Thai Food and Travel Tours host a few trips per year to visit various areas of Thailand; and for my first Thailand excursion, this would have be a really convenient option. Each tour includes a 24 hour local Thai-speaking tour guide (which is Kasma, the founder/owner), a majority of local thai meals, transportation in Thailand and accommodation… however, all seats were filled this year (damn, Kasma is so popular)!

Since I couldn’t make it on the trip with Kasma, her husband, Michael, graciously pointed me in the foodie direction so I could get a taste of Thailand through Kasma’s palatte… and out of all of the fantastic recommendations, My Choice Restaurant seemed to be the most authentic, local establishment in Bangkok.

Therefore I hopped a cab with three girlfriends and chose the following dishes from the My Choice Menu:

Roasted Duck with Gourd Leaves (Bped Awb Dam Leung): Screw the gourd leaves and show me the duck! Hidden under a bed of greens, the duck was the tastiest dish of the entire meal.

Green Curry (Gkaeng Kiow Wahn): If you like flavorful and spicy, you will think this is spectacular.

Beef Curry with Roti: Possibly my favorite “completed dish” of the night. The rotee is undeniably delicious- super crispy and flaky all at once! Oh, and the beef curry was good too ;)

Spicy Eggplant Salad (Yum Makeua Yao): It’s spicy… it’s sexy… and I’m pretty sure, between me and my three friends, we were all fighting over the shrimp ;)

Fermented Fish Dip with Veggies (“coconut-milk based sauce made with salted crab and served with various raw and blanched vegetables”): Definitely the LEAST favorite out of the five. We enjoyed the mini cucumber slices, but we barely touched the actual dish- it just didn’t taste like something we wanted to eat.

OVERALL: All four of us paid $222.50 baht each for 5 dishes… but before you go all in a frenzy- we ONLY spent $7.00 USD each (I kinda sorta love the exchange rate in this country). Amazing right?

Bonus Points: Even though they didn’t speak English, they provide a menu with pictures as well as the names of the dishes in English. Additionally, the service was nice and the food was good.

LML Tip: This restaurant is definitely a bargain for the service/food you get; but if you decide to try out My Choice Restaurant, just remember… you will need to take a cab to this location in order to find it (and make sure they drop you off at the front door otherwise it’s a whole lotta alley). Thanks for the recommendation Kasma and Michael!

On the menu?

• Chinese Ramen with Veggies
• Char Kway Teow (Flat Rice Nodles w/ Soy Sauce & Veggies)
• Prawn Mee Soup (Hokkien Noodle Soup w/ Shellfish)

My absolute favorite dish of the night was the Prawn Mee Soup which is a combination of good stock, lots of shellfish, spice and noodles. Click on the link for a well written Prawn Mee Soup recipe from My Cooking Hut!

Who knew there were surfers in Hong Kong??

If we were better prepared, we should’ve brought one of three things: hiking boots, a bathing suit or a blanket! You can climb the trails, rent a board and ride the ways OR you could just relax and take in the scenery… your choice.

As for us, we just took in the fresh air, the rocks, the mountains, and the surfers from a distance… it was beautiful.

And by the way, if Big Wave Bay is too far… another option is heading to Lei Yee Mun to get some fresh air and a spectacular view of the city.

Stay tuned, following this excursion we went to a delicious 8 Course Indian Meal for 40HKD thanks to GroupOn!