Good Bars I visited in 2012 and 2013

I traveled a lot last year and this one (2013). In order to try to remember some of the best bars I went, I thought I would document them here with photos if possible. In no particular order!  

Berlin Summer nights

Club Visionaire in Berlin with Mike - Berlin at its best in the summer. Sitting on the river. Red lights. Atmosphere. Big bottles of beer. Punks. Poets. Ah - Berlin!

Bar du Nord, Carouge, Switzerland - a great selection of whisky and a fine place to spend a night when you are stuck in Geneva. It had a sort of rockabilly vibe to it. As rockabilly as Geneva gets at least.

A little bar art

Bar 23, Bangkok, Thailand - a dark dank hole in the wall with excellent djs playing the Smiths, the Cure, and all new music... I just love it. It's when I finally felt at home in Bangkok.

to give you a feel for Bar 23

White Marble wine bar in Hoi An, Vietnam - a touch of lovely colonial looks in a nice shop house but they need to replace the soundtrack and get out of the 90s!

Raskolnikoff Hotel/ Cafe in Dresden with Mike  - cold white wine and pelmeni dumplings. Looks like not much from outside but old and atmospheric with a lovely little garden in the back. a great place for drinks before heading to the punk rock club in the chemical factory.

Heurigen in Vienna - little tiny vineyards where you drink the local wine made right there and sample some great hearty food to go with it - in this case - roast pork, schmaltz, fresh veggies, and great Austrian bread. First time I went to one of these places was in 1998 with my boyfriend Michael Reiner and I fell in love with them.

WTF, Bangkok, Thailand - you can get a horse's neck in an alley in Bangkok and feel like you are in NYC. It's an art gallery on top and the music is often good. The drinks are strong.

Galaxy Hut, Arlington VA - good music, great beers on tap, a seedy dive with a lovely 'futuristic' vibe.

A feel for the ambience of the Red Lounge

Mao's Red Lounge bar in Hanoi, Vietnam - a bit scuzzy and crazy. I loved it! Maybe its because they were playing Guns and Roses after I had drank bottle after bottle of fruit flavored rice wine.

The Bucket List Beach Bar in Sydney, Australia - cute boys playing bongo and guitars, awesome fish and chips, ice cold Australian white wine on Bondi Beach. I felt like I was in a movie. Of course, I had just returned from Papua New Guinea and was in shock from falling through the floor of an government building there but still - it was a lovely place.

Ku De Ta in Samanyak, Bali, Indonesia - wanna be cool and listen to great music and drink cocktails while looking at the perfect beach? Try this place.

Foreign Correspondent's Club in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - its a bit overpriced but its got atmosphere. It's hot, the ceiling fans are working overtime, and you can have a cold gin and tonic and feel the ghosts of journos past.

L'Atelier Charonne in Bastille, Paris - I love Django Reinhardt and although this bar doesn't have the best atmosphere, a man in a pencil thin mustache who played the stand up bass came over and serenaded me one August while i was in Paris so it has my heart. To me, I felt as if I were a broke boheme in the 30s scraping together enough for a nice campari and falling in love.

Le Bar in Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam - Delightfully dry martinis. It'll put a hole in your wallet but sometimes you want to pretend you are Graham Greene (or Sir Roger Moore or Charlie Chaplin or Somerset Maugham!) in Southeast Asia.

High Spirits, Pune India - wanna hang out with the most high spirited energetic Indian hipsters in Pune? Go to High Spirits! It has it all - a live reggae band, a dance floor, pool tables, gorgeous young drunk fools!

Ice Bar at Titanium

Titanium, Bangkok, Thailand - home of the famous all girl rock band that really rocks! Also an ice bar and my birthday shots. Fun in a sleazy part of town on Sukhumvit Soi 22 - becoming less sleazy since they tore down Washington Square (??) but sleazier from the outside than the inside!

Union Grill, Yangon, Myanmar - okay so maybe its not that much different than what you could find in most gentrified places in Southeast Asia but I had been suffering along in Rakhine State and to find a nice glass of wine, good waiters, and lovely decor made me happy.

Adhere the 13th Blues Bar, Bangkok, Thailand - I thought it would suck. Most of the live Thai musicians I have seen doing western music have sung phonetically and unenthusiastically. But these guys are the real thing. And its got a great atmosphere too! Down near Khao San road in a small cramped place... great music!

The Dove on Broadway Market, London, UK - I went on a freezing cold sunny day in April with my friend Brian. We sat in a cute little snug, people played board games, beautiful young hipsters got drunk, we talked about life and the meaning thereof all Sunday until it was time to go home. I loved it so much. 

Cooking Fun with Mistress of Spices

One of the fun things about being in Bangkok is that you meet people who are as obsessed with food as you are. I've become friends with two food bloggers (the Mistress of Spices and Mango Ginger, host of the Hidden Kitchen) and through Instagram and Facebook posts, the Mistress and I discovered a shared fascination with Ottolenghi's cookbook. I love reading about cooking and talking about food and its great to have friends who feel the same way.

In the past 3 months, I have become obsessed with making Eggs Shakshouka. I made the Ottolenghi recipe and served it for brunch and was happy with it.

Made after following Ottolenghi Recipe

Then my other friend Kaya posted that her new husband, a sweet Israeli jeweler named Assaf, had made it for brunch. I knew that I would have to have some of his to discover what its really supposed to taste like. I invited them over for  Brunch and he prepared it for us. It was divine. So divine, I made it for dinner the next night and had it for breakfast the day after.

Assaf in the Kitchen

Better because sauce is more carmelized and eggs are runnier

So after talking about this and posting photos on Facebook, the Mistress and I decided to have a mid-week dinner party. Originally, the men were supposed to join us but as it was a "Men's  Night" in a local club in Bangkok (really??? I thought every night was a men's night in Bangkok), it became a girl's only dinner party.

My friend Rebecca (who I traveled to Cambodia with - more photos later) honored the party by making a nice pink drink that was an adaptation from the "Bee's Knees"  but colored with Dragon fruit so being a Game of Thrones geek, I renamed it the Daenyrs Stormborn "Mother of Dragons".  It was potent but delicious!

Mother of Dragons!

For the menu, the Mistress of Spices made a creamy yet light Cream of Tomato soup with a tiny crouton with goat cheese floating on top. I miss goat cheese so much in Bangkok!

I made two salads - one a simple cabbage "slaw" dressed with a sesame-ginger vinaigrette and roasted sesame seeds. Its something I make for myself at home a lot when I return from being overseas. The crunchy cabbage fulfills my need for vegetables and chewing and the sesame vinaigrette is so yummy that I want to eat it on everything. I didn't feel like peeling the carrots and spinach was looking too big and rangy so I just went with the simple cabbage. I also substituted mirin for the sugar in the recipe and doubled the ginger.

The other salad, a Quinoa/Broad Bean/ Radish salad was from Ottolenghi's Plenty cookbook. It was my first time making Quinoa. One of the challenges in Bangkok is that its hard to find some of the vegetables that depend on a temperate climate or you have to pay exorbitant prices to get them at the import store. Since I wasn't able to locate broad beans, I used edamame. Instead of fresh radishes, I used Daikon and I found some sweet pea shoots from New Zealand. I was also a bit reluctant to fuss a about de-membraning the lemons so I just squeezed the lemons whole. Next time I'll try it out the other way.

The main course was a very savory and rich Carmelized onion tart from the Mistress and Eggs Shakshuka. Unfortunately, I was a bit too involved in the cocktails and conversation and overcooked the eggs so no photos here... :) But the tart was delicious - deep flavors, a crispy crust, and quickly devoured.

Goat Cheese and Carmelized Onion Tart!

The dinner was fun and exciting on a Wednesday night and we had a great conversation about everything from dating in Bangkok to mathematical modeling of Hepatitis E to eating tarantulas in Cambodia.

Cheers ladies!

Ottolenghi's Plenty Cookbook

My friend Susannah gave me Ottolenghi's Plenty Cookbook for my birthday last year. My other friend Tirana had been raving about his cookbook and so I was aware of him and wanted to try it out. His story, an Israeli born chef who moved to London in 1997, he's about my age. He writes the vegetarian column for the Guardian but is not a vegetarian. He runs 4 little shops in London and I"m dying to go there. I suggested to my fellow foodies Lauren and Robin that we go when I was in town (silly me, I expected it to be raging spring in April but it was freezing cold!). We were unable to get reservations but the seed was planted.

Something about being in London in March inspired me to start cooking when I returned. So I've been cooking like mad since I got back - craving vegetables and mediterranean flavors.

So far I've cooked the following dishes:

Mango and Aubergine (Eggplant) Soba Noodles
I made this the first time as an accompaniment for a dinner with my friends Kaya and Assaf. We ate it with sesame chicken salad. I was unable to find proper large aubergine/eggplants so I substituted zucchini/courgettes. It was just as good!

Okra and Sambal with Coconut Rice

I made this for myself. I was so intrigued as I love all the ingredients separately and wanted something spicy and Asian to make for breakfast. It was divine. I'm making it again for breakfast for this week.

Aubergine (Eggplant) with Buttermilk Sauce
This is so beautiful that i had to make it. I invited Assaf and Kaya over just so I could have an excuse to make it. I was having dreams of originally making the eggplant and tahini sauce recipe that my friend Celine made for Songkran brunch but the photo of this and the fact I was able to find pomegranate seeds in the Arab influenced grocery store sold me on this. I made the za'atar from scratch - roasted sesame seeds, thyme, and salt. I didn't have sumac to add to the za'atar but it was still tasty. I made the buttermilk with lemonjuice and milk. I served it with tahini chicken salad made with red bell peppers and cucumbers and the green couscous and a big green salad with tahini buttermilk dressing.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

Although I love watermelon and I love feta, I never considered putting them together in a salad. I'm not the biggest fan of mint unless its hidden in something and normally these salads have mint in them. Ottolenghi's uses basil instead. It really is like sunshine on a plate!

Eggs Shashuka
Reading the description of this dish made me hungry. I like eggs, I like comfort food, and anything spicy that involves cooking eggs on top of it makes me happy. I think I could be part Japanese since they love a fried egg on everything. I cooked it a bit too long and the eggs were solid in the middle. The next time I make it, I'm going to up the chili, up the cumin, add garlic and cook the eggs soft-boiled so they run into the delicious sauce.

I don't have a photo of this one but I also made: Green Herb Couscous . At first I thought the herb paste was too strong smelling and overwhelming and I forgot the pistachios but it still turned out great. Fresh tasting and delicious.

It's a fantastic cookbook and in general, very easy to follow the recipes. Some of the ingredients are hard to find here in Bangkok.  I had an exhaustive search for Tahini at the Foodland on Soi 5 which I thought would be easy since its right next to "Soi Arab" and couldn't find buttermilk so had to make my own. However, I was able to also make za'atar and I found pomegranate seeds so in general, no problem! You can also buy readily cut up watermelon, mangos, guava, cantalope and other things in Bangkok for next to nothing right no the street so I was also able to substitute somethings.

The dishes I highlighted are excellent for the hot sultry Thai climate. The only big problem I had was making the Eggplants that I had to roast as I live in an old building which is designed to have an un-airconditioned kitchen where the "help" would cook for you. However, I'm the help so I sweated my way through roasting eggplants in the oven during the heat. It was worth it though.

I'd like to get his other cookbooks too and try them out - my friend Celine has them and when I return from Papua New Guinea in a week, I thought of inviting her and her husband over for dinner and ask them to bring the cookbooks so we can browse through them.

In the meantime, I say - jump in there and cook this stuff up. His book is worth buying just for the mouthwatering photos of the dishes and the joy of flipping through it to decide what to make. But I've included the recipes in a link to the photos...

Bon Appetit!

Coffee Shops in Bangkok: Part Two - Kuppa

Kuppa
Sukhumvit Soi 16
Grade: 4 out of 10

It's listed in the Lonely Planet which is always mixed. Everyone knows this place.

Food and Coffee: The food at Kuppa can be really wonderful -and sometimes its just overpriced. I've eaten there several times and the best time was with my friend Tirana. We had a succulent Duck and Mandarin Orange salad with a tarragon viniagrette, Softshell Crab on a bed of daikon and carrots, and rice noodle rolls with mango and red pepper. Other times, it can be a bit hit or miss. A week later, I ordered the same Duck salad and they forgot to dress it. I had a chocolate milkshake which was chocolate powder, some milk, and crushed ice (yuk!). The coffee is nothing spectacular although they have their own roaster. The pizzas can be good. I have ordered white wine by the glass and it was lukewarm. However they have a dessert called a boom boom that is fantastic - a creamcheese brownie. Hit or miss.

Style: High soaring Loft ceilings, comfy leather couches, real artwork on the walls and a "artist's touch" - its a nice place to hang out. Its big and airy.

Ambience: the service is... "indifferent". The waiters are charming enough but they don't have to try. You can tell this is a hi-so restaurant that has been catering to business men and others for a long time. The last three times I've been there, I've had to ask them to please clean my table as it still had food and water spills on it. You must always flag down your waiter and ask for "extras" like salt and pepper. There are often big groups of "ladies who lunch" during the day and on the weekends, expats like to bring their children who run everywhere. Its not relaxing, nor is it conducive to working.

Overall:  A nice place to go when you've had enough of Asian food and need something "western-y" but for the cost, the service and food should be better. Still a lovely venue.

Coffee Shops in Bangkok: Part Four -Library Cafe 24

Coffee break at Li-bra-ry

Sukhumvit Soi 24,  2 soi metheenivet

02 259 2878

Grade: 7 out of 10

This weekend, I have found myself lethargic and lonely in Bangkok - maybe too much noodles and rice and not enough exercise. The famous heat here makes it difficult to get motivated to go outside and walk. But yet, this is a walker's city. You miss all the interesting things if you just zoom by on the back of a motorbike. So today, to shake off the blahs and get some exercise and my blood pumping, I decided to just walk until I found a place that pleased me to stop for lunch. I walked about 8 sois up from where I live and ended up on Soi 24. I have a friend who lives at the end of the soi but she's traveling now but I had never walked it. The heat was not too bad so I decided to explore. I ended up here in Library 24, a very cute Japanese coffeeshop that may end up being a favorite for weekday working.


Food and Coffee: The coffee is strong and served in nice mugs and the desserts look normal but uninspiring. I ordered "hong kong noodles" as it was lunchtime and I was hungry but the food was rather uninspiring. Bland vermicelli with chunks of chicken thigh in a pasty sauce with little flavor. 


Style: Blond scandinavian furniture, tasteful taupes and browns and pastels, easy listening guy and guitar music with a hint of the ubiquitous lounge music that I am growing to dislike in Bangkok, a beautiful open book case with lots of books to read while hanging out in the coffeeshop, including a selection of Lonely Planets to plan your next trip, and two stories (no shoes on the top floor), with the polished concrete floor and the open exposed wood beams above the coffee bar, its a lovely light place to hang out. There is also a small garden. The upstairs is "Japanese style" which means that you must take off your shoes. This is a bit confusing as the toilet is also upstairs and who wants to go into a toilet barefoot (except Britney Spears). But there is a basket with a pair of slippers there. The upstairs is with small mats on the floor to sit and enjoy the low tables. It overlooks the cafe and has a lot of windows. Very lovely.


Ambience: I was there on a Sunday afternoon and it was filled with both lovely Thai people sitting silently next to each other with their iPads and with Japanese families coming in for some coffee with their parents. There were 7 people behind the counter shouting "SawadeeKa" when you enter but you still have to pay and order at a counter. They deliver your coffee and foods but services was slow to clear my dirty dishes - they all sat gossiping with each other instead of looking at the customers. 


Overall:  For style and coffee - a 7+ but for just food, maybe a 3. With delicious food all over Bangkok, don't waste your time eating here.

Coffee Shops in Bangkok: Part Three - Little Spoon

Little Spoon Cafe
Asoke, Soi 3 in Sukhumvit, near Oceans Tower 2
Grade 7 out of 10

I've been to Little Spoon several times with my friend Carol who works across the street at the Oceans Tower 2 complex - a mammoth office building. Little Spoon is in a glassed corner above the din and busy street but somehow incorporating the garden elements of the Italian restaurant next door. 


Food and Coffee: The coffee is okay -nothing to write home about. I had an Iced Thai tea today that they normally serve with whipped cream. Its lacking the strength of the street teas I normally purchase but is inoffensive. The Ice Cream is very tasty with interesting flavors like banana and cheese, blue cheese, black sesame soy milk , normal strawberry and chocolate and Bannoffee. The desserts look delicious. 


Style: Blond scandinavian furniture, cute little neutral tone striped and polka dotted pillows, whimsical touches like an old sewing machine table and a rocking chair, and polished concrete floor - very nice, sweet, and somehow Asian while invoking Scandinavia for me. Relaxing, clean, and "cute". Someone reviewed it as Tokoyo "cutsie poo".They have some cute little things on the wall - a "Where the Wild Things Are" doll and some recipe books.


Ambience: Ubiquitous "lounge" music found in every upscale restaurant in Bangkok but heavier on Astrid Gilberto and bossa nova so today I'm happy with it. A bit "hipster" ish with cute bespectacled boys and short haired tomgirls working behind a counter who are giggling and flirting with each other. Strangely - no table service so you have to go pick up your coffee or ice cream yourself but they give you an adorable tray.


Overall:  Sweet little place in a busy rather humorless part of Bangkok. Good for a break. Nice to catch up with my friend when she can get a break. But I'm not sure I would make the effort to eat anything but dessert here. 

Coffee Shops in Bangkok: Part One - The Coffee Alley

So I decided to revamp my blog a bit and start reviewing the restaurants and coffeeshops I've been frequenting since becoming a freelance consultant. Not that I think anyone is out there reading but I want to contribute to the dialogue out here and help some other poor Western consultant looking for that magical combo of style, comfort, wi-fi, good coffee, and ambience.

Coffee Alley
Sukhumvit Soi 16, Bangkok (Thailand) | tel: 02-2588300
Grade: 8 out of 10

Food and Coffee: American Breakfasts served all day long! Good strong coffee in lovely mugs. I had a latte and it did not disappoint. It was piping hot, not all foam, and tasty.

Style: Very cute decor - in a little house with a garden. Lots of tables and chairs and not too crowded at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon. Just a hop skip and a jump down Soi 16 near Asoke BTS stop and near Long Table bar. A very nice little garden but I was feeling a bit too humid and sweaty to sit outside and read. And I wanted hot coffee, not an iced coffee.

Ambience: Free Wifi. No annoying "lounge" music like most places. Friendly male staff. Free Bangkok Post to read.

Overall: Really a lovely and nice little cafe. They serve Thai food as well for lunch but I didn't try it. I will try to come back and have some.

Memorable meals from 2011

Blood Curry with noodles at the Chatuchak Market in February.

Korean Bulgogi up in the air on Business Class to New York from Seoul on Korean Airlines

Som Tam prepared fresh for me at the UN cafeteria for lunch every day.

Oysters and Muscadet on a little rooftop balcony in Paris with a handsome Swede that I was falling in love with.

Fish Amok in a beautiful old Cambodian house in Siem Riep

Laab Gai in Vientiane, Laos followed by Gin Brambles next to the Mekong river.

Crepe "Complet" with ham, gruyere, and a fried egg at the market in the Louvre.

Black eyed pea pancakes in Malmö with a suitcase filled with smuggled tropical fruit on top washed down with great black coffee and a bit of heart break.

Raw oysters with garlic and chili peppers on the street in Sukhumvit at 3 in the morning after an evening of Karoake.

All you can eat dim sum at the Landmark Plaza hotel with Alec and the look on his face as he bit into a black sesame dumpling cooked in ginger syrup... "Look at it." 

Thai food!

So I've moved to Bangkok... of course one of the things that drew me here was the food! So far it has not disappointed... I haven't yet ventured into the street food but today I went to a food court in the poshest mall in Thailand - the Siam Paragon Food Hall.  It was overwhelming!

I had so much to choose from that I had to be really strict with myself and force myself to choose the first thing I saw that I wanted. Otherwise, I would have been crippled with indecision! So I had Hainanese Chicken and Rice (which I discovered in Singapore) which was delicious. Its so simple but so good that I learned how to make it at home just so I could have it again! I washed it down with some Thai Iced Tea (so sweet it made my teeth hurt) and to counter balance the sweetness of the Thai Iced Tea, for dessert I decided to have Green Papaya Salad which they prepared right in front of me.

After I fed the beast within, I wandered through the food court looking at everything for offer just for future reference. Next time - I can choose between the Pad Thai stand, the noodle soup stand, the curry stand, the sushi bar, the satay bar or if I want to wander away from Thai food, I can have noodles from Vietnam, Japan, China, Singapore, or even Italy! And for the more discerning palate, there is McDonalds, Burger King, and Dunkin Donuts!

I love food and I love choices in food and I love trying things that I have never had before. This is the sad thing about traveling alone. There is a guy that I really like who I wish was here with me in Thailand right now. I know he would be as happy as I am in the food court and we could plot our strategy as to what we would eat and taste everything - double the pleasure - double the fun!