Exploring Restaurants

Where to begin!  We have thoroughly enjoyed eating the food here.  Where else can you get a delicious Thai dish for $2?  Below are some of the restaurants we’ve been to our first couple of weeks.

River Tree House (May be one of our favorite places)

This restaurant is situated by the Chao Phraya River which makes for a great atmosphere.  We were shocked when the bill came and saw that all 16 of us, eating family style, ate for $100.  We had wing bean salad (my new favorite salad), numerous Thai dishes, and steamed red snapper.  Oh and many of the kids got delicious watermelon drinks.

Wing Bean Salad (my new favorite salad)

Coconut soup (delicious!)

Red snapper (head included)

Hard to capture the beauty of this restaurant since there was a huge storm and all the shades had to be pulled down.

Cabbages and Condoms (I really must explain this one)

Needless to say, we did not bring the kids to this restaurant, located in the heart of Bangkok.  When Jason told me that he visited this restaurant back in March, I was appalled.  It’s a very nice restaurant with a pretty atmosphere, and not at all some sort of brothel as the name might suggest.  Many know that Bangkok is sadly a place where sex trafficking and prostitution is rampant.   This restaurant’s mission is to promote and provide safe sex, and while we know that abstinence is the best choice and God’s design outside of marriage, many of these women live a life with no hope and limited choices.  Many of the restaurant’s proceeds go towards the prevention of HIV and other venereal diseases. 

Can you guess what the chandeliers are made of?

And this is why they do feel their mission is important...

This girl was doing the hula hoop in a side alley, which I thought was kind of fun, until I found out her real purpose.  Apparently this is her way of soliciting you know what.  It's very sad.

Paradise Dynasty

This Chinese restaurant located in Siam Paragon Mall in Bangkok was such a fun experience complete with our own sofa for relaxing and a lazy susan to rotate the food.  We enjoyed the extra perk of being seated in the center room, though we’re wondering if the intent was more to cage in our children and protect the rest of the patrons.  This place specializes in soup dumplings that were out of this world.

Resting before our big meal

Our own private room

Experimenting with chopsticks

These noodles are really long!

Austin loved all of the food!

I loved the mango dessert!

Speaking of out of this world…this is how the boys used their chopsticks.

Sushi soup place (Can't remember the actual name)

This is a really cool buffet style place in the local mall, which is a short golf cart ride away.  How they prepare the soup reminds me of a fondue style for preparing meat and vegetables, though each person has his/her own individual bowl.  You can request basic chicken broth or a spicy broth, and then just start grabbing plates of meat, veggies, fish, and some other unidentified foods off of a conveyor belt.

The options snake around the room on a conveyor belt.

Soup is cooking!

Not just a soup place...you can choose shrimp tempera, wantons, and california rolls from a food bar

Hyatt 

Though this does not sound as exotic, since most people have probably stayed in a Hyatt at some point in their lives, Jason and his coworkers would not stop raving about a dish called khao soi.  In fact, we he visited in March, he came home and did a pretty good job making the dish himself.  Since then, he has frequented the Hyatt just to eat khao soi.  So, I had to taste what all this fuss was about, and I concur that it is delicious.  Jason describes it as "velvet in your mouth."