eggnoodles – Mayla's rants

Luxury Crab at Wong Kun Sio Kung Macau!

January 8, 2016January 8, 2016Leave a comment

It does help when you walk along the street and a friendly looking fellow beckons you into a simple looking side street cafe/restaurant with cheap and cheerful looking tables. How much can it cost?

You also feel good when you see the clean restaurant and the numerous clippings and celebs plastered on the wall and a sigh of relief when the menu is in english. Now rewind, we were walking back from ST Pauls to our Royal hotel when we passed this place and decided to have dinner.

If i remember correctly they seem to make their own curry blend, their chilli sauce and their handmade egg noodles beaten or dried on bamboo mats like how people used to do it traditionally before.

When we got back, we found out the reason for the outrageous pricing is because apparently they were mentioned in the Michelin Guide book so that’s why their pricing went cray cray.

The table setting was simple, but yet clean and has everything you need, plastic gloves, crab claw crusher?

We ordered simple stir fried iceberg lettuce which must be cooked really quickly or else it’s too wilted and looses all crunchiness and will be just wilted lettuce leaves. This was juicy, crunchy, delicious real skill!

The pork bone soup was simple, with carrots. It was porky, savoury with a hint of carrot sweetness. I didn’t taste any other ingredients, maybe some peanuts but i feel that soup in HK, China & Macau seem to have this depth of flavor that i can’t copy in Bangkok. No matter what type of bones i use. I must find out!

The fried sardines or mackerel was not at all greasy of floury. It was light, crispy, crunchy, garlicky and if you chew on the chilli pepper it gives it a kick of spicy hot hot hot!

This type of curry crab is vastly different from what you get in thailand, their curry sauce is more coconutty, delicate sweetness. Thailand has a more eggy scrambled egg texture feeling with more spicy oil and let’s say a more rough tasting palate. This was delicate, creamy a more tender feeling curry crab. It’s like a ballet vs rock. Nice to have a balance of both in curry crab once in a while.

Note the size of the mud crab, it filled that gigantic bowl. Now in the menu it just said market price, which is why we didn’t expect all our allowance to be gone into one single dish. There was another table next to us with 8 people and they ordered one to share which is enough to go around. We had to force our party of 3 to finish it once we found out the price. really. Look at the bill. We didn’t try to congee or the egg noodles which is supposedly the star of this restaurant however as a splurge come. Really do not miss this restaurant. It’s clean, it has english menu, and the people are nice and friendly. Just dont order this dish if you come less than 5 people or unless you’re rich. Or you really want to.

Address:

Wong Kun Sio Kung

G/F, 310A R. do Campo, Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro
Ph: (853) 2837 2248

Homemade Egg Noodles & Fish Balls

December 2, 2015Leave a comment

Located near our new office on Pridi Road, Phrakanong is an old old shop selling clear broth noodles with either morning glory or mung bean spouts. It doesn’t look appealing probably for caucasians but this shop has been making their own fish balls, wontons and egg noodles for many many years, kind of a fusion between chinese and thai tastes. It costs about 50 baht for a bowl of noodles, not cheap but rather filling and delicious.

As you can see their cooking station, they have all the types of noodles on show in the glass showcase, from “sen lek” thinnish rice noodles, “sen mee” round super thin rice noodles, “sen yai” wide ride noodles and egg noodles or “bamee”. You choose your noodles and your toppings which comes with a choice of fish balls, Ue Guay which is Fish Paste in a long tube with some spring onions and fried and then sliced, crispy wontons, fried taro sticks in a mound shape, spring rolls and little prawn wontons and shrimp balls. I’m not a bean sprout fan so i always ask for other green vegetables instead. In all those bowls of condiments that you see, there are salt, sugar, pepper, garlic oil, spring onions, preserved vegetables, msg (most likely) and the pinkish thing is called Yen Ta Fo which is a fermented bean paste which makes your soup pink and has a sweet beany tofuish taste.

Shrimp balls, fried taro, spring rolls and shrimp wonton, a rarity nowadays.

See the fish-balls? Light chewy delicious no fishy smell!

Again it’s a rarity you can’t find these toppings anymore in Bangkok, I’m sure there are some left but i dont know where they are. Fish balls are common but all these other toppings are special and must be tasted when you are in Bangkok!

Egg Noodle Special with Broth on the Side YUM!

It’s easier to see the noodles without the soup or broth on top so we ordered it separately. The fish balls was delicious, the spring rolls crispy and the moo daeng or red sauced roasted pork has a nice texture to it. really Yummy, and all for 50 baht or less than 2 USD!

Pridi – Near Gas Station. You can park at the gas station for 20 baht.

Khao Soi aka Chiang Rai Curry Noodles

November 30, 2015Leave a comment

Khao Soi is usually served with a side of lime for squeezing and vegetable relish, this rich coconut curry egg noodles is served with beef or chicken, bean sprouts and spring onions with crispy fried egg noodles on top for that crunch. It’s a savory meaty, creamy dish best served with lots of freshly squeezed limes and dried chillies. It’s a rate Thai dish that combines all aspects of Thai ,Chinese and Islam heritage together. No one knows exactly how the dish came about but it originated from Northern Thailand, supposedly from the border of Myanmar and Chiang Rai. There are dominant Chinese and Islam heritage in this dish, I also heard from the locals it was a Burmese Chinese Muslim family who emigrated to Thailand and created a dish with all the local influences. I’m sure this dish must be from Islamic creators since I’ve never seen this dish available in pork, only beef and chicken as well as usually they sellers are often Muslim.

It’s a must try if you venture into the the Northern part of Thailand, (ranges from 40 – 60 baht depending on the amount of Chicken and Beef) and dont forget to add the spicy chilies and fresh limes and cool it down with a nice herbal lemongrass drink!

Old Fashioned Chinese Food at IATA (Bangkok)

June 23, 2014July 23, 2015Leave a comment

Once in a while you feel like having traditional Chinese foods, you know the ones you grew up with when it’s a special occasion. Peking Duck, Chinese Jujube pancakes, Shanghai Noodles etc. I had this craving for Peking Duck and last sunday i asked if everyone in the family would be willing to go for a nice lunch. Luckily they agreed and so we set off, no traffic and we reached in ample time. Now a history lesson, this restaurant has been open for ever since i’m a little girl maybe before, the doorman used to be in his early 20’s now he’s got grey hair so go figure! They have limited menu but the ingredients are top notch and so is the pricing! Here’s what we had…

Must say, the noodles were cooked great! Sometimes the egg noodles (bamee) comes over done and mushy. It was very yummy with the juicy spicy shrimp.

I admit, you must think what is that weird green goo on top? The best explanation is like a salsa verde, but the Chinese use a pickled mustard green i think. There will be transparent rolled up noodle sheets and at some places are flat (imagine rolled up paper) chewy, topped with sliced pork. Now this shows the talent of the old chefs here, the sliced pork was moist and juicy. Right??? I mean it’s very hard to even get it right at a shabu shabu and they didn’t even use belly pork, it was all loin and very yummy. The green goo on top was spicy, savory and sourish. A pickled yummy goodness. Hard to find nowadays.

Now for the highlight of the lunch, Peking Duck. Crispy, yummy paperthin slices of roasted duck skin on our roti, with chillies, spring onion, crunchy cucumber and sweet hoisin sauce. Roll it up and eat eat eat. A duck is too small!!!! Usually when you order Pekin duck they will ask whether you will use the remaining duck as a soup or fried with black pepper and garlic. We chose the latter. Usually we wrap it up and keep to eat the next morning with plain congee. It works amazingly well that way. Salty and plain hot congee. YUM!

We also ordered a 4 Chinese Veggie dish. It’s not all veggies, it comes with a sauteed Chinese savoy cabbage, mustard green, mushrooms and Chinese moss seaweed in a light pale gravy. The different textures work well together, it’s good topped over hot rice.

This was more than enough for 4 people, it was delicious and comforting. A blast to the past really. The Chinese jujube pancakes were nice, hot, crispy, savory and sweet at the same time. Many shops are not able to get the ratio of filling to the crunchy flour right, think quesadilla, 2 thin flour pancakes and a sweet filling crunchy crispy soft oozy filling. Very good.