggling with each other while the customer is eating. Worst still, the 3rd time I was there, they bought out the main dish first (Phad Thai) instead of the vermicelli salad and the lemon grass drink. So what I told the waiter why the main dish came out first instead when I was still waiting for my drink and salad, he asked me what my order was, which I retorted “Don’t you know what my order is?” Mind you, there are only 3 table of customers in the cafe at that time.

My pet hate about their service? Despite having a ice water jug in plain sight, nobody served me water while I waited for my food and drinks.

Okay, back to the food. I was trying to find out what makes the cafe so popular and try to flip through the menu for some clues. I looked at the menu for quite a while but could not decide what to order. I was wondering why and then I realized that its because there is nothing extra-ordinary about the food they offer. The menu is simplified to few dishes (which I do agree to keep inventory down), but they did not have out outstanding dishes that would make you want to try the first time you open the menu. All the dishes are just the same as what the other 100 other Thai restaurant serves. In fact, other restaurants have more exciting dishes!

However, that is not a death sentence. If one brings down to the menu to serve dishes that are common, then one would need to produce really good common dishes for it to stand out and be worth the money paid for. There are hits and misses and unfortunately I feel that there are more misses than hits. The misses are mediocre and relatively bland and even one dimensional. I went back there 3 times in hope to see what makes it ticks but still not convinced about its success.

Som Tum (raw papaya salad):

Its  a general notice that most Singaporeans order mango salad instead of papaya salad when going Thai. However, the papaya salad is ubiquitous with Thai food and it the most defining dish of any Thai restaurant. Screw that up, you can forget about the rest of the food. The most important point about the papaya salad is that the raw papaya is rather tasteless by itself (unlike raw mango which is sour).

The dressing is coated around the papaya and hence its becomes very important to have well-balanced dressing. The salad dressing has a good balance of sourness from the lime juice, just spicy enough (this is not an Isaan restaurant so its okay not to be so spicy), sweetness from the palm sugar and saltiness and fragrance from the fish sauce. My only complain is that the papaya was a bit soggy. This is because it was machine cut rather than hand cut with all the uneven size. The hand cut papaya tends to stay crunchy longer. However, I wished that they had added some dried shrimps to perk up the dish.

Tom Kha Gai (Chicken in coconut galangal soup):

Even in Bangkok, it is not very easy to get a good Tom Kha Gai, let alone in Singapore. This is the reason that I ordered this dish, instead of Tom Yum Goong. Unknown to most people the herbs used are actually similar, except there is coconut milk and more galangal in Tom Kha Gai. Few people do a good Tom Kha Gai and I am glad to say that this restaurant does a good one.

The coconut milk was rich and just thick enough and not too watery. The soup has a good blend of sweetness (absolutely important), spiciness, sourness (very important) and fragrance from the herbs. You can drink the soup by itself without filling too bloated and sick of the coconut milk. My only complain is that I wished they had used fresh straw mushrooms because I could taste the “can-ness” of the straw mushroom they used in the soup. Other than that, its a dish that I recommend (ask them not to put straw mushrooms).

Pek Gai Yat Sai (Stuff chicken wings):

I just love fried chicken wings, what’s more stuff fried chicken wings. The filling is pretty tasty, but it was spoilt by the chicken meat being too bland and dry. The saving grace is that they were stuff with chestnut which was a surprise. However, it a dish that you cannot eat without dipping into the sweet chilli sauce only because the chicken mean is too bland and dry.

Yum Woon Sen (Vermicelli Salad):

This dish was bland. Period. Thai salad must be exciting, but I felt like eating vermicelli with a bit of souping soy sauce or salt. It tries very hard to be spicy, sour or whatever, but none of those taste emerged. There is nothing much for me to say about this dish.

Phad Thai:

Personally, I don’t eat too much Phad Thai so I cannot say which is good or bad. But I know that for me Phad Thai must not be overwhelmed with sweetness or coconut milk such that it feel gerluck (nauseating) after eating. Good thing to know, this dish was not like that. I like that they provide peanuts as a condiment so that I could put as much as I like on top. However, I thought that the noodles was a under-cooked; it was a bit hard and chewy and took me quite a while to chew them down. Other than that, taste was nice albeit there could do with some more wok-hey (wok heat).

Poj Spa Karn, Tanao Road, Bangkok

Okay, phonetically, Poj Spa Karn should be “Pot Sapaa Kaarn”. From what I read from the internet, this is an 82 year old restaurant, situated along Tanao Road in Bangkok. Interestingly, as we walk along Tanao Road, we find many stalls which review cuttings. This is an old part of town and I am not surprise if that it host such a variety of good food with food shop owners been around for some time.

Now just like an 82 year old restaurant, when San tried to call for reservation on a Sunday, we were informed that the Auntie (I think she is in charge) has gone to the hospital for some checkout and the restaurant will only open after she comes back, without giving any further timing. Well, we took a bet that she will be back in time for us and sure enough when we reached there, it was opened and we are the first customers.

Cafe Chilli at Paragon, Bangkok

Cafe Chilli is a north-eastern Thai food restaurant situated at the basement of Paragon in Bangkok, where most of the restaurants are. Although it says north-eastern, it really a fusion high class north-eastern food. In all honesty, most of us probably don’t really like authentic north-eastern or Issan food, because they can be really spicy and salty. However, despite this fusion stuff going on, its true to Thai tastes and flavors. The portions are pretty small, so for two of us, we actually ended order quite a number of dishes.

Suntawa Restaurant at Soi Piphat, Bangkok

Update: I have learned that the restarant has moved. Some say Rama III some say Rama IV, I still have no idea where. If you know, ping me. Thanks!

Now, Silom Road in Bangkok is not well known to have good Thai restaurants. Most of the Thai cafes and even restaurant have adjusted their food taste to cater to the mainly white tourists visiting there, which tastes like sweet crap. One of my criteria to even enter a restaurant is whether its full of foreigners or gay men or if its mostly locals. I am digressing…

Anyway, Suntawa restaurant is a rare gem fine along Silom road. Actually another good restaurant is Banana Leaf at the basement of Silom Complex. According to San, it is a pretty old restaurant, at least 20+ years.  you can even see that the restaurant’s decor is still the same since its open.

Now, its pretty hard to notice the restaurant, even if you walked pass it. Also the name is not in English, so you have to learn to recognize the sign board in the picture above!

Chia Te Pineapple Tarts and Sun Biscuits – Taipei

Frankly speaking, I have never been a great fan of pineapple tarts (凰梨酥)  and sun biscuits (太阳饼). But a few years ago when I was on a work trip to Taipei, my colleague bought some tarts whose shop is only based in Taichung and I loved it. The tart practically melts in your mouth. However, since I have left my old company, I have been looking for something similar whenever I travel to Taipei for holidays. But so far none have met my taste meter.

So this current trip to Taipei, we decided to ask a taxi driver to recommend the best pineapple tart in Taipei and he recommended Chia Te (家德）. He mentioned that his wife queue for more than 1 hour during festive seasons to buy that tarts and they only produce enough for the day. Also noteworthy was that it won some best pineapple tart awards in Taipei for a few years running. Hearing this, of course, we were determined not to let the opportunity pass us by and decided to pop down the shop early next morning (around 11 am lah).

銀座梅林: Ginza Bairin – tonkatsu

Everyone who have been to Japan with me would know that I am crazy about tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet). The truth is, I was never crazy about tonkatsu in Singapore, probably because the quality of the pork and the cook are so bad. But in Japan, you can really get very good pork, especially black pork, cuts at a very good price. I was pleasantly surprised that pork can actually taste so good and can be that juicy.

Okay, I confessed, I have never heard of Ginza Bairin, so I as was curious to find out how their tonkatsu would taste, since according to the brochure its famous for its tonkatsu. So I decided to try their tonkatsu meal at around $13.

So for $13 I don’t really expect a big chunk of meat and indeed it wasn’t. However, the pork was juicy and tasty, although its a bit thin! The cabbage was not a lot, I wished there was more. I asked the waitress if I could top up cabbage and she say yes for 50 cents more. Er.. I am not paying 50 cents more for cheap vegetables. The soup is a pork soup (tonjiru) instead of the regular miso soup and its quite good. All in all for $13, the quality of the meal was good, but I must complain that the cabbage is just too little.

I missed the days in Japan where I can get free refills of tea, rice, soup AND cabbage!

銀だこ: Gindaco Takoyaki

When takoyaki (or in local lingo… sotong balls!!) first launched in Singapore years ago, it was a rave. People queue for 30 mins to get their hands onto it. Of course, I too got a taste of it. But it never impressed me. Worst still, as the years goes by whatever left of the competition (2 main ones, I think) are really mediocre and nothing more than soggy flour balls with some stuffings. The tako (octupus) was tiny, the balls are soft and the whole thing is soggy and floury in taste.

But it was my trip to tokyo, when I tried takoyaki that I fell in love with it again. Now, in Singapore takoyaki is eaten as a snack, 4 balls. But in Japan, its eaten as a meal serving minimum 6 balls and 10 balls portions. I discover Gindaco somewhere around Ueno where I used to stay. Of course, you can find this and many other takoyaki stores in Japan.