Eat Me! Not literally...

I had to make a separate post dedicated to one of my most favorite restaurants in the world "Eat Me". I stumbled across this restaurant on Trip Advisor on one of my two visits to Thailand last year. I ate there one night and it was love a first bite! I first fell in head over heels for the fennel and fig bread with an olive oil and cashew/kaffir lime dry dip and then raved to anyone I knew about how delicious the food was at this fine establishment

The ambience is incredible with candles and dimly lit lights. The owner is Australian and the last I knew the chef was from New York City although I didn't see him there on this visit. The wait staff is amazing and our waiter, who is Thai and married to a Scottish woman, remembered us from the time we visited last April. The menu has a subtle Asian flair to it with cocktails, salads, starters, mains, and desserts that make it difficult not to order the entire menu.

On this visit I started with a Marrakech Bellini (instead of peach juice it had pomegranate juice) while the kids had a watermelon and mint juice and mango juice. Gemma ordered her favorite rocket, pear, and parmesan salad with black truffle dressing and homemade penne in a tomato sauce.





Angus ordered a black chicken salad that had the most amazing shavings of freshly, toasted coconut in it (it also had red onion, so when you took a bite you weren't quite sure what you were getting) and New Zealand black green lipped mussels.



I ordered the heirloom tomato salad with olive oil ice cream, shaved parmesan, mint, and basil (which was divine) and Thai barramundi in coconut milk.



I was a little disappointed that we didn't get the normal fig and fennel bread and dry dipping sauce, but they had a lovely garlic and rosemary foccacia as a substitute.

Our dessert was the highlight of our meal and something we were all looking forward to. I had to order what we usually ordered which was a deep, dark, chocolate extravaganza of sweet which included the dark chocolate flourless chocolate cake that was so moist in literally melted in your mouth and the spicy chili and chocolate ice cream.

They make their ice cream homemade and I have never tasted such a subtle taste of chocolate to chili ratio. The kids absolutely flip over this ice cream because of this as your taste buds are rewarded by a bittersweet dark chocolate taste followed by the slow burn of chili. We balanced our chocolate craving with the pavlova with bananas, passion fruit, and cream. I prefer this to pavlova with berries and cream as they passion fruit is the perfect sour compliment to the meringue.

I am looking forward to my next trip to Bangkok, hopefully later this year!

The most indecisive woman in the world! ME!

Jonny, the kids and I returned from Northern Ireland on the afternoon of December 31st. Jonny and I thought it would be a great idea for me to take the kids to Thailand for the first week of January since they had one week left of their Winter break. Now, I never turn down an opportunity to go to Thailand. It is my home away from home and it makes me smile the minute I step of the plane into this steamy environment.

Originally I booked a yoga retreat in Koh Mak, but unfortunately getting there and paying for the retreat were a little bit too difficult. I invited a friend and her two boys to tag along with us as they spent the Christmas holiday in Chengdu. I thought it would be fun for all the kids to play together and for the Mom's to relax on the beach. My friend and I opted to make the decision on where to go when we arrived in Bangkok. Luckily for me my friend is very easy going about these things which balances off me being a total freak about these things.

Last night we spent 3 hours researching every beach and hotel in Koh Chang trying to make a decision on where to stay, but I was still not happy. Honestly, location and the service of the resort are what is most important for me, but when you are looking at pictures of places to stay it is quite for me to make a decision. After reading lots of Trip Advisor and Agoda reviews I was still unhappy with the choices in front of me. We decided to sleep on it and make the decision in the morning.

Gemma woke us up at 10 am and said we had to get up and have breakfast. I looked at the clock and saw that we slept through the 2 alarms that I had set for 9 am. I slowly made my way to the bathroom and got myself ready for the pool. Our friends were already in the pool splashing away.

While I sat by the pool reading my new book I avoided the subject of where to go because I was not sure where to go and I was thinking that we should just try to make it to Koh Mak because it seemed like an easy solution, or better yet just stay in Bangkok for the week. Finally my friend broach the subject and said she had found some hotels she thought would work. I agreed to come to their room and bring my laptop to discuss the options.

After we left the pool the kids and I went for showers and I did more research. There was a hotel that wasn't available yesterday that had rooms magically appear on the internet. I thought this was a great place and met all of my needs. We went down to their room and looked at the hotel with my fried and decided it was a go. We both simultaneously booked our own rooms, but I got a funny message saying something to the affect that my credit card may or may not have been declined. I couldn't believe it! After finally making a decision I was going to have to start all over! I thought there was something wonky about my credit card because I had used it in 3 countries in 3 days, but basically there seemed to be only one room with that particular booking agent.

I went back to our room and called the hotel and tried to book directly with them, but they were quoting me a price double the price I had originally found. I told them that there was a cheaper price on their website, but they could only give me a small discount. The woman on the phone was very nice and suggested I try Booking.com. Lucky for me they had one room left at a cheaper price and promptly booked it! I have used Booking.com twice in two months and have been really pleased with them. I think I may have to bookmark them.

Koh Chang here we come!!!

Happy 2012!!!

A friend of mine gave herself the Christmas present of starting her blog again. I decided to follow in her footsteps.

There are many reason I wanted to do this, one being that I really wanted to do something for ME and do less for others. That may seem quite selfish, but I feel that I deserve a pass. I am a Wife, a Mother, and a Community Organizer. Three of the most underpaid, thankless jobs that you can have. I am not complaining, but instead of being a martyr I decided to rise to it and do something that I enjoy doing.

I was thinking about changing my blog's name, but the name is still extremely brilliant (thanks to Melanie Parkes-Spatgen) and I still live in Chengdu. The only thing that may change is that content will become broader since we have now lived in Chengdu for 5 years.

One of my main passions in life (besides being a Wife, Mother, and Community Organizer) is food. I love to cook it, eat it, play with it, look at it and read about it. I am hoping to discuss food topics such as cooking in China whether it be Sichuan cuisine or food I am adapting to local ingredients, food I am eating while traveling, restaurants I enjoy and anything interesting I am doing in my day to day diet.

Wish me luck in 2012 that I take the time to do this for ME!