Author Archives: kenny

Makphet (Vientiane, Laos)

Rating:

Yesterday we went looking for Makphet, described by the Lonely Planet as a “small restaurant that trains homeless youth to cook and wait tables” and whose “modern Lao cuisine is both interesting and tasty.” The description reminded us a lot of the good work by FareStart in Seattle, and we were excited to check it out. Unfortunately (as is too often the case) the address in the Lonely Planet is wrong, so we dined elsewhere for lunch and hoped they had moved rather then shut down.

Indeed, Makphet moved a few blocks away in 2008, to a location that we passed on our way home from our bike adventure. The restaurant was cute, and the menu looked delicious, so in we went for dinner.

Makphet

The menu has many illustrations, trivia about the restaurant, and an extensive set of enticing options from appetizers to entrees to desserts. A few things we learned:

  • Makphet means chili in Lao
  • All of the produce used is local to Vientiane
  • Half sizes of many of the menu items are available, so we can try more!
  • 100% of the profits go back into Peuan Mit’s projects for marginalized children in Lao PDR
  • Desserts looked awesome, so we better save room

First up, Laap Tao Hou, a banana flower, tofu, and mushroom salad with galangal and soy dressing. Very fresh, a modern twist on classic Lao laap that I enjoyed much more.

Banana flower salad
The opener: banana flower salad

For our main course, we chose one from the curry page and one item from the stir fry page. The Curry Gai (Chicken Curry with Pumpkin and Mushrooms) tasted similar to the better Massaman Thai curries I’ve had, and worked really well with pumpkin.

The stir fry was my favorite. Kua Pa Sei Pit Ei On (Mekong fish and green peppercorn in Lao rice wine) was stir fried to perfection. The fish was nicely glazed in the rice wine, giving it a slightly sweet taste to offset the powerful green peppercorns. All served on crisp fresh vegetables.

Main course
Stir fried fish and green peppercorns (left) and chicken curry (right)

As promised, we had saved room for dessert. But what to choose? Pandan leaf scented sago with mango and coconut milk? Coconut and lime cake with hibiscus flower syrup? Pineapple in palm sugar caramel with coconut gelato and chili? In the end we decided to go off-menu with the daily special: sweet mango cake with coconut ice cream. In a word, awesome. The cake was moist and the ice cream fresh and creamy. Our waiter told us we’ll have to try the coconut and lime cake next time. If only we were in Vientiane for one more day!

mango cake
No half portions for dessert. Full-sized tasty mango cake.

Overall, fantastic food and your money is going to a great cause. I could not believe that all of the wait staff had been recently living or working on the street; if I hadn’t known it would have simply felt like a nice meal out with top-notch friendly service. There’s also a small handicrafts shop in the back where most of the products are made of recycled materials by local craftswomen.

Makphet
Behind Wat Ong Teu, parallel to Sethathirat Road and the river front
Vientiane, Laos
+856 020 260587

Daily: Lunch, Dinner

Thai Is-San (Ko Lanta, Thailand)

Rating:

On our first night after moving to Khlong Dao, we decided to forgo the touristy-looking beachfront restaurants in search of something more authentic. We cased the main road, and came upon a cute little family-run restaurant named Thai Is-San. I’m not sure whether it was the menu with a Winnie the Pooh cover, the plastic chair seating, or the smiles from the family that caused us to choose Thai Is-San for dinner, but I’m glad we did.

Dinner consisted of a spicy mango salad and stir fried fish with vegetables in spicy sauce. The mango salad was fresh, crunchy, and spicy (not Sumalee spicy, though a very enjoyable 4-star spice). The fish was breaded and stir fried with garlic, tomatoes, chilies, vegetables, coriander, and a soy-chili sauce. I think the fish is one of their best sellers, as I saw it on about 60% of the tables around us.

We were hooked. The next night we came back for more and enjoyed an even tastier meal, this time with the camera in tow. We had to get another mango salad, one of our current addictions. This time we paired it with green curry. Outside of Thailand I’m not really a green curry fan, though I’ve heard in Thailand it’s how you can determine the good cooks from the great ones. Thai Is-San’s green curry is possibly the tastiest green curry I’ve ever had. It had a depth of flavor with kaffir lime leaves, coriander, shallots, and other spices that weren’t dominated by coconut milk. Add in crunchy green beans, gobi cauliflower, and a healthy dose of fresh island prawns and you can see why we licked the bowl clean. If we weren’t headed to Laos, we’d be back again tonight!

Spicy Mango Salad
Spicy mango salad

Green Curry with prawns
Green curry prawns

The happy family
The happy family at work together

Thai Is-san

Thai Is-san
Khlong Dao Beach
Ko Lanta, Thailand

Daily: Lunch, Dinner

Sumalee Seafood (Phuket, Thailand)

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We had arguably the best Thai food I’ve ever had on Nai Yang beach in Phuket. Among the crowd of beachfront restaurants is a gem of a place: Sumalee Seafood. The owner and chef, Sumalee, is a very sweet lady who turns out amazing curries, salads, and other Thai fare. And when you order “spicy!”, it can knock you out of your seat. Our first meal there was a lunch of spicy mango salad and massaman curry. The mango salad was fresh, crunchy and very spicy. Lauren and I rated it “6 star” spicy as it was spicier than any Thai food we’ve had. We chatted with Sumalee after lunch and she told us she used 3 chilies, and for herself she normally uses 1. The massaman curry was quite tasty, similar to the one served at Jamjuree.

The next day we had panang curry and phad see iw for dinner. The panang was reminiscent of the one we made in our Chiang Mai cooking class last year -  a full-flavored, medium dry curry with overtones of lemongrass. It’s always a good sign when panang is a darker brown/yellow color. This curry was so good we came back for another helping today for our final meal in Phuket (this time with vegetables) .

After each meal Sumalee would bring us a few fresh fruits as a complimentary dessert. I think this tradition started because she was swamped on our first visit and the food took a long time to arrive. Nonetheless, we continued to be treated to mangos, watermelon, bananas, and rambutan on future visits. 🙂

spicy mango salad
Super spicy mango salad, fresh and delicious

Hugs!
Sumalee and Lauren

panang prawns
Panang Goong, as good as it gets

Kenny enjoying a pineapple and coconut shake
Enjoying a tasty and refreshing coconut+pineapple fruit shake

Sumalee and her son
Alas, we eventually had to take our leave of Nai Yang beach and Sumalee Seafood

Sumalee Seafood
Nai Yang Beach
Phuket, Thailand

Daily: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Poon Restaurant (Phuket, Thailand)

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On our first day in Phuket, we were approached by a very friendly man on Nai Yang beach. His name is “Mr. Poon” and he is the man behind Poon Restaurant. He is also a full service beach entrepreneur. He provides beach chairs, beer and other drinks delivered to you in your lounger, and will hook you up with a massage or any other service you need. He runs a tab for you until the end of your vacation. You also get Mr. Poon’s humor thrown in for free. We had two lunches at Poon Restaurant, and they were both quite enjoyable.

The first day we had garlic pepper chicken and prawns in Thai sauce. The garlic pepper chicken was fine, though nothing special (in general garlic+pepper sauce has been a bit of a let down on all but one occasion in my Thailand experiences, but that one time was amazing). The prawns in Thai sauce were phenomenal. Spiced at ~4 stars, it was garlicky, of medium thick consistency, and had a greater depth than most soy/oyster-based sauces. It was somewhat reminiscent of Thai Tom’s “#4”. He also showed us how to carve a pineapple.

The second time, we had a repeat of the prawns in Thai sauce and chicken with cashew nuts. We even got a cooking lesson, so now we can make Poon chicken with cashew nuts at home! It was a tasty mix of garlic, chili sauce, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, onions, chilies, and more.

Mr. Poon’s friendliness, reasonable prices, and big personality have earned him a loyal following. We saw many of the same people hanging out at Poon’s section of the beach day after day. Lauren dubbed this crowd the “Poonatics.”

He told us that next time when we come back, maybe he’ll have a second story where people can hang out and have a view of the ocean. We’ll find out when we return. 🙂

Me and Mr. Poon
Hanging with Mr. Poon

prawns in thai sauce
Prawns in Thai sauce

chicken with cashew nuts
Chicken with cashew nuts

fruit plate on the beach
Fruit plate (mangos, pineapple, watermelon) served beachside

Poon Restaurant
Nai Yang Beach
Phuket, Thailand

Daily: Lunch, Dinner

China Town (Bangkok, Thailand)

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During our long connection in BKK, we got hungry (shocking, I know). It was 5AM and the food area on floor 3 was hopping. The most exciting-looking Thai food was at a Chinese/Thai restaurant: China Town. We ordered tom yum goong (spicy soup with noodles and shrimp) and phad thai gai, along with a fresh young coconut. It was delicious, and would hold its own against most Thai food in Seattle. I’m glad to be back in Thailand!

Kenny and a young coconut
Kenny enjoying a fresh young coconut

Lauren with Tom Yum Goong
Lauren savoring a breakfast of tom yum goong

China Town
Floor 3, Main Terminal
Bangkok International Suvarnabhumi Airport
Bangkok, Thailand

24 hours/day

Pho Cycle Café (Seattle, WA)

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We first discovered Pho Cyclo Café’s delicious banh mi chay (tofu sandwich) in the Building 26 cafeteria. We had been to the Broadway restaurant before, but hadn’t noticed the banh mis on the menu (turns out they’re hidden away in a small corner). We had sampled their bun, lemongrass chicken, and a few other Vietnamese standards. Those were fine, but not particularly memorable. The tofu sandwich is a different matter. They’ve become a regular part of our weekend lunch rotation, especially now that they’ve closed their Building 26 counter to focus on their SoDo storefront.

We had 15 minutes in between a storage errand on First Hill and massages to grab lunch. We figured, let’s try and squeeze in a Pho Cyclo sandwich! They’re right across the street from Massage Envy, and the banh mi are light enough to avoid digestive discomfort during a massage.

The sandwiches are chock full of spicy green chilies, semi-firm marinated tofu, cucumbers, carrots, cilantro, and tasty fish sauce. Pho Cyclo uses fresh, crusty baguettes, and you get all of this yumminess for only $3.25!

Enjoying a tofu sandwich in the car
Enjoying our tofu Banh Mi in the car

Pho Cyclo

Pho Cyclo Café
406 Broadway East
Seattle, WA 98102 
(206) 329-9256

Daily: 10:00AM-9:45PM (Lunch, Dinner)

Veena Stores (Bangalore, India)

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A block from Sean and Archana’s place is a little South Indian food stall, Veena Idly.  Sean took us there on our first morning in Bangalore. I remember enjoying it, but my memories of that breakfast were quite hazy due to our exhausting travel day.

For some reason, we didn’t make it back to Veena until yesterday. I’m not sure why, as we talked about going a bunch. Maybe it’s the same reason that Floridians never use the pool in their backyard. One day while driving to work, we even ad-libbed a jingle for Veena. I think it went something like this (it changed a bit every time):

Veena Idly, for all your idly needs
Veena Idly, hooray for you and me
Veena Idly, for all your idly needs
I want some Veena Idly! (and vada too!)

However, we did have our final two Bangalore breakfasts at Veena, and they were fantastic. The menu is similar to many other south Indian breakfast stalls, but the execution was far above the competition. Someone said they have a special high-end idly steamer. I don’t know what it is, but I do know that I love it.

IMG_0358
Idly/vada, the classic south Indian breakfast served with amazing coconut chutney

IMG_0357
Chow chow bath. There are two sections, sweet and a savory. You are supposed to get a little of each part in each bite.

Veena Idly Archana and her idly vada

IMG_0354

Veena Idly
No. 183, 15th Cross, Margosa Road
Malleshwaram, Bangalore, India 560 055
+91 23344838

Daily: Breakfast, Lunch

Error 1001. The specified service has been marked for deletion

Sometimes I think I should run a signspotting campaign for error messages. In this particular case, the error happens when trying to install or uninstall a Windows service.

Since there was nothing actionable in the error message (sigh), it was off to the web. On MSDN, the only “fix” was to reboot your machine. Boo. Fortunately after digging deeper it turns out that all you really need to do is close services.msc if it’s open.

Given that this is a fairly common situation for services development, hopefully this post will save a few reboots. And maybe the next version of Windows will say something to the effect of “service was unable to install/uninstall because services.msc is open, please close the control panel and retry your installation.”

Kaati Zone Express (Bangalore, India)

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The full service Indian airlines (Jet, Kingfisher, Air India) have amazing food on all of their flights, no matter what the length. However, on the way back from Goa we flew on IndiGo (a budget carrier), where the food options are anemic.

We left Mandrem sated from a great breakfast, but after 2 hours from Mandrem to GOI, a lack of decent food options at GOI, and an hour flight to Bangalore we were famished. Since BLR is about an hour outside of town, we grabbed a “jumbo” chicken tikka roll outside of the terminal. It was surprisingly good! The chicken was decently spicy, the roti was fresh off the grill, and prices weren’t heavily airport-inflated.

I don’t know if I would choose Kaati Zone Express if I was in the city and had other options available to me, but If you arrive hungry to Bangalore airport, it’s a solid choice.

IMG_0283

Kaati Zone Express
Bangalore International Airport
Devanahalli, Bangalore, India

La Plage (Aswem, India)

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Before we left Bangalore, our friend Josh gave us a few Goa recommendations. He said:

Go to Mandrem. Stay at the Dunes. Have dinner next to the Dunes at a place called Well Garden that makes awesome wood-fired pizzas. Aswem, the next beach south, has a fancy European restaurant called La Plage. You can walk there or take a short cab ride.

OK, you could say that he planned most of our Goa trip for us. The first day on the beach, we tried to find La Plage for lunch. We walked down the beach for about a half-hour, fording a knee-high river formed by the tides and scrambling over rocks along the way. We asked a few people we passed, both tourists and touts, none of whom had heard of La Plage. Ultimately we turned back and had lunch in Mandrem. Our hosts at the Dunes told us that we had gone the right way, just not far enough. They said we would be able to see it from the beach and to just keep going.

The following day we left around 11AM for our lunchtime adventure. We passed the river, the rocks, and a long stretch of beautiful beach with nothing but sea creatures and waves to keep us company. Finally we spied a line of red beach chairs under the waving palm trees, and a little bit beyond them was an enormous sky-blue sign signaling that we had arrived at La Plage.

The food at La Plage is about 3 times the price of your average restaurant in Mandem (which puts the dishes at $4-$7), but it has the nicest atmosphere in town and delicious food. The two vegetarian dishes we had for lunch were fantastic. The chilled avocado soup would have made the grade in a top California restaurant, and their tomato tart was flaky, buttery goodness. The “grilled spicy chicken” just reminded me that I should stick to vegetables and seafood in this part of the world (though the accompanying green papaya and peanut salad was yummy).

The next day we went back for more, and discovered our two favorite dishes. The first was gnocchi with porcini mushrooms. The gnocchi were homemade, deliciously chewy, and topped with real parmesan cheese and a porcini mushroom sauce that was rich without being heavy-handed. The second was the “La Grande Salade de La Plage", which we had spied earlier on another table. It’s a collection of dips, cheese, and vegetables served with fresh baked bread.

We had a few more lunches there, and dinner with Sean and Freeman last night. Dinner was a bit of an adventure. Lauren and I again walked along the beach, but there were a few differences. It was dark, which we had planned for with our headlamps. However, when we got partway through the river crossing, we realized that the tides were much higher in the evening! Fortunately it was still warm enough out for our shorts to dry on the other half of our walk, and we joined Sean and Freeman for a dry cab ride home.

The other dinner hiccup was the food coursing. All of our dishes, from appetizers to main courses, arrived simultaneously. This meant that there was not enough room on the table for everything, and that much of the food got cold before it was eaten. The staff let us linger over cards for hours afterwards, but it was a shame to have such a rushed eating experience.

Overall the food at La Plage is delicious, especially the vegetarian dishes, and the lounge-y beach setting is paradise. If you’re in north Goa, it’s worth the journey (by cab or river crossing) to check it out!

Arriving at La Plage
The big blue sign beckons you from the beachfront to this oasis

Chilled avocado and apple soup
Chilled avocado and apple soup with lime leaves and pomegranate

Gnocci with porcini mushrooms
Gnocci in porcini mushroom sauce

La Grande Salade de La Plage
The famous Grande Salade de La Plage

Tomato tart
Tomato tart with basil and arugula

La Plage
Aswem, Goa, India
+91 982-212-1712

Daily: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner