We will never run out of things to eat in Bangkok. Period.

This gluttons paradise is home to a smorgasbord of scrumptious grub that we wouldn’t mind getting fat for. From cooling husks of coconut ice cream to fiery bowls of Thai green curry, Bangkok hands down has some of the best food that we have ever tasted.

Whether it’s your first time stepping foot into this food heaven or if you’re a frequent traveller to Bangkok, we have here a guide of local food and snacks to give you some ideas on what you need to try on your next trip to the land of smiles.

BOAT NOODLES 

There are few things as addictive as boat noodles and we love the satisfying feeling of stacking all those finished bowls up high. The great thing about boat noodles is that because the portions are all so small and cheap, you get to try a variety of different broths and noodles till your heart’s content without feeling a pinch in your wallet.

Where to get it: Lung Prathunam Boat Noodles, Kin Tiew Kan, Baan Kuay Tiew Ruathong, Doy Kuay Teow Reua Boat Noodles

COCONUT ICE CREAM 

The Bangkok heat can get pretty unbearable at times and that’s why we love indulging ourselves in some Thai coconut ice-cream to cool ourselves down. We absolutely love the rich coconut cream base and we like to garnish our ice creams a sprinkling of peanuts, fruits, and candies.

 Where to get it: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Hua Mum Night Market, Natthaphon Coconut Ice Cream

CHARCOAL CREPES 

Choose to have your crepes savoury or sweet—we had our charcoal crepe with sliced bananas. You are likely to find crepes in most night markets of Bangkok as it is a common snack you can find even on the streets itself.

Where to get it: Rot Fai Market Ratchada

Photo Credit: erikhasoewito

CRISPY PANCAKES (KHANOM BUANG) 

Khanom buang is a must-eat snack when you are in Thailand. It’s a Thai-style crepe that looks like a crunchy taco. It’s made with rice flour and stuffed with sweet meringue or savoury cream. Toppings vary from egg yolk threads to shredded coconut or chopped shrimp.

Where to get it: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Rot Fai Market Ratchada 

DUCK RICE/NOODLES 

If you love duck, we insist that you try the Thai’s rendition of duck noodles and rice. We prefer it over Singapore’s any day and we love how their version features more tender and succulent cuts of duck.

Where to get it: Buay Pochana, Chatuchak Weekend Market, Pondtip Pratunam, Tung Sui Heng Pochana

Photo Credit: feebz9210

FRIED BUGS

This one isn’t for the faint-hearted (and that includes us). If you’re a brave soul who loves trying out new things, we recommend that you have a go at some fried bugs. Bangkok is one of the few places in the world that dishes out these critters like delicacies and you can often get your hands on some at most of the night markets there.

Where to get it: Rot Fai Market Ratchada, Talad Rot Fai Srinakarin, Khao San Road, Soi Cowboy, Klong Toey Market

FRIED QUAIL EGGS 

Fried quail eggs are one of our favourite street snacks in Bangkok. They taste great, albeit extremely simple. The special seasoning used is a sauce that elevates the savoury taste. The egg is also usually not fully cooked, so the yolk bursts once you bite into it.

Where to get it: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Chinatown, Ramkhamhaeng University Night Market, Hua Mak

LENG SAAP 

Leng Saap essentially translates to ‘Spicy Pork Bone Soup’ and it basically consists of giant portions of pork ribs and spine that are generously doused in a rich and addictively spicy broth as well as plenty of lime, coriander and chilli. We’ve tried the one at Golden Mile Tower back in Singapore and were instantly hooked, and we pleased to say that the ones here in Bangkok taste even better.

Where to get it: Talad Rot Fai Srinakarin, Rot Fai Market Ratchada

MANGO STICKY RICE

The vast abundance of street food might be a tad too overwhelming for first-timers to Thailand, but one will never go wrong with this classic Thai dessert. Made with coconut milk, fresh mangoes and sticky glutinous rice, this dessert is a delightful contrast of sweet and saltiness.

Where to get it: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Talad Neon Night Market, Rot Fai Market Ratchada, Mae Varee Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango, Boonsap Thai Desserts, Muhammad Roddee, Je Meaw Sukhumvit 38

OLIVE RICE 

If you’re tired of plain white rice, why not try some of Thailands olive rice? We love how the rice has an aromatic olive flavour that pairs well with whatever dish it is served with it. It also tastes great eaten on its own!

Where to get it: Street outside Union Mall, Sanguan Sri Restaurant

PAD THAI

It would be a crime to come to Bangkok and not have tried the pad Thai here. This classic stir-fried noodle dish is chock full of different flavours from all its various components such as the nuttiness from the peanuts to the sweetness of the prawns and chilli. It isn’t hard to see why it’s so popular amongst both locals and tourists alike!

Where to get it: Thipsamai, Baan Phad Thai, Pad Thai Mae Am

PAN-FRIED SQUID EGGS 

Squid eggs do sound a little intimidating to people who have never tried them before but we promise you that they taste way better than they sound! Most places serve them in two ways: deep-fried or pan-fried. We prefer the deep-fried version which is first coated with batter for a crispy outer layer, before being deep-fried in hot oil and then drizzled with a tangy green chilli sauce for extra oomph.

Where to get it: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Rot Fai Market Ratchada 

PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE (KHAO OP SAPPAROT) 

Nothing beats an iconic plate of pineapple fried rice and this well-loved Thai dish features fluffy Jasmine rice cooked with juicy pineapple chunks. Some places even serve up the dish in a hollowed-out pineapple which makes for a great photo opportunity for the gram.

Where to get it: Ko Eay Ko Kafaa, Tealicious Cafe

PORK TROTTERS RICE (KHAO KAA MOO) 

Whenever we are in Bangkok, we love to indulge ourselves in a sinful plate of pork trotters rice. Here, outrageously tender chunks of braised pork trotters lie atop a bed of white rice and then doused in a generous amount of braising gravy. We honestly wouldn’t mind getting a heart attack for this dish.

Where to get it: Bamee Sawang, Khao Kha Moo Truk Sung

Photo Credit: linhlengkeng

SALTED GRILLED FISH 

The Thai’s prepare their salted fish very differently from the Chinese. Here, they coat the entire fish in a layer of salt while discarding the skin. This interesting technique helps to preserve the moisture of the fishes flesh during the grilling process, keeping it nice, moist and chock full of flavour.

Where to get it: Rot Fai Market Ratchada, Pa Porn Pla Phao, Talad Neon

SOM TUM

For the uninitiated, som tum is essentially Thai-style green papaya salad. There are many roadside stalls selling fresh som tum that is prepared to order. Unripened green papaya is shredded and mixed with chilli, sugar, garlic, lime, fish sauce, tomatoes and several other ingredients to produce a spicy-sour taste that will have you lingering for more.

Where to get it: B-Story Cafe, MBK Mall, Chatuchak Weekend Market

THAI CHICKEN RICE 

While Thai-style chicken rice is somewhat similar to Singapore’s, the chicken is much drier and the rice is a little less oily. Many stalls specialise in both fried and steamed chicken rice and we sometimes have a hard time choosing between the two. We love the chilli sauce that accompanies the dish and it provides anything that is dunked into it with a savoury and fiery touch that packs a punch.

Where to get it: Go-Ang Pratunam Chicken Rice, Kuang Heng, Kaiton Pratunam Chicken Rice

THAI ICED MILK TEA

To combat the sweltering heat, we love to get ourselves a cup of satisfyingly cooling Thai iced milk tea. Renditions of this popular drink can be found in many places around the world but nothing beats going back to the original. While the drink may get too cloyingly sweet at times, we still can’t help but slurp it down because it’s just so addictive.

Where to get it: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Khao San Road, Rot Fai Market Ratchada, Talad Rot Fai Srinakarin 

THAI GREEN CURRY 

We love how creamy yet fiery a good bowl of Thai green curry is. The green chillies used give the dish its murky green colour and this is further enhanced with basil leaves and lemongrass. If you can’t take spicy food, be warned that this dish might be a bit too much for you.

Where to get it: Krua Apsorn, Methavalai Sorndaeng, The Sixth

THAI FISH CAKE 

Thai fish cakes are one of our favourite snacks in Bangkok and we love how they are easily available.  If you are lucky, these fish cakes will be freshly deep-fried in front of you, so you can have it piping hot with a generous drizzle of Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Where to get it: Pratunam Market, Chatuchak Weekend Market

THAI-STYLE OMELETTE 

There is something very addictive about Thai-style omelettes that make us prefer it to any other omelette out there. For some unbeknownst reason, the omelettes in Bangkok are the fluffiest and sweetest. Pair it with some rice and Thai green chilli sauce and you’ve got yourself a simple yet satisfying meal that’ll substantially fill you up.

Where to get it: Chatuchak Weekend Market, The Sixth, Raan Jay Fai, Nhong Rim Klong

TOM YUM KOONG 

Common but oh-so-addictive, a hearty bowl of tom yum koong is an ideal centrepiece for meals with large groups of people. The dish is creamy, spicy and tangy all at once and we could easily just eat it doused over a plate of rice without anything else.

Where to get it: The Sixth, The Place 168, Pee Aor

WANTON NOODLES 

If you love Singapore’s wanton noodles, you may wanna give the Thai version a try. Here, springy egg noodles are tossed in oil, soya sauce and chilli, accompanied with greens, small dumplings and slices of honeyed pork. We admittedly can’t decide if we prefer the Thai or Singapore rendition!

Where to get it: Sukhumvit Soi 38, Bamee Sawang, Nai Meng Ba Mee Poo, Odean Noodle

I wanted an adventure, and I wanted something different. Not those dressed-up-to-the-nines fancy dinners in the best restaurants – those are not really my type. There are other factors that will make a great meal, and I was determined to have a memorable time there.

In the twelve days that I was in Australia, you’d not believe the amount of food that went into my stomach; I refused to stand on the weighing scale now – I probably gained an additional five kilos, everyday it was food, more food, and even more food. Besides stuffing myself full with everything that I can grab, and enjoying the magnificent scenaries there, I got to talk with  a lot of backpackers while staying in hostels, and also met up with the amazing Sydney food bloggers – they are definitely the highlights of my trip.

Sydneysiders love Bills, and I love the Sydneysiders for the way they enjoy their breakfast. Bills is a cafe opened by the famous chef Bill Granger, the concept is easy – serve the most gorgeous scrambled eggs and tasty ricotta pancakes in a simple cafe, and voila, you get all the people coming in for breakfast.

‘You have to try the eggs while you are in Australia’, gushed one of my friend a while ago when I told her I’m going to Sydney. Sydneysiders really love their breakfast, on a normal weekday there’s so many places serving brunch. Because of the differences in culture, you can hardly find much places in Singapore that do that but here, you’d thought that the people do not need to work and it seems like they do not have to work when I saw so many of them slowly enjoying a laid-back & causal breakfast at 10am where most people are supposed to be in the office, working.

There was however, no Eggs Benedict at Bills, so I had their popular Scrambled eggs on sour dough ($16) – and it was good! The one sprig of leave in the middle somehow seemed to make the eggs glowed with radiance, and there’s the just-right consistency in the texture and taste of the eggs. The butter slides off the toasted golden-brown sour dough easily, and the scrambled eggs just goes so well with the toast. The portion would probably deceive your mind that you need to order something else as add-ons, but by the time I was done, my stomach was so full that I couldn’t possibly eat anything else, well, maybe except for the delicious-looking ricotta pancakes that everybody is craving about.

‘Come to Sydney for fine restaurants and go to Melbourne to experience the cafe culture.’ I’m not entirely sure on that statement, since there’s dozens of wonderful cafes just in the surry hill/balmain area. One of them is Cafe Nookie at Cleveland street. Technically speaking it is not a cafe since there’s no seats for dining in, customers take away the self-brew coffee from the good hands of owner Ben. Cafe Nookie is more like a coffee-in-the-hole kind of place, and it’s definitely the smallest cafe in Sydney, pretty cool eh?

I walk through the streets of Surry Hills and my heart fluttered with a sort of feeling that I couldn’t quite describe – I’m so in love with this place. There’s plenty of trendy fashionable boutiques, and chic cafes just around every corner. The whole place is so quaint and dainty that it doesn’t seem to be in the city area.

Cafe Ish is exactly like how I will like a cafe to be, white walls with sunlight coming through the windows, serving nice coffee and comfort food. Howard & Teresa brought me here for lunch, and we took some time glancing through the menu before deciding to order Eggs Benedict, Emu damper, & Soft shell crab omelette.

I think the reason why we can embrace cafes freely rather than fine dining restaurants is because deep down inside everyone of us, most people have a dream to open a cafe, someday. A small-ish, causal chic cafe which serves comfort food, a place where people return and chill out all day, a place almost like their own home. It is not difficult to see why Cafe Giulia is immensely popular with the locals, they serve a wide array of food that includes eggs, salad, pasta, sandwich, burgers; comfort food with a reasonable price range. Coffee is another hallmark of a good cafe. Here, they keep it simple to mocha, and ice coffee, with an impressive selection of fresh fruit juices.

This is the first part of my Twelve days in Sydney series, to be continued . . .

Bills
359 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Tel: (02) 9360 4762

Cafe Giulia
92 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9698 4424
Tuesday to Friday 6.30am – 4.00pm
Saturday and Sunday 8.00am – 3.00pm

Cafe Ish
83 Campbell Street
Surry Hills

Cafe Nookie
268B Cleveland Street, Surry Hills
Tel: 04 0135 6072
Monday – Friday: 7:00 am – 4:00 pm

Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup is located just opposite Kembangan MRT station. I happened to chance upon this zi-char restaurant because my friends had cravings for their mee-sua.

So another venture into the east side of Singapore for LIC, as i stay in the west and the east is so far away. But there are simple too much good food in the area, so you will be seeing more food from the east in the future!

The zi-char store has all of its seat on the street, its rather cooling but when bad weather comes then it will be very difficult as i don’t think there are much shelter from rain.

The store has quite a few selections of fish available for customers to choose, and with the method of cooking the fish. But we didn’t have any fish because we ordered crab already.

Mee Sua ($3.50)

The rendition of Mee sua at Seng Kee comes in a stronger flavour than the normal ones, with ingredients like pig kidneys, mushroom in it. The mee sua is smooth and silky to the mouth.

We had 5 bowls for each of us, and i saw most tables ordering this dish and at $3.50 its definitely worth a try.

Egg Omelette ($8)

$8 for an egg omelette dish at a zi-char store might be a tad too expensive, if I’m not wrong egg dishes usually are about 6 bucks? Nevertheless, the egg omelette is quite good and we finish it very fast.

Crab Bee Hoon ($38)

The crab bee hoon is usually done in soup, but here at Seng Kee they do it “dry”. We were quite shocked at the size of the crab when it came because usually crabs at zi-char stores goes in the region of $30 for 1kg?

But the one that we had is $38, and the small crab that we had is definitely not 1kg. I felt ripped off as the price tag is certainly too expensive for the size of the crab.

The bee hoon is not bad though, as it absorbs all the essence of the crab and all the juicy wet part is at the bottom of the bee hoon.

Total bill including drinks for 5 person comes up to $76.80. At initial look, for a zi-char store and considering we had 5 person, its definitely not expensive. But, looking at the amount of food that we had, the crab bee hoon was definitely over-priced.

I’m not too sure about their other dishes as i have not tried them and it will not be fair to judge base on this experience. But their mee sua is worth a try, do give their crab bee hoon a miss.

Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup
467 Changi Road