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 - ฿฿฿

Bangkok - Tuang by Chef Yip

Dear Fork, 

Bao station with many flavors.

Bao station with many flavors.

I missed you again. I stumbled upon a small hole in the wall again. The perk of going to Charoenkrung street is that there are so many hidden gems of street food along the whole street. This particular street connects China town through a few parts of the city, displaying the the old town Chinese vibe in Bangkok remarkably. The busy street has its flaw. There is no parking area provided! Luckily, I went there on the weekend and street parking was not as challenging. 

Tuang - by Chef Yip, has set its standard as one of the best affordable dim sum in Bangkok. The casual setting is the place where you see people coming in and out, lining up ordering food home throughout the day. Famous for its Lava Bun that has so many variety for such a tiny restaurant. On the inside, the wall is filled with certificates and awards of the restaurant itself and the infamous Chef Yip Yun Keong, a Hong Kong-born, the person behind the success of Chinese restaurant in the 5-Star, Shangri La hotel.

Shang Hai Xiao Long Bao

Shang Hai Xiao Long Bao

Shrimp RIce Flour Roll, Pork Spare RIbs, Steamed Shrimp Dumpling (Hakao)

Shrimp RIce Flour Roll, Pork Spare RIbs, Steamed Shrimp Dumpling (Hakao)

Let's talk about the food. Everything was so darn cheap! I got Shang Hai Xiao Long Bao (฿40/tray), Pork Spare Ribs (฿40/tray), Hakao (฿50/tray), Shrimp Rice Roll (฿50/plate) and Custard Lava Bun (฿17/pc). o_O... WOW!!! I know right!? Only a few bucks for such good meal, why not? The BBQ Pork Rice Roll and Hakao is highly recommended here. The BBQ Pork Rice Roll is so soft, melt in you mouth along with the warm flavorful sauce, just heavenly.

And...here's my favorite TADA! Egg Yolk Lava Bun or they called it Custard Lava Bun here. This was incredible, with the perfect amount of the custard. The taste was so good I had to order more for take-out. #sorrynotsorry (It was still great after a few hours and a few secs of heating-up). I wish you could join me next time! 3.5/5 it is. This place is actually better than some hotel dim sum places, not to be named, it's so closed to this restaurant. ><"

The best Egg Yolk Lava Bun!!

The best Egg Yolk Lava Bun!!

Tuang - by Chef Yip
Address: 2029/9 Charoen Krung Rd, Wat Phraya Krai, Bang Kho Laem, Bangkok 10120
Tel: 086-603-0908
Business Hours: Everyday 7.00AM - 5.30PM
Parking: Off-street. 
Price: ฿฿฿