You cannot say no to rainbow-colored cheese right? So when I saw Say Chiizu on Siam Square, I just had to stop and get their Unicorn Fruit Toast.
In the commercial, which is running on the screen in the shop, you can see how a woman stretches the cheese longer and longer, and it was impossible to stop watching, ha ha. What a fascinating sight! No doubt, I had to get my own elastic cheese sandwich.
I only rarely stay at the airport hotels in Bangkok, as I prefer to stay in the city even if it is only for a short layover. If you have more than 20 hours in Bangkok, you are much better off staying in the city center, because even a few hours would allow you to sample some delicious Thai food, get a massage and do some shopping. If you land at night, the taxi ride to the central areas in Bangkok does not take long, and if you arrive during daytime, you can take the airport train and be in central Bangkok in less than an hour.
In most Asian countries, bubble tea is still a big thing, and you can get all sorts of delicious versions and flavors. The latest trend is brown sugar boba, which I tried at KOI a couple of weeks ago, but which is available at most of the trendier boba shops. The brown sugar syrup gives the drink a rounder, fudge-like flavor that I really like.
Octave is the rooftop bar at Marriott Hotel in the chic Thonglor area. The bar is very popular among Bangkok’s expats, and if you’re not there right when they open at 5pm, finding a good spot to watch the sunset from might be difficult.
Afternoon Tea at the Authors’ Lounge at Mandarin Oriental is one of the things you have to try, if you are visiting Bangkok. Leave your backpack and flipflops at home (there’s a rather strict dress code) and head down to Chao Phraya River for a glimpse and a taste of what Bangkok was like in a time long gone.
I arrived in Bangkok rather late, and before I got to the city and checked in at the hotel, it was way past dinner time. My hotel was on a quiet stretch of Charoen Krung Road without a lot of restaurants in sight, so for a short moment I wondered whether I would have to go to bed hungry. But the I found a tiny place, where a man was serving soup from a giant pot.
Somboon Seafood is a very popular seafood restaurant chain in Bangkok. The original restaurant opened back in 1969, and their signature fried curry crab has turned into legend.
The first time I met Badminton was by the pool, where he was giving complimentary head and neck massages to the hotel guests. Banyan Tree has all sorts of complimentary treats, and in addition to massage, they also offered free yoga classes, so I signed up for a yoga lesson the following morning at the hotel’s gym. Guess who the instructor was? Badminton!
In 2018, Thailand finally got a Michelin guide, and one of the stars landed at Nahm. I usually don’t go star-hunting, but since Nahm was at the hotel right next to ours, it also felt silly not to go. I therefore booked a table for lunch the other day. We chose the set menu which we put together from the a la carte menu and here’s what we had:
Canapes: Egg nets with prawns, wild almonds and kaffir lime, Pork and lobster with shredded ginger and Thai citron, Pineapple and chicken
Kingfish salad with pomelo, lemongrass and lime
Hot and sour soup with chicken, prawn and wild mushrooms
Clear soup of roast duck with Thai basil and young coconut
Oxtail curry with nutmeg, ginger and eggplant
Duck
Snake fruit in syrup, Thai wafers with poached persimmon and golden duck egg noodles.
Set menu: 1600THB/person
I liked the canapes the best. They looked gorgeous and showed signs of the creativity you’d expect to find at a Michelin-starred place. The other dishes were more traditional Thai. Filling, and slightly to the heavy side, but packed with all the Thai cuisine flavors that I love.
The dessert was delicious even though the roasted shallots made both Poul and I think of Danish hotdogs (they’re topped with roasted onions).
The set menu is a good deal if you want to sample as much of the menu as possible. Besides you get a more authentic dining experience by having the different types of dishes together, Thai-style. It’s a lot of food, especially if you’re like me and usually don’t eat a lot for lunch, so bring a big appetite or a hungry husband.
Nahm, Sathon Tai Rd, Thung Maha Mek, Sathon, Bangkok 10210, Thailand
After You Dessert Cafe became famous for their Shibuya Honey Toast, which hit Bangkok big time a couple of years ago. Today, the new star stealing the show at After You (and dominating Insta-feeds all over the city) is the Hojicha Kakigori. It looks like an edible version of Mt. Fuji, and it is absolutely delicious.
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You’ll find a lot of dirt cheap Isan (Northeastern) food at the street stalls, but sometimes, such as when you’re jet-lagged and still not acclimatized to the humid Bangkok heat, you want to sit down and enjoy your food in nice, air conditioned surroundings. For this purpose, Somtum Der in Silom and Som Tam Nua on Siam Square are the two places that first pop up, so with Somtum Der just a short walk from our hotel, there was no doubt regarding where we would be having our first lunch in Bangkok.
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Good morning Bangkok! This very moment, we should have been on our way to Norway to go skiing with AC and her friends, but something came up and we ended up in Bangkok instead. We’re staying at Banyan Tree, which is a wonderful, all-suites hotel, and even though we have the smallest type of suite (a Horizon suite), we’re still spoiled with 517 sqft all to ourselves. Our suite is on the 49th floor so we also have a great view of the city including the busy Sathon Road. In the photos below, you can see how crowded it was this afternoon. I’m glad we weren’t stuck in traffic down there.
It looks like FreakShakes are here to stay, so even though it’s a while ago, let me tell you about my first FreakShake encounter in Bangkok. The original FreakShake was invented by the Australian café Patissez, so when I found out they had a branch in Bangkok, this was where I decided to go to have my very first FreakShake. I picked the Thai Freak, which has been specially developed for Bangkok. It has Thai tea, coconut ganache and salted caramel, and it was a feast for the eyes as well as for the palate.
It was gigantic, so after a decent attempt to finish the FreakShake, I got up and went to the counter to pay. I reached for my wallet and realized that very moment, that the wallet was in another bag at the hotel! So embarrassing! I apologized a hundred times to the staff and suggested that I left my camera as a security deposit while I went back to the hotel to get the money.
Luckily, they were fine with that, but I was still so embarrassed I ran all the way back. 30 minutes later I could hand over the money in return for poor Mr. FujiFilm who didn’t have the slightest idea of what was going on.
There are so many great restaurants in Bangkok, so picking just a few favorite spots for this list was very difficult. To keep this task manageable, I’ve decided to focus primarily on Thai restaurants (except for Eat Me, there’s no way around that one). I’ve tried to add places for all budgets, but if you’re after pure street food spots, maybe my blog post about street food will be more helpful.
//Sponsored post – In collaboration with Riva Arun//
After I had checked in at Riva Arun I met with Joi from the hotel for a drink upstairs at Above Riva, which is the hotel’s rooftop bar and restaurant. As we arrived, we walked right into a photoshoot of the bar’s new giant cocktails, which were the size of a fish bowl. The staff explained that they were meant for sharing with friends. Very thirsty friends, I assume. To keep the drinks chilled, they were using frozen gummy bears. A great idea, that I can’t wait to try at home.
The biggest flower market in Bangkok, Pak Khlong Talat, is located near the river in the old part of the city. This is where the Bangkok flower shop owners make their purchases, but the market is also open for individual customers, and people like me, who are just there to watch.
At this time of the year, Bangkok is excruciatingly hot and humid, so after checking out from Riva Arun, I decided to stop by the café next door for something cold to drink, before continuing to the new hotel on the other side of the city.
The name of the café was Blue Whale, and while they didn’t serve whale, they did have a lot of blue things on the menu. With a little help from Google, I found out that their blue-as-a-Smurf Butterfly Pea Latte is quite a hit on Instagram, and I could see for myself how ‘grammable the entire place was. The rustic interior with the maritime details was a delight for the eyes as well as the iPhone, but even though I was tempted to order the blue latte (just because..) I ended up having a plain iced latte after all. And as you can see it turned out to be quite photogenic too.
One stair up, there was a tiny balcony, but it was occupied by a chain-smoking businessman. Though after a while, the businessman got busy and left, so I could enjoy the rest of my coffee out in the sun.
Blue Whale, 392/37 Maharaj Road (Maha Rat on GoogleMaps), Bangkok
// Sponsored post – In collaboration with Riva Arun //
Riva Arun is a beautiful boutique hotel right by Chao Phraya River. It opened last year and the hotel has quickly become a popular place to stay, especially among American and European tourists. I have previously stayed at the sister hotel Riva Surya, which is one of my absolute favorite hotels in Bangkok, so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to stay at Riva Arun.
The mango season in Thailand peaks from April to June, and although you can get mango all year round, it is during this time of the year that they taste the very best. I love everything with mango, but the combination with mango and sticky rice is second to none. Especially if there is a lot of thick white sauce that you can pour over.
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I’m only in Bangkok for a couple of days, so I just packed the most essential stuff and traveled with hand luggage only. Make-up and fancy shoes had to step back and give way to camera gear and spare batteries. When I was meeting Annie from TheLeeDay.com at Bangkok Trading Post yesterday, I therefore showed up completely au naturel, with flat hair and all.