Good food in Bangkok

We like Thai food but only the kind we're familiar with. Some of the authentic Thai food we saw in Bangkok weren't that appealing in terms of colour and presentation, so we stuck to dishes we know best.

YK likes Tom Yum Soup and Pad Thai Noodles, so that was all he ate during the trip. On Saturday, his Thai friend brought him to a small shop an hour away from the city to eat the best Pad Thai noodles. Apparently the shop has been featured in Time Magazine before. We didn't go, so we could only drool at the photo.

His friend also brought him to eat the nicest mango glutinuous rice dessert (below) at Chatuchak market. YK tried to show us the stall the next day but too bad, we couldn't find it in the sprawling marketplace.

We settled down for lunch in Chatuchak Market on Sunday afternoon. These stalls are set-up under huge tarpaulin tents, so the air inside was hot and stuffy. We emerged smelling like cooked food.

Both the boys had Pad Thai noodle.

I had the ubiquitous green papaya salad, something that I ate everyday we were there.

CH and I had lunch at a local coffee shop one afternoon. We picked several items from the counter and the servings that arrived were quite small. That explains why the locals aren't very big built.

We also noticed that the locals eat lots of raw vegetables. The dishes typically come with raw cabbage, bean sprouts and sweet basil on the side. Some places even have vases full of fresh basil leaves on the dining tables.

Rice with pork curry.

Rice with minced meat salad.

We had an 'otah' like dish made from fish paste, spices and coconut milk.

One thing for sure, you can never go hungry in Bangkok. The variety of street food available is amazing. From skewered meat to grilled squid and sweet dessert, you can buy some for as little as 20 cents.

CH bought crepe with banana and raisin from this popular vendor. The crepe was so delicious, I wished he had bought more.

Some of our meals were eaten at Siam@Siam Hotel, like the delicious Dragon Sushi Roll.

While waiting for our flight back to Singapore, we dined at an airport cafe which serves Asian delicacies. YK had his last Pad Thai Noodle and Tom Yum soup while we ordered the seafood ramen which came with a huge prawn, large scallops, octopus and mussels. The stock was so flavourful, we couldn't get enough.

We didn't think that a small cafe at the airport could serve such delicious fare, but we were wrong. If you have some Thai Baht to spare before flying out of Bangkok, you really should give yourself a treat at this airport cafe!