Tom Yam Noodle & Porridge @ Restoran Joo Heng ~ Raja Uda

When I was driving along Jalan Raja Uda last Friday night with my food buddies, suddenly a crowded restaurant caught my eye. So without a second thought, I made a U-turn and headed to Restoran Joo Heng. We had no idea what they were serving but as we got closer, it looked like it was a buffet. But on closer inspection, there is this stall at this coffee shop which is cooking up a Tom Yam storm. What impressed me immediately was that one can choose what they want to include in their noodle or porridge. You are given a small plate, and then you will go about choosing your own condiments.
The variety of items to choose is really good. There is various meat such as minced pork, pork intestines, pork kidney/liver, fish belly meat, fish head, a good variety of mushrooms such as shitake, oyster and straw, various fish balls, various vegetables, and their signature item, fried crispy fish fillets.
So after selecting what we want included, then its time to choose how we want it cooked. They have Tom Yam mee, bihun, porridge and also a non spicy broth to choose from. As we are a big fan of Tom Yam, we headed for the Tom Yam noodle. When it came, we were surprise to see that the broth was pretty clear, with some chilli flakes clearly visible. But what struck us was the taste. It was sour, not too spicy, but it had a kick. I LOVE it immediately. As we selected our own condiments, there is no worry that we won't like what we are having. I really love this idea of theirs. We hurriedly devoured the bowl of noodles and then the owner told us about Tom Yam porridge.
This is the first time I heard of this and I made a note that I will return the next day just to sample the Tom Yam porridge. So again, I chose what I wanted, and asked for the Tom Yam porridge. I have to say, on the first spoonful, I was convinced that I will be returning many more times for this. The porridge blended so well with the spicy broth that I feel its better than with the noodles. This is surely something for Tom Yam lovers to try if they haven't already done so :) And then, to add on, their fried fish fillets are really delicious. They will fry it in a huge wok and you can clearly see that its a crowd favorite. When I asked, the owners told me that they used dory fish, but whatever marination that they have done, they surely have done an excellent job at making it feel as if we are eating much better fish.
I highly recommend this place and for those who have tried, do leave your thoughts too ya.

Opens daily except Tuedays from 6.30pm-3.00am (Yes you can have late night cravings)
GPS coordinates : 5.436488,100.386001

The stall at the restaurant

Selecting your choice of goodies

Stacks of customers selection all ready for cooking

One of the bowls of Tom Yam noodle

The owner busy preparing

 See the large wok deep frying the fish fillets

 Yum yum, finally our bowl of Tom Yam noodle has arrived

 Tom Yam porridge

 Look at all those fish

 Slurp!

 We had the large bowl, on the left, and just to show how it compares to a standard size bowl on the right

 The owners. Keep up the great tasting food ya!

Bangkok Airport Royal Silk Lounge + Spa

So as I have time to burn at Bangkok Airport and after walking endlessly among the many shops here, finally decided to rest my feet at the Thai Royal Silk Lounge. The one I went to is located at Gate C and its very open and comfortable.
There are many comfortable couch for one to just relax and there is also free WI-FI here so connectivity is great. The facilities in this lounge includes of course free flow of food and drinks, and they also have a shower room and also very simple beds should one decide to take a nap.
So on to the food ya... heheh, well, they do have a decent selection but I was told that it cannot beat Cathay's or SIA's lounge in terms of variety. But I'm not complaining. They have a central island where the main food trays are located and then at the sides there are some of the special for the day. Then drinks (alcohol included) is free flow and there is only so much you could drink I guess. There is also an area for snacks and fruits too.
So I tried their chicken and shrimp steamed bun and also their siew mai (dumplings) (chicken). I think its chicken as I don't recall if its pork.(I could be wrong). I also had a piece of chicken sausage (mini). My colleague on the other hand had a plate of salad with some dressing on top. Looks yummy and healthy too. Next I had a second helping of mushroom pie and a few more of those lovely siew mai.
Unexpected, we then found out that we are entitled to a complimentary massage. You can choose to have a neck+shoulder massage or foot massage. I chose the former and I must say that it really helped to loosen up the stressed out muscles. After the massage, we are brought to the spa lounge where we are served some snacks and also scented teas. Very refreshing indeed. The decorations here are really superb and gives a calming mood. As we still had time, we headed back to the lounge.

I decided to chomp on more food and this time took the chicken dumplings with soup. I added a spoon of paprika to give the soup some oomph. I finished off my meal with a seafood flavored potato chips! So this transit time was well spent, and off to the long flight to Frankfurt.

The lounge setting 

 

 The food island

 Cakes, puffs....

 Sandwiches

 My first round of food

 Salad

 Mushroom pie

 Another angle of the lounge

 Snacks at the spa

 And the tea

 Spa setting

 

 Dried mangoes

 Lotus flower

 Round leaves

 Dumpling soup with paprika at side

Seafood flavor potato chips

Touchdown in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

As the flight progress smoothly, took a shot of the beautiful skyline, wow, so serene, too bad can't see the earth curvature in this picture. Soon we landed at the new Bangkok airport, well its about 4-5 years now, but it really does look sparkling new. And one thing I must comment is that the airport is huge. There were so many travelators and I can't imagine traversing the airport without it. The common decorations here are the orchids which I do find interesting and beautiful. A comparison to Changi, is that Changi uses more of the Phalaenopsis species whereas in Thailand its more Vanda variety. So this is just a short posting. Next will be the Silk Lounge and the Spa at the airport.

Clear blue sky

 Touchdown at Bangkok

 Vandas everywhere

 Its like endless path, so long the airport corridor

 Look closely at the sign and you will see between East and West is almost 1km long

 This is Gate C view

There is even demigods around... hehe

Biz lounge at Penang International Airport & Penang-Bangkok via Thai Airways

So, there I was, reaching the airport about 6.30am for my flight to Bangkok from Penang airport. I was surprise that the airport was pretty crowded, its either lots of tourist/visitors or the airport is just plain small. I felt so proud as first time I did not have to queue at the ticket counter as I had a business class ticket. First smile of the day. Checking was smooth and I was given a small piece of paper giving access to the MAS lounge on the upper floor of the departure hall. I have to say that the lounge is really hidden away and its such a waste that its not more visible.
But the inside was very relaxing and pleasing. The lounge was pretty well maintained, with lots of sofas available. There is even a kids room and I'm sure it will be very handy with kids around. There is a drinks counter where one can order drinks and then there is the buffet spread. Not much to be had as its really early in the morning. There was nasi lemak with fried chicken and belacan, lots of varieties of sandwiches and also some chicken sausages. Well I only managed the sausages as my wife had prepare a "chung" for me prior which I already had! I also ordered a Mochachino and this was nice. Once you order it, the staff will bring it to where you sit. Good service it is. As it was almost time, I finished my drink and headed to the departure gate which was already open.
As I reached, there was a long queue waiting, and lo and behold, I was greeted by a sign right at the front inviting biz class to board the plane first. They practically stopped the queue! Second smile of the day. As I boarded the plane, was glad that the biz class seats were actually slightly bigger and more comfortable and off on the flight I was.
Immediately, drinks were served even before the flight took off, and endless flow of food and beverages seems to be what you pay for in a biz class ticket. As we took off, the menu was brought so that we can choose what we would like for our meal. So the starter was a plate of fresh fruits which included kiwi, orange,  papaya, grape and rock melon. Not bad as all the fruits were properly peeled and presented nicely with the contrasty colour and taste. The the meal which I selected was the chicken teriyaki with noodles. The chicken was well marinated but was abit dry and tough. The noodles though was pretty good even if we know all these food is pre-heated in the microwave. All in all, a pretty decent journey so far on this 2 hour flight to Bangkok. The scene through the windows was lovely and I did take a couple of sky pictures too. That's all for now, and hopefully I get more time to continue uploading.

 The MAS Lounge at Penang International Airport

 3 chicken sausages

 My Mochachino

 Cloudy skies

 Fresh fruit platter

 Chicken Teriyaki with noodles

 Thai Airways Cutlery

 Overall serving of the meal