มื้ออาหารที่ยุ้งข้าวหอม

The best meals of the trip came from Yoong Khao Hom (ยุ้งข้าวหอม). I love the kitchen so much that I returned thrice. It hit every craving for spices and the restaurant keeps their decor simple, fun and clean. I feel so comfortable in the restaurant. It has an extensive menu, and a fantastic kitchen.

The restaurant doesn't usually take reservations, so just try your luck. Queues aren't too bad because it's sited in Chula's little open-air mall, away from the tourists and huge crowds. It's kinda smack in town, yet feels like your neighborhood eatery. The little open-air mall has the weirdest name- 'I'm Park'. We cracked up so bad over the name. It doesn't seem to have any meaning in any language, unless you're Korean... Hahahhaha. Like, I'm not Kim, 'I'm Park'!

Delicious curries. They do massaman and panang right. I prefer mine thick and at least spicy rather than with sweet undertones. We also had their squid simmered in coconut milk, วายคั่ว ('wai khua'). It's a familiar dish in Brazilian and Filipino cuisines; I like the Thai versions best. Those squids looked more like baby octopuses. Oof!

Yoong Khao Hom is apparently a restaurant from southern Koh Samui (the area that was lashed by cyclone Pabuk), and in Bangkok, it serves up Samui interpretations of dishes. It's here that I found the most delicious iteration of stir-fried leaves of the belinjo plant. I know it in Thai (ผักเหลียง, approximately 'phak liang'), but I've never bothered finding out its English name because I thought it's a common vegetable, but little did I know that even wet markets in Singapore don't really sell it. Then on this trip, I finally learnt that it's belinjo.

The delicious ใบเหลียงผัดไข่ (belinjo leaves stir-fried with egg).