We’ve been hunting for new cafes with air-con in the past couple of weeks.   Frankly, it’s an absolute fun activity for me to visit and try out many different cafes.  It’s an adventure exploring and discovering new cafes each day. I much prefer not to go back to the same cafe over and over unless it is Akha Ama! In that case, I keep going back because of some friends there and well, I will only drink their coffee.

Besides, going to cafe on a lonely planet’s list or any other popular lists sometimes means crowd, slower internet and more expensive.

Today we’re at Coffee Bee which is right across from Airport Plaza next to the Chiang Mai golf driving range.  We’ve lived in Chiang Mai for nearly 2 years and guess how many times we’ve passed this cafe? Too many!  Just had to put that to an end!   What I usually see are iPads lining up along the glass wall as we drive by on our motorbike.

And for the record, we’re not hunting for the best coffee in town. We’ve already settled that- it’s Akha Ama Coffee.  We’re only looking for quaint places with air con where we can hangout and we found some this week.

Coffee Bee - we’re here now and I can see us returning in the future. This little cozy and bright place is filled with white antique-ish furniture with velvet cushions, decorations of lace and grace,  relaxing music playing to cover the traffic noise in this area with occasional sounds of tuk-tuk’s reminding me that I’m still in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

There are four iPads available for your use and a large-screened apple computer. All complementary of Coffee Bee including the fast wifi.   Nice concept, eh?  I like it!  10b an hour to recharge for electronic devices.  That’s not bad compared to Doi Chaang – they charge 30b per hour.

We ordered an ice green tea and a strawberry yogurt smoothie. We’re set for the next couple of hours until it’s time for us to pick up our girl from school. They have a limited selection for your sweet tooth like brownies and blueberry cheesecake. There’s smoothies, juices, teas and coffee with prices ranging from 40b to 65b. Their hours are from 8 am – 8 pm.

That’s my hubby reading a book on Kindle and chilling at the cafe. Oh and we did have peace for a few hours until a very spoiled child started storming this place and Mom let her continue for about 20 minutes.  Thank goodness for our ears, she did the screaming outside. Hopefully, this does not happen often.

We came back in the afternoon with our daughter and she did her homework at the cafe. M had a chance to play on the iPad as well.  She was happy.  Most people know to come and grab the iPad, use, place it back on the charging dock when they are finished!

We came by here before yesterday, but it was quite full in the afternoon so we left and decided to come back.  Instead of Coffee B we drifted off to another little place in the same parking lot at the other end next to the DHL office.

Jaokun Coffee -  this is another quaint little place hidden in the corner.  I didn’t know it was there until we went to DHL office to drop off a package the other day.  I made a note to return there and glad we did.

Similar price range as coffee bee.  They have coffee, juices and smoothies but no iPads and no sweets.  There is wifi and it worked and worked fast.  We ordered the Iced green tea for 50b and I had a small tub of yogurt bringing our total to 63b.

We were the only two there – lots of quiet time to chat and get some work done. I like the outdoor area of this particular place because there’s a lush and cozy green garden. Their hours are from 8 am – 8 pm.

It is located in the same parking lot as DHL and Budget car rental across from Airport plaza.  Very easy to spot if you are looking for it otherwise, easily missed.

Janhom Restaurant – for lunch, we walked over to the newly discovered Thai restaurant that overlooks the golf driving range.  I read that this restaurant serves some southern style Thai food, which means spicy!

We discovered a large menu filled with many choices including seafood dishes.  Not your typical 30b -40b street stall dish kind of place though. Their menu rage from 70b – 190b for dishes, which is still not bad at all compared to Western prices. Seems it is an older restaurant that has been here for a while.  The age of the place is noticeable based on the look of the air con, the stained walls and the torn up floors.  Still it is air-conditioned, has wifi, a wine bar, tables are either covered with table cloths and place mats.

Except the napkins, well  the tissues.  They were literally fold-up toilet paper in a fancy glass ware like this one!

We had decent dishes.  We were not all that hungry so we both got something very light.  I ordered the stir fried seafood with Thai herbs. This dish, as you can see from all the chili peppers, definitely had a KICK and fragrant flavors from the herbs.

My husband had something simple as well since we both wanted something light. He liked the kale and crispy pork on steamed rice.

Below is the golf driving rage in front of the restaurant.  They charge 3 carts for 100b and I think there are about 40 used balls in each cart. That’s 120 golf balls for 100b = $3.33!

Oh and remember I said it over looks the Chiang Mai driving range? Here’s the view from our table!

Just in that one area across from the airport plaza there’s a golf range which has its own wifi, a restaurant with decent food which has its own wifi also and two coffee shops within walking distance both with wifi, air con and one with iPads.

Well there you have it.  I found a few more cool-off zones for you in Chiang Mai.

Here are a list of other cool-off zones we found.

Cafe Escape: Macadamia Nut Brownie

Cafe Escape: A Massage and a Cheesecake

Cafe Escape: The Crepe Cake

Cafe Escape: 100% Chocolate (coming soon)

Enjoy them all.  Come back and tell me what you think about them.

Until the next cool off zone, be well.

We frequent several vegetarian restaurants here in Chaing Mai.  Chiang Mai is a vegetarian’s heaven since there are so many cafes and restaurants from which to choose.

Often when I go to the Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant near Chiang Mai gate, I order this dish (when they have it).  Since I like it so much, I decided to make my own version at home.

Note about cellophane noodles- also known as bean thread noodles, crystal noodles, or glass noodles.

One bunch of dry cellophane noodles (small bag) costs about 8b = 27 cents or buy a large bag of 10 for a lot less like 60b or $2.  I can get about .35 kilo of stripped bamboo shoots for about 10b = 33 cents.  (Bamboo shoot strips can be found in cans in the US). This is why food is sooo cheap here in Thailand.  When I cook at home it’s even cheaper.  Although that’s not the only reason I cook at home. I cook at home for several reasons.  I suppose I need another post for those reasons!

Ingredients

3 bags of the noodles

2 cups of bamboo shoots

1 large onion, thinly sliced

a few pieces of garlic, diced or mashed or how ever way you like it

2-3 T of oil (grape seed is my choice, but extremely expensive here in Thailand)

Pinches of salt and black pepper

Fish sauce (if you like)

1-2 eggs (if you wish)

Obviously, you can customize it with your own favorite veggies and even tofu.  My recommendation is to cut the veggies in strips or string like thin slices. Carrots or red bell peppers would be nice because that will give nice coloring in the dish and tasty too!    I like shiitake mushrooms in this dish but I didn’t put any in the pictured dish.  Didn’t have any at the time.

Saute the garlic first in oil.  Then add the onions and cook on medium heat until golden brown. Now add the bamboo shoots or other veggies. Don’t over cook the veggies unless you like them that way!

Boil the cellophane noodles in a different pot but don’t drain them.  You need to time it so that when the noodles are ready,  transfer them straight from the pot to the frying pan.  Or you could let the noodles soak in some hot water so that the noodles are not fully cooked. Once the noodles become glass-like, you can transfer to the frying pan.  You’ll have to add a bit of water because you are now continuing to cook the noodles and the veggies together in the frying pan.

The noodles tend to cluster.  Since we are not using a LOT of oil, to keep noodles from clustering, this dish is best eaten immediately after it is cooked.  That’s what I do.  I serve it right away and I don’t cook it until close to eating time.  Other wise, lots of oil to keep the noodles NOT cluster so much.

Well there you have it. It’s a good alternative vegetarian dish and quite tasty.

Here’s the finished dish.  I ate it with nge-pea-kyaw and srirachi type sauce.  Nge-pea-kyaw is a combination of grounded dried shrimp, dried chili pepper flakes, fish sauce, onions and fried onions.

This dish will go well with my sidekick salad.

I hope you’ll give this a try. Go ahead, experiment!  Come back and leave me a comment here and tell me what you think.

When we are feeling lazy and out of energy we do simple recipes.  This is one of them and my daughter especially loves this one.  She enjoys helping us make these and devour them afterward! 

Moms, you can have your child participate in the making of the pizza bagels.  How fun is that?

Ingredients:

Bagels cut in halves (we used wheat onion bagels)

Slices of cheese

Butter (optional)

Cherry tomatoes cut in halves

Sliced onion strips

Fresh basil leaves if you have any

Garlic powder or sliced fresh garlic

Spread the butter on the sliced bagel.  We didn’t add butter but I think it will be tasty!

Place the basil leaves, cheese, onions, tomato slices and garlic on the bagel. Throw them in the toaster oven for a few minutes to make sure the cheese melts.  I think it is a good idea to place the cheese on top of the veggies!

There you have it.  Easiest pizza ever!

Experiment and enjoy!

I like simple dishes with great flavors. Sometimes having a kid, simple is better and quicker.

We cook a lot of vegetarian food at home.  However, while we were at Maung Mai the other day, we decided to get some fresh shrimp.  Nice medium-sized, half-kilo shrimp for only 110 baht or $3.66.

Brought the shrimp home and cooked it the same day.  Can’t get any fresher than that. I removed the head and the shell, then marinated it in a pinch of salt and turmeric. You could always get de-shelled shrimp for this to make prep time even shorter.

Moms, this is the easiest recipe ever!

I cut up a couple of onions, garlic as well as ginger into rings.

Place a frying pan on medium heat and add oil. (1 Tablespoon)  Don’t let the oil burn.  Drop in the sliced garlic and ginger to brown.

Add the onion rings.  About the onions– there are two options here for the onions.  You can add them with garlic and ginger or you can add them after the shrimp is almost cooked.  If you add after, the onions will not melt or be as soft as much. Or you can add before and after.  For mine, I added before the shrimp.

Cook until the shrimp turns pinkish.  Add a sprinkle of salt or fish sauce to taste.

Then sprinkle masala towards the end before you take it off the stove. Masala (which is a spice used in Burmese cooking) and NO, you cannot find it just anywhere.  If you don’t have this, it’s OK.  You can still make the dish without it and will still taste delicious.

Here’s how it turned out!

Along with this dish, something like dikon soup with tamarind or roselle soup would go very well.  We had the roselle leaves soup with bamboo. For me, of course, I’ll have something spicy to accompany my meal. The shrimp was tender and sweet adding deliciousness to the sour and savory roselle soup along with stir fried veggies and my shripmpaste-chili sidekick. Just another perfect Burmese meal.

Hope you enjoy making it.

Until the next dish,  experiment!

Although we’ve had rain here in Chiang Mai, the humidity still makes the city seems like an outdoor, oh-naturrel-sauna. Today was no exception.  It was humid.

After we picked up M, my daughter, from school we decided to surprise her and took her to the mall close to our house.  We took her to Airport Plaza which is basically a mall. Originally, we were going to pay rent at our landlord’s bank, get a snack for M, go to the fourth floor to look at a phone for me,  and walk around to cool off.

For snack we got some bread here.

We bought a new pair of shoes for M, since her shoes are almost one year of age and well, she’s rough on her shoes so they are falling apart. She’s also grown.  Yes, she can be expensive!

We kept walking around as we normally would at Airport Plaza towards the large cafeteria type area full of vendors serving a plethora of Thai food.  And what did we find by surprise?  An Ice Cream Festival!

YUP!  Awesome, we thought to ourselves. Then we decided to get a quick bite for dinner and walked around some more so we can make room for the ice cream. 

We walked around and looked at a couple of phones and visited an Apple store so that M can play around with their computers. (Obviously, ours at home are not THAT big!)

Then it was time for us to make our way back to the ice cream.  M as super excited.  And here’s what we found!

Rainbow of Moichi Ice Cream Flavors

Mmm.. Look at all that sweet, colorful yumminess!

So many flavors. This display reminds me or Gelato in Italy from our trip in 2006. This however, is much cheaper here in Thailand.

Cinnamon butter honey glazed toast: get a scoop of your favorite ice cream, and you're set!

Ultimate ice cream stand where they make the ice cream right in front of you. Can you tell it is Oreo and Apple!

Artsy way of making ice cream eh?

They were the busiest one there

Fresh Cones? No problem! They are made right in front of you!

Cakes. Cakes. Cakes.

Cupcakes

We spent the entire evening in the mall walking, talking, looking, enjoying each other’s company and eating.  We found there were many other families, couples, individuals, students of all ages enjoying the mall also.

Children simply just stare at this giant fish tank, while parents sit and enjoy some ice cream

People watching

Sitting area in front of the stage and the giant fish tank

At some point while we were enjoying our smoothie and a moichi ice cream, out of the blue M said to us “That giant fish in the tank looks like this”

What do you think?

For those of you in Chiang Mai, go enjoy the Ice Cream Festival.  It’s there for the next few days.  It started on the 1st and will be there until 8th of May.

Until the next cool-off zone, stay cool.

Cheers from Chiang Mai!

This particular cafe, we go to often not just because they have air con, but because I love their crepe cakes. So one day last week when we were trying to figure out where to go, we decided to take refuge at Cafe de Thaan Aoan.  The cafe also has wifi and that was a plus, of course. It’s inside the old city and we’ve gone there many times – hee hee- for what else? the crepe cakes!

Last year, after we have brunch at a little place near Chiang Mai gate for Kaw Ku Kapeat or the Taiwanese vegetarian place, we usually go to this cafe for the crepe cake.   It was a routine we created for ourselves once or twice a month.

I’ve never had a crepe cake until I came to Thailand. And from the look of it, it is not easy to make.  It looks very time consuming.  But sure is tasty.

Cafe de Thaan Aoan serves many Thai and Western dishes and desserts as well.  We’ve only had egg rolls, juices, smoothies and desserts so we’re not familiar with the other dishes.  But trust me the crepe cake is really rich and sinfully delicious! 

See?

Look at all the layers of goodness laced with strawberry syrup.  Okay, I do realize this is not the most healthy item to consume.  However, every once in a while is okay!  Right?

I think you should try this irresistible looking goodness also sometimes when you’re in Chiang Mai.

I suppose I should also tell you about the chocolate version.  Stay tuned!

Until next time.  Stay cool!  Cheers!

In the last two posts, I wrote about how we’ve been escaping the heat by going to different cafes here in Chiang Mai.  Lucky for us we’ve had rain in the recent days and the weather has been quite tolerable.

So today, instead of going to a cafe, after a market visit to Maung Mai (one of my favorite markets), we came home, made our own smoothies and shared a London cheesecake from De Cheeso right here in the comfort of our living room.

As for the homemade smoothies, we found organic strawberries so we included those, yogurt, bananas, mangoes, a splash of sugarcane juice and water. YUM!

Remember yesterday I said I won’t cook dinner until it rained.  And today, yes, it’s raining at 5pm.  Oh sure, no problem!  You’re welcome, the good people of Chiang Mai. I say I’m not cooking until it rains once in the morning and once at night.   Maybe it will start tomorrow.

Until it rained, it was up to 37C/100F today.  We left the house and went for a Thai Massage with Herbal Hot Compress today.  It costs a bit more than going to a cafe, but hey, my Mum is leaving to return to Burma and she wanted to have another massage before she leaves. It was a nice treat.  Relaxing and in an air-conditioned building.  We finished around 2:30 in the afternoon and oy, it was HOT.

We picked-up my daughter from school and headed straight to the Hideaway Cafe also known as DeCheeso to cool off.  We shop at Decheeso often to get our milk, yogurt,  bread and sometimes, cheese.  We’ve had dinner there once. It is walking distance from our house. For today, it was a good choice.  They have wifi, nice surroundings, and most importantly, air con.  Air con it was!  I was cold after being there 20 minutes, I had to get my jacket out of the car.

They have a full western menu from breakfast to appetizers to desserts (or pudding as our British friends might say) to full course lunch and dinner menu. For us at 2:30 in the afternoon, we were looking for snacks.  My 9 yo was happy about that.  After all, when she’s nearby any restaurants or eatery facilities, she’s sure to be hungry.

We devoured a cherry cheesecake crumble (70b),  a scone (23b), bagel with cream cheese (40b) and a bottle of milk (45b).  My daughter had a glass of milk and brought the rest of the bottle home as we needed more at home anyway.  Our bill for the escape? 178b $5.93.

NOTE: If you buy the bagels to go (as in not eat there with cream cheese) they are only 18b and the scones are the same price also.

M, my daughter, did her homework while I read my articles on the kindle and J, my husband, worked on a job application.  Yes, he’s looking for work as a distance learning psychology professor if anyone knows of such a job out there. And I teach conversational Burmese on-line if anyone out there feels the need to take on such challenge.  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SEE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> to the side and UP!  

When we left the Hideaway, we started to feel rain drops on our heads.  As I write this post, Chiang Mai has been enjoying rain for the past 25 minutes with gusts of wind making my wind chime go off with craziness.  I’m smiling because it’s finally doing its job.  I’ve not heard that wind chime work that hard since I brought it back from Burma in February. Oh and thank goodness we have rain.

The Hideaway is located in a sort of a hidden location off of Hang Dong near the Airport Plaza.  They are opened for both lunch and dinner. I don’t remember the hours but the next time I am there, I’ll be sure to check and update it here. Can always call the number on their site as inquire as well.

The Hideaway’s owner also owns The Art Cafe at Thapae Gate.   We’ve only gone to the Art Cafe once at Thanksgiving during 2010.  It was quite nice and always seems to be occupied with customers as most eateries are at Thapae Gate where there are plenty of tourists.  Both locations are pricey compared to other eateries.

So those were our locations of escape for today.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.  Tomorrow is Friday and M has been invited to a birthday party.  And there’s a pool and a bunch of 9yo kids.  Hmmm.

Until tomorrow, stay cool!

It’s been so HOT here in Chiang Mai. Last year around this time, we left CM and went back to the US to spend time with family.

At this very moment, as I write this post, it is 38C/101F.here. We only have air conditioner in the bedrooms.  Which means the living room is super hot.  So lately, we’ve been leaving the house to get shelter and refuge in malls and cafe’s.  Yes.  It’s true.  You read correctly!

And I’ve decided NOT to cook dinner until it rains here in Chiang Mai. Cooking for me is so much easier in the morning when the kitchen is much cooler. I’m miserable when I go in the kitchen during dinner time.  So that’s it. No more cooking until we have RAIN here.

I’ve also decided to write about the places we’ve been seeking refuge on a daily basis.  I actually got this idea while I was talking to James of Nomadic Notes today at a Burmese restaurant on Nimmenhamen when we ran into him (I’ll write about this restaurant another time).

Today we are seeking refuge at Yellow Bear.  It’s on Srimanklajarn (closer to Huay Kaew). We used to live a short walking distance from here when it was a chilimango fancy restaurant with no customers and a yellow bear in the front.  At least I never saw any customers here.  Only waiters.  It was a sad sight.  It’s a nice little hangout with comfortable seating, air con, relaxing music and wifi.   Yaaay.  They have a reasonable menu for drinks and sweets.

We’ve been here since after lunch cooling off and using their wifi to write this post.   We also had a cold peach tea (60b) and macadamia nut brownie (65b). NOT BAD! They are opened daily from 7am to 9pm.

We’ll be back soon!

Oh, by the way, all pictures were taken on the Nokia N8 my geeky husband’s phone camera.  You may find more geekieness at www.mygeekgarage.com. The pictures turned out pretty good I must say!

Until the update from the next cafe, stay cool!

I’m sorry it’s been a long while since I’ve written on this blog. Today is a special day since my Mother is here and is celebrating her birthday with us.

We took my Mom to Pun Pun, one of her favorite (and ours) vegetarian restaurants here in Chiang Mai.  We first discovered Pun Pun in 2009 when we met up with a friend during our summer holiday.  We’ve enjoyed returning there ever since. We often go to Wat Suan Dok while living in Chiang Mai so it’s easy for us to stop in and have a bite there.  I love that they use organic ingredients whenever possible and from all the places we’ve eaten here in Chiang Mai, I believe it is one of the healthier choices for us as a family.  There are many vegetarian restaurants here and if you are a vegetarian, it’s easy to continue to be one here!  Promise.

Though my daughter, M, only wanted to order brown rice and a fried egg, both my mom and I suggested that she order something we cannot whip up in 5 minutes at home.  So she decided to have the veggie spaghetti and she did really enjoy it.  Here’s a picture of M with her dish and iced Roselle tea (this tea is quite sour by the way, in case you are wondering what it tastes like.  You do get some light syrup that you can add to your drink so it helps dilute the sour taste!)

My mom just wanted something simple and fast to prepare as she needed to eat before noon.  She ordered morning-glory, mushrooms and tofu stir fry dish and a tom yum soup.  While the stir fried dish had simple crunchy tastes of a good stir fry, the tom yum kong (no picture!) had all the mouth-watering explosive flavors from the limes, lemongrass and Keifer lime leaves.  Yummy!  And yes, I added my own additional kick to it!  It needed it!

For my husband J, he decided to order a salad because he usually orders curry there and he wanted something different and light.   It’s a good-looking salad, isn’t it? It tasted as good as it looked. That’s the long-bean, tofu and sesame seeds salad with light and creamy pumpkin dressing.

For me, I decided to have the Indian curry which was accompanied by two roti’s.  It was sooo yummy that I had to order a brown rice (in addition to the roti’s) to finish all the curry.  It was creamy in texture mixed in lots of crunchy small bite-sized pieces of veggies with a kick, though I added my own additional kicks to the dish!  Of course, I did. My mom thought it was super tasty as well. Don’t let this picture fool you.  It was one of my favorite dishes I’ve had there so far at Pun Pun.

We usually order herbal iced tea while we are there and I normally go for the ginger tea. Lightly spiced refreshing tea usually does not let me down with my flavorful dishes there.

For everything we ate and drank there today, a party of four, we spent a total of 300b or $10.   Yep that is all! It’s my Mom’s birthday after all!

It was a peaceful morning feeling the nice breezes on our faces within the walls of Wat Suan Dok just a short distance away from the monks who were chanting after eating their lunch right before noon.

And believe it or not, every time we are there, we run into someone we’ve not seen in a long while (an expat) and we did today as well. Small town and many expats (and locals) love to eat at Pun Pun.

Here’s a picture of us being silly after lunch on my Mom’s birthday.  In two days I’ll be celebrating my birthday.  What a lovely picture of the three generation of ladies in my family– a nine year-old, a forty-five year-old and a sixty-nine year-old.

We ended our early afternoon with a visit to Wat Lok Marlee and came home.

Thanks so much to my Mother for being here in Chiang Mai, for helping us around the house, and being supportive to us while I’ve been ill. It’s been a rough couple of months, but I’m glad I’m getting better everyday!

Happy Birthday,  Mom!  Here’s to another healthy year!!