[Travel] Exploring Chiang Mai - Dinner at Baan Rai Yarm Yen , and then supper at The Beast Burger and Pizza

We had a fruitful day visiting the places of interest, and what a pleasant surprise by Salina who was in Chiang Mai that day. She made reservations for dinner at Baan Rai Yarm Yen when we said we would like to try more northern Thai dishes.

The rain was relentless and it didn't let up even during dinner.

resident cat guarding the shop

The restaurant was bustling that evening and we were early. It was interesting to see staff deployed to the car drop-off/pick-up area when it is raining as staff would provide the service of shielding customers with umbrella while they boarded the vehicle there.

Our group of 6 pax was led into the inner section of the restaurant so that it is somewhat further from the live music, to allow us to converse better and still able to enjoy the vibe.

The restaurant has a western country-music style vibe and the live singing was pretty good. They have one or two singers, a guitarist/bassist and a keyboardist from what I observed.

Ed and Salina helped to order and soon our table was full of delicious looking foods.

sausages

Northern appetisers

grilled honeycomb/larvae

stir-fry wild vegetables

deep fried mushrooms

deep fried fermented chicken

I'm eyeing those pork cracklings

We ate a lot and everything was delicious. I loved the sausages here better than any that we had thus far in this trip. The meat texture was softer and the sticky rice was good too. Ate half a pack.

The appetiser came with the green chili dip and it was more mellow tasting in this place. There was a fermented bean/fish paste that came with one of the dish and I liked that too.

There were two dishes that one normally would not order; fried bamboo worms and grilled honeycomb that turned out to be grilled larvae. Fried bamboo worms actually tasted like any twisties or mamee snack due to its seasoning and its hollow body actually made it easy to like, and goes well with iced cold beer. The grilled honeycomb tasted of mild honey sweetness and egg-like texture. Like eating steamed omelette that's sweetened with honey.

draft beer, cheers~

We had steamed fish here as well and it was also one of the better ones that we had thus far.

To end the meal, we tried their housemade coconut ice-cream dessert which was highly recommended by the staff.

The dessert came looking pretty, with purple sticky rice at the bottom and decorated with cut mangoes. Ice-cream was creamier and milkier than any coconut ice-cream tried thus far, and I do understand the rationale of such. Eaten together with the sticky rice and mangoes, the creamy parts does a good job in providing the overall creaminess expected in such dessert. Am also amazed that the warm sticky rice doesn't harden when paired with cold ice-cream. 

Thank you Salina and Ed for the dinner treat!

Baan Rai Yarm Yen ร้าน บ้านไร่ยามเย็น

Address: Ban Rai Mu 3 Alley, Fa Ham, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50000, Thailand

Website: https://www.wongnai.com/restaurants/2686yj-%E0%B8%9A%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A1%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%87%E0%B8%99

Business Hours:

Daily: 11 am–12 am

And since the night is still young, we made our way to the next dinner/supper spot. Ed and Salina initially thought we were joking...

menu

signage

order at the counter, make payment and pick-up the food when it is ready

window seats

The burger place is pretty close to the a few hotels and hostel but a tad far from ours.

Since it was only 40 minutes after we've had our dinner, I'd opt out from supper but would try a bite.

Hot Honey Chicken Burger with fries @฿255

I thought the burgers would come with the default crinkle fries but it didn't. Maybe they ran out of it?

inner profile view

Jalapeno Chimichurri Burger (beef) @฿275

Beef Bacon Cheeseburger with sweet potato fries @฿235 + ฿50 (upgrade to sweet potato fries)

closer view of the bacon cheeseburger

The guys seemed to enjoy the burger very much. I liked the sweet potato fries here.

Beast Burger and Pizza (Chiang Mai)

Address: Nimmanhemin Soi 17 Suthep, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand

Website: https://www.facebook.com/beast.burger

Business Hours:

Daily: Monday, 11 am–10 pm

[Melbourne 2022] Ling Nan Restaurant 国利酒家 @ Lonsdale St

Was there for supper after our Harry Potter show at Princess Theatre. The show was from 7pm to 1030pm, and we walked from Spring St to Lonsdale St thereafter.

The restaurant was surprisingly bustling with activities. We got a table and observed what the rest were having. Porridge looked good, as well as clams.

Clams cooked in XO Sauce

Our order arrived within minutes. Chef must have mad wok skills here! The clams tasted good and it was pretty spicy!

We discovered that the porridge here comes in 2 sizes. Small or large. The staff informed us that small has 2 servings while large will yield around 6 serves. We decided to go with small, and was amused when the youtiao 油条 (fried cruellers) is of a large plate.

Chinese Donut

Beef Porridge

Am happy with the beef porridge. Well cooked grains, flavourful, smooth and enjoyable with tender beef slices. Yums! To elevate the porridge, simply drizzle a bit of the XO sauce from the clams dish. Double yums!

We had a plate of morning glory as well done ala stir fried with fermented beancurd sauce. But beware as there was plenty of cut chilies thrown in there as well. Fiery!

tofu with salted fish

The tofu with salted fish dish was good with rice. Every bite makes you want to take another and another...

The best dish for the night, was deep fried pork spare ribs with salt and chili. Tender meat fried till golden brown, seasoned perfectly and just lips smacking good.

Deep Fried Pork Spare Ribs with Salt and Chilies

Service staff was efficient and they were helpful in clearing off the bowl with clam shells, even without us asking. Our tea was also regularly topped up.

Busy place, nice staff and good food. We spent around AUD150 for our supper. We were there for only 45 minutes...  Payment at the counter, after your meal.

Ling Nan Restaurant 国利酒家

Address: 207 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Contact: +61 435 954 828

Business Hours:

Closed on Tues.

Mon - Sun:  5pm–1:30am

[Melbourne 2022] Hills BBQ Noodle Shop @ Box Hill

After our adventurous Great Ocean Road trip, we returned to Melbourne City. As it was late, we looked for a late dinner or early supper place and the group decided on Hills BBQ Noodle Shop as its closing time would be around 2am. 

shopfront

menu

The place feels like an old school Cantonese food shop. We were served hot Chinese tea upon seated.

cheers

Once our orders were taken, the complimentary soup of the day was served to the table. It was dried vegetables soup 菜乾湯. Simple but packed with familiar comforting flavours.

dried vegetable soup

I think probably more old school styled shop does this but nowadays, it had become rare for restaurants to serve complimentary soup.

Who eats crab noodles for supper? Apparently, us. Hahaha!

Ginger Spring Onion Crab Noodles @AUD86 (Market price for crab, AUD8 per serve of noodles)

side view

This place serves live seafood and we did enquire on the market price for the crab which is in accordance to the weight of the crab. The one that we got weighs slightly over a kg but with a claw missing. The wanton noodles are separate orders at AUD8 per piece, so we got 2 noodles for the dish.

bon appetite~

The mud crab was meaty but in overall, the dish tasted milder than I expected. Good but didn't wow. Noodles with the ginger and spring onion gravy topped with spicy chili oil, was pretty yummy.

Deep Fried Big Intestines 炸大肠 @AUD23.80

Our appetiser plate of deep fried intestines is the same price as half a duck. Wow, that's like the priciest intestines I had ever eaten. It was undoubtably good and without any funky smell. Crispy and of a nice glaze on its outside, and tender soft on its insides. Hence, the effort in preparing this dish must have been quite extensive.

The must order, I think should be the roasted duck. We got ourselves half a duck and it was a very good choice. Tender and meaty plus fragrant with the duck oil from the skin.

Roasted Duck (Half) 烧鸭(半)@AUD23.80

When in Melbourne, we eat Barramundi. So, we got a Hong-Kong styled steamed fish as well.

Steamed Barramundi (soy sauce, spring onion) @AUD55

The fish was well steamed, with firm flesh and the simple soy sauce brought out the natural sweetness of the fish. It was a fairly large fish as well and probably weighs around 900gms to a kg.

Hmmm, from a simple supper... I think we overdid ourselves and turned this meal into a late night feast!

We saw that most individuals or couples in the shop, ordered things single pax items like those noodles or rice dishes. Out of curiosity, we ordered one rice dish and one noodle dish to try.

Stir fried Black Bean Beef Rice @AUD15

I must say, the Asian restaurants that we visited thus far, does very well with beef. Tender, juicy and flavourful. However, the bean sauce for the rice dish was a tad too strong for me hence, it was pretty salty.

My recommendation would be, go for the Beef Brisket Noodles Soup. I was actually wowed by this dish! First of all, the meat selection in the bowl was on-point. A combination of chunky fatty and lean parts, and even so, the lean parts were tender and not too chewy. The fatty parts just dissolved straight into the mouth. Soup tasted good with the daikon pieces absorbing the flavours and seemed like it had been boiled adequately.

Beef Brisket Noodles Soup 牛腩面汤 @AUD15

The four of us, finished all of the above. Spent about AUD59 per pax. Payment at the counter, after our meal. Thank you Tracy, Hence and Ivan for sharing the calories!

Hills BBQ Noodle Shop

Address: 586 Station St, Box Hill VIC 3128, Australia

Contact: +61 3 9899 3382

Business Hours:

Mon-Tue: 12pm–11pm

Wed-Sun: 12pm–2am

The Public Izakaya 大衆酒場 @ Tras Street

Was there for supper with Ivan, Hence and Tracy when we were doing our staycation nearby. The place was bustling during dinner time so we made our reservation prior and went to shop in 100AM mall first.

Ivan's favourite is the oden so we ordered a portion to share. Omakase style so that night Chef gave us hardboiled egg, daikon, beancurd, and fishcakes (2 types). The soup was tasty!

Omakase Oden Set (6 pieces) @$19

Cabbage Miso @$7

Lemon Chu-Hi @$12

Plain Udon Soup @$7

The cabbage miso is refreshing and crunchy and to quench thirst, I had the Lemon Chu-Hi. To accompany the drinks, we had the deep fried river shrimps. A tad bigger in size and makes a good beer snack.

Kawa Ebi Age @$11

We reminisced about the super huge tori karaage, and for old times sake, we ordered a portion. One portion is 4 deep fried balls the size of a child's fist.

Tori Karaage @$13

huge!

The skewers were pretty good too. At least, it was not of a stingy size but I wonder when did it get this pricey.

kushiyaki (skewers) - negima (1) , hatsu (1), gizzard (x2)

Onigiri Mentaiko @$8

All in all, the menu has adequate options and I'd like to order other things next time. For example, I'd like to try their motsu-ni and also their kushiyaki again.

The Public Izakaya 大衆酒場

Address: 100 Tras St, #01 - 09, Singapore 079027

Website: http://www.hachi-group.com/?page_id=124&lang=en

Contact: 6604 9622

Business Hours: 

Mon-Fri: 11:30am–2:30pm, 5:30pm–1am

Sat-Sun:  5pm–1am