สวัสดีกรุงเทพ

This is 'mieng kham' (เมี่ยงคำ), a popular snack or appetizer in Thailand and Lao PDR.

Thai food is my hands down favorite Southeast Asian cuisine. Spicy, tangy and memorable. It's quite tough to recapture the flavors in the eateries in Singapore. More than often, I'm disappointed by the few 'fine-dining royal Thai food' we have, and I find myself frequenting tiny eateries at Orchard Towers and Golden Mile Complex. There's Jai Thai, which works pretty good, but of late, not quite there. Anyway, I'm thrilled to spend a long weekend in Bangkok.

Bangkok, is where it comes together. My year as a student in the city saw a great number of dive trips made to the various gorgeous islands and through those, firm friendships have been formed. Years later, we still eschew the orchestrated alumni events to make arrangements for our own. Naturally, it isn't easy to get everyone together. So we've all been randomly, separately catching up in tiny groups here, there and everywhere. This is another one of those, except it's in Bangkok instead of Hong Kong, Singapore or London. Wieeeeeee!

Baan Khanita was the unanimous choice for our get-together. So many years, and still, we love the food. Eating in a group is best. I get to taste many different dishes without overstuffing my face. Yay. With all the different chefs walking in and out of the kitchens, I don't how they've managed to retain the flavors awesomely. I probably judge all clear tom yam soups by this yardstick.