Casual Dining at Jai Thai, Singapore

Jai Thai

I dropped by Jai Thai for dinner recently since I've read so much about them being one of the most wallet friendly Thai joints around with fairly authentic, delicious food. There are three locations in total, all pretty accessible, along Purvis Street, East Coast Road and Clover Way. We headed to the Purvis Street outlet since it was the most central location. The decor may be basic but there is a hint of Thai influence (in the chairs, perhaps?) which works. Reminds me of some cosy little restaurant along Bangkok's streets. I have plenty of imagination so I actually really enjoy places like these - makes me feel like I've somehow found myself in Bangkok!

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Food Diary #2

One Toffee Nut Latte (Grande), Starbucks, $6.80 | Two Thai Prawn Cakes, Nakhon Kitchen, $12 | Three Green Curry (Beef), Nakhon Kitchen, $8 | Four Seafood Fried Rice, Nakhon Kitchen, $6

As the Christmas season rolls in, I can't help but notice that the Starbucks Christmas drinks are back! I'm definitely glad my favourite Toffee Nut Latte has made the cut. Though I do mourn the demise of Dark Cherry Mocha. Having one of those drinks really makes Christmas a little bit more real for me. Can you believe that it's only a little more than a week to Christmas? How are you spending it this time round? It's going to be a lot of cosy home gatherings for me - just good company and good food!

Back when I spent the summer in Hong Kong last year, I fell in love with a cosy and unpretentious Thai Restaurant along Wan Chai. My favourite was always their Beef Brisket Thai Green Curry. I loved how they served up generous portions of chunky and slightly chewy beef brisket that were soaked in all the green curry goodness. I have to say, Nakhon Kitchen's version is pretty darn tasty as well, though the curry is on the thin side and they certainly don't serve up beef brisket. This time round, we opted to try their Thai Prawn Cakes, which cost twice as much as their Thai Fish Cakes. It was delicious, for sure, with an addictive, almost pungent prawn flavour. But it really wasn't twice as delicious. And somehow, I actually like their Thai Fish Cakes better. I'll go back to those the next time.

We tried their seafood fried rice for the first time too and liked it a lot. It was highly tasty and came with crunchy prawns, thick fish slices and quite a few slices of squid. Overall, the meal didn't disappoint. Nakhon Kitchen is most certainly still the place I'd go to for authentic and budget Thai food!

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Nakhon Kitchen, Bedok, Singapore

Standard Thai Condiments

Recently, during a gathering with close friends, I casually mentioned that Ah Loy Thai served pretty decent Thai food at reasonable prices. One of my friends replied that she used to think so until she went to Nakhon. A place better than Ah Loy Thai for the same price? Now that's a place I have to check out! What I really love best about places like Ah Loy Thai and Nakhon is that they are unpretentious. Especially Nakhon. I love a good ambience, but it doesn't always have to be a chic and flawlessly furnished restaurant - the atmosphere in a neighbourhood kitchen can easily win me over too.

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Ah Loy Thai, Shaw Tower, Singapore

Doesn't this look just like the makeshift tables at the roadside stalls in Bangkok?

Lime Juice (Kumquat), $1.50

To be sure, there are nicer seats within the restaurant itself, but these makeshift tables really made me feel like I've been transported to the amazing streets of Bangkok! I've never had Kumquat juice in my life, but they taste just like lime or calamansi juice, and was pretty refreshing. Also pretty sour.

Thai Mango Crispy Chicken, $6.50

We wanted to try their Handmade Steam Fish Cake at first, but it was sold out, so we opted for Thai Pandan Chicken, which was sold out too, and ended up with this. We made our order at around 8pm? So that gives you a pretty good sense of just how popular this place is. In fact, we came at a really bad time (there was some corporate function going on and they took up most of the tables), so we waited for a pretty long time (at least 35 minutes) before we finally got our table. I'm hoping the wait wouldn't be so bad normally but I've heard that there's most likely going to be a wait depending on the time you reach. Your best bet would be to make a reservation (which is exactly what I'd do next time)! This dish is really just fried chicken topped with slices of unripened mango. The unripened mango was pretty fun to snack on, but the fried chicken was just okay. We'll probably skip this order the next time!

Thai Fried "To Fu", $5

Ah Loy Thai's fried tofu was great! The really, really crispy batter gives way to silky-soft tofu, which tasted really good with the papaya/mango slices and the spicy sauce laden with chopped peanuts.

Stir-Fried White Basil Leaf with Pork (Pad Ka Prao Moo), $5

M's favourite dish! I love straw mushrooms, so I loved that this dish came with it even though it normally doesn't. Ah Loy Thai also serves Stir-Fried Red Basil Leaf with Pork. I'm guessing that the colour (white  vs. red) refers to the sauce of the dish and not the colour of the basil leaf. Basil leaves are all green.. right? This was pretty good, and occasionally when you bite into the well-incorporated chilli bits, the spiciness kicks in. This was a really great dish with rice.

Papaya Salad (Som Tam), $4.50

My favourite Thai salad! By now, after the three spicy dishes above, our tongue was starting to sting, so we had a lot of difficulty with this one. To be fair, this dish was really wickedly, wickedly spicy. Almost as spicy as the one we had in Bangkok. Maybe equally spicy! These days, I'm starting to feel like my spiciness threshold isn't as great as I once thought. On a really random note, do you think your spiciness threshold fluctuates with time? Because I'm starting to believe that mine does. Anyway, I guess an eatery that doesn't care about how spicy their dishes are (and doesn't bother warning you) ends up ranking pretty high on the authenticity factor. We also realized at this point that the dishes we ordered sort of overlapped - we had a lot of papaya and mango. Next time (I keep saying next time because we're so going to be back), we'll probably order a steamed fish (we saw a lot of tables enjoying this one), pandan chicken, and pad thai or fried rice!


Ah Loy Thai
#01-39/40 Shaw Tower
100 Beach Road, Singapore
Tel: +65 9165 1543

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Thai Express, CityLink Mall, Singapore

Soft Shell Crab with Chef's Secret Batter, S$7.90

This is somehow my favourite soft shell crab on the island! I love the tasty batter and topping of fried garlic. It's a pretty generous portion, and this trusty little appetizer never fails to satisfy my soft shell crab cravings!

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Buri Tara, Bangkok, Thailand

Buri Tara

We figured throwing in a meal at an authentic Thai restaurant would allow us to go one step further in completing the dining landscape in Bangkok. In 5 days, we had been to a multitude of street stalls, popular local eateries one and two, foreign cuisine (Japanese), local ice-cream cafe/showroom, even fastfood (we actually made a decision to try kfc, and regretted sorely). It was time for decent dining, however kick ass street food may be.

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Kai Ton Thai Chicken Rice, Bangkok, Thailand

Thai Chicken Rice (Khao Man Kai)

We were on a hunt to find Kai Ton, reputedly one of the best Thai Chicken Rice (Khao Man Kai) stalls in Bangkok. After crossing the street to Pratunam Soi 30 vicinity, we saw a Chicken Rice stall that seemed quite popular, and were led to believe that this must be Kai Ton. Of course it wasn't. Even so, we enjoyed the chicken rice. You must understand this though: I take pride in Hainanese Chicken Rice, one of the more representative dishes of Singapore, so I guess I was almost sceptical when it came to hunting down a chicken rice stall in Thailand. Once again, I was proven wrong! The Thais had taken Hainanese Chicken Rice, added a new element, and made it their own. Granted, the rice and chicken are probably identical, but the sauce makes all the difference. Instead of the garlic chilli sauce and minced ginger we get in Singapore (which, by the way, I really love), we get a dark soya sauce mixed with ginger, chilli, and garlic. This Thai dipping sauce was really tasty and addictive with the chicken rice!

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Street Food at Chatuchak, Bangkok, Thailand

Coconut Ice-cream

Our Saturday was spent exploring the never-ending maze of street stalls that was Chatuchak. The stalls were so varied, you would probably be able to find almost everything here, from second-hand shoes to local designer tees to homeware to pets. It was great just strolling around and taking in the sights, though the sun tried a little too hard to join in the fun. This coconut ice-cream saved us!

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SabX2 Wanton Noodles, Bangkok, Thailand

Wanton noodle soup

This seems to be a really popular wanton noodle store in Bangkok! Strategically located too, since it's along Pratunam Soi 19, just right opposite the famous Platinum Fashion Mall, the wholesale mall that's really worth a look(; Having just returned from a 3 month stint in Hong Kong, my wanton noodle and char siew standards have shot up pretty high! This version of wanton noodles is closer to the Singapore version, with tiny wanton and the addition of char siew. I actually enjoyed this a lot. The soup was good and I found the char siew really flavourful, even though it's still nothing like its Hong Kong counterparts. I loved adding chilli powder to the soup, there's a sort of kick to it. Strangely, the wantons had a hint of sweetness (water chestnut maybe?) which was pretty unusual, maybe because I'm used to wantons being savoury. Still, this was a pretty good bowl of wanton noodles! Definitely a good rest stop after shopping too, since it was one of the very few air conditioned thai eateries around the area.

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Street Food Heaven, Bangkok, Thailand

Pad Thai Street Stall

Bangkok is street food heaven! Last week, M whisked me away to Bangkok for a short 5 day trip. We stayed at Citin Pratunam, a budget hotel that happened to be right at the scene of an entire stretch of street food. You can imagine just how thrilled we were.

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New Bangkok Restaurant, Wan Chai, Hong Kong

The other day, my friend asked if I wanted to try a Thai restaurant in Wan Chai. He had spotted the restaurant during one of his tram rides home. He said it was popular with the locals, and always packed even in the later hours of the night (9-10pm). I've been eager to try "Thai Shrimp Sashimi" ever since I read about it in CNNGo.com's 40 Hong Kong foods we can't live without, so I was thrilled that my friend had found a seemingly authentic Thai restaurant.

After a short bumpy tram ride, we arrived at the restaurant, took our orders and were not disappointed(: We ordered too many dishes for two people (it's a bad habit of ours) but it was one dinner we really enjoyed.

Thai Shrimp Sashimi

The Thai Shrimp Sashimi was served on top of a platter of ice, along with slices of garlic and a sweet and spicy chilli dip. I've never had shrimp sashimi that looked like this. I mean, I was used to the reddish hue of shrimp sashimi in Japanese restaurants, and this platter of shrimp sashimi before me looked like the ones I could easily get from any market, or even supermarket. In other words, the shrimp sashimi looked like they were the kind of shrimp that were meant to be cooked and not eaten raw. Regardless, I took my first bite, and all my inhibitions disapparated. It had a good bite to it, and tasted surprisingly fresh. I dipped my second shrimp in the chilli sauce, and the sweet and spicy flavours added dimension to the texture of the prawn. yummy. I paired my third shrimp with a slice of garlic. I'm not usually a fan of raw garlic, but the sharp bite of the thin garlic slice went well with the shrimp here, and I found myself pairing the remaining shrimps with both the garlic and chillic sauce. A good start indeed.

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