Author: Bunny Eats Design

Breakfast buffets in S-E-A

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We had a few buffet breakfasts while traveling in South East Asia. These photos are the only evidence. The rest I’m afraid, has been destroyed devoured. Cafe Deco Macao The Venetian, Macau Cafe Deco offers 24/7 dining and seats 1000 diners. Breakfast at any of The Venetian restaurants was included with our suite so we picked the buffet option at Cafe Deco Macao. My breakfast was a croissant, a strawberry danish, smoked salmon, sausage, salami, ham, samosa, curried rice, chickpeas, corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, hashbrown, scrambled eggs, bacon, fried egg. I sampled about 10% of the breakfast dishes on offer. There were breakfast foods from many different cuisines including Chinese, Japanese and Indian. The buffet station stretched around the edge of this 32,000 ft² dining area and it’s possible to get lost on your way back to your table. I know this because I got lost! We begin with the most epic breakfast buffet I have ever laid eyes on. Everything about this hotel was decadent and over the top. 40 levels, 3000 suites, an indoor canal, …

Hawker Food: Banana Pancakes

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If you are up past bedtime in tourist areas of Thailand or Laos, you will find a banana pancake cart. Pancake vendors are one hit wonders and rarely make anything else. Hawker food or street food lends itself to specialisation. That is why I love it so much. These pancakes aren’t made from a poured batter. Like roti, a piece of dough is flicked and stretched out so big I worry it might tear. Oil and/or ghee is added to a hot surface and the pancake quickly but carefully peeled and put on the pan. The result is an oily crepe. As it cooks, a banana is expertly sliced and dropped into the centre and chocolate sauce and/or condensed milk swirled on top. The corners of the pancake are folded into the middle, topped with more ghee and the package is then flipped over. When it’s done, the banana pancake is transferred to a paper plate, cut into bite-sized squares and served with sticks. It’s perfect late night food for travelers and the average price …

Bangkok: Eating fish, eaten by fish and 20kg of shopping

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Our epic South East Asia adventure came to an end with 2 nights in Bangkok before flying home to New Zealand. Bangkok is a great place to end a holiday as you can load up to the gills with shopping before hopping on a plane. We did the typical tourist sights in Bangkok on a previous stopover so we didn’t want to do any more. I estimate we gained 20kg in shopping in 2 days. Last time we were in Bangkok, our 2 day stopover resulted in 13kg of shopping. If you measure by weight, we are definitely getting better at shopping. Our 2 days of epic shopping in Bangkok put us up to 39.9kg. We were allowed up to 40kg in checked luggage so pretty close! Eating fish This steamed fish dish was barely cooked and would have tasted amazing if only it didn’t have about 10 times more chili than I could handle. I scraped off all the chili, ate it with all of the teddy bear shaped rice and still needed lots …

Eating in Haad Rin, Koh Phangan

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KOH PHANGAN, THAILAND. Haad Rin is the Full Moon Party beach and it’s known for it’s party atmosphere. It can be a bit crazy at times but if you’re here to party, you might as well be right in the thick of it. The Koala celebrated his birthday here and what a way to end our 65 day South East Asian adventure than with a birthday and a Full Moon Party. The food is generally on the expensive side but there are a few bargains to be had. There is a lot of variety with cuisine from most parts of the world represented. We stayed right on Haad Rin beach on Koh Phangan and it is not a mecca for foodies. Not even close. But there’s food and you do what you can to get by. Buckets, booze and beach. Yes, this is a food post, but you can’t do a post about Haad Rin without first mentioning the drink. The drink of choice on the islands are buckets. Buckets are actual plastic pails that hold about …

Eating in Koh Tao

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Epic mealtimes at Chalok Bay, Koh Tao, Thailand. Almost every restaurant served Thai, American, Italian and Mexican cuisine. Specialisation in tourist destinations is for fools. In Asia, it’s only at places that locals frequent that you get 1 chef, 1 dish specialities. Seaview Restaurant at Chalok Bay Our favourite place to eat was Seaview Restaurant which had a nice dining deck on the beach overlooking the bay. Right in the centre of Chalok Bay, you could swim from this area at high tide. Shoes off, low tables and triangle cushions give this place a super laid back vibe. We never dined inside, but it had a really modern, comfortable interior. Kind of a like a super modern beach bach. Beach burgers. We had these a couple times actually. Niçoise salad. Pineapple Shrimp. The shrimp were great. They had a fluffy almost fish like texture. A little chili made this a perfectly tropical meal. Of course, I had mango shake to go with this. Mango shakes are basically fresh mango blended with ice. Creamy Carbonara. Pad Thai …

Tofu Tuesday: Tofu Salad

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I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about Cinnamon the lagomorph legend over at Disapproving Rabbits. This blog’s weekly installment Tofu Tuesday is inspired by Sunday Cinnamon. Cinnamon was a rescue bunny and passed on to Rainbow Bridge at approximately 13 years. The world will miss you Cinnamon but I am happy to have witnessed your shenanigans. This week’s Tofu Tuesday is a recipe for: Tofu Salad Ingredients 1 large cube of soft tofu 1 leftover bag of salad greens Preparation Open bag of salad. Present to soft tofu. See what happens.

Buddha lives in Chalok Bay, Koh Tao

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KOH TAO, THAILAND. Koh Tao is a couple hours ferry ride and a world away from Koh Samui. Peaceful sheltered bays, great diving and snorkeling. We relaxed for a 4 days before Koh Phangan. I can see why Buddha lives in Chalok Bay. It’s sheltered and calm and very peaceful. We saw the rock Buddha admiring the view. He sits facing out to sea. A round head, a gently sloping chest and a big round belly. Do you see? There were a few restaurants on the beach. This one was our favourite but I can’t remember it’s name or if it even had one. It was across the road from Koppee Bakery. It was never very busy, but it we just perfect. We had triangle cushions, deck, shade, great food and plenty of drinks on this deck. The sunset from near the rock Buddha. Back to the sunset, looking back across Koh Tao. Koh Tao Tips Hire a scooter. It’s cheap and totally worth it. The island is small, but there are lots of steep …

Eating in Koh Samui

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To save time, we flew from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui rather than train and bussing it through Thailand. We had been landlocked for long enough (over a month since we had seen the sea) and all we wanted was to be at the beach. Our flights weren’t cheap at 7000 baht / $280NZ / $230US each but if you don’t fancy wasting days on trains or money on accommodation while traveling through a country, it’s a reasonable option. We were explicitly told by friends not to visit Koh Samui. But there’s nothing quite like disliking a place because you’ve been there. So we spent 2 nights in Koh Samui before heading to Koh Tao. Koh Samui is the more built up of the islands on the east coast of Thailand. Koh means island so the locals refer to it simply as Samui. Back in Chiang Mai and in Laos, beers generally cost 40 to 60 baht. The very first beer we had on Koh Samui was a small Singha for a whopping 120 baht …

7 Cheeseburgers in Chiang Mai

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“I don’t like dealing with money transactions in poor countries. I get confused between the feeling that I shouldn’t haggle with poverty and hating getting ripped off.” – The Beach by Alex Garland We found we didn’t haggle or bargain much in our travels. We shopped around, but once we decided on something, we paid it. I suppose since we weren’t supposed to give money to beggers, the next best thing is to help hardworking people to earn a decent living. While we bargained in the marketplace (just because it is expected), everything else was so cheap we simply paid the asking price.  We negotiated prices before we got into tuk tuks but always ended up paying more in tips. In a country like Thailand, what you want to give to beggers, tip it to the next hardworking person who gives you great service. I read The Beach by Alex Garland while in Chiang Mai (though I wish I’d saved it for the islands). It was really cool getting into the story (which is darker than the movie) and struggling …

We Love Boobs Day

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It is We Love Boobs Day at work today and we’re having a pink themed morning tea to raise awareness for breast cancer. I made these ham and beetroot quiche pies for the occasion. They didn’t turn out as pink as I hoped, but they’ll have to do. I always find it stressful and tiring having to do lots of rounds of the oven so I upgraded from a 6 to a 12 muffin tin. I’m tempted to buy another twelver so I can make 24 at once. Just imagine that. 48 quiche could be less than an hour away.

Chiang Mai Zoo

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Just a few highlights. Sleepy koala, playful panda, pay a little money to feed a big cat, baby elephant, big elephant, Binturong (bearcat) and hippos. I think it’s funny that I’ve seen koalas in Japan and Thailand yet there are no koalas in New Zealand.

Eating Thai and Vietnamese at The Kad

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The Kad Klang Wiang area is in the middle of Old City in Chiang Mai. An open air courtyard with shops and restaurants all around. There is a good mixture of classy and cheap places to eat here and while many are for tourists only, there are a couple of places that are frequented by the locals. Tourists spend a lot of time on their feet so it was nice to have a place that you could just have a sit at. Trees provide some good shade. Sate Salad & Spice Papaya Salad was on my list of dishes to try while in Thailand. In this dish, green papaya is mixed with fresh chili, garlic, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. I asked for not too spicy, but this was really spicy. The flavours were intense – salty, spicy and sour. It was like eating a whole bowl of condiments. I crossed it off my “To Eat” list but I’m afraid I’m not a fan. I have a feeling that this dish is usually eaten with other …

Art Cafe, Chiang Mai

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Art Cafe is right by the Thapae Gate between McDonald’s and Starbucks. We ate there every second day so they must have been doing something right. The menu is huge and they are yet another restaurant that serves Italian, Mexican and Thai food. Good food at good prices. We may have been subliminally enticed by the name of the cafe, but there is no interesting art in here and while the interior is a bit dated, but it’s clean and light. Breakfast at Art Cafe With one of the most extensive breakfast menus around, I loved that they had lots of mexican inspired breakfast dishes. We don’t eat Mexican for breakfast in New Zealand but I love beans and rice first thing in the morning. The quesadilla were really good. 3 Buttermilk pancakes. Omelette with country fried potatoes and a croissant. Thai food They do offer Thai food, but it’s only ok. There are better and cheaper places around for Thai. After all, this is Thailand! If you want Thai, eat where locals eat. A …

Eating Italian and Mexican in Chiang Mai

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In Chiang Mai, many restaurants that we went to weren’t Italian or Mexican, they were Italian and Mexican. For reasons unknown to me, there are shit-tons of Italian and Mexican restaurants in Chiang Mai. There’s not a noticeable Italian or Mexican population there so it must have something rather to do with how both cuisines offer a range of dishes with just a few ingredients. With a little training any chef can do pizza, pasta, nachos and burritos. Whether they do it justice is another story. Pizza and a pasta ordered. Pizza and pasta eaten. I was pleased I got to try squid in pasta for the first time. There is some kind of play centre right next door and the noise of children yelling and screaming is cute for about 30 seconds. Pizzadilla 38 Loikroh Rd., Changklan, Muang, Chiang Mai Tel : +(66)53-449629 Mob : +(66) 81-838975 Open: Lunch/Dinner 10am-12pm

Familiar food at Phil’s and Top 10 foods to eat after dental surgery

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Even the most adventurous eater yearns for the food of home. Here are our experiences in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. At Phil’s Diner, we found a hearty breakfast, soft food for after dental surgery and recovery food for the days following. There is a nice outdoor area out the back though they were never busy when we visited. Dinner sized portions of mash and gravy aren’t on the menu anywhere, but when I saw that bangers and mash were at Phil’s Diner, I begged Phil to whip up some. Phil especially prepared a dinner-sized portion of mashed potatoes and gravy for the post-surgery Koala. Phil’s Diner is not gourmet, it’s decent, familiar food. We loved local food but sometimes exotic local food can get too much and you yearn for the food back home. Comfort food can be particularly important after surgery. Our first breakfast in Chiang Mai was eaten at Phil’s Diner. I loved the look of my Shakshouka eggs (quite similar to my beloved Bus-Stop Eggs) and The Koala was pretty chuffed about his breakfast grill. …

Good View

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Only a short work from Chiang Mai Thai House and over the bridge is a strip of bars and restaurants along the river. A nice place for pretty drinks, pretty food and a good view of the sun set over river. We met up again with Leanne and Kathy from Brisbane for a leisurely outing. Good View Bar and Restaurant is big and there is plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. We sampled a range of different cocktails and also ordered lots of snack plates to share. What a fun way of eating. Just be careful of anything that looks like a pickle garnish. It may turn out to be a spicy chili. We arrived late afternoon and the place was fairly empty, but by the time we left the place was buzzing with diners and a live band and there wasn’t an empty seat in sight. We split the bill which ends up being 420 baht each / $17NZ / $14US. Not bad for a bunch of snacks and several cocktails. Yummy cocktails in …