Bangkok - Lao Lao Shanghai

Dear Fork, 

What a great day to reunite as a team and devour some amazing feast. Lao-Lao Shanghai, a Chinese restaurant located on the first floor of the Jas Ramintra (community mall). This place is spacious and have a VIP room with a Lazy Susan table perfectly for family dining. 

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The restaurant is decorated more towards a modern Chinese style with a touch of traditional Chinese art, visibly on the pots. Their beautiful pots with cloisonne enamel (Jing Tai Lan) are pure beauty. They use them as the decor as a part of the restaurant. We were really hype to try the hot pot using this Jing Tai Lan pot. It never hurts to eat from a fancy pot, don't you think so?! 

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The restaurant is newly opened and they are famous for their hot pot, but after trying out so many entrée dishes today, they were just as splendid. We started off with a few appetizer plates. Deep-fried Minced Tofu Lao Lao Style (THB 180), wow, to have begin the meal with this dish, I did expect a lot for other coming up dishes, because this was delicious! Who knew, 'just a fried tofu' dish could make me satisfy that much for a person who's not a fan for tofu like me. It's definitely not your typical deep fried tofu. It's flavorful with the crispiness on the skin. Served with lotus root chips, sweet soy sauce and plum sauce. Highly recommended.

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What's Chinese lunch without some dim sum right? This is Lao Lao Dim Sum 14 pcs. (THB 390) It comes with 8 different types on dimsum
- Prawn shumai
- Scallop shumai
- Shiitake stuffed with prawn
- Seaweed prawn
- Teochew dumpling
- Shrimp Dumpling (Ha Gow)
- BBQ Pork Bun
- Salted egg yolk custard bun

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My favorites were the seaweed shrimp dim sum and salted egg yolk custard. Useful note: you can also order them individually and they serve two pieces per order.

Look at that #saltedeggyolkporn !!! Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun

Look at that #saltedeggyolkporn !!! Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun

The next dish we had was the Slow-cooked Kurobuta Belly (THB 380). This pork belly just melted in my mouth, so tender. Food with gold flake gets me all the time. LOL

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A few more dishes arrived and the highlights were Sichuan Stir-fried Tofu (THB 180)Deep-fried Sea Bass with Spicy Salt and Sichuan Pepper (which we also got the shrimp version of it). They were great with rice. 

Sichuan Stir-fried tofu

Sichuan Stir-fried tofu

Deep-fried Sea Bass Sichuan Mala Style

Deep-fried Sea Bass Sichuan Mala Style

A perfect Chinese feast!

A perfect Chinese feast!

AND...comes the most exciting part. HOT POT TIME!!! This is the part where we anticipated for. We opted for Premium Beef Stew Hot Pot (THB 650), which comes with Paleron beef (on left), a set of mixed vegetables. The broth itself has super tender braised beef and beef shank. The soup is very aromatic and flavorful. The dipping sauces are sweet sauce and spicy sauce.

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The marbling of the beef was just perfect. We also ordered the regular thinly sliced beef to try and it was great as well. The dishes you can order on the side are something like beef tendon, stewed pork and strip loin  etc. SO GOOD! 

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NEXT: Desserts time! My favorites were the Mini Custard Mooncake (THB 70/pc.), house-made salted egg yolk custard tasted heavenly.  Black Sesame in Ginger Syrup (THB 50) is one of my favorite desserts and Lao-Lao house-made version is really good. 

Mini Custard Mooncake (THB 70/pc.)

Mini Custard Mooncake (THB 70/pc.)

Black Sesame Dumpling in Ginger Syrup (THB 50)

Black Sesame Dumpling in Ginger Syrup (THB 50)

Taro with Ginkgo (THB 65)

Taro with Ginkgo (THB 65)

To sum it all up, this place was such a great find, I'm glad I stumbled upon it. The flavors were all wonderful and every plates were beautifully executed. I'd recommend to go with 2 or more people so you get to try all these yummy dishes. It's always good to have a little bit of everything, right?

Love,

Spoon

Lao Lao Shanghai
Address: The Jas Ramintra - Ladplakao Rd. Bangkok, Thailand 10220
Tel: 02-116-8910
Business Hours: MON - SUN 11AM - 10PM
Parking - YES
Price - ฿฿฿

San Mateo: Vampire Penguin

9/25/2015

Dear Fork,

Clean white and gray interior with artwork on the wall. Friendly staffs!

Clean white and gray interior with artwork on the wall. Friendly staffs!

After each meal I always crave for dessert, as people would say, "you are never too full for dessert". It's totally a true statement, right? Today, I went to the Vampire Penguin in San Mateo (856 N Delaware St. San Mateo, CA 94401), recently opened a month ago. They actually have a few locations all over the bay, mostly in the Sacramento area. I was excited to finally try these delicious-looking snow ice! YAY!!! 

Vampire Penguin offers Shaved Snow Ice (people call them shaved ice, but it felt more like a snow ice for me). These fluffy snow ice in a cup-shaped comes in different variety. The hardest thing is what to get?! There are flavors like Dulce De Leche, Mexican Candy, VP Green tea, Tuxedo, Twix, and S'moreos...WHAT?! They also have Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches too.... #love I had my eye on that Cookies n' Cream one... >///<

Best selling snow ice - Strawberry Cheesecake.

Best selling snow ice - Strawberry Cheesecake.

I had to get the most popular item on the menu, which was the Strawberry Cheesecake. Oh wow, this was truly wonderful. Soft and fluffy strawberry and vanilla snow with crushed graham crackers, with strawberry, raspberries, topped with white chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce and condensed milk. SO GOOOOOOOD! I got the Large size, which I couldn't finish by myself, of course LOL. Good to share. This flavor is the only one with a bigger size options ( Large $7/Deluxe $9). MUST TRY! 

Small Halo Halo snow.

Small Halo Halo snow.

It was tempting to get another flavor... and yes I did haha! I went with the Halo Halo (Filipino style dessert). It is taro snow with munggo beans, white beans, taro paste, mango, condensed milk and flan. Nommm. Condensed milk and snow ice is just the best combination...it literally goes with everything! 

Fork, I hope you don't mind me having so much ice cream type desserts. I know it's not your thing, but it would be nice to let you try them. It might be hard, but worth a try. I will be back and try all other flavors, and ooooh that macaron ice cream sandwich!!!!

Love,

Spoon

Source: http://www.vampirepenguin.com

Reno: Heritage

9/19/2015

Dear Fork,

Are you enjoying our mini road trip together? I'm having a blast! It's a little weekend getaway to Reno, NV for some casino fun and of course, food hunting. Checked in at the Eldorado Reno Hotel. How about we start it off with a weekend brunch?

Inside of the Heritage. Here is our section of the restaurant.&nbsp;

Inside of the Heritage. Here is our section of the restaurant. 

We stopped by the Heritage at Whitney Peak Hotel. What a nice restaurant, with modern decor, huge with high ceiling. The waiting area is super cute with 2 hammock-like chairs hanging from the ceiling on each sides. 

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Waiting area. 

This chair is comfy! Can I be here all day? :p

This chair is comfy! Can I be here all day? :p

Another dining area at the Heritage.

Another dining area at the Heritage.

Fried Mac &amp; Cheese.

Fried Mac & Cheese.

Oh! Their Happy Hour menu is a steal. So many things to choose from with the price ranging from $3-$8. We started off with Fried Mac and Cheese ($5). It features green chile mac and cheese croquette, served on top of charred onion salsa. Nom.

This was my favorite! It was also on the Happy Hour menu, called Everything Bagel Dog. It was simply a hot dog but with an extra love. All-beef frank with cream cheese smear, everything bagel season on a French roll for $5! If I had more space in my tummy, I would love to try everything on this menu...Seriously. LOL

White Trash Croque Monsieur.

White Trash Croque Monsieur.

What's brunch without egg and cheese? I decided to go with the White Trash Croque Monsieur. What a name! It's a Grilled cheese, filled with egg in the hole, served with chorizo gravy and delicious crispy potatoes. YES! You know how I love 'em crispy.

Fork, thank you for sharing this wonderful weekend getaway together. It was delicious!

Love, 

Spoon.

Source: http://heritagewph.com

San Francisco: Craftsman & Wolves

9/16/2015

Dear Fork,

I had a great day today, though, I wish I got to see you more. I went to Craftsman & Wolves since I have not been in for ages. I still love everything about this place, the people, the ambience, and of course their delicious looking pastries.

Beautiful interior.

Beautiful interior.

Speaking of pastries, as you've probably heard from me before, I'm so glad to be in this wonderful city, packed with tasty spots all over within a few minutes walk. Who doesn't like cafe hopping, right? (not to mention, bar hopping is fun too). LOVE IT. 

Chocolate croissant stack

Chocolate croissant stack

The moment I walked in, approaching the counter, I didn't even look at anything else, but these beautiful goodies in front of me. How can I decide what to get?! Okay, let's do this... how about a couple of things at once! YEEEEEEAH 

Communal table at CAW.

Communal table at CAW.

#onthetable #beautiful!

#onthetable #beautiful!

I loved how CAW pays attention to detail on their pastries. It wasn't only that they tasted good, but they are visually attractive! (yes, I mean the pastries LOL.) I got myself a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallow. Litchi Roll features milk chocolate, coffee cream. It's a fancy eclair roll-like but with a twist of the crispy cracker underneath the roll. 

Hot chocolate with marshmallow, so good. I wish the cup was bigger! LOL

Hot chocolate with marshmallow, so good. I wish the cup was bigger! LOL

The Devil (not so deviled looking, it looks more like HEAVEN)

The Devil (not so deviled looking, it looks more like HEAVEN)

The Devil was so tasty. You know how much I love chocolate especially when it's rich! The Devil chocolate cake is filled with chocolate ganache and toffee. The three texture combined makes it the best!

The Rebel Within

The Rebel Within

Here comes the best of the best, a must-try at CAW, The Rebel Within. What is that? It's a breakfast muffin, filled with soft boiled egg. It's just perfect. It has asiago, sausage, green onion. SO GOOD! #bestoftheday

My morning was completely fulfilled with deliciousness.

Thank you for coming with me and help me experience my food life. 

Love,

Spoon

 

Craftsman & Wolves Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
Source: http://www.craftsman-wolves.com/