Lung Ja Seafood

Our favourite spot at Hua Hin Night Market.  Seafood seemed fresh and selection was interesting and plenty.  With a hot BBQ grill right in front of the restaurant we could see our dinner cooked in front of us.  It's big part of the fun to eat at the Night Market!

BBQ catch of the day.  Loved the meaty and firm white fish, although it seemed to be a little to the dry side.   The dip was so out of this world it more than made up for it.

BBQ king prawn.  It makes my mouth water just looking at the picture.  Prawns were juicy and sweet, we didn't need to use any dipping sauce.


Fried rice.  I always love Thai fried rice and this one was no exception.

Green curry chicken.  Simply wonderful.

Black pepper squid.  We thought we were getting the deep fried salt and pepper version like this one.  We were rather disappointed and to be honest this was not very good at all.  It was basically just soya sauce and a bit of green peppercorns.

Seafood salad.  It wasn't the best.  The noodles were all stuck together because there was not enough dressing.  It was pretty bland as a result and disappointing.

A very long fish!  They told us it's for fish stock mostly.

Lung Ja Seafood
Dechanuchit Rd., Hua Hin, Prachuap Khirikhan, 77110 Thailand.

Asara Villa and Suite

A couple Thai dishes we tried at the hotel restaurant Kampu by Design.  The seafood salad was much better than the pad Thai, which was way too sweet.  We were very hungry still as they were probably the smallest Thai portions possible.  We prefer the no-fuss Thai food in big cheerful plates.


Kampu by Design
Asara Villa and Suite, 53 Hua Hin Soi 5, Prachuab Kirlkhan 77110 Thailand.  Tel: +66 3254-7555

Chao Lay, part 2

Our second meal in Chao Lay.  We got more child-friendly dishes this time.  The pineapple rice was a success!  Our kids loved it.

The must-have tom yum.

Stir-fried crab with curry sauce.  It was finger-licking good!

Sweet and sour chicken with cashew nuts.  It's cooked the same way as sweat and sour pork, which the chicken was deep fried first.  Great taste and texture, a little artery clogging tough.

Chao Lay Restaurant
15 Naresdamri Rd., Hua Hin, Thailand.  Tel: 0-3251-3436

Chao Lay, part 1

We walked around Hua Hin a little to search of a new dinner option but decided to go back to our old favourite Chao Lay once again.

Our tom yum was as good as usual, while the prawn rolls were a little boring in terms of flavour.

Prawn cakes had a nice texture and quite a lot of prawns.

We asked for no chili for our fish dish because of the kids.  Unfortunately once the chili was gone there was not much flavour left to the dish.

At least our green chicken curry had enough punch, and there was plenty of chicken too.

BBQ tiger prawns.  Fresh seafood is simply the best!  And the dip was perfect with prawns.  I would fly back to Thailand just for those!

Chao Lay Restaurant
15 Naresdamri Rd., Hua Hin, Thailand.  Tel: 0-3251-3436

Thai junk food

To be exact I should call them Japanese junk produced in Thailand.  

I never thought I would put anything named Pocky in my mouth but my sister got me hooked on these.  There are many different kinds of Pocky but she said the strawberry one is the only one worth trying.  I agree fully.  Crispy biscuit sticks are coated with strawberry cream infused with bits of strawberries.  They are highly addictive!  The Thai version is fairly similar to the original Japanese version and it's at least half the price.

There must have been at least 200 types of instant noodles on the rack.  Thai people love their noodles.  I wanted something Thai tasting, i.e. spicy and somehow the picture on the pot made me believe it would be so.  Big mistake.  It tasted exactly like the regular Nissin pot noodles and therefore not very nice at all.  A waste of time!

Mango sticky rice

I have to say that was some good mango sticky rice!  When we saw how the mango lady handled her mangoes we knew we were onto a good thing.   It is true that a good chef respects her food.  Three portions of rice and 3 whole mangoes came to US$4.   We paid a little extra to get the mangoes whole.  Otherwise a portion with sliced mango is about US$0.8.

Mango Lady on Cart

Naresdamri Rd. (across from Hilton, there is a big "Don't touch the mangoes" sign up), Hua Hin

Chao Lay Seafood, round 2

We went back to Chao Lay for the second time and sadly we were hugely unsatisfied.  Perhaps we should have stuck to dishes which worked instead of trying new stuff.  

Prawn cakes.  They were actually not bad.

Cuttlefish salad.  I was disappointed that it didn't have vermicelli.  To make it worse the salad had not a hint of dressing.  Even the fresh and nicely blanched cuttlefish did not save the dish.

Stir-fried beef with chili.  I have no idea what cut the beef was but it tasted like shoe leather.  Not only was it tough it was also very dry like beef jerky.  I tried chewing a piece but had to give up as it hurt my jaws.

Fried noodles with seafood.  We got the impression that the dish was just thrown together with a few pieces of seafood.  The noodles were a little strange too and they tasted like instant noodles.  Perhaps the chef was off that day?

Chao Lay

15 Naresdamri Rd., Hua Hin, Thailand.  Tel: 032 513-436

Nem Chua in Thailand!!

I hit the jackpot during a casual stroll in Tesco (of all places!) in Hua Hin.  For those who know me know that I'm crazy about this Vietnamese sausage Nem Chua.  I couldn't believe it when I saw them  stacked along side the regular cold cuts.

On the sign it says Thai fermented sausages.  I had no idea that they are fermented as they sure don't taste anything from a fermentation process.  I wish I can read Thai.

Another Vietnamese sausage I though I'd try.

I didn't think much about the white sausage but the Nem Chua was excellent and just like the ones in Green Cottage!

Chao Lay Seafood

There are a number of shore side seafood restaurants by the Hua Hin town pier and Chao Lay is one of them.  We decided to give it a try as it ranks quite high up on a travel site.  

The menu was full of seafood items, but they would do regular Thai dishes off the menu like green curry chicken etc.

To start we had to have spring rolls.  They were hot, crispy and no frills.  It was a refreshing change to the fancy (and  fussy) Thai food we kept having at the resort.

Tom yum soup.  I think this was a small portion.  It came bubbling hot and despite the chili oil on top the soup was not spicy at all.  I love all things spicy so it was somewhat disappointing for me.  Then again for the first time I actually got to enjoy the seafood without having to gulp water in between bites.  The pot was full of prawns.  Yum!

Green curry with chicken.  Again it came in a big pot boiling hot.  The curry sauce was excellent and in it chunky pieces of lean chicken.  It was so much better than the version at the resort and it was 10 times cheaper also.

Thai fish cakes.  Great taste and consistency.  

Fried rice.  It was the weakest dish.  Rice was soggy and there was nothing Thai about it.  It was as bland as plain rice without any hint of spice.

Steamed sea bass in lime and chili sauce.  The fish itself was very fresh and plump.  The sauce was a little lame in the spicy scale.  Whenever we had this dish it always came in a small table stove.  Without a stove our fish got cold pretty quickly and it wasn't the nicest when it cooled down 5 minutes into its arrival.

Stir-fried vegetables.  Nothing special but at least they were crunchy and not the frozen variety.

The meal came close to US$30.  And it's one of the more expensive places in town - we love Thailand!

15 Naresdamri Rd., Hua Hin, Thailand.  Tel: 032 513-436

Motion, Alila Cha-Am

We have had a number meals at our resort restaurant Motion.  With the LO's early bed time it was difficult to be out for dinners and luckily the menu covered quite a few things/continents and we were able to try different dishes.

On our second night we decided to check out the place.  The night was quiet and warm and we thought we would grab a quick bite.  It turned out to be rather romantic actually with candles and wine.  

Homemade grissinis were served promptly when we were given the menus.  Crunchy and subtly seasoned they disappeared rather quickly.

As we were still craving Thai food we gave the menu's Thai section a go.  Here we have Thai deep-fried dressed crab.  I love crab to begin with but this dish was so delicious my husband was impressed also.  Chunky white crab meat was mixed in with breadcrumbs and Thai spices.  Even thought they were fried they weren't too greasy at all.  We wanted more!

Seafood salad with vermicelli.  This dish has to be one of my all-time favourite Thai dishes.  I always wanted to find out what exactly is in the dressing, as there has to be more than just lime and chili.  The version in Alila looked very dainty but it was full of punch.  I reached for my glass of water very quickly!

Stir-fried prawns and asparagus.  While we liked the taste we felt the presentation was too fussy.  The fact that it looked interesting did not distract us from realising that it tasted blah.  And for what they were charging they were two very expensive prawns too.  

Green curry with chicken.  The curry sauce was fragrant and yummy but then it'd be difficult to mess that one up.  The big disappointment was that there were only about 3 pieces of chicken in the pot?  The rest were some kind of sliced vegetable which might have been bamboo shoots but it tasted more like wood.  

I specifically asked my husband to put his hand in the shot to demonstrate relative sizes.   In the little bamboo shoot lied our pad Thai noodles.  It was definitely not for sharing.  And again, it looked very cute in presentation but the taste was nothing special.  

We were happy with our meal because service was good and it was romantic.  The food, however, was marginal.  If "gourmet Thai" means small portions and fussy plating then we will pass.

______________________

On a different day we were back for lunch.  Even though I had decided to give the gourmet Thai menu a miss I couldn't resist spring rolls when I saw them on the menu.   I hate to say this again but they were truly unremarkable.  I do like the way the served it.

My husband's pizza with prosciutto was actually freshly made and surprisingly nice.

My pasta with clams was very well made as well.  The garlic and white wine sauce was neither too garlicky nor overwhelming, and the clams were meaty and fresh.  The chef responsible for non-Thai cuisine is a gem!

__________________

Another evening, another supper.  Where were the grissinis tonight?  The rolls here were no match to the grissinis.

Nicoise salad with seared tuna.  It looked great and tasted equally as nice too.

I had to have another Thai seafood salad with vermicelli.   I think there were more seafood here then the first time we had it.  
The pizza was so good my husband decided to have another one.  This time around there were olives!

Spaghetti with creamy chicken and green peppercorn sauce.  It was very delicious indeed and I loved the interesting taste and texture of green peppercorns.  I must find the recipe and try making it at home.  

Mango sticky rice.  We are back to stingy portion again whenever we order Thai food from the menu!  We loved the dish but we could definitely use more mango.

_____________________

Another supper and I was more than happy to try another pasta dish.  It didn't disappoint - a generous amount of salmon was seared and infused in a nutty pesto sauce.  Nice!
My husband had a pizza again.  They must be good!

All in all we were quite happy with the variety and quality of the food. The prices they are charging are of course way more than normal street restaurants but they are not extortionist.  The only problem we had was the fact that we got charged for bottled water when it is free anywhere else in the resort - a bit cheeky if you ask me!

Alila Cha-Am

Cha-Am Thailand