Monday, July 9, 2012

Taste of Thai in the Heart of Amsterdam-Royal Thai Restaurant

Honestly speaking, ive never eaten so much cheeses in my life then during my recent Istanbul-Amsterdam-Athens trip. I ate cheese for breakfast-lunch-dinner and supper..im literally "cheesed-up" by the 3rd day of my vacation!

Luckily, during our walk around in Amsterdam, we came across this wonderful Thai restaurant, centrally located in Lange Leidsedwarsstraat shopping area-to fulfill our craving for some spicy food.





















and we ordered..

Seafood Fried Rice...the portion is big...can be shared. The rice is quite salty..but they were really generous on the shrimps.


Seafood Padthai...


and..Shrimp Tom Yam...


all the foods above were delicious. Our only gripe was that the spiciness had been toned down to cater for the European palate..thus it was not as spicy as we liked it to be. In anyway that you have a craving for some spicy Thai dishes when you are in Amsterdam....do give this restaurant a try-cheers-Kay2012

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Istanbul Food Odyssey....

Hello dear readers...im back to my beloved country from a one week holiday in Istanbul, Amsterdam and Athens. Need less to say that it was a wonderful trip..full of new experiences. And all that i can say is that each city offer limitless attractions for tourist to visit and to appreciate the different cultures of the people. I really hope to return to these places one day.

I will definitely write about all the lovely attractions and the wonderful places that ive visited in these places...however this post is about food....and its about Istanbul's foods, a city which is famous for its culinary choices.

The food here are largely based on wheat produced such as bread and dairy such as cheese. These two products can be found largely in Turkish food. Not to forget that they also consume lots of meat and this can be found regularly in kebabs. 

Taste wise i would say that the food here are mildly seasoned and spiced with one or two dominating flavour and not an eclectic of flavours such as Asian food whereby we have mix of sweet, sour, salty in one dish. Most of the foods are spiced with basic spices such as pepper and dried chili, herb such as cinnamon and the flavour may also be dominated by the ingredient itself such as the sour taste contributed by the tomatoes in it or the salty taste of cheese.

Ever seen a turkish pizza before? this is how it looks like...........



It is shaped like a long boat, filled with mince meat and tomatoes and topped with cheese. Other types of fillings are available too as can be seen in the menu below. For a small eater like me, this pizza can be shared by two persons.


This is also another type of bread with meat and cheese filling...the taste of cheese is much more overpowering in this dish...


 As always...you can find many types of grilled foods here...grilled chicken, meat, seafood...all served with veggies, rice or fries.Take note they give you one finger of chilli and a tomato for an added taste...as frankly speaking and as i stated earlier, most of the foods here are lightly spiced.


What about fusion or new edge turkish food? I did sample a few in a restaurant located at Taksim Square.In this restaurant they served dishes which you may normally find in higher end restaurants...complete with its artistic garnishings....

I love this apple-mint drink...very refreshing in a hot summer day......


Another thing to note, most restaurant will provide you with this basket of bread...i think it's complimentary...but most of the time we didn't even touch it as we were already full...



Here we ordered the cajun fried chicken.....


and the grilled salmon on a turmeric rice.....


both of the foods were tasty..and interestingly enough we could taste the spices used in each dishes.

lastly they served us complimentary turkish tea....


Being overwhelmed (and overstuffed) with meat....we venture around the city and found a nice seafood restaurant along the road leading to Sultan Ahmet area. This restaurant served fresh seafoods, many of which came right from the port nearby.

We ordered a few starters...

The very delicious octopus salad...this was the first time ive ever tasted octopus..and it was not rubbery as i thought it would be..


and aubergine salad...delicious as well with slight sourness from the tomatoes...


and the deep fried catch of the day...love this one as the fish meat is moist while the outside is crispy..


meat dishes are also served here and we ordered the kebab....


im having quite a time to finish the kebab as the meat flavour was too overpowering...not to mention the portion size was large...

Near the port you will find many stalls selling fish sandwich, the food which is famous amongst the locals...however we did not have the time to try it...maybe next time. Apart from the savoury dishes, there are many shops selling sweet delicacies and desserts, or you can even find these in the many bazaars around the city. Not to be missed is the famous baklava.

Next time i will write about my gastronomic experiences in Amsterdam and Athens..till then..cheers-Kay2012