Days of burning tongue day 3: two trips across town

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We left our hotel a little early so that Hello Kitty could make her obligatory stop at Erawan Shrine, which was just up the road.  We then crossed the street to Gaysorn Village, where we camped out at Starbucks Reserve to get our caffeine fix while waiting to see whether Paste would have a table for us at lunch.  Without a booking from at least a few days earlier, I wasn't the least bit surprised when The Great One told me that they were fully-booked after getting themselves a well-deserved star in the Michelin Guide Bangkok 2 weeks ago.

We still wanted good Thai food at a place we have been before, and since I wasn't able to get in yesterday, we took a taxi across town to Krua Apsorn (ครัวอัปษร) on Thanon Samsen.

The first thing I wanted to order was the stir-fried Tonkin jasmine with minced pork (ดอกขจรผัดน้ำมันหอย), but it wasn't available. Is it the wrong season?  Sooooo bummed...

Miang kam (เมี่ยงคะน้า) - The Great One wanted to order this again, and I certainly had no objections.

All wrapped up and ready to eat.

Believe it or not, I'm only having my first glass of iced milk tea on my third day in Bangkok...

Deep fried prawn cakes (ทอดมันกุ้ง) - these were OK.

Crab dip (หลนปู) - this wasn't just a crab meat and tomalley paste with chiffonade of kaffir lime leaves... It also came with tiny crabs still in their shells chopped in half.

Stir fried crap meat with yellow pepper chili (เนื้อปูผัดพริกเหลือง) - apparently one of the signature dishes of the restaurant, with lots of string beans and some kaffir lime leaves.  My tongue started to burn again...

...which was why I ordered up this aromatic coconut ice cream (ไอศกรีมมะพร้าวหอม) - which wasn't ice cream at all but just frozen coconut water. Soooooo delicious and refreshing!!!  I wish I had the stomach space for another one...

We went back to our respective hotels for a break/afternoon nap, and tentatively planned to hit Raan Jay Fai (ร้านเจ๊ไฟ) a few hours before our late dinner.  One of our mutual friends had visited Sister Mole just a few days after she received her Michelin star, and reported back that it took her about 3 hours to get her dishes for lunch. We figured that the lines would be crazy, but decided to try our luck anyway.  It was, after all, a Monday...

Rush hour traffic was pretty crazy, and our taxi driver asked for double the usual fare - which we felt was reasonable given the circumstances.  He then proceeded to weave through private roads inside Chulalongkorn University campus.  I was pretty sure that this maneuver cut our travel time down significantly.

But the lines outside Thip Samai were crazy, and a few doors down Sister Mole also seemed very busy.  There was now a list where one could put down one's name and telephone number, and Sister Mole's daughter had clearly drawn a red line somewhere and written the words "CLOSED" next to one of the names.  Does that mean they weren't serving any customers beyond that point?  It was 6:30 p.m.

Well, I was lucky enough to have visited her 3 times before tonight, and Hello Kitty and I decided that we wouldn't want to wait around.  It just didn't make much sense, especially given our very special dinner later on this evening.  So we grabbed a taxi and returned to the St. Regis Bangkok, where we relaxed with a drink at the St. Regis Bar and chased away the hunger pangs with some fried chicken wings and delicious plantain chips...  Washed down with a giant glass of mojito.

Dinner starts (hopefully) at 9:30 p.m....