Sunday, February 16, 2014

Restaurang Farang, Thai Food in Sweden. Too fusion for me...

I got sidetracked!  I was going to continue blogging about our winter break holiday... but well... I started back at SFI full time and have less time to twiddle my thumbs... but I will continue with my story another day...

But first....

Restaurang Farang.
Tulegatan 7
113 53 Stockholm
08 673 74 00


To be honest, I'm not much of a fan of Asian food here in Sweden.  They are unfortunately too Swedish-fied for my taste.  So far only Waipo has been surprisingly good as far as Chinese food goes.. So says my tastebuds ;)

Anyhow pre Valentine dinner, we went on a double date with a girlfriend of mine, Ms KimChi and her sambo.

We had to have an early section from 17:30 - 20:00 (which is quite early for dinner) but as the place is fully booked, we were pretty lucky to get the slot.  We were running late, so, had to grab a cab to get to the place in time.. We arrived at around 17:45.  Not too late, right?!?

Anyhow, the place looks pretty nice and dim but looks promising as it looks really busy.

We started with cocktails..  For me, it's mocktail.. ;(  Service was quick at the start, we were seated with drinks menu.  Once they took our drink orders, they left and we were looking around trying to figure out when we'll be getting our food menu?

Anyhow the drinks came and soon, our food menu.  Miss Kim Chi was excited and suggested we try the first tasting menu which was 645KR/person with 6 dishes, rice, 'roti' and dessert.  She was here the last time and was extremely excited with the soft shell crabs and crispy pork.  So, of course the whole table ordered it =D

All in all, it is not really that fabulous.  The soft shell crab and the crispy pork were definitely the stand out dishes, but the rest were just so - so or below par.. even the mocktail.  For the price, unfortunately, I would expect a lot more..  Hairy bean sprouts?  You could choke on those darn bean sprout hair.. Those should have been removed not left as it is.

Service was quite rushed as well as they were trying to get rid of us by 8pm.  hmmm...

Virgin 'Lady Boi' which was made from ginger, mint, lime, lychee and ginger beer.  Piss weak and not even fizzy!!! and with too much ice which of course melted and still with half a glass left before I gave up drinking 'bland' watery crap =P  1 miserable lychee to top it off.  As you can see, I was quite disappointed =P

The little menu list we got on the table, reminding us what our tasting menu consist of.  I thought was quite a nice touch!

1st dish - Cha Plu Leaf with Smoked Salmon, roasted peanuts and trout roe

We each had a piece.  So cute as the leaf is in a heart shape.  Perfect for Valentine! Not sure what cha plu leaf is, but I know it as betel leaf.  Quite tasty and slight crisp with the vegs in there..

2nd dish - Sashimi Vietnamese Style with asian herbs and black rice vinegar dressings

Even before we had tuck into our 1st dish, the 2nd dish was on the table waiting for us... It was all a bit rushed =P  2nd dish was okay....

Busy busy...
 The bowl of rice came straight with our 2nd dish... which I thought was way too soon as the first 3 dishes look like entrees...

3rd dish - Soft shell crab with green mango, mint, pomelo, green 'nahm jim' and peanuts.  The crab was soft but crispy and the salad was quite refreshing with crunchy texture.  Pretty decent dish, but was slightly too salty for me, so the rice definitely came in handy by then!

4th dish - Crispy pork with palm sugar caramel.  Crispy fried braised pork rice vinegar and roasted onion.  The meat was actually really tasty.  Crispy on the outside and moist in the inside and best thing is we each got to eat at least two!

I wouldn't call this a dish.. more like a side serve..  Supposedly Thai Roti Bread with Massaman curry and yoghurt as it might be too spicy for some =PP  Really?  Roti?  I was actually expecting the proper flat roti bread, so I was really disappointed.  It's just bread which has been seared on to a grilled pan.. with the all too sweet curry sauce =x  Not my cup of tea....

Morning Glory, Salt & Pepper Tofu with watercress, bok choy and crispy fried silken tofu.  Not sure why it's called morning glory as I actually thought it was the morning glory, kangkung.. Which of course it's not.  I didn't taste any bok choy in there either.. There were two different types of veggies, but not what were listed..  Not sure about watercress?  The tofu batter was too thick..  With soft tofu, they definitely taste better with a lighter batter

Veal Cheek 'Seremban' - slow braised veal cheeks, aromatic chilli broth with mint sprout salad.  The only thing I remembered were the mushroom which was quite nice.  It's a curry not a chilli broth and the bean sprouts were shocking.  Who serve hairy bean sprouts??  If it's a cheap quick service Asian restaurant, I could forgive, but isn't this a classier establishment??

Seriously, look how long the bean sprouts are..  Those should have been plucked and removed.  Sorry to say the hairy bean sprouts were the only thing I remembered about this dish   

Ms Kim Chi Whisky Sour looks pretty cute though!

By around 8pm, there were quite a few empty tables

Which of course surprised me that we were still rushed to pay by the waiter as well... hmm...

Anyhow.. last dish was the dessert

Hola Hola B - Thai style marinated fruits, sweet peas, lime, vanilla coconut stock and guava promegranate sorbet

The fruits were chopped tinily.. I could taste white dragon fruits, watermelon, mangoes among some of the fruits.. but seriously, sweet peas??  In a dessert?  WAAAAAY too overly fusion for me.  Raw sweet peas don't go well as a dessert.  Sorry.  A pity as the sorbet was actually quite refreshing and delicious.  The sweetened coconut milk poured on top of the fruits did nothing for me either..  All I could taste was the raw sweet peas.  Needless to say, I picked every single cut sweet pea out from my mouth.  No matter how small they cut them, I can still taste and feel them in my mouth!  =PPP

Okay, enough complains from me for a day.  Our dinner dates were of course fabulous as per always!  And later, we went off somewhere for a friend's farewell party.. *sobs*


Here's a few of us looking fabulous as per always =P

Xx

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Road trip in Switzerland in December - First stop, Zurich!

Finally!  After nearly 2 months of constantly on the move from Europe to Australia, it's nice to finally be home, surrounded by my mess and just sit and ponder while the slush and mud happens outside.

Finally!  I have time to breathe and upload my photos from December.

Our holiday started again in December, just a day or so straight after my 'surprise' Birthday party.

This time we flew from Stockholm to Zurich and hired a car and did a road trip from Zurich - Basel - Berns - Geneva.  We stayed a night or two at each city and then we met up with 3 other people in Geneva airport and hired a driver to take us up to the French Alps, to Le Arcs, France where we spent a week snowboarding, all 12 of us!

From there, we caught a train from Geneva airport and travelled to Paris, spent a few nights there, caught a train into Bruges, spent New Year eve and New Year there + another night and then, train it to Brussels where we spent a couple of nights before catching the plane back to Stockholm.

Spent a couple of nights in Stockholm and then a mad rush for our 3 weeks in Australia.  Crazy innit?  All planned by my crazy other half =PP

Before I keep harping on about something else, let's talk about Switzerland!

It was actually quite fun as we travelled at our own pace and the main aim was for us to enjoy the Christmas markets in Switzerland as we heard the Christmas markets are really nice!  I love how S is so organised with organising all the hotels (which of course as per usual before every trip, he'll ask me to check to see which hotels we should stay at.. ;P  but of course we'll end up with him booking and organising everything!)  But it's good that we used a lot of points at Hilton, but this time we threw in a boutique hotel and Radisson Blu into the midst =)

We arrived into Zurich, early in the morning.  The weather was relatively warm

Looking outside from the Hilton Hotel Lounge, the world was misty outside...

The weather clears up considerably later in the day..
First stop was of course the Zurich market!

Where we found an impressive looking Swarovski Christmas tree
Dripping with all those crystals!  Which brings me to the Christmas song "What I want for Christmas...."

Windmill with large dolls twirling around in circles...

Lots of Christmas goodies being sold

The tree is definitely my most highlighted focal point in the market =)

Tourist looking lost..

Love all these little houses.. so Christmassy!!

All lighted and ready to come home with you

Of all things we bought from the market, we bought a samosa from this 'sour' seller.  Most sour puss and unfriendly guy =P

Wooden Christmassy decoration

Since it's our first day, we thought, hang off with the shopping and let's explore the city!

Off on the road we go...

Lots of tram lines...

Christmas markets lining the street

Even Santa made an appearance on his Christmas tram!

When the clock strikes, the little people come out and play =)

That sexy purple pants always make my heart beat slightly faster...

Be still my beating heart ;)


The city looks like any European city..  Big buildings.. dull and boring...

but seems to be a lot of wiring up in the air which puzzled me greatly...

But it does get prettier as the sunsets and the lights start coming on...

Bye bye sun....
Church with a rotating 'disco star ball' which we can't figure where it's coming from... but it was mesmerising

Ahh.. Christmas shop with full on lights and such!  What happens to them the rest of the year I wonder?

mMMMmM.... Chocolates....  Swiss Chocolates!

We even dropped into a shopping centre to have a browse around

Loving the shops window displays

Cobbled stones

Some interesting fashion here..  A bushy tail clip on for your belt hoop! 


well... inspired by the astronauts perhaps?

Hello from us! Xx  Honestly, it wasn't that cold.. We were just all rugged up! =)

Woohooo.. Hello gorgeous sunset!  I love how the sky is covered with purple, pink and blue ... and reflected in the waters...

Sunset....







Postcard perfect, no?!

Hello swan!  Taking an evening swim are we?



Street Lights which I nickname "Porcupine Meteor"

Pretty cool, hey?

All those wirings.. woohoo.. so pretty!   Like sparkling raindrops in the sky...  So Christmassy!






The whole street is all light up with beautiful shining Christmas trees everywhere (REAL tree! =D)

We even came back to the Christmas market to see the Swarovski Christmas tree all lighted up!

So pretty innit?


Xx